Document Analysis

One of the skills we emphasize in this undergraduate course is the development of interrogatory skills. Our students range from first year students to seniors and have varying levels of comfort with developing their own questions. We require the students to practice this skill every week. In our weekly connections papers, students use a compelling question (which they develop following examples) to link their understanding of the readings to larger issues of civic engagement and they are required to pose one question that they would like to ask all of the assigned authors for the week’s readings. For example, in week four students compose one question to ask authors as diverse as Henry David Thoreau, Lydia Maria Child, A. Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King, and Stokely Carmichael. This continued practice in creating strong questions challenges students to think beyond summary and regurgitation. They must engage critically in order to write a good question that demonstrates that the student understands the larger themes connecting the week’s readings.