Thought Stance Guidance and Instructions

To further assist you, here are a few suggested hints which will steer you in the right direction when writing your Thought Stance:

Follow the Thought Stance template exactly. I can not stress this enough. The Thought Stance paper should be no more than one-page in length. The main purpose of this is to give you practice in writing succinctly and using concise words and thoughts. You should use the examples (templates) provided as guidance.

You only need to select one of the pre-selected TED Talks speeches presented for that week’s analysis—your choice. However, do not choose your own, as these have been selected by your professor to support specific topics and course objectives.

In selecting your three passages from the speech to discuss, you should include the speaker’s comment exactly as presented (as a quote). This may be accomplished by using the “Interactive Transcript” found on the TED Talks site for each of the selected speeches. Select the link provided and it will take you to the speech transcript. You may cut and paste from the site; however, I highly recommend you re-type the passage into your paper as it will help with the retention of the information.

When choosing your selected passages, you only need three in total. For example, you might find three “interesting” comments given by the speaker to analyze or you may choose to analyze one “interesting” comment, one comment you found “controversial” and one comment you found “significant.”

The Reflections section is the most important element of the Thought Stance paper. Follow the instructions provided and stay within the Word Count requirement. The Word Count requirement (250–350 words) is for the Reflections section only and should not include the total for the whole paper.

For these papers, you will utilize the 1st person point of view in your analysis (Reflections section). In other words, you should use phrases such as “I agree with the speaker in that…“; “Although I found this passage to be controversial, I don’t disagree with the statement because…“; or “I found this statement to be significant because….“

Importantly, I will be looking for your comprehension and use of the course materials in your analysis.

Ensure you include the citation for the source you are analyzing.