In The New York Times, there is a regular opinion feature called Room for Debate where experts are asked to write a short essay that answers a debatable question. The diverse topics range anywhere from politics to wellness to science to sports to culture to foreign affairs to education. For example, here are a few of the questions that have been debated recently:
For this week, choose any Room for Debate question that sounds interesting to you. You do not have to limit yourself to one of the four topics above. Read all the different essays associated with the question. Then submit a comment in which you cite the title of the essay correctly in quotation marks that answers the following questions making specific references to the text:
Grammar notes: Always use quotation marks to cite the titles of essays. Please capitalize correctly. In American usage, always include periods and commas inside quotation marks. For example, "This is not correct". "This is correct." For some weird reason, this is one of my pet peeves.
Caveat emptor: You can only access 10 articles per month on The New York Times website per electronic device, so keep that in mind as you peruse the different topics. Thankfully, in terms of the "Room for Debate" series, it only counts the whole question and all the associated essays as one article, so you could explore up to ten questions. You can download the NY Times app. for free for your cell phone, so that would be a way to read some additional ones. I'm working on getting us all some type of free access.
Remind 101: Click here to sign up for Remind 101. I'd like everyone to do this if possible.
- "Does Soccer Need FIFA?"
- "Can the Market Stave Off Global Warming?"
- "Dealing with the Enemy"
- "Tongue-tied on Campus"
For this week, choose any Room for Debate question that sounds interesting to you. You do not have to limit yourself to one of the four topics above. Read all the different essays associated with the question. Then submit a comment in which you cite the title of the essay correctly in quotation marks that answers the following questions making specific references to the text:
- In 50 words or more, which essay most closely represents your point of view on this question. And why?
- In 50 words or more, what specific idea in any of the essays do you most disagree with? Why?
Grammar notes: Always use quotation marks to cite the titles of essays. Please capitalize correctly. In American usage, always include periods and commas inside quotation marks. For example, "This is not correct". "This is correct." For some weird reason, this is one of my pet peeves.
Caveat emptor: You can only access 10 articles per month on The New York Times website per electronic device, so keep that in mind as you peruse the different topics. Thankfully, in terms of the "Room for Debate" series, it only counts the whole question and all the associated essays as one article, so you could explore up to ten questions. You can download the NY Times app. for free for your cell phone, so that would be a way to read some additional ones. I'm working on getting us all some type of free access.
Remind 101: Click here to sign up for Remind 101. I'd like everyone to do this if possible.