Have a conversation about politics with someone in one of the following categories: 1. Someone who is more than 40 years older than you (cannot be someone who raised you). This can be a grandparent, aunt or uncle, neighbor, friend, someone from your church, old prof, or a new acquaintance. 2. If you were raised outside the U.S., have a conversation with someone raised in the U.S. If you were raised in the U.S. have a conversation with someone outside the U.S.
Requirements: 2-4 pages
A Conversation About Politics Have a conversation about politics with someone in one of the following categories: 1. Someone who is more than 40 years older than you (cannot be someone who raised you). This can be a grandparent, aunt or uncle, neighbor, friend, someone from your church, old prof, or a new acquaintance. 2. If you were raised outside the U.S., have a conversation with someone raised in the U.S. If you were raised in the U.S. have a conversation with someone outside the U.S. The primary goal for this conversation is for you to learn from the person you are listening to. Yes, you will probably have a chance to say what you think, but this conversation is primarily about listening. Ive listed some questions below to help spark your conversation, but feel free to go where the conversation leads you. You are not bound by these questions. You are not required to go through each of the questions and you should ask questions that come up in your conversation that arent listed. This conversation should be interactive, meaning youll share your answers to questions too. Be sure to let your conversation partner ask questions of you. This is intended to be relatively fun, so be creative and go where the conversation takes you! (Feel free to discuss things other than politics, but do spend some time talking about politics.) Itll help if you take notes. After your conversation, write a formal paper (2-4 double spaced pages) supporting a thesis based on what you learned from the interview. When thinking about a thesis, you might think about the following questions. What did you learn? What did you think was most interesting? That will you think about differently now? Did you enjoy the conversation? Why or why not? Do the younger and older generations understand each other? Why do you think you agree/disagree with your conversation partner about specific topics? Any number of theses are possible (e.g., My generation and the generations before us will never agree on political issues,? The challenges facing the country today are significantly more difficult than those of the past forty years,? Based on my conversation with my great aunt, I have concluded that politics matters less to my life than my political science professor seems to think,? Based on my conversation with my uncle, I think we (dis)agree on most political issues because?.? or politics is totally different in [name of country]?). If you have questions about your thesis, please feel free to ask me. Without a thesis, the paper can at best earn a grade of C. The support for your thesis will be your conversation. Although you should summarize your conversation as you support your thesis, the paper is not intended to be an all about my conversation? paper. Your primary task is to defend your thesis. As you do so, describe the person you talked to and their comments, not just your own views. The paper should be written formally, in paragraph form with good mechanics, an introduction and conclusion (all the usual elements of a well written paper). Questions to spark conversation
You are not required to ask these questions. I include them here as examples. You can use the questions that seem useful. Feel free to skip questions that seem not useful or might be harmful in some way. Definitely feel free to ask questions not on the list. Someone at least 40 years older than you What is your first political memory? Who is the first president you remember? Whats different about politics now than in the past? How have politics changed? How have societys political and social views changed over time? What would you like to see happen by the time I have grandkids? Do you think our generations understand each other? What do you think is the most pressing political issue right now? Why do you think some smart people disagree with the political ideas you hold? Have you had any unique political experiences? Ever run for office? Ever work on a campaign? Ever known/met any politicians? Ever written a politician? Have you ever been in an interesting fight with someone over politics? Do you think your voice has become more or less important in society? How did you meet your spouse (if married)? Someone raised in a different country from you Here are some sites with good questions: http://teflpedia.com/Politics_conversation_questions and http://printdiscuss.com/politics-conversation-questions/
