CIE100: Common Intellectual Experience - Deloria Writing Prompt (10 Points)

Assignment Goals

The goals of this assignment are:

1. To reflect upon the course texts in preparation for thoughtful discussion
2. To organize thoughts into a concise and cohesive response to a targeted question
3. To consider multiple viewpoints about ideas

The Assignment

In this writing prompt, you will consider the questions below and respond in marginalia form, equivalent in length to a 1-2 paragraph response. Choose two short passages from the reading and write rich marginal annotations for each: an observation, a question, and a connection, quoting the passage you are annotating. Then distill your reading into one aphorism of your own, and add one counterargument note, supported by a quote, against your own aphorism. Submit your annotations and aphorism through Canvas before the start of class.

UDL choice: this genre is the default for this reading, but you may swap in any of the five response genres (analytic, letter, dialogue, marginalia+aphorism, or the Four A’s) as long as the quote and counterargument requirements are met.

Struggling with the reading itself? See the guide: How to Read Hard Texts in CIE.

Writing Prompt

1. Deloria contrasts religions oriented around time (history, prophecy, a coming end) with religions oriented around space and place. Explain this distinction with a quotation, and discuss why Deloria thinks it matters for how a people treats the land it lives on.

2. What places are sacred to you, and would Deloria say your relationship to them belongs to the temporal or the spatial mode? Ursinus sits on land long inhabited by the Lenape people. What would it mean for the college, and for you as a member of it, to take that history seriously rather than ceremonially?

Submission

Submit a word processed or PDF document.

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