Discussion Forum / Blog Post / Reading Summary

This assignment helps you understand your unit content by responding to questions posted in your class space. It is often used as the first assessment in the unit. It can also be called a Provocative Question, a Forum Discussion, a Blog Post, or a Reading Summary. These tasks are often used as a hurdle assessment.

This assignment is an opportunity for you to build opinions about the unit content, find evidence to support your opinions, and respond to the opinions of your peers in written form. You need to check your unit guide for the specific requirements of the task.

Content

To successfully complete the task, you are often you are required to:

1. Respond to course content

2. Submit responses to questions

3. Submit a response to a peer’s post or write a personal response to the question

Ask your educator for the correct location to post the assessment.

Analyse the question

Good short answer responses are relevant to the question. Read each question carefully and pay attention to the instruction words like identify, explain, compare, discuss, analyse and so on. To determine exactly what the question is asking of you, it is a good idea to underline keywords and phrases. This is called unpacking the question.

Brainstorm ideas

After analysing the question, brainstorm ideas for your response and look for information in your course materials to help support your ideas. You may incorporate information from your learning materials or other sources, but you must write in your response in your own words. This is called paraphrasing.

Structure

Your response needs to be written as a structured paragraph that includes a short summary of the topic and your analysis of the main idea. A good post includes at least one reference to support your argument. Check the unit guide to see if you are required to include a reference in your responses and the word count for each response. To improve the flow between sentences include linking words.

Suggested Paragraph Structure

Start the paragraph with a clear topic sentence that introduces the main idea of your forum post.
Explain your position on the topic. Include questions that remain unanswered or limitations and disagreements or counter-arguments.
Give an example to support your answer and/or include an in-text reference to further support your position (check the assessment instructions to see if this is a requirement).
Explain your position on the topic developing your ideas further (critically analyse).
Write a concluding sentence to end the paragraph finishing off the idea.
Write the paragraph using a formal academic style.