Debate critiques are not meant to be summaries of course material. Rather, they are intended to encourage critical thinking about specific topics, debates, and conversations in the study of sex and gender. You will notice that each chapter of your textbook includes an overview of a debate that is relevant to the respective chapter’s content. These debates appear in highlight boxes titled, “Debate” (there is one per chapter). Following an overview of the debate, both sides are then briefly discussed. For each unit of the course, you must choose any one debate from a chapter that is assigned in the respective unit. 'Additional debates' are also available in Canvas (see Canvas home page). After you choose your debate from this unit, you must then ‘pick a side’ of the debate and support your position in a brief write-up/critique.
Debate critiques must involve more than simply stating your opinion. Rather, the goal should be to demonstrate critical thinking and reasoning about the particular debate in order to support the side you have chosen. Support can be provided based on intellectual reasoning and logic, expert consensus (in any field), or scientific evidence (either new or cited in the textbook or lectures). While research findings can be helpful, support can also be provided in the form of logical reasoning alone. (It all depends on your approach, and it is not necessary that you bring in outside sources at all.) Ideas and literature from neighbouring disciplines are very much welcome. If referring to ideas or research findings presented in lecture or in the textbook, you may simply treat this information as general knowledge and no formal citations are needed (and therefore no References page is needed in this case). If you refer to any other literature or outside sources, then you must cite the information according to APA style AND also include an additional References page including the full reference(s) for this new information. A References page is therefore NOT required in all cases. It depends on the approach you take. Remember, many debates can be approached using logic and reason alone, so outside sources are not always necessary. Whatever your approach, you must argue and/or support your stance!
In matters of intellectual discourse and debate, I tend to adopt the perspective that you are not simply “entitled to your opinion.” Instead, you are “entitled to what you can argue for.” This means that when approaching a debate or controversy through an academic or scientific lens, it is important to be able to defend or support your stance. Otherwise, the discourse becomes relatively meaningless and opinions and perspectives become so personal that they cannot be debated at all. Simply put, you need to support and explain your stance. I recommend reading the following article (by a university professor) for some perspective on this: https://theconversation.com/no-youre-not-entitled-to-your-opinion-9978
(Links to an external site.)
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DEBATE CRITIQUE REQUIREMENTS:
Each debate critique must be typed, double-spaced (with 1-inch margins), in 12-point Times New Roman or similar font, and NO MORE THAN ONE PAGE IN LENGTH (any additional content will be ignored, with the exception of a References page). First-person perspective and direct quoting should be used minimally and formal/academic tone should be maintained throughout. You must include a heading at the top of the first page indicating the debate you’ve chosen along with your name and student number (see sample online). You must also state the side of the debate you support in the first sentence using the exact wording from the textbook. A References page can be included in addition to the one page if it is required (i.e., if you cite information not cited in the textbook or lecture). You should adhere to APA formatting (7th ed., APA, 2019); however, debate critiques do NOT require a title page, an abstract, a running head, or additional headings.
Debate critiques are not meant to be summaries of course material. Rather, they