As we are getting into the next assignment for this class, we want to know what the brainstorming process has looked like for each of you so far. This assignment is very open-ended, so we believe that writing about and discussing the process will help clarify things for everyone.
· What does “the public good” mean to you, and what aspect(s) are particularly interesting to you? How can you see this definition materializing in a paper?
· What ideas, if any, have you come up with for the focus of your paper? How did you come up with those ideas, and how are you narrowing them down into potential theses? What types of sources are you finding, and where/how are you finding them? How else do you plan to gather information (interviews, surveys, etc.)? What advice might you have for people who are struggling with making these decisions?
· If you are struggling to come up with ideas or sources, what questions do you have? What things seem to be standing in your way?
Don’t worry about answering all of the questions; just answer the ones you feel are particularly applicable to your writing process thus far. We encourage all of you to read and respond to one another’s posts – let’s work together to come up with some awesome paper topics!
Jenna: To me, the public good is anything which is done to benefit another. Particularly, it is seen as something done, usually by a group of people, to benefit another group of people, generally in a public and organized fashion. We have talked a lot recently about what motivates people to contribute to the public good. I am particularly interested in religion, so I want to write something about how religion (or lack thereof) contributes to this motivation. I am still pretty fuzzy on exactly what this will entail for my paper, but I think this is the general topic that I would like to pursue.
I have been finding sources through the tools shown to us in class on Wednesday. I have had the most luck by being patient and entering a variety of synonyms for the keywords in order to get slightly different but still applicable sources. I would also recommend that people don’t go into it with a set thesis, but rather search a general topic and allow the sources they find to help narrow their thesis. I am also considering using a survey (and possibly an interview or two) to support my paper, specifically to apply it to college students.
Matt: So far the focus of my paper is going to be the importance service learning in the classroom with a focus on biology. I will also look at how science teachers adapt their curriculum to effectively use service learning as a teaching tool. I have not done enough research at this point to formulate a thesis but I did find one source that works very well for my topic. The source was about service learning relating to AIDS/HIV in a biology classroom. In fact this is exactly the focus of my research so this should be a strong topic. I feel that the most difficult part of this paper for me is going to find 5 relevant sources what I can pull information from to put into my paper. Even though I found 1 great source, with such a specific topic, I think it will be difficult to find several more. If anyone is having difficulties with any specific part in the paper, it is important to seek help. If someone is having trouble with the research aspect, we now know that the library has great resources to assist with that problem. If someone is having trouble finding a topic, Professor Bateman is always willing to help. It’s crucial to deal with these problems early so you can focus on writing the paper.
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I can't say that I have a concrete definition of the public good. This concept is so ambiguous and I don't really like to try to define it. When I do think of public good, I think of volunteering and working toward helping the community. However, related to the subject of my paper, I don't believe that the public good and social justice are really that closely related. I think that volunteering and working toward the public good is always a good thing but it doesn't really get to the root of the problem. Volunteering and the public good are more a way to react to the social injustices that are present where as social justice is working toward being proactive and helping fix the absolute root of the problem.
ReplyDeleteMy paper is going to focus on social justice vs. the public good. It's not really versus but more comparing how these two work together and how they are different. I plan on interviewing people who live in my hall, since I am a part of the Social Justice LLC, as well as other DU students. I don't really have another determined demographic of students that I will ask questions but I am planning on giving them questions like "what is public good to you?" "What is social justice" and then maybe explicitly asking how these two are related and how they are different. I feel like this will be the somewhat easier part of my paper. The hardest part for me, so far, is trying to find enough sources for this paper. I have yet to find one good source. I have found a few potentially promising sources but nothing that has been really great. I need to alter my searching method for this in order to find sources that will be helpful to me and this paper.
I define the public good as doing selfless acts for the community. It's a basic definition, and can include many different things, from donating to charities to volunteering to simply giving money to a homeless man. Anything you can do to benefit the greater good can be considered the public good.
ReplyDeleteMy plan for my topic is the concept of public good within businesses and corporations. I have not quite narrowed it down yet or come up with a concrete thesis, but I'm hoping more research will help me to define that. I've been having a little trouble finding sources, so I will use Jenna's idea of typing in synonyms of my keywords to try and get a greater variety.
To me, the "public good" is an abstract concept. Defining it literally would be like trying to literally define the color "red." When I think of the public good, I think of someone using their own unique talents to do something that does not benefit them. However, this statement in itself is contradictory because if someone were to do something for the "public good" it should benefit them, not materially but emotionally. There is the idea that humans are programmed to help each other, and that we are meant to work as a collective while also being our own unique person.
ReplyDeleteFor my paper, I'm planning on looking at the role of medicine within the sphere of the public good. I have a variety of sources thus far and am currently working through the information. I'm also thinking about conducting a few interviews with some pre-med students to find out the overall view of medicine as profession. (If anyone is interested, please let me know.) The hardest part for me will be finding a way to narrow my topic into something manageable.
I see the notion of the public good as the benefit or well being of a group or society as a whole. This idea often entails putting the needs of society ahead of an individual’s personal needs when these two things come into conflict. The concept I have of the public good is still not fully developed, so hopefully after the readings and class discussions I will have a more complete understanding of it.
ReplyDeleteFor my paper, I would like to focus on the pharmaceutical companies and the public good. This is a very broad topic, so I hope to narrow it down during my research. I have found a book that seems to be pertinent to my topic, and hopefully finding other relevant sources will not be too difficult.
I generally define the public good as things that are good for the public at large. This includes things that are good for minorities and those with special needs as a means to better the lives of society’s most marginalized groups. The theory behind that is that if the lowest echelon of society is brought up , the rest of the power structure will follow. What I think I might write about is the more abstract, philosophical implications of public good. Right now I’m leaning toward a discussion of the greater good and the golden rule as philosophical foundations and I hope to work it out from there. This plan isn’t really set in stone though, I came up with it while trying to write this blog post so we’ll see what ultimately happens, but a more theoretical, philosophical approach may be easiest to work with. My original theory was to examine how the scholarly body of work surrounding public education effects issues surrounding the greater good there, but that may prove to be more than I can chew in 5 pages.
ReplyDeleteI think that the focus of my paper is going to be the motivations that people have for volunteering. I thought about this a lot during my shifts at Project Angel Heart, and interviewing the volunteers for the oral history project brought it up again. I notice a tendency for people to have selfish motivations for volunteering, on top of the selfless ones. I think that that’s totally acceptable, because the feelings of helpfulness and generosity that many volunteers experience are great motivations for them to keep doing good work, which, of course, is the main goal. But I’m interested in exploring these motives and how they influence what types of work volunteers do and how they feel about it. For research, I got a couple of books at the library on Wednesday on volunteering that looked like they might have some chapters with helpful information. I also will be looking at our class’s reflections on the PAH shifts. I don’t know what my thesis will be yet, I need to do some more research in the books and spend some more time reviewing our class reflections before I know the specifics of my paper.
ReplyDeleteI've never really had do put a definition down for what I think the public good is. I guess it is an action or actions that generally help everyone or at least don't hurt anyone. I don't really know it the publi good is an atainable concept just because I don't think there is anything that won't harm someone. I would there fore retract my previous definition and say that the public good is something that helps the greatest number of people in relationship to the number that are hurt.
ReplyDeleteSince I was unable to make it to class on Wednesday because I wasn't feeling well, I'm not exactly sure what the assignment entails. I was thinking though about looking at how President Obama's health care initives affect the public good.
From reading the posts above, it seems to me that most of the class would define the public good as something that helps the most number of people in society, and in order for that greater good to be achieved; the individual good must be sacrificed.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do not necessarily disagree with this definition, for my paper, I am thinking about exploring this concept that the individual good most often interferes with the greater good, or the public. I do not quite know the exact path my paper will take, but I think I will explore the reason why we, as a society, often associate individual good as being somehow opposed to the public good.
By concentrating on the different philosophical views surrounding the public good, I hope to analyze this relationship and look at other theoretical outlooks that differ in thought. I haven't researched a lot yet, but I think my paper will be based in economic theory and philosophy. Since it seems the public good often has explicit economic connotations, I think a study of how different areas of economic thought view the public good would give great insight as to why, in our society, the individual motivation is often perceived as opposed to the public good.
I think I'm going to focus on how students view the public good and if, like the article we had to read for today was saying, there is a good balance between public and private good. More specifically though, I think that I'm going to look into the way students connect, or not, public good and service learning. I'm going to go about this by doing some research in books to learn about background information and see how outsiders view students and service learning. Then I'm going to perform a survey of some freshman to get their opinions. While I think an interview would be a very useful tool in this assignment, I have no desire to perform one after having to transcribe for the last paper.
ReplyDeleteTo me, the national public good means the best for the most people, but not in a strictly utilitarian sense. I believe there needs to be a large majority being helped for it to be considered the public good. On a smaller scale, I think public good is anything done to help another person or group. I am particularly interested in the broader view. After my education, I would like to get a job in a national laboratory working on defense technology. This future goal of mine helped me to come up with my topic, which is how science, particularly biology and chemistry, help to defend the nation against bioterrorism, which is consequently beneficial to the public. After the 9/11 attacks, there was an anthrax scare, which I plan to use as a kind of case study in my essay. I believe preserving the public health is a critical aspect of the public good and it is this that I will be focusing my paper on.
ReplyDelete