URBS 230—Community Leadership and Service Learning

Conversation Starters

For this writing assignment, you are to compose your own conversation-starter, in the fashion of Margaret Wheatley’s Turning to One Another (Berrett-Koehler, 2009). The idea of a conversation-starter is to present a brief (500-1,000 words) essay which poses an open-ended question (one which requires more than a “yes” or “no” answer) and then turns it about to explore different facets of its meaning. Your goal is not to exhaust the topic, but rather to pique your readers’ interest and provoke reflection and response. The elements of a conversation starter are:

Pose an open-ended question
Present an initial quotation
Offer your thoughts

Present multiple faces of the question
Deal with emotional/motivational issues as well as concepts
Stimulate questions rather than provide final answers

Present a closing reading that leads deeper into the question

You can choose any conversation you want to start, as long as it has some bearing to community leadership.

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