Writing Assignments
Essay #1
Consider this thought experiment: “You moved into a new community three months ago. In the short time you have been here, you have realized that there is a significant, but apparently unnoticed problem in the community [it doesn’t matter what—maybe it’s kids left home alone after school, or potholes in the streets, or a house up the block that seems to be engaged in suspicious activity….] You know something has to be done about it—but who is going to bell the cat? And how?”
At this early stage in the course, from your point of view what is leadership in a community setting? What are the necessary traits of a community leader? What does a community leader do? What (if anything) distinguishes community leadership from leadership in (say) a business setting or a governmental setting?
While this essay will be primarily your opinion, it should not be unsupported opinion. Make a case for the position you take. You are trying to convince me (and your classmates) that your position really does answer the question, and answers it completely.
Essay #2
What is leadership for you?
In some ways, this is the same question as last week. Only now you know about the six major theories (seven, if you count Bob Terry’s theory of “authentic leadership”), you have had some time to think about your traits and how they fit into leadership settings, you know about the “Action Wheel,” and you have begun to wrestle with some of the “wicked problems” of leadership (situations like the Abilene paradox and hiring the YMCA Exec).
While this will (necessarily) be a personal essay, I want
you to frame your ideas in response
to what other people have thought & said.
You could play off the seven theories in Terry’s book (pointing out
where the theories fit and where they
don’t), you could draw on other books you have read (perhaps your approach is
influenced by Philip Atreides in Frank Herbert’s Dune, or maybe you’ve been influenced by
Mark An
Essay #3
How is someone supposed to lead in a democratic society?
This question really involves two questions—
1) How is it possible to lead when the issues are ill-formed and ambiguous, when the “group members” are nameless and faceless (some of whom have not moved to the community yet, and so of whom are not even born yet!), and everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion?
2) What are the appropriate behaviors for someone under conditions like these? How does a democratic leader behave?
As before, “dialogue with the literature.” You now have the opinions of at least four people (well, 5, but you haven’t read anything I’ve written) to play with, not counting those from your own past that you brought with you.
Essay #4
How do you build a community’s capacity to solve its own problems?
This means—
1) What does it mean to “build a community’s capacity”?
2) How can anyone “build” a community’s capacity? Is such a thing even possible?
3) How can you build a community’s capacity?
By now you should be getting used to comparing and contrasting your ideas to those of others whom you have been reading. Remember to use proper citation form.
Essay #5
What did your service learning experience teach you about community leadership?
As always, this one question involves several others:
1) What were the “key moments” that you observed, those moments when the people you were working with or observing had a choice to make?
2) To what extent did the people you worked with or observed draw on theory? If they did not draw on it, what did they use to guide their decisions and actions?
3) What happens when you take theory to the streets? How were the theories you have been studying carried out in the practice you observed? How did the practice contradict the theory?
4) What did you learn from practice that was not in the theories at all?