Question: In this course, you will be identifying a problem in your community or workplace that needs solving and proposing a way to address that problem. Even if you have a unique approach to drafting your writing, you need to generate ideas at the beginning of the writing process. To help your writing have a positive impact on your audience, now is a good time to begin doing preparatory work. These activities include gaining inspiration and generating ideas about issues in your community or workplace that would benefit from positive change. While you are not required to use the ideas you produce in this unit for future Assignments, it is a good idea to invest time and thought into viable topics for an argument for change; the sooner you identify a feasible topic and formulate your argument, the easier the upcoming Assignments will be.

After reviewing the Learning Activities, including the TED Talks on generating ideas, begin developing ideas for creating change in your community or workplace and sharing them on the Discussion Board. Your detailed ideas should be related to an issue or problem that interests you in the community or workplace that would also be a suitable topic for an academic research essay like the one due in Unit 8.

You are welcome to share several different ideas in order to receive feedback on them. Please respond to the following questions in at least two well-developed paragraphs:

• Explain your typical idea generation process. How does it compare to those described in one of the TED Talks or the prewriting phases covered in this week's Learning Activities?

• Describe a problem you would like to solve in your community or workplace. Why do you think this topic would be interesting to others, why is it important, and do you think you can find research on this topic?

To earn full participation credit, you will need to respond substantively to at least two peers' initial Discussion posts and show active engagement in the discussion as described in the grading rubric. These responses should stay on topic and generate further discussion by asking questions, mentioning relevant examples, and if possible, referencing concepts from the unit Learning Activities.

All Discussion posts and responses to peers should be written in complete sentences using Standard American English. Before posting, proofread for grammar, spelling, and word-choice issues. Be sure to respond fully to every aspect of the Discussion.

When you refer to concepts from the unit's Learning Activities, be sure to use a signal phrase like "According to . . .[name of reading]." If you are directly quoting the Learning Activities or another source, be sure to use quotation marks and cite the source using proper APA in-text citations and full references. The Writing Center has resources on APA citation formatting.