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Section Theme & The New York Times
"Reading a newspaper each day is perhaps the single most important part of being an informed and educated citizen."
Graham Spanier, President, Penn State University
Each Honors 110 instructor has selected a theme to explore in further depth throughout the term. The topics are all "hot" topics frequently found in the news. Regularly reading a newspaper, in this case The New York Times, will help you understand and discuss the issues for our theme: Medicine, Technology and Ethics. This is a big topic, and it is very likely that there will be any number of articles related to the theme. You may find results of studies, opinion pieces, reflections on “old information”. Pay attention to where you find the article: Is it on the front page? Does it appear "above the fold?" How big is the headline? What relevance could this have?
We will be discussing news items from the Times each day. Bring your paper to class, we may even browse it together. More detailed assignments will be discussed.
Note the special sections each day:
Monday: Main News and Business Day
Tuesday: Science Times -- likely day for theme!
Wednesday: Education -- likely day for theme! and Dining
Thursday: Circuits/Technology -- possible theme! and House and Home
Friday: Escapes
You will also be expected to include information from articles you have read when leading your discussion.
Why the NYT?
Aren't there other good sources of news out there? Why are you limiting
me?
The New York Times is newspaper of record for the U.S. There are certainly
other excellent papers available and I encourage you to read them also, but if
we are going to require everyone to subscribe to one paper, this is the one to
choose.