There is No Debriefing Without Prior Briefing: Writing a Briefing Memo as a Preparatory Activity to Make the Most of the Pedagogical Potential of Simulations

Simulations are traditionally divided into three phases, namely preparation, interaction, and debriefing. This article argues that the first phase has been neglected. The preparation phase is indeed widely seen as necessary but merely instrumental to the interaction phase of simulations rather than as a self-contained activity that may also provide an opportunity to make the most of their pedagogical potential. This article explains how writing a briefing memo to prepare a simulation challenges this taken-for-granted view. After outlining the reasons why I asked the students of my Introduction to International Relations module to write a briefing memo about the conflict in South Sudan in preparation for a simulation of the negotiation of a peace agreement, the article explains how it can be used to generate a stimulating class discussion. It then emphasizes how the three phases of the simulation fruitfully complement each other and allow teachers to go beyond the instrumentalist conception of the preparatory phase. Finally, the conclusion reflects about the “portability” (Kollars and Rosen 2016 Kollars, Nina and Amanda Rosen. 2016. “Bootstrapping and Portability in Simulation Design.” International Studies Perspectives 17(2): 202–213.[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) of the briefing-negotiation-debriefing format outlined in this article.     

Teaching Students to Engage with Evidence: An Evaluation of Structured Writing and Classroom Discussion Strategies

In their transition to college, students often struggle to identify and make connections between the main arguments, evidence, and empirical findings of articles from academic journals commonly assigned on political science syllabi. Which active learning techniques are most effective for teaching students to recognize and evaluate social science evidence? To address this question, we conducted an experiment with students from two first-year writing seminars in political science. Students were randomly assigned to either an in-class writing activity or a group discussion, both of which required them to summarize an article’s use of evidence. We find limited evidence that group discussions are more effective for teaching students to engage with evidence.     

词块教学法应用于大学英语写作教学的行动研究

区别于传统的教学模式,词块教学法在改善语言使用的连贯性、地道性、流畅性方面具有一定的优势.通过阶段性的课堂教学的行动研究,调查了解了学生的词块掌握能力;通过教学活动的不断调整和改进,试图寻找一种更有效的方法来提高学生的词块意识及其在写作中的词块运用能力.     

Unveiling the Forbidden: Same-sex Love as a Motif in Lydia Wahlström’s Writing

This article investigates how the historian and writer Lydia Wahlström (1869–1954) wrote about same-sex passions in a time when homosexuality was forbidden by law and tabooed in literature. There were of course also, during the first decades of the 1900s, many people who lived in same-sex relationships, some of them openly enough that this can still be discerned in the historical material. Lydia Wahlström was among them. She was active in the suffragist movement and one of its most prolific leaders, speakers, and writers. Wahlström was awarded a doctorate in history in 1898 and then became the director of studies at the Åhlinska School for girls in Stockholm. Alongside this, she wrote numerous articles and non-fiction books on a wide range of subjects as well as three romans-à-clef. In these novels, she wrote about the love that dared not speak its name, but she had to draw a veil over the forbidden motif in order to write about it. The interesting thing is that Wahlström did not mask the controversial motif more than that the observant contemporary reader could understand the underlying meaning in the novels and that it becomes even clearer to those who read her autobiography that was published many years later. This article deals with writing about same-sex love in a profoundly homophobic time.     

改造与成长:"十七年"知识分子题材小说的书写规约

在工农兵形象成为文坛主角的十七年文学语境中,知识分子题材小说为了获得合法的生存空间,建立了自己的书写规约———改造与成长的模式。书写规约建立的过程,也是知识分子题材小说获得资格认证、从而被准入的过程。但是,这一书写规约并没有使该题材小说免于被批判,因为,规约的表象之下蕴含着诸多难以解决的内在矛盾。     

写字机摹仿书写笔迹检验探究

写字机实质是一种简易的数控装置,根据事先编排好的字库,转换为矢量图。该矢量图数据通过电子元件控制书写工具X、Y、Z轴移动路径从而在固定的纸张上留下接触的墨痕。目前写字机在淘宝上多有销售,不可避免地会被不法分子利用。从写字机摹仿书写笔迹的原理出发,结合对其摹本的比较,可探究写字机摹仿书写笔迹的特征,从而发现写字机摹仿书写笔迹与一般摹仿笔迹的区别。实验显示,检验涉嫌写字机摹仿书写笔迹的基本要点是:了解案情是否具有写字机摹仿书写的情形条件;分析检材笔迹笔痕宽窄、深浅是否均匀;与临摹、套摹笔迹存在本质差异;追根溯源寻求相关证据支持。     

“非虚构写作”在网络舆情事件中的情感动员功能与表达逻辑

社交媒体时代,舆论生态的“后真相时代”特征日益鲜明,情感与信念成为网络舆情事件的主要动力。“非虚构写作”作为将纪实报道与文学创作结合起来的写作手法,在网络舆情事件中发挥着强大的情感动员功能。通过将悲情叙事、身份标签、戏谑表达等传统的网络情感动员表达逻辑与“文史合一”、忧患意识等“非虚构写作”本土概念巧妙嫁接,“非虚构写作”引发了一系列重大网络舆情事件,呈现出社会学观察、原型叙事、文化冲突三种表达逻辑。“非虚构写作”在舆情表达、舆论监督、社会观察等方面发挥着积极作用。同时,带有深刻情感色彩的“非虚构写作”也蕴含着网络民粹主义、网络暴力、网络虚假信息等诸多风险因素。如何实现“非虚构写作”批判与建设、解构与建构、破与立等方面的平衡,这为互联网生态建设提出了新的内容和新的问题。     

论金融商品交易监管发展趋势

基于历史传统和经济政策的不同,各国证券、期货等金融商品交易监管体制存在较大差异,基本可以分为统一监管和多头监管。随着二十世纪后期混业经营的发展,传统的监管体制和监管制度受到了挑战。为了积极应对金融市场风险,提高资本市场的竞争力,一些国家不断完善立法,逐步加强金融商品交易市场的监管。总体而言,全球发展趋势主要表现为加强功能监管和集中统一监管,扩大金融监管的合作与协调,强化自律组织的监管职能。     

Backjumps: writing,watching, erasing train graffiti

This article deals with mobile semiotics. First and foremost, it discusses mobility as a semiotic device. The analysis engages with backjumps, a genre of train graffiti that draws inventively on various forms of movement. The term backjump refers to any fairly elaborate graffiti piece painted on trains in traffic, notably during the trains’ extended stops at terminal stations. The examples focus on the Stockholm metro, where a rigorous anti-graffiti policy has been firmly in place: graffiti is quickly cleaned off trains and a range of strategies is implemented to keep graffiti writing under wraps. By slyly inserting graffiti into the metro system, the mobility-driven backjump practice allows graffiti writers to temporarily subvert this semiotic regime. Furthermore, the forms of semiotic mobility at play are not limited to the movement of the trains. As the present study shows, mobile backjumps are entangled in other patterns of mobility, which jointly underwrite a number of interlinked semiotic processes.     

Some technological implications for ascertaining the contents of contracts in web-based transactions

This paper points out some unexpected relationships between specific aspects of contract law and specific Internet-related technologies. The discussion is not about the interplay between “Law” and “Technology,” or the “Law” and the “Internet.” The aim is modest: to identify some theoretical chokepoints created by the technologies involved in web-based commerce and to point out the legal uncertainties persisting in this area. The analysis is confined to the process of contract formation, not to matters of substantive law. It is during this process that parties assume their contractual obligations and the contents of a contract crystallize.