This I Believe: This assignment was adapted from a program on NPR called “This I Believe.” ”The world is tearing itself up because of one thing, and that is belief. The idea is that rather than screaming about it, we ought to just listen. . . . It rather idealistically and rather quietly suggests another way to talk to each other.”—Jay Allison, Series Host and Co-Producer.

What’s Their Story? For this assignment, you will “listen” to stories about what others believe. Focus on stories that tie to the course material.That is, the topics should address some aspect of interpersonal connections and/or relationships. Before you post your assignment, you will need to do the following:

• Visit www.thisibelieve.org
• Search for stories on a theme of interest to you. That is, pick a story that speaks to you
• Choose at least 3/three stories to analyze.
• Listen to each story and take notes.

Once you have taken notes about the stories, you will write an essay response. Upon completion, your essay should

• have a clear (and brief) introduction, a body and a clear (and brief) conclusion format.
• be 1000-1200 words in length.
• incorporate three references from three different chapters in the course textbook. Other textbooks, articles, websites and such will not be accepted.
• include a clear in-text citation (text chapter, page number) of materials from our textbook.
• not include a reference page.
• be free of spelling and grammar errors.
• represent college-level writing

Body of Essay Instructions

In the body of your post, you must include:

• Paragraph 1: Start with information/history about the website and its purpose (be brief).
• Paragraph 2, 3, & 4: Analysis of each story:
  • Start with a brief overview of the story for the reader.
  • Summarize of the author’s core belief and the way this belief has shaped life in the past or present.
  • Answer each of the following questions in your 1-2 paragraph summary of each story:

• • • How do they establish their own unique voice through each essay? Explain what you got out of the essay/story.
    • What did you have in common with the essay/story? What connection do you have to the belief? If you did not have any thing in common or connect with story, explain how you responded emotionally and intellectually to these experiences.
    • What experiences have shaped the lives of each? How does each respond, physically or emotionally, to these experiences?
  • Include working hyper-links to the essays you used for this assignment at then end of each paragraph of explanation.