Seminar preparation papers will be completed prior to each book seminar. Your seminar papers will contain three "talking points" that you are prepared to share with your colleagues. Think of these points as the beginning of three potential seminar conversations. These papers are not formal essays. Rather, they might have three unconnected paragraphs, each discussing a different issue. Each talking point in your paper will be a brief explication (discussion, critique, analysis, appraisal, interpretation, clarification, description) of an idea or issue which intrigued, puzzled, confused, perplexed, confounded, disturbed, tweaked, irritated, stimulated or otherwise engaged you. Each paragraph needs to refer to the page number of the text where the idea or issue can be found. If you are citing another text, please indicate in your citation. You should also phrase each talking point into a discussion question format; this is a question that could invite a discussion in seminar. The talking point paragraphs are your way of establishing the rationale behind your question or beginning the discussion. These discussion questions will help structure and guide our seminar discussions.

INSTRUCTIONS for composing seminar discussion questions:

As you are reading each chapter, you should keep a journal of reflections and notes, or write questions and notes to yourself in the margins. Focus on finding the author's main points and what arguments, reasons, or evidence s/he uses to support these main points. Also ask yourself the following questions: Why does the author bother to make this point (why does s/he think it matters)? Are the author's arguments good, in that his/her premises or evidence support(s) the conclusion or main point? Why/why not? What is the most important or interesting thing in the reading? And finally, what links can you find between the program's lecture topics (for the current and/or previous weeks), and events ongoing in our society.

After you’ve finished each reading: Using your notes, list questions and problems you want to discuss in the relevant seminar. These questions and problems should include clarifying questions (e.g., what you did not understand in the reading), discussion questions (e.g., open-ended questions which have no clear answer and will provoke interesting conversations), and observations about the author's main points. Include a notation about what specific places in the text motivate each question and observation. Separate your discussion questions from your personal opinion about the readings; you will have an opportunity to say whether/why you personally agreed or disagreed with the author's position, but this is not the major purpose of discussion questions.

Finish your list prior to the relevant seminar. These questions will form the basis for our seminar discussions, so be sure they represent your finest thoughts and inquiries about the readings.
 
 

At the end of each book seminar, your "talking points" papers will be submitted to faculty. The faculty will read through the papers, see whether there were common areas of interest and concern among the members of the class, and note your preparation for seminar. Faculty comments will primarily focus on creating dialogue with you about your ideas; your writing style will be of secondary focus. Although these are not formal papers, if there are problems with the "mechanics" (spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.) in the writing, your faculty will point them out in hopes of supporting your writing development.

These papers must be typed, using an 11 or 12 font. And multiple pages must be stapled. Because the seminar preparation papers are intended to prepare you for and support your participation in seminar, faculty will not accept late seminar preparation papers, they are to be submitted after seminar. Please note that missing any seminar or seminar papers will result in forfeiting upper division credits.