Week 1 Overview and To Do List

Overview

This week you will complete textbook reading assignments, engage in dialogues with your colleagues and seminar professor via both the weekly class forum and a ZOOM chat, and submit your book review of How to Read a Book.

NOTE: Please complete weekly reading assignments by the first day of this class week. The syllabus lists each week’s reading assignment and gives the bibliographic entry for each book. Please stay ahead in your reading. It is imperative that you have reading assignments completed by the first day of the class week so that you will be ready to interact effectively with your professor and your peers and complete related assignments.

To Do List

In order to successfully complete Week 1, please do the following:

• Read How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading, rev. ed. by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren in its entirety. A written book review of this book is due by midnight of the last day of this class week.
• Read The Craft of Research, 5th ed. by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, Joseph Bizup, and William T. FitzGerald as assigned in the syllabus.
• Read Quality Research Papers: For Students of Religion and Theology, 4th ed. by Nancy Vyhmeister and Terry Dwain Robertson as assigned in the syllabus.
• Read the following articles on the University of Toronto Writing Advice website using the links below. NOTE: The University of Toronto fair use policies allow you to print the PDF versions of these articles for your use in this course. The pdf files can be downloaded by following the links below.
  • “Critical Reading Towards Critical Writing” by Deborah Knott, University of Toronto, New College Writing Centre
  • “How to Get the Most Out of Reading” by Margaret Procter, University of Toronto, Writing Support
  • “Taking Notes from Research Reading” by Margaret Procter, University of Toronto, Writing Support
  • “Dealing with New Words” by Margaret Procter, University of Toronto, Writing Support
  • “The Book Review or Article Critique” by Margaret Procter, University of Toronto, Writing Support
  • “Writing an Annotated Bibliography” by Deborah Knott, University of Toronto, New College Writing Centre
  • “The Comparative Essay” by Vikki Visvis and Jerry Plotnick, University of Toronto
• Discuss with your seminar professor and colleagues in the Week 1 Forum – Reading the topic of reading.
• Discuss with your seminar professor and colleagues in Zoom Chat 1 in the Canvas classroom using the link provided there.
• Submit your book review of How to Read a Book in the Canvas classroom using the submission page provided there. Your book review should be prepared according to these Guidelines for Book Reviews. Here is a Book Review Template to aid in your preparation of this assignment. Also, here is a Sample Book Review of another book to aid you in understanding both the format and content of a doctoral level book review.

Go to: Week 1 Forum – Reading

Back to Research & Writing in Ministry