Leadership for the 21st Century – Winter 2011
Seminar Preparation Paper #4
Due: Wednesday, February 2 (Must be keyboarded in 12 pt. standard font)
Because this is essential preparation for seminar, late assignments will not be accepted.
Read: Paul Rusesabagina, An Ordinary Man, whole book. You may find passages of this
book upsetting; there are some scenes of terrible violence. These are a small part of the whole
book, but they might be triggering. If you need to, skim through those scenes and focus on the
narrative of the author’s life and his work to help people survive.
Read Actively: As you read, underline or highlight passages that strike you as important,
interesting, confusing, or those you want to share with others in the seminar. You can make
notes in the margins, or use a separate notebook for these reading notes. These will help you
write your seminar papers and participate in seminars.
Underline or circle words, terms, or names that are unfamiliar. List those you looked up, noting
page numbers. Write down what you find to share with your colleagues in seminar.
Look over the whole book. Ask yourself: What is the author saying? What does he mean? How
does this connect to what we’ve been discussing about communication and about leadership?
For this seminar paper, we’ll work on the skills to develop PIE paragraphs. For this paper, we’ll
develop them in this order: I – E – P.
 Illustration – a quotation (paraphrase optional).
 Explanation – discussion of the meaning and significance of the passage.
 Point – how this passage connects to your theme statement.
Write:
 Take a close look at the book, focusing on those sections you underlined or highlighted as
important or interesting.
 Identify a major theme of this reading. A theme is not only a subject, but also states the
author’s perspective on that subject. For example:
Rusesabagina shows that he was able to help people survive because he was
willing to talk to everyone.
 Choose three passages in the reading that you think relate to this theme.
 For each of these three passages, do the following:

Introducing the quotation with a phrase or clause of your own, copy the passage using
MLA-style citation. Set up a specific quote with a summary statement (to locate the
passage in the narrative). For example:
In a situation where he drank with a colonel who was under orders to kill a
journalist, Rusesabagina reflects, “I don’t know why he kept talking to me. But
the longer he sat there and sipped his Carlsberg the greater the odds were that
Thomas was going to survive to see the sun go down” (119-20).

Paraphrase the passage if you like – this is optional. The quotation (and paraphrase, if
you do it), is your ILLUSTRATION.

In a full paragraph, EXPLAIN the passage by discussing what it says, why it’s
important, and how it relates to your initial theme statement. For example:
What does it show about the author’s point of view (about his choice to drink
with a killer, in this case)? What about it jumps out at you? What is confusing
or challenging? What are the key words or concepts in the passage? How
does this relate to other parts of the reading? And especially, what does this
passage add to your understanding of the theme you identified to start with?
This paragraph is your EXPLANATION. It should be longer than the
quotation you stated with!

Finally, write a one-sentence POINT that states directly what this passage has
to do with the theme you identified. For example:
Drinking and talking with those who were engaged in genocide
allowed Rusesabagina to connect with them and sometimes to
influence their behavior.

Repeat for each of your three chosen passages.
 Follow the format guidelines from the syllabus (12-point font, double spacing, etc.).
Your seminar paper will include the following:
 List of words you looked up (up to 10). Note page numbers.
 Initial “Theme” statement. Don’t skip this step – the assignment can’t be done
without a theme.
 Passage #1, (paraphrase optional), Explanation, Point.
 Passage #2, (paraphrase optional), Explanation, Point.
 Passage #3, (paraphrase optional), Explanation, Point.
TIPS:
Label each element to be sure you did each one.
If you cut part of a sentence, use ellipses (…) to show where.
If you use quotes inside of quotes, the inside quotes have single quote marks: Rusesabagina told
the colonel, “’this war has made everyone a little bit crazy…You need to relax’” (120).
Notice that here, we are developing Illustration, Explanation, then Point. In your essays, the order
of these will be changed to Point, Illustration, Explanation (PIE).
Do every part of the assignment, even if you are not sure if you’re doing it right. Give it a shot.