Leadership for the 21st Century – Winter 2011
Seminar Preparation Paper #1
Due: Monday, January 10 (Must be keyboarded in 12 pt. standard font)
Because this is essential preparation for seminar, late assignments will not be accepted.
Read: William Isaacs, Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together, Chapters 1-4.
Read these chapters twice. Time your reading of one page, then multiply by the number of pages
assigned. This will give you an idea of how much time you will have to budget for reading.
Read Actively: As you read the first time underline or highlight passages that strike you as
important, interesting, confusing, or those you want to share with others in the seminar.
Note passages that seem to give you a good sense about what this book will be about or what the
author’s purpose is. You can make notes in the margins, or use a separate notebook for these
reading notes. These notes will help you write your seminar papers and participate in seminars.
Underline or circle words, terms, or names that are unfamiliar to you. In particular you will want
to try to identify major concepts that the author uses and how he labels or defines them. For
example, what does Isaacs mean when he refers to “dialogue”? What does his phrase
“architecture of the invisible atmosphere” (30-31) point to?
If there are words you don’t know, list those that were important enough to look up in a
dictionary. Write down what you find to share with your colleagues in seminar.
When you begin reading a new book, review the whole book, including the title and subtitle,
acknowledgements, table of contents, chapter titles, notes, foreword, and even the back cover.
What clues about the text do you find? Your objective is more than just getting through these
pages, more than a passive read to generally familiarize yourself with the topic. Rather, your
purpose is to explore this work fully to see what you can discover. To do this you need to first
understand what is the author saying? What does he mean? Why did he write this book? What
are the major questions or problems he wants to address?
Write:
 Look back over the reading, focusing on those sections you underlined or highlighted as
important or interesting.
 Choose three passages that you think are interesting, strange, or that you want to talk
about. The passages should be about 1-3 sentences long. For each passage, do the
following steps.
o Introducing the quotation with a brief phrase such as Isaac writes, copy the
quotation exactly as it is written. Include quotation marks and page number
directly after each one, using the MLA format to properly cite the quotation.
Follow this example:
Isaacs reflects, “The principle of participation builds upon the realization that
individuals are active participants in the living world, a part of nature as well
as observers of it” (87).
 Be ready to share these passages with your classmates. You might have questions about
the passage, or ideas about how they relate to the work as a whole.
 Finally, write down 2 or 3 questions about the text itself. What do you notice? What
strikes you as interesting, confusing, or surprising? What do you want to discuss in
seminar? (The focus here is on what the text says and what it means – not the author’s
life or your own experiences. )
 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, with their relevant definitions (up to 10 important ones).
 Quotation #1.
 Quotation #2.
 Quotation #3.
 2 or 3 questions you have about the text, or ideas you want to talk about.
TIPS:
Words for introducing a quotation: writes, says, argues, questions, suggests, implies, asks,
proposes, describes, insists, reflects, considers, remembers, recounts.
Keep an eye on the punctuation, especially at the end of the quotation.