Leadership for the 21st Century – Winter 2011
Seminar Preparation Paper #2
Due: Wednesday, January 12 (Must be keyboarded in 12 pt. standard font)
Because this is essential preparation for seminar, late assignments will not be accepted.
Read: Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, translated by Tim Parks. Whole book.
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. Make sure you read the
introduction and translator’s note as well as the main text.
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, why does he insist that a ruler who wants to survive must “learn to stop being good”
(60)? What does he mean by “good” in this context?
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. You’ll find a
helpful glossary of proper names in the back of the book.
When you begin reading a new book, review the whole book, including the title and subtitle,
acknowledgements, table of contents, chapter titles, notes, and introduction. What clues about the
text do you find? Your objective is more than just getting through these pages – it’s 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
understand more deeply. 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 Machiavelli insists, 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:
Machiavelli argues, “while a ruler can’t expect to inspire love when
making himself feared, he must avoid arousing hatred. Actually, being
feared is perfectly compatible with not being hated” (66).
o Then paraphrase the passage. Use your own words. Try to replace each word in the
quotation with a word of your own. This isn’t an explanation – it’s a re-casting of the
author’s original thought, into your own words. For example, using the quotation
above:
Even though a leader who causes people to fear him should not anticipate being
adored, it’s not useful to be loathed. In fact, it’s quite possible for the leader to
scare people without making them abhor him.
 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. 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, your own
experience, or the history of Italy.)
 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. Paraphrase #1.
 Quotation #2. Paraphrase #2.
 Quotation #3. Paraphrase #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.
A paraphrase should be approximately as long, or slightly longer, than the original – not a great
deal shorter nor much longer.
When paraphrasing, look for appropriate synonyms for every word and phrase.
Keep an eye on the punctuation, especially at the end of the quotation.