Previews are a different kind of reading and writing assignment than
you are used to! Please don’t forget that they are 40% of your grade.
Missing a preview will mean losing a big part of your grade. So, be
very consistent in submitting your previews.
After reading the assignment and using the tools you will learn from
Adler’s book, you will be identifying the author’s POINT, i.e.
what
it is that the author wants you to understand
(not merely to
know) that you may not have understood or believed before? This
“point” of the reading will necessarily come down to a set of
answers to one or more of the
“basic philosophical-religious
questions” (BPRQs)
– always, in one way or another, directly or
indirectly. These are the questions to which every human being must
have some sort of answer in order to make choices in life. They are:
1) What is the nature of the universe?
2) What is the nature of man?
3) Therefore, what must we do to be happy?
Structure your Previews by writing three paragraphs, each one
corresponding to one of the three BPRQs
above.
Each paragraph will be graded according to the following three
categories: A)
Essential Point
– What is the author’s thesis (state or
implied answer to the BPRQ)? B)
Essential Text
– What text
supports the author’s answer? You will need to quote from the text.
Logical Analysis
– How exactly does the author argue for this
answer?
The average of all nine grades will be the overall Preview grade, but
you will be able to see the three grades for each paragraph so that
you will know exactly where points were deducted and how you may
improve.