READING GUIDES for the Common Reading: 
       LINKS AND INSTRUCTIONS

Be sure to read this entire page before doing a Reading Guide.

[Reminder:  These readings and the reading guides associated with them are required of all UD students.  If you are taking this course to fulfill a humanities requirement at some other college these readings are optional -- you may freely choose to include one or more of them in the nine readings on which you report.  If you do choose any of them use the reading guides associated with each as the method for making your report.]

1. Genesis 1-3           2. The Sermon at Benares  

3. Mark's Gospel      4. Phyllis Trible

You can find these readings through the links provided on this page.  Be sure to use these links.  You can also find the Common Readings through links on the Portfolio page under Humanities Base.  But if you use those links you will not be taken to instructions on how to do the RGs (Reading Guides) for this section of Rel. 103.

The RGs consist of questions to call your attention to significant aspects of the reading and perhaps to give some background to help understand the reading better.  You are not expected to get all the answer right.  Different people read different texts in different ways.  But you are expected to give responses that are clearly based on a good attempt to deal directly with the text, to analyze the words of the text itself.  Your job here is to be a scholar.  Write to me as though I had never seen the texts. Refer back to what the text says. Do not be afraid to bore me. This is a skill I want you to practice. (Even the experts in a field, writing to other experts, remind them or state clearly the ideas of a text they are commenting on. This may seem redundant, but it makes sure that all parties know just how the writer/expert understands the text.)

A normal length should be less than the equivalent two typed pages, 10 point font or larger, and at least 1.2 spacing between lines.   Normally 1,000 words are enough. These specifics here are to give you an idea of what is standard.  They are not rigid rules.

Any report with more than five typographical and/or spelling errors or significant grammar errors will be sent back to you to do over.  Please take special note of this.  Always proofread what you send in, for this or for any class.  A goal of this class, as in every humanities base class, is to help you improve your writing.