Methodology

This course will seek to provide students the various skills necessary to engage in higher academic work, appropriate to the level of a teacher and scholar of the Church. Students will receive an introduction to the academic resources the University has to offer, in view of the scholarly pursuits they will be required to engage in throughout their studies. The course will: (1) provide students with in-depth tutorials on how to utilize the services of the Library in an effective and efficient way, in view of a proper research methodology; (2) guide students in the proper habits of personal and professional organization and time management; (3) provide the basic theory and praxis behind the four levels of reading difficult texts, and the critical thinking processes necessary to get the most out of such readings; (4) how to construct a divisio textus in preparation for course lectures, and the writing of long academic essays; (5) as appropriate to the writing of an S.T.L. tesina and S.T.D. dissertation, provide students with a presentation of advanced writing techniques that students will be expected to employ in the various courses and seminars of the S.T.L. and S.T.D. programs; and (6) train students in the approved conventions of academic citations, footnotes, and other essential rules of the Faculty’s Methodological Guidelines.