Course Description
This seminar presupposes that students are beginning the seminar with a certain academic maturity and advanced level of academic writing skills, especially as it concerns theological texts. While certain foundational and advanced writing skills will be briefly reviewed, the primary objective of the seminar will be to provide students with the necessary skills and tools to read in a syntopical way (i.e., high-level comparative reading), such that students will be prepared to successfully complete their doctoral dissertations, as well as any academic writings for publication. Students will primarily engage in multiple draft compositions of possible parts of their intended dissertations, while also analyzing and Socratically discussing various theological texts with each other, in order to hone their skills at persuasive oral and written argumentation.
Bibliography
Various theological texts. Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, Joseph Bizup, and William T. FitzGerald. The Craft of Research. Fourth Edition. Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2016. Fisher, Alec. Critical Thinking: An Introduction. Second Edition. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers. Ninth Edition. Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing. Chicago ; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2018. Wilberding, Erick. Socratic Methods in the Classroom: Encouraging Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Through Dialogue. Waco, Texas: Prufrock Press Inc., 2019. Yaghjian, Lucretia B. Writing Theology Well: A Rhetoric for Theological and Biblical Writers. Second Edition. London ; New York: T&T Clark / Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2015.