dragonbook

33 At the specific level ask: What is your professor expecting you to do with what you get from the reading? With Descartes, you’ll be asked for a quiz on Descartes to show you’ve done the reading and, eventually, you might be asked an essay question on Descartes, Pascal and Bacon. This is important, because it might save you lots of time. Do you read a whole phone book if what you’re looking for is one number??? To be successful with college readings, you should always figure out the purpose of your reading assignment so you know how closely to read. At the general level ask: Why is this important at all? Why is the author writing? And where does this book fit into the great conversation? What great conversation? You see, what college is about, at least in part, is to introduce you to a great conversation that began more than 5000 years ago. The conversation includes every topic imaginable: politics, religion, male and female roles, economics, truth, justice: the whole realm of human experience. It really is a wonderful conversation (nicely summarized, by the way, in Thorton Wilder’s Skin of Our Teeth. Remind me to read this to you in class). So how can you be ready to take part in the Great Conversation? Well, it’s nice to have help. I got lots of help from my dad and my friends and from some occasional high school teachers— and I hope that I can help you somewhat. But, no matter who helps you, you’re going to have to do a lot of hard work on your own if you’re really going to get up to speed. Descartes (and the 16 th century in general) is a fairly good place to start because, to a certain extent, the conversation starts over again here.  Survey-skim It helps a lot to get a quick overview of a reading assignment right at the outset. Tables of contents, introductions, opening paragraphs, and closing paragraphs often really help.