Tips for Success

Here is our best advice regarding your weekly reading and posting:

• Read with the intention of making notes about what strikes you personally rather than trying to memorize facts from the material. If you are reading about the organization of the Old Testament, for example, how does that help you in your reading of the OT? Is there an insight you never heard before that challenges you? Or if you are reading about the approach to youth in parish ministry, does this author speak to your experience? Is there something here that either resonates with you or helps you see why particular aspects of your ministry may work or may not work?

• Try to find one aspect of what you have read that makes a difference to you personally rather than trying to show how much you’ve read. Take Dayton’s suggestion of 2 to 3 paragraphs (around 12 sentences) literally. Less is more. Keep it personally relevant to you. This will help you to get out of the course that personal reflection component that no doubt drew you in the first place.

• Imagine you are saying your answer out loud in a classroom setting when composing your posts rather than feeling like you’re writing an essay. This may help you to compose answers more quickly and to respond more naturally.

• Plan for a more substantial chunk of time earlier in the week and then a couple of other days where you could give it an hour rather than hoping to cram all your responses in on one day. Remember you do not need to read everyone’s post in order to respond to one or two participants. Ideally, we would read everything but realistically, you may need to be selective.