UMass Amherst

About the Dean's Book Course

student responding to speakerThe Commonwealth College Reading & Research Seminar Series, known as the Dean’s Book Course, is unique among university offerings. This 3-credit course actually comprises three separate seven-week seminars—Honors 191D, Honors 291D, and Honors 391D—taken over the time of a student’s enrollment in Commonwealth College. Each seminar is devoted to the study of a single contemporary book and exploration of the issues it raises. The three seminar levels emphasize different approaches and activities, yet the text for each seminar is the same.

Finding Connections, Making a Difference

Each seminar section is facilitated by a UMass Amherst faculty or staff member or by a professional from the surrounding community. Each seminar level has its own curriculum, its own set of assignments and expectations. But at the center of every seminar are the students themselves—the research they do in conjunction with the semester's text, the presentations they make to the class, and the knowledge they share with their classmates.

Over-Arching Goals of the Dean's Book Course

DBC is intended to prepare students for the demands they will face in Capstone Courses and Independent Projects, future graduate study, and the workplace. Specifically

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It gives students the opportunity to participate in a community of fellow scholars from widely different majors, sharing insights into a single text and the themes it contains.
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Its curriculum provides sustained practice in the full range of expressive and receptive communication skills essential to every community—social or intellectual—from clear, persuasive writing and speaking to accurate, attentive reading and listening.
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Its activities extend students' familiarity with the conventions of effective and ethical research and its presentation.
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Finally, at its core, the Dean's Book Course promotes an openness of mind defined not only by respect for others' viewpoints but also by the willingness to take up a text that may not be to one's personal taste and work with it as a tool for learning.

The Three Levels Defined

Honors 191, Discovery, focuses on the close, objective reading of a text, using research to deepen one’s understanding of the material presented, and sharing these discoveries with the class through brief oral presentations. It introduces students to a set of fundamental academic practices, which include

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Practicing close reading and listening to achieve fuller, more accurate understanding;
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Framing effective research questions;
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Using current research tools, methods, and electronic databases;
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Communicating research findings in short, focused oral presentations supported by such visual aids as posters and handouts;
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Recording and contextualizing research findings in a modest review of the literature.

Honors 291, Analysis, focuses on understanding through writing: first, extracting main ideas from a larger piece of writing and condensing them responsibly in summary form; second, researching a particular aspect of the text and writing up one’s findings in two distinct styles, one for a listening audience, the other for an audience of readers. Honors 291 emphasizes

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Summarizing information responsibly and accurately;

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Evaluating research sources;
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Writing for oral delivery as well as for print publication;
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Documenting research findings according to standard practices;
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Participating effectively in presentation panels, question-and-answer sessions, and open discussions.

Honors 391, Synthesis, focuses on making connections within and beyond the text: writing a personal response to the text, researching areas related to one’s personal interests and expertise, and presenting these findings in a format relevant to one’s own major work. Honors 391 emphasizes

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Examining one’s individual response to a text;

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Assessing the various personal, academic, and cultural factors that influence how we read, interpret, and ultimately come to know;
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Using research to understand the academic, professional, and cultural context in which we work;
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Exchanging ideas across a range of disciplines and finding common ground;
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Practicing the sort of formal oral presentation expected in the Capstone Experience and future careers.
Terror in the Name of God jacket

The Fall 2007 Selection
Terror in the Name of God
by Jessica Stern
(click book jacket for more)

A Primate's Memoir jacket
The Spring 2008 Selection
A Primate's Memoir
by Robert Sapolsky
(click book jacket for more)