GRADING RUBRIC FOR BOTH THE RESEARCH PAPER AND CREATIVE PROJECT CAN BE FOUND HERE
(1) RESEARCH PAPER OPTION
Purpose: An opportunity for students to research, analyze, and elaborate on a topic of interest related to the study of religion, religious practice, or theology.
Instructions: Write a research paper on an idea or topic that relates (directly or tangentially) to some themes or concepts of what we have covered throughout the semester.
Specifications:
Students must write a topic proposal (one paragraph only) with a preliminary bibliography of 3-5 items that they intend to use for their research, along with your rationale for pursuing this topic. This is due Wednesday, April 17.
For your topic proposal, tell me what connections and content from class have helped you to choose the research topic; or in other words: How has what we did in class shaped why you want to research what you’re going to research?
Your bibliography does not need to include readings from the class (though feel free to use them if needed); appropriate sources are scholarly books or highly reputed journalism or writing, or authoritative websites. Your work should rely most heavily on scholarly literature (books/journal articles that you can find at the library). You should aim for at least 7 sources for your paper.
2500-3000 words, 12 pt font, Times New Roman, double-spaced, Chicago Style format. Because this is a research project, I will enforce the Chicago style format much more than I had for synthesis papers. Please, please, please upload .doc or .docx file into Blackboard.
Your paper topic need not be something that has been explicitly covered by class, but it must be clear to me (through your paper proposal) how the class has led you to choose your topic.
Final draft of paper with completed Bibliography due on Blackboard May 9.
