College of the Holy Cross RELS118: Introduction to the New Testament

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMITTING YOUR FINAL PAPER OR PROJECT

Assignment: You will be responsible for writing a critical research paper or creating a final project on a subject of your design, in consultation with me. This assignment is designed to give you the opportunity to raise and address critical issues in the study of early Christianity within the framework of a specific scholarly investigation or creative project. Your paper or project should be based on your newfound academic knowledge of the New Testament and New Testament studies and will reflect your critical engagement with and mastery of this knowledge. For those submitting a creative project, a short companion paper will also be required. This paper will provide a guide to understanding the rationale(s) and artistic decisions made in your project and how you have engaged with the course material. Length: Term papers must be 10-15 printed, double-spaced pages (aprox. 3,000-4,500 words) Companion papers for creative projects must be 7-10 printed, double-spaced pages (aprox. 1,500-3,000 words) Due Date: Final papers and projects are due FRIDAY, MAY 4
TH

Research Paper & Companion Paper General Guidelines: Below is an outline of the major components of a typical research paper. While project companion papers are intended to provide a roadmap to understanding your creative interpretation of an aspect or aspects of the course, they must also demonstrate a similarly rigorous engagement with relevant course and research materials. 1. Title Your title can either state the question you are trying to answer or summarize the basic tenants of your paper/project. Feel free to be creative (but be sure you are descriptive!). 2. Introduction Describe the importance (significance) of the study or project: why was this worth doing in the first place? Provide a broad context. Defend the topic: why did you select this research topic or project? How does it relate to the course? What are its advantages? You might comment on its suitability from a theoretical point of view as well as indicate practical reasons for selecting it. Provide a rationale. State your specific hypothesis(es) or objective(s), and describe the reasoning that led you to select them. 1

Provide a clear and concise thesis statement. (I will suggest that) Identify the material you intend to cover (I will look at)

Your thesis is your essay or papers main proposition. A thesis should not be confused with a topic, which represents only the subject area of an essay. A good thesis must be arguable; there must be intelligent ways to disagree with it. Arguability distinguishes a good thesis from a fact (clearly demonstrable in the text) or an observation (an interpretation so obvious that no intelligent reader would challenge it). Although writers often wish to delay announcement of the thesis, good academic writing generally states the thesis explicitly on the first page, then returns to a more nuanced and complex form of it later in the text. 3. Problem or Question (First Few Paragraphs) This is the intellectual context in which your thesis matters. In academic essays, the problem usually arises from a current misunderstanding of an important issue. The author of an essay promises to clarify something that would otherwise remain obscured or mistaken. Establishing the problem or question is the primary role of an essays first few paragraphs. If it doesnt promise to illuminate, deepen, or solve a problem, an essay risks irrelevance. 4. Evidence A well-structured essay should consist of a series of paragraphs which progress logically through the series of points that you intend to cover. Obviously, the difficult part is working out what that order should be. In essence, an essay is an argument, so your structure should be based on what your argument is. For those of you writing a research paper, your evidence is the material you will be working with to explore your thesis. Evidence that has been overlooked or previously undiscovered may serve to prove a thesis. Frequently, however, academic writers re-examine evidence that others have looked at before, in which case the evidence is more likely to suggest or persuade readers that the writers approach is a fruitful one. Since a good thesis must be arguable, academic writers are especially obligated to consider counter-evidence, to grapple directly with facts, patterns, or passages that resist or complicate the essays main argument. Writers must orient readers to the source of the evidence, which must be cited. For those of you writing a companion paper, you should plan to incorporate evidence that both demonstrates the relevance of your project to the course and articulates how your particular creative interpretation of these materials is demonstrated in your project (e.g., what thematic elements you chose to highlight in your creative writing or artistic piece). 5. Analysis & Reflection This is the work a writer does to turn evidence into argument, to show the reader how the evidence supports, develops, or extends the essays thesis. Since a thesis must be arguable, no evidence in a good academic argument can speak for itselfall of it must be processed by the writer. Typical moves of analysis are to highlight significant details of the evidence and to name patterns that might otherwise be undetected. When working with written evidence, its good to observe the rule of two: the writer should supply at least two words of analysis for every word of a citation, and usually more. 2

Analysis generally refers directly to the evidence (Illustrating his metaphor with such words as strive and attack suggests that Paul is using what is commonly referred to as the agon motif), while reflection builds upon analysis to support larger claims (This imagery seems to contradict the authors stated assessment that Paul is a gentle soul). Other moves that indicate reflection are consideration of a counter-argument, definitions or refinements of terms and assumptions, and qualifications of previous claims. Reflection is important throughout an essay, but should be especially rich and full in between sections of the argument and in the essays conclusion. 6. Structure How the sections of an essay are organized and stitched together. College essays are frequently organized either by repetition (where each paragraph develops evidence of the same proposition: X is clearly present) or by chronology (where evidence appears in the essay in the same order that it appears in the text): both of these patterns are inadequate. Sections of a good argument proceed in a logical way, but also develop the implications of a thesis more deeply as the essay progresses. The reader should understand how each new section extends the argument that has come before and prepares for the argument thats still to come. Reflective sentences at moments of transition often guide this review/preview, and complex essays frequently include 1-2 sentences of this type in their introductions. 7. Conclusions Here you state what your learned or proved. What are the "take home messages" or major accomplishments of this work? You may also describe interesting observations, new questions, and future work here. Make certain that you directly connect this section to the introduction you wrote and to what you said you were going to do in this research. Look at the introduction and make sure that you have clearly stated in that section what you intend to do in your paper/project. 8. Bibliography A list of the references you used in writing the paper or creating the project. You are REQUIRED to reference at least 10 sources in your bibliography. Of these 10 sources, 7 must be scholarly sources (academic books or articles). Of these 7 sources, you must cite at least 4 in the body of your paper. The New Testament, Ehrman textbook and Ehrman reader do not count toward this total of 10. Things to Keep in Mind While Writing: Style: What constitutes good style is one of the hardest things to state explicitly, and is perhaps the criterion most open to personal variation. But there are some points that you should bear in mind. One important thing to remember is that you are writing an academic essay, and as such, this requires a reasonably formal style of writing. This does not mean that you should be obscure, or use impossibly long sentences with multisyllabic words, but you should avoid being overly colloquial. Also be wary of emotion-laden or overly theologizing words and phrases. More importantly, you should: 3

Be explicit: Remember that you should be writing your essay for someone who has a general background in the general subject area, but doesn't necessarily specialize in that particular topic. Also, don't leave the reader to infer your conclusions: state them explicitly. Use signposts: Make your essay easier to read by being explicit about your essay structure, e.g., In the next section I will... / As I have argued previously... Avoid long sentences: Be wary of convoluted syntactic structures: they might be fun to analyze, but they can be difficult to read. Go for short sentences: if you have a sentence more than three or four lines long, then it probably needs breaking up into simpler structures. Avoid long paragraphs: Try to avoid writing paragraphs more than 10 or 15 lines long. Long blocks of text have a negative subconscious effect on the reader. Of course, sometimes points take more space to make, but if you find yourself writing a long paragraph, ask yourself: Should I break this point in to sub-points? You could then connect the sub-points with linking sentences at the beginning and/or end of each of the smaller paragraphs. Don't imagine that the reader knows what you mean: If you imagine a reader, don't imagine the instructor, whose knowledge you will probably exaggerate! Imagine another student in your class. This should help you to be explicit about definitions and helpful about sign-posting. Block Quotes: any quote that occupies more than three lines of text must be in block quotes.

Basically, think of all the reading you did for the essay you've just written: what made each of the articles/books easier or harder to read? Proof-read your paper carefully for correct spelling and grammar. Citations and references: Citations and references guide the reader to other sources of information, and document where you obtained your information. Common knowledge need not be referenced. The statement The Gospel of Mark is one of the Synoptic gospels does not require a reference. But if you reference something most people do not know, like "The hypothetical Q (Quelle) source is one component of the Four Source theory you should document the source of that claim. The Chicago Manual of Style, latest edition, is the standard reference for style of scholarly papers. Internet citations may differ slightly, depending on where you found them online. In general, citations from internet pages (in lieu of scholarly sources) are discouraged, unless central to your particular research project. Keep in mind that Wikipedia citations and citations from online encyclopedias will not be accepted as valid sources.

Notes on submitting electronically: if you choose to submit your review electronically, you must submit your paper as a PDF or in a Microsoft Word document to Professor Walshs email by midnight the night of May 4th. Heres the important part: MAKE SURE your pages are numbered, and add a header to your document so that your FULL NAME is on each page of the paper (whether you are writing a research paper or companion paper for a project). When you attach the file, give it a specific and unique name that includes your surname, e.g., guttierez.doc. Do not call the file rels118paper.doc or finalpaper.doc or something general like that, because if someone else submits a document with the same title, one may get overwritten on the computer and it will cease to exist. I will have trouble tracking it down and this will make me very cranky. This is easily avoided by submitting the file correctly. Also, very little mercy will be allocated to those who have mysterious and unfortunate technical mishaps. I am supremely familiar with the panoply of calamity that can befall the well-meaning, yet unprepared, student. Among the excuses that will not be accepted for late electronic submission are: unattached files, corrupted files, delayed emails, computer crashes, accidental submission of earlier drafts or sending me the wrong paper. Other last-minute excuses concerning breakups and other sorrows of the heart or unexpected occurrences in your social life are unlikely to be viewed sympathetically. Notes on submitting a hard copy: in order to avoid any of the pitfalls noted above, you would be wise to submit a hard copy under the door of my office by the end of business (6pm) on May 4th. Remember that you can always speak with me ahead of time if you have concerns about meeting the due date. Work submitted after the deadline without prior approval will be penalized, as outlined in the syllabus. Additional Caution: DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. Do not even consider it. I will vigorously pursue suspected acts of plagiarism. Remember that you are held to the academic policies of the college. CHECKLIST Has the spelling been checked? Is the bibliography correct? Is all cited material referenced? Is the word length OK? Are my name, professors name, class number and name, etc. on it? Are any needed handwritten symbols, diagrams, etc. included? Could someone read my introduction and have a rough idea of the body? Could someone read my conclusion and know what they would have learnt had they read the body? Were any of my arguments unsubstantiated or biased? Did I leave the essay for a few hours and then read it again from a more objective perspective? If I changed anything while going through this checklist did I start again at the top of the checklist?

Rubric for Research Papers

Rubric for Companion Essays/Papers & Projects

6 = Project clearly, creatively and accurately engages an aspect or aspects of the course, demonstrates a mastery of the medium chosen, demonstrates a mastery of the subject matter under consideration. Advances the observers understanding of the subject matter. Companion essay demonstrates excellent composition skills, including a clear and thought-provoking thesis, appropriate and effective organization, lively and convincing supporting materials, effective style and sentence structure, and perfect or near perfect mechanics including spelling and punctuation. The writing perfectly encapsulates the objectives of the project and the objectives of the assignment. 5 = Project clearly and creatively engages an aspect or aspects of the course. It demonstrates skill in the medium chosen and accurately treats the subject matter under consideration with few errors. Advances the observers understanding of at least some facet of the subject matter. Companion essay contains strong compositional skills including a clear and thoughtprovoking thesis, although development, diction, and sentence style may suffer minor flaws. The writing effectively accomplishes the goals of the assignment. 4 = Project engages an aspect or aspects of the course. It demonstrates above average skill in the medium chosen and accurately treats the subject matter under consideration with few errors. Advances the observers understanding of at least some facet of the subject matter. Companion essay contains above average composition skills, including a clear, insightful thesis, although development may be insufficient in one area and style may not be consistently clear and effective. Accomplishes the goals of the assignment with an overall effective approach. 3 = Project engages some aspect of the course. It demonstrates competency in the medium chosen and treats the subject matter under consideration with errors in more than one area. Only marginally advances the observers understanding of the subject matter. Companion essay demonstrates competent skills including adequate development and organization, although the development of ideas may be off point, assumptions may be unsupported in more than one area, the thesis may not be original, and the style and syntax may not be clear and effective. Minimally accomplishes the goals of the assignment. 2 = Project only tangentially engages an aspect of the course. It demonstrates minimal competency in the medium chosen and treats the subject matter under consideration with multiple errors in more than one area. Only marginally advances the observers understanding of the subject matter. Companion essay demonstrates composition skills that are flawed in either the clarity of the thesis, the development, or organization. Style, syntax and mechanics seriously affect clarity. Minimally accomplishes the goals of the assignment. 1 = Project does not adequately engage an aspect of the course. It demonstrates minimal competency in the medium chosen and treats the subject matter under consideration with multiple errors in more than one area. Does not advance understanding of the subject matter. Companion essay demonstrates composition skills that are flawed in two or more areas. Style, syntax and mechanics are excessively flawed. Fails to accomplish goals of the assignment.

Dear Faculty: With the busiest time of the semester approaching, the reference librarians would be happy to help any of your students with their research assignments. In addition to stopping by the reference desk or using the library's virtual reference services, students can schedule a personal research session online by using the link on the library homepage or going directly to: http://libguides.holycross.edu/personal_research_sessions This service allows a student to meet with a librarian one-on-one, at a time that works best with his or her schedule. We encourage you to forward this link to your classes or to any individual students who would like research assistance. The library first started using this personal research session calendar during the fall of 2011 and it has been a great success. Here are comments from two students who scheduled personal research sessions last semester: "I was amazed of how many more resources I could find with the help of the library staff." "It saved me an immense amount of time - I could really focus on what I needed to instead of spending hours trying to figure out which book is the right one." Thank you, Laura Hibbler