Santa Clara University
Religious Studies Department, SCU
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There are two major assignments for this course that you will do outside of class time: the iBible: A Personal Anthology, and the Research Paper. Specific directions and grading rubrics for each project are available on this page, and ideas for possible research projects and video tutorials for library resources are available from the Research tab to the left.
 
If you are interested in writing an extra credit report, use the link to the left for directions and a list of eligible events.


iBible: A Personal Anthology
Jews, Christians and Muslims have collectively gathered stories from their communities that capture something of their sense of a transcendent or higher power at work in their lives. The texts they gathered, and their interpretation of them, is like a window onto their lives and priorities and the social circumstances that shaped them. This is no less true in our own time, when our scientific mindset has led us to question not only the facticity of these texts, but also their relevance to our lives.
 
The iBible project offers you an opportunity to explore your own beliefs about the questions our texts raise. You can approach the project from whatever point of view you bring to the class: as a believer in one of these traditions, as a practitioner of another spiritual tradition, as an agnostic or as an atheist. No matter your starting point, the process is the same: to select two questions raised by the Jewish texts, two raised by the Christian texts, and two raised by the Muslim texts, and answer them for yourself. Your "answer" to each may be a reflective essay, or a combination of music, art and/or poetry with your reflection on their relation to the question. Thus you will be compiling a kind of anthology that represents your engagement with the questions that Jews, Christians and Muslims have grappled (and still grapple) with. Though the anthology is called an "iBible" and represents your personal reflections, it's expected that your reflection will (a) include some consideration of the social influences on you that have led you to find your answer persuasive at this point in your life, and (b) engage the Jewish, Christian, or Muslim "answers" to your question, so as to tie in our course readings. Evaluation of your project will focus on these two components.
 
The "questions" raised by our texts are many, and only a few have been identified for each class in unit 1 (the worksheets lists some questions). If you find another question in the primary reading that you would prefer to address, just discuss your idea with the professor in advance. It's recommended that you begin your reflection before the class that deals with that text, so you can start trying to articulate your ideas in class discussion and get some feedback from other students. You’ll likely want to revise your thinking after class, and again it would be best to do this right after that class, so that you don’t have to pull the iBible together at the last minute. Time will occasionally be provided in class to build your reflection.
 
This is a 12-15 page typed and single-spaced paper that will be due one week after the midterm, on Thursday, November 7. You'll submit an electronic copy in Microsoft Word to the assignment drop box on our course Camino page (it will be uploaded automatically to TurnItIn once you submit it). The professor’s evaluation of your work will be posted there as well.
 
Here is a sample of an iBible entry, with the professor's feedback noting an area that needs improvement. Here is a Microsoft Word template you can use to start the assignment. Here is the grading rubric for the assignment, which lays out the assignment objectives and how they will be evaluated. 15% of grade.
 
Research Paper
 
General Directions
 
One of the major assignments for the course is an 8-page research paper. This exercise allows you to find a topic that interests you and to explore it more deeply. It is about building information literacy, developing solid research skills, and exploring the beliefs and practices of a single religion. You can choose any topic you like, and cross-disciplinary work is encouraged; the only requirements are that you (a) focus on one of the three religions, (b) select a significant belief or practice (or a related set of beliefs and/or practices) of a that religion, and (c) analyze how the interpretation of scripture is brought to bear on the topic. You will compile the exercise in the following stages, each of which is described more fully below:

1. Topic statement and bibliography

      Sample      Template
4th week Thursday, October 17
2. Outline of strategy for paper

      Sample      Template
9th week Thursday, November 21
3. Research Paper (submit to Camino drop box by 9:10 a.m., beginning of final exam period)

      Sample      Template
11th week Tuesday, December 10

All stages will be typed and will follow the guidelines on the Style Sheet here on the course website. Some ideas for possible research topics are posted here on the course website at Research. This exercise is one of the most important in the course, and assesses your progress on learning objectives 1 and 3. Here is the grading rubric for the assignment, which lays out the assignment objectives and how they will be evaluated. 25% of grade.
 
 
Topic Statement and Bibliography
 
You will submit a one-page topic statement and intended sources in the 4th week. The topic statement should have the following elements:

  • the usual personal information in an upper corner (see the Style Sheet)

  • a working title for your project centered and bold under the header,

  • a 3-4 sentence statement of the specific topic you intend to examine, indicating (a) which religion you're examining, (b) what belief(s) and/or practice(s) you're concentrating on, and (c) which specific scriptural passages in that tradition will be significant in your analysis

  • a list of at least 5 professional, peer-reviewed secondary sources focused on your specific topic (for a definition of professional sources, click here), as well as the proper bibliographic citation for the version of scripture you're using (this is a sixth source, but it is a primary rather than a secondary source). To find those sources, it's recommended that you use the ATLA Religion Database in the library. There are video demos on the Research Tips page for using this database and then getting your sources (if they're not pdf files right there in the database). Type up the sources as bibliographic entries; see the Style Sheet for directions on the proper format used in this discipline—it's a little different from MLA or APA. Your assignment will not be accepted if it is not in the proper format for this class.
 
Here is a sample of what the assignment should look like. Here is a template you can use to start the paper, set with the correct margins and indentation. Turn the assignment in to the drop box on Camino (at the Assignments tab) before the beginning of class on Thursday, October 17 (there's no need to print out the paper). The assignment should done in Microsoft Word so that the professor can add comments in Track Changes. This part of the assignment will receive a grade on the simple "plus-check-minus" scale; that grade will be factored into your final paper grade in the "timely submissions" category.
 
 
Outline
 
A two- to four-page assignment that presents the thesis and outline for your paper's argument. Think of this document as the strategic plan of your paper: what do you want to demonstrate (your thesis), and how will you demonstrate it (your argument)?
 
Lay out the paper like an outline, single-spaced. Choose some logical framework for the presentation of your argument, so that the presentation builds upon itself. In a paper like this, a common outline will include some historical and/or descriptive background, a section in which you address how the interpretation of scripture bears on your topic, which is the core of your paper and so should have several subsections itself. Include references to the "proofs" or warrants for your claims, whether these be primary texts (like the Qur'an or New Testament), secondary source citations, or established facts. Don't type in entire quotes at this point; it wastes too much space. Just use some notation system to remind yourself of the particular source you will need at that point in your argument. If you include chapter:verse and page references for your proofs here, it will save you looking them up all over again later.
 
There are no requirements for how you choose to outline (I.A.1 or bulleted lists are fine), but all normal formatting styles apply (see Style Sheet). The assignment should done in Microsoft Word so that the professor can add comments in Track Changes. Click here for a sample of the assignment. Here is a template you can use to start the paper, set with the correct margins, indentation and line spacing. Turn the assignment in to the drop box on Camino (at the Assignments tab) before the beginning of class on Thursday, November 21 (there's no need to print out the paper). This part of the assignment will receive a grade on the simple "plus-check-minus" scale; that grade will be factored into your final paper grade in the "timely submissions" category.
 
 
Final Paper
 
A clean, corrected copy of the final paper, in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx) should be submitted to the assignment drop box on our course Camino page at the Assignments tab. The paper will automatically be checked against TurnItIn.com. The paper is due before beginning of our final exam period on Tuesday, December 10 (9:10 a.m.). Because you are writing this research essay, there will be no comprehensive essay on the final exam, only definitions and short-answer essays.
 
For a sample of what the paper should look like, click here. A Microsoft Word template for the paper, witha separate title page and styles set for proper spacing, margins, pagination, footnotes, bibliography, and blockquote styles is available here.


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