Students,
Please be aware that your course term papers are due this week. Here are the details you need to know to successfully complete this assignment. Please read all instructions carefully to avoid making mistakes or missing the deadline because you may have made an incorrect assumption about when it’s due:
Assignment details copied from the course content: Write a five page paper, double space, on any topic covered in this course or related to the study of religion. The paper will be graded for both content and spelling and grammar. Establish a thesis paragraph (what you want to say) and then present intelligent arguments, using material that was covered in the course. Again, there is no right or wrong answers. Your paper can be pro- or anti- religion, as long as it is coherent and well written.
Papers that do not meet the minimum expectations of the assignment will not be graded.
File names/types: In keeping with the current file naming convention, name your final paper files like the following example: BaileyP_BC_FinalPaper
.docx, or .rtf format is preferred – do not submit these files as a PDF, because that file type can create problems for TurnItIn.
Important things to keep in mind (make sure you address all of these points):
- Be sure to include a clearly stated thesis statement in your opening paragraph (i.e. “The purpose of this paper is to….”).
- The specific style you use is up to you, but it needs to be consistent throughout the paper.
- Avoid using stilted, grandiose openings for your papers such as “From the dawn of time” or “Humans have always searched for….” These are overworked and academically useless claims.
- Avoid citing dictionary definitions: “According to Oxford dictionary….” No! Dictionaries are not academically authoritative. They provide only the most generic, frequently used meanings of words. In academics, the specific academic discipline determines the meaning of words, as refined by the experts in the field.
- Argue a specific point (i.e. your paper needs to be focused, not generic).
- Meet the length requirement of the assignment (five pages). Points will be deducted for not doing so. Do not exceed five pages of actual content – title pages, bibliographies, end notes, works cited, etc. do not count toward the total page count.
- Edit your work: check for grammar, spelling, etc., because this is a writing-intensive course.
- Be sure your files are properly named using the naming convention we’ve used throughout the semester.
- Don’t just state your opinions. There’s no academic benefit to stating opinions. You need to build an objective, reason-based position with evidence that supports your conclusion.
- When the original instructions state that there are no right or wrong answers, that can be potentially misleading. There are correct and incorrect facts. If you make numerous factually inaccurate claims, then that may result in a lowered score, because factually accurate information is what demonstrates expertise of a given topic. There are no “right or wrong answers” only to the extent that there’s no requirement to argue from any particular position. What matters is how well you accurately explain the relevant factual content and support your position in the ways already described above.
TurnItIn similarity results: When you submit your papers they’re processed by the TurnItIn service, which is a plagiarism checking program. Your similarity results must come back at 15% or less, excluding bibliographical content. Significant points will be deducted for exceeding this limit, and papers grossly exceeding the limit will receive no credit, because it’s then considered plagiarism. In the case of blatant plagiarism, not only will no credit be earned, but all such cases are reported to college administration as academic fraud.