11th Grade Comparatve Religion

Final Paper

  1. You are asked to choose two or three religions and compare and contrast them. One of these religions must be from the book. The other is of your choice. If you choose three religions, TWO must be from the book. Choose a theme to center your essay around.

a.A few thematic examples and ideas:

  • Self and Society/The Other
  • Comparison of Divine beings
  • Relationship to the Divine
  • Role of tradition
  • Prayer and meditation
  • View of reality and history
  • Hope and suffering
  • The Self vs. the self
  • Meaning
  1. The paper will receive a good grade if
  • You are specific and clear; generalities are not interesting
  • You are very careful not to speak of “Christianity,” for instance, without stating specifically which kind of Christianity you are speaking of; there are huge differences in relation to nearly every topic you can think of.
  • You follow the well-known MLA format
  • Header/heading
  • Title
  • Parenthetical citations: you must, in parentheses, cite the sources for information in every paragraph. The citation will refer to the Works Cited at the end of the paper, using the alphabetizable part of each citation
  • The Works Cited will be in alphabetical order.
  1. The paper is a comparative paper, not a reflective essay. We expect facts, not your opinions. And – no – your opinions are not the same as facts.
  1. The final paper should be:
  • a minimum of 5 pages, maximum 8 pages
  • typed, double spaced, edited, formatted correctly
  • quotes included and cited correctly (MLA)
  1. You may choose to do outside research from a valid source or draw only from the book.

FIRST DRAFT due Monday January 11, 2016

FINAL DRAFT due Friday, January 22, 2016

Basic In-Text Citation Rules (parenthetical citation)

1 -- In MLA style, referring to the works of others in your text is done by using what's known as parenthetical citation. Immediately following a quotation from a source or a paraphrase of a source's ideas, you place the author's name (or the “article name” or the website name) followed by a space and the relevant page number(s) -- [if you‘re using a book: don‘t worry about page numbers for an internet site].

Human beings have been described as "symbol-using animals" (Burke 3).

2 -- When a source such as an internet site has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name. Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work, or underline it if it's a longer work (book, magazine, website). E.g., for a magazine article with no author – “Where the Business is.” Motor Age, Sep. 2000: 58 – write (“Where”): no page number is needed because only one page is referenced.

3 -- Your parenthetical citation will correspond with an entry in your Works Cited page, which, for the Burke citation above, will look something like this:

Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method. Berkeley: U of California P, 1966.

It’s important to know that parenthetical citations and Works Cited pages allow readers to know which sources you consulted in writing your essay, so that they can either verify your interpretation of the sources or use them in their own scholarly work.

4 -- Multiple Citations

To cite multiple sources in the same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a semi-colon:

. . . as has been discussed elsewhere (Burke 3; Dewey 21).

5 -- When Citation is not needed

Common sense and ethics should determine your need for documenting sources. You do not need to give sources for familiar proverbs, well-known quotations or common knowledge. Remember, this is based on audience. If you're writing for an expert audience of a scholarly journal, they'll have different expectations of what constitutes common knowledge.

Work Cited

“In Text Citations: The Basics.” The Owl at Purdue. 22 Jan. 2008. Purdue University. 24 Jan 2008.

Sample Works Cited

“Beanie Babies May Be a Rotten Nest Egg.” Chicago Tribune, 21 June 1989: 12.

[newspaper]

In the parenthetical citation, you would put it like this: (“Beanie”)

Crawford, Hubert H. Crawford’s Encyclopedia of Comic Books. Middle Village, N.Y.: Comicade Enterprises, 1978.

[encyclopedia]

In the parenthetical citation, you would put it like this: (Crawford - p____)

“Dealing with the National Debt.” Editorial. Newsday. 12 October 1998, sec. 2:4.

[magazine]

In the parenthetical citation, you would put it like this: (“Dealing”)

“Frozen Shoulder (Adhesive Capsulities).” MCW Healthlink. 7 May 1999. Medical College of Wisconsin. 15 May 2008 <http//Healthlink.ncw.edu./article/

926059314.html>

[website]

In the parenthetical citation, you would put it like this: (“Frozen”)

Wiseman, Carter. Twentieth-Century American Architecture: The Buildings and Their Makers. New York: Norton, 2000.

[book]

In the parenthetical citation, you would put it like this: (Wiseman - p___)