Posted: June 26th, 2015

Art’s Rather Excellent Guidelines for Class Essays

Art’s Rather Excellent Guidelines for Class Essays

-Choose a topic related to class material BUT pursue it in greater detail than we did in class.

When possible, pick something we did not spend enough time on in class (there are lots and lots of possibilities)
Developing a point of view can be difficult, especially for those who have not written many papers.

Your “point of view” is not that X or Y are “right” or “wrong”,
but “this is a good way to understand this topic and here is why…”

What I’m trying to avoid is a straight “book report” kind of essay where you simply say, “this is X, Y and Z according to source A and B”.

I’ll accept papers like that, but they are unlikely to get better than “B”, even if well done.

Have an idea.

On the opposite side, I’m even less interested in papers that only contain only, “my opinion is X” and “my opinion is Y”.
You are entitled to your opinion, but it doesn’t carry any weight in a paper (or almost anywhere else, for that matter).

Even if you were a nationally-noted expert on the subject, you’d still have to give reasons and evidence.

Here are some examples of points of view. This is a “comparative” class, so comparative is good:

1) Rites of initiation share many similar characteristics despite apparent differences…

2) The role of women in Judaism, Christianity and Islam is more (or less) different than is commonly supposed…

3) Despite protests to the contrary, Hinduism is ultimately a form of polytheism…

4) Although the “I Ching” has been used to tell the future, its real significance lies far deeper…

5) Zen Buddhism is more unlike other forms of world Buddhism than it is like them…

6) Karma means something different in Jainism than in Hinduism…

As I say, papers are not required to do this.
You could, for instance, write:

1) A Hindu wedding has 8 major parts. These include….

Or

2) These are the traditional roles for women in maintaining home puja…

Previous Topics

Comparing a specific rite of passage such as birth, wedding, funeral among different traditions

Examining the role of women, or other status differences, in a particular faith tradition

Examining a particular practice in a religion (one good essay was on the Gideon Society placing Bibles in hotel rooms)