Ancient religion Assignment

The research project for this course is a minimum 1,500 word paper researching the topic of a student’s choice within the parameters of the course’s guidelines, using a scholarly lens. 5 sources are required for this project’s bibliography, of which only 2 can be websites that will count to the 5 total (you may use more websites, but you need to have any combination of at least 3 academic journal articles and/or books)! The other 3 non-website sources must be scholarly works, and as you know many of them can be found online through the college’s website (as academic journal articles, books, and data sets often are). Please use an academic writing format when referencing these sources in the body of your writing as well as the complete reference in the bibliography at the end. If you use complete footnotes, a bibliography at the end is unnecessary.

This project begins with a student choosing a research topic directly related to the course parameters (Ancient Religions)*. Some sample topics are listed below:

Any Ancient Religious Culture (Egyptian, Chinese, Middle-Eastern, European, African, American, etc.)

Ancient Religious Culture Survivals (any elements of ancient religious culture that survives today)

Any Ancient Religious Person

Any Ancient Religious Myth 

Any Ancient Religious Rituals

*The term “ancient” indicates that the topics from this class are limited to cultures prior to the age of globalization. Most any society prior to 1000 BCE will work, though some, like Native American societies, will count any time in the pre-Columbian Era. You need to communicate with the instructor about your topic in order to ensure your topic will count for this class (all papers are kept in a repository to prove that students completed work on the topics related to the course content).

These papers need to include academic research into peer-reviewed journals and/or texts that can be found online, at most any library, or through a library’s website. Students are compelled to submit a quality research project that will be as “bias” free as possible (showing multiple sides of the story if necessary) and MUST use evidence as found primary and secondary sources. Students must plan on conducting a deep textual survey of the topic they plan on studying for this assignment (a review of Wikipedia and some official or nonofficial church or other religious websites alone will NOT suffice for this project). Each student can complete these assignments by using only the college’s online library system.

Assignment structure:

Each student’s paper should be composed (roughly) of the following parts:

Introduction to paper
Thesis (e.g. “In this paper I show A, B, and C.”)
Body of writing (e.g. “A, B, C”)
Conclusions
Bibliography of at least 5 academic sources that are included as references within the body of writing (e.g. “(Eliade 1976, p. 46)”. Each source must be listed in an academic bibliographical style of your choice including APA, MLA, Chicago, or Turabian (see samples here: Owl (Links to an external site.) Citation Page ). Use in-text referencing AS WELL as a complete bibliography
Assignment requirements:

Each paper must be composed of a minimum of 1,500 words of writing in the body of the paper (title pages, headers/footers/endnotes, bibliographies, etc. do not count- just the student’s own writing).
Each paper must be free of grammatical, spelling, and word choice errors (run a spell check and PROOFREAD!!!).
Each paper must focus on the topics as listed on the syllabus.
Each paper must be individually composed by each registered student and cannot be considered a “group assignment”. Plagiarism, copied work, or shared work will receive a ‘0’ and students will be subject to further administrative responses.
Each paper should have a 12-point font, be double-spaced, and have 1-1.25 inch margins
Each paper must include proper citations including page number references in the text (example: Eliade 1976: 143). Papers must use MLA, APA, Chicago, or Turabian citation guides with IN-TEXT REFERENCING see the Owl (Links to an external site.) Citation Guide ). Complete footnotes, endnotes, or a bibliography with full-textual references are required).
The paper must indicate that the student has a firm grasp of the major theoretical, methodological, and/or historical issues within individual research topics and conclusions. This “firm grasp” also indicates that students will not rely solely upon “apologetic” sources (for example, if studying a topic related to ancient Egyptian religious revival in the modern US, don’t just rely on the organization’s own website, etc. You must have some objective source material as well). If you have a question if a source is a reliable, objective source, please ask the instructor.
Each paper must use an objective lens of academic research, highlighting specific findings for their value to the field and also indicating potential problems with core concepts or findings of the research.
Each paper must be composed in an academic (objective, anthropological, comparative) tone, free of students’ confessional or theological admonitions (this is not a paper where a student testifies about their own subjective belief- instead, envision yourself as a journalist writing for a public newspaper about the topic to be as fair and critical as possible in order to inform a broad and diverse audience).
Due to the late submission date for this exam, late completions are not accepted for credit.