B.Th. (Carmelite Studies)

Module for Long Essay

The aim of this module is to give the student an overview and detailed requirements of the procedures of researching, writing and submitting their major essay.

Notes for Questionnaires:

Unlike questionnaires at the end of units in other modules, the questionnaires in this module will not be graded. Rather, the objective of these exercises is for your tutor to assess whether or not you have understood the information and are able to put it in to practice before moving to the next stage of writing your essay. Each questionnaire will need to be completed and feedback received from the tutor before moving to the next unit (several questionnaires cannot be submitted together). In addition, feedback will be comment only (no mark will be awarded) and students, who in the opinion of the tutor, have not demonstrated that they understand and can apply the material will have to resubmit or complete additional activities. This process is to ensure that students are fully prepared to start a project of merit and to minimise problems that may arise during the project.

Units 1&2

• What is an essay?
• Choosing what to write

Units 3&4

• Planning your work
• Structure of your work

Units 5&6

• Referencing
• Bibliography

Units 7&8

• Plagiarism
• Proof Reading

 

 

Units 1&2

What is an essay?

This is a general introduction to writing your major essay. All aspects will be dealt with in more depth in further units.

Every essay should either answer or discuss a question with the intention of setting out a clear viewpoint. This viewpoint should have been largely decided in advance of writing the essay. In a large number of cases you will be summarising and arguing for the views of a particular book or scholar, and sometimes you will find yourself confused and unable to come to one simple answer. Thus, in many cases, your final view may well be one that draws attention to ambiguity or to the impossibility of answering a question: this also is a clear viewpoint and must be carefully and coherently argued for, and thought out in advance.

Every essay has an argument. One particularly clear dictionary definition of 'argument' in this sense says: “An argument is a set of statements in support of an opinion or proposed course of action. It is expressed in an orderly way, and is used to try and convince someone that the opinion or course of action is correct.”

All of your essays should be able to be described in these terms. You will have to work hard at learning both how to order an argument so that it best gets across your view, and at being able to write an essay in such a way that your argument is easily followed. In essays arguments are partly expressed by having an ordered series of paragraphs. Being able to write in clear paragraphs will greatly help you to write a good, well argued essay.

A paragraph is almost always a collection of sentences (i.e. more than one) on a common theme. Do not separate every sentence as if it were a paragraph. For examples of good practice, simply look through a few of the books you will have to read to write your essay. Think how the author has divided his or her work into separate sections. Sometimes a large theme has to be split into more than one paragraph, in which case each paragraph deals with a separate aspect of each theme. Do not induce “intellectual indigestion” in your reader by introducing different major ideas in every sentence, without any explanation or connection to the next sentences. If you do this your essay will end up being disjointed and cursory. Many students make that mistake.

Every essay will also have an introduction and conclusion. The introduction should be short and will briefly outline your case and will hint at your conclusion. Avoid either repeating information that is in the title of the essay, or beginning with a pointless judgement or statement about the subject in question (e.g., 'Augustine was a great man'). The introduction should help the reader begin to see where you are going and provide an initial view of how you think. As a rough guide to the usefulness of your introduction, look at the draft of your essay, if you can begin reading at the second paragraph without feeling lost, then cut out the first.

The conclusion should not introduce new themes, but should sum up your case and make it very clear where you stand (even if you are clear that there is no clear answer to the question). If the essay title asks a question then anyone reading just the conclusion should understand the basics of your answer to that question.

Sometimes, in the conclusion you can also indicate other areas that would need more consideration in order to answer the question at more length. It can also be helpful to indicate not only what you have proved or discussed but also what has not been possible, indicating that you are aware of the problems involved in deciding which evidence or themes are necessary to a particular argument. However, do not introduce new arguments without evidence in the conclusion; it simply looks as if you have not planned well.

In an essay you should always give an accurate reference to any source of information that you present (not to do so may be plagiarism, which will be discussed later). This will involve using footnotes. Footnotes are used to give the source of information or to present a digression from the main argument. At the end of your essay (on a separate page) you should also provide a bibliography which lists all the books and articles you have used in writing the essay. This will be discussed in more depth in later units.

Writing an essay and constructing an argument

Be clear about the subject

Read the title very carefully and make sure it is always in front of you when you plan and write the essay. You do not need to write down everything that you know about a given topic. Selection of material is the key to good essays. Try to spend some time being very clear about the exact question being asked by the title. Often terms used in the title will need to be defined, or you will need to be clear about what the terms mean; think carefully which terms are likely to cause problems.

Gather information, plan and think through the argument

Once you are clear about what the title demands do some appropriate reading (follow suggested reading lists). Begin with the set textbook (if one has been recommended) and move on from there. As you read and as plan the essay you should think carefully about the sources you have studied. When you read try to be clear to yourself what an author's basic thesis is, and which pieces of information they think are most important and most persuasive. What key assumptions does an author make which another person might question? Asking questions such as these will help you develop your analytic skills and help you produce much better arguments.

When you are trying to assess an argument - either one that you read or your own after you have initially planned - there are two basic types of critique you can apply. The first is an 'external' criticism: one author may seem to be wrong because another presents a more convincing argument. Sometimes one author may show that another has made assumptions which are not true, or has not accurately represented the facts of the case. Playing one author off against another is a basic technique in testing arguments and perhaps trying to find your own individual way through a question.

The second type of critique is an 'internal' one. When you read it is usually possible to judge how successful and author has been in achieving their own goals. If an author sets out to accomplish something or to prove a point and does not seem to have succeeded by the end of the piece it is possible to say that the author has failed without reference to any other account of the same problem. On internal criteria that author has failed. Sometimes an author's argument may simply not seem coherent. An author may say that a position is wrong and then a few pages later you may find the author using the same argument to support their own position, this would be another example of an argument failing simply on internal criteria.

When you are writing essays outside an exam you have the time to make certain that each sentence follows from the previous one. If you cite an example does it actually back up what you have just said? Do the sentences actually follow one after the other? This is a very hard task, but if you can try and read through what you write and think about these questions it will much improve your technique.

Do not put information down simply because you have taken notes on it or been told it in a lecture. Do not use fillers. A tip I often use is remind myself that the person reading the essay (usually your lecturer or tutor) and giving me marks for the piece knows far more about the topic than I do and is going to be bored by a regurgitation of facts. Remember an essay is not a chance to show off all you have learned, it’s a chance for you to show off how you can use this information and manipulate it to discuss a particular argument or point of view. As someone who has corrected many essays I get excited when I read an essay that shows a viewpoint that has come about through reflection on the topic. I might not always agree with what is being said (as in the student has a different point of view to me), but the work engages me and wants to make me keep reading. These are the essays that get higher grades.

Be careful not to use emotive or too personal language in your essay. There is no need to employ the royal we (it reads quite oddly to be honest) or to continuously use phrases like “one believes that”. There should be a natural fluidity to your work but remember that academics are renowned as a somewhat fusty bunch and phrases such as “I feel” are not something that should be included. Giving your opinion is fine, but you should remember to only state it. The quality of your writing and the solidity of your research should excite the reader, there’s no need to let them know how passionately you feel about it too!

Presentation

Type your essay carefully. Presentation is very important. Make sure you include a title page with all the relevant information, such as your own name and student number, title of the course, title of the essay, and name of the lecturer (an obvious point but one worth repeating is to spell the name of your lecturer correctly. You won’t win many brownie points with an incorrect spelling and it doesn’t say much for your research skills).

You should always use a word processor to type up your essay using a standard typeface, such as Times New Roman or Arial. Use 12 point word size and leave a clear line between paragraphs. Many students find layout and word processing stressful and believe that it’s something superfluous to the strength of the argument and their amazing work but presentation really matters when you are a correcting a large batch of essays and academic vigour needs to translate to the effort you put into setting out your work.

The following basic directives for text layout should be followed.

• The first paragraph of a section is not indented, whereas subsequent paragraphs in a section are.
• The text should be space 1.5, except for block quotations, notes and long headings which should be single spaced.
• A number should be assigned to every page. Numbers however should not be shown on the title page, but, nonetheless, counted in the pagination.
• Arabic numerals, centred at the bottom of the page on the right hand side, are preferred.
• Note also the mechanics of spacing and punctuation. Leave one space (or two spaces, if preferred) after a full stop or other punctuation mark at the end of a sentence, one space after any punctuation mark within the sentence. Never put a space before a punctuation mark.
• Footnotes should be typed or printed (10-point type) in single spacing.
• Use double quotes or single quotes for in-text quotes.
• Quotes are not italicised unless you are adding emphasis. Added emphasis should be noted in the footnotes.

The standard way of referring to scriptural passages is as follows: Ex 1:1(reference to a single verse, citing book, chapter and verse), Ex  1:1-5 (reference to a number of verses, citing book, chapter and verses). V.1 (reference to one verse, without citing book and chapter), Vv. 1-5 (reference to a number of verses without citing book and chapter. In abbreviating the names of biblical books, you may follow systematically any system of your choice, but a standard system, such as that used in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible is strongly recommended.

Choosing what to write

A simple tip in selecting the essay is to write about what interests you. Hopefully, this will lead to an interesting essay that will engage the reader. A good starting point is often to think of something that you read in working on different units. Is there anything that sparked you interest and is included in the list of essay titles? Be careful that you understand everything in the essay title. Check that you understand what is involved in the essay. Does it ask to discuss a topic or a statement? Will you have to evaluate a scholar’s work or a theological topic?

Even if you are not sure what essay to select, jot down a few ideas that come to you on various titles. Remember that the actual process of writing makes your brain start to think about the question or the topic. Often you will find that one topic or title engages you more than others at this stage.

Take some time to begin your research now and work through the questionnaire below to start your work.

Questionnaire for Units 1&2

1. Write down at least two things that you are looking forward to about this writing project and at least two things that you are worried or concerned about. Can you begin to identify difficulties that you might have and areas of strength that you can focus on and develop?
2. Did you find the process of selecting the essay title difficult? Why/Why not?
3. Jot down some ideas you have for your essay.
4. List some texts and/or authors you have read or you want to read that you think would be useful for your essay.
5. Briefly describe how your essay will be of a specifically Carmelite nature.
6. Briefly describe what the theological aspects of your essay will be. (Qs 5&6 might seem terribly simple, but students often lose the focus of the essay when they are in the thick of research and writing, and as your degree is in Carmelite Theology these answers will be a good focus during your work).

 

 

 

Units 3&4

• Planning your Essay
• Structure of your work

Where to Start

There are few things more disparaging than staring at the flashing cursor of an empty Word document hoping for inspiration to strike. There are lots of ways you can plan your essay but the only “must do” is that you actually plan it. While Joyce may have got away with writing a stream of consciousness, there is nothing that reads more badly than an unplanned essay. You will either have too much to say or nothing at and there will be a lack of coherency.

My own tried and tested method is to have a blank sheet of A4 paper, a pencil and an eraser. I like writing in lists but lots of people prefer a mind map for brainstorming.

Mind Maps

The human brain is very different from a computer. Whereas a computer works in a linear fashion, the brain works associatively as well as linearly - comparing, integrating and synthesizing as it goes. Association plays a dominant role in nearly every mental function, and words themselves are no exception. Every single word and idea has numerous links attaching it to other ideas and concepts.

Mind Maps™, developed by Tony Buzan are an effective method of note-taking and useful for the generation of ideas by associations. To make a mind map, one starts in the centre of the page with the main idea, and works outward in all directions, producing a growing and organised structure composed of key words and key images.

Mind Maps begin to take on the same structure as memory itself. Once a Mind Map is drawn, it seldom needs to be referred to again. Mind Maps help organize information.

Because of the large amount of association involved, they can be very creative, tending to generate new ideas and associations that have not been thought of before. Every item in a map is in effect, a centre of another map.

The creative potential of a mind map is useful in brainstorming sessions. You only need to start with the basic problem as the centre, and generate associations and ideas from it in order to arrive at a large number of different possible approaches. By presenting your thoughts and perceptions in a spatial manner and by using colour and pictures, a better overview is gained and new connections can be made visible. You can easily make your own with a piece of paper and some pens.

 

Gathering information from what you have studied

The topic for your essay is designed to cover the material you have studied in at least two modules. You should plan that your essay will adequately engage with material from at least two modules. A good starting point on when selecting your essay question and considering what to write your essay on is to jot down what modules (make sure there are at least two) that you can draw on for content for your essay.

Now write down the material you will use from each module. There can of course be variations in this, for example you could use content, reading material, secondary reading, quotations, an idea that sparked your interest etc. Some modules will have more you can draw on than others but it’s good to identify what is available in each. This will form part of your assessment on this unit.

There are challenges to drawing material from different modules (and even different units within a module) so it is best to start out with a clear and coherent strategy to combine them. Some useful ways of making sure that you are successful is achieving this is to have a clear plan from the outset of what material you will use from each unit (and have this in written form) and to be aware of it as you write. Be careful not to rely too heavily on material from one module. A tip would be to consider your essay your essay as a chance to show off the work you have done and the personal ideas you have about the different modules you have studied (once they pertain to the question asked!). Often correctors long for a unique and different essay; use the material you have covered in the different modules to show how you have studied a particular aspect of the question or how another module made you think differently about an aspect of the essay topic.

Word Count

When you have decided on what question you would like to write on, you must think about how you are going to “fit” this into the length of your essay. You must stay within the stated length of your essay as anything above this will result in a penalty in marks. Think also in terms of the sigh that your corrector will give when they see that the student is incapable of delivering a succinct and careful argument in what is a sufficient amount of words. A common mistake among students is that they try to do too much in a brief section (a less common but still concerning problem is the students who write and research too little!). A useful (but difficult I do admit) task is to try and sum up your “thesis” or idea or argument in one sentence. This will be part of you questionnaire at the end of this unit.

A basic method that I still use when writing an article (which is usually the same length as your essay) is to write the word count at the top of my plan and divide the word count over the introduction, main body of the essay and the conclusion. I then subdivide the words allocated to the main body into points I wish to make and subsequent paragraphs so that each paragraph has a point I want to make, is planned and has its own individual word count. Now for the hard part! Use the word count in your word processor to stick to the word count for each section and you will stick to the overall amount. Some students like to get everything down on the page and then edit it down but this tends to lead to an essay that is disjointed with an uneven emphasis on a particular section. Remember that brevity with clear and concise use of language is an admirable skill.

Starting Research

You should ideally start your research in a library. A good general starting point is the reading list you have been given for modules that are linked to the topics to be covered in your essay. Reference works are very useful too as they give a good overview of a topic and often have bibliographies that make for a good starting point for your research. Familiarise yourself with how to access online journals and what journals are available in print in your library. Find out if you can access the ATLA Religion database which has an excellent and thorough collection of online journals. Libraries can also borrow books from other libraries (called an inter library loan) so you should see if this is an option you might consider using.

Consider buying copies of any primary sources you intend to use so that you can consult them easily or make sure you have access to them online. Be aware that if a primary source is not written in your first language or a language you feel comfortable in using, you should make sure that you have a reputable translation.

Internet & Electronic Resources

Do not rely on the Internet as your primary source. Authors who publish in reputable books and specialised journals are subject to peer review. The Internet is different: anybody can publicise their ideas without quality control of any kind. Essays that rely mainly on Wikipedia (and similar websites) will only evoke the ire of the corrector and receive a poor mark. Students, often new to the topic, cannot be expected to exercise sufficient discernment. Moreover, the Internet is an extremely transient medium (an article that is here today may not be accessible tomorrow). You can, however, use the internet to access primary sources (such as texts from the Church Fathers, or the Summa Theologiae). You may also use it to access secondary sources but only when they have appeared in print, usually in PDF format. In that case you treat it as a photocopy of a printed text (which it essentially is).

There are however lots of very helpful starting points for your research on the Internet and here are some which help you:

• To decipher the abbreviated form of journal titles the Cornell University Library has a very handy search programme.
• A very handy PDF you can use to evaluate the content of a website.
• Emory University’s Chandler School of Theology has a very thorough list of reference books for theology that are very clearly set out in a PDF. The school has a Methodist ethos but the list is comprehensive for all denominations.

Evaluating the book that you wish to include in your research

If you are unsure whether or not a book or similar text should be part of your bibliography, keep in mind the following aspects of the text:

• Author
• What are the author's credentials in this area (educational background, institutional affiliation, and work experience can all be relevant indicators)?  
• Has this author published other works in this area? (Perform a search in WorldCat or a topical article database like ATLA Religion, as well as a search engine like Google to answer this question)
• Date of Publication
• Does up to the minute research matter for your topic?
• Has the same author written later works on the same topic?
• Edition or Revision
• In cases where there are multiple editions or revised editions, do you have the most recent edition, or is there a good reason to use an older edition?
• Publisher
• Is the publisher reputable?  Most university presses are, and many commercial publishers are reputable in defined areas.
• Is this a scholarly or popular resource? (A useful mental yardstick is to compare the Journal of Biblical Literature [scholarly] with the Christian Century [popular], in terms of writing style, footnotes and bibliographies, illustrations, length of articles, etc.)
• Check the publisher's website or search by publisher in WorldCat to get a sense of other titles it has published
• Book Reviews
• Use a topical database like ATLA Religion to search for reviews of a book.  Determine the general reception and note any questions or criticisms that reviewers raised (these do not mean that the source has no value, but they are relevant to determining how well this resource fits with your project).

If all looks well on the counts above, skim the book or article with the following questions in mind:

• Skim the Table of Contents and index, looking for your key words.  Skim the pages on which those key words occur.
• Skim prologues, introductions, conclusions, the first and last few paragraphs of chapters, and the last few pages of the work (these are all places where authors are likely to provide summaries of their argument or a step-by-step guide through the contents of the chapter or book)
• Skim section headings (this is particularly valuable for journal articles, but also worth doing for books)
• Skim the bibliography and look for other books you've already found helpful or enlightening, as well as additional resources that look promising.
• If your article has an abstract, read it.
• For websites:
1. Skim sections labelled "Introduction", "Conclusion", "About", "Who We Are.” "History", etc. to place this site in context
2. If there is a site map or index, skim it to get a sense of the content and architecture of the site
3. If there is a search box, type your keywords and synonyms to see what results you receive.

Questionnaire on Units 3&4

1. Write a short note on feedback you have received from previous work that you would like to improve on/maintain in this major essay.
2. What libraries do you have access to? Identify any difficulties you might have accessing resources and steps you have taken to overcome these difficulties
3. Do you have any primary sources you need to consult for your work? If you do, name them and how you intend to access them. Your answer should include reference to the points above about translations. If you do not have a primary source, state why this is the case with your major essay.
4. Include the work you have completed on the modules that your essay will draw on and the material you will use from each module.
5. Write a short reflective note on how you plan and structure your essay. You should be honest as difficulties can be more easily identified now, and overcome before the throes of a deadline loom.
6. Describe briefly the plan for your essay and how you plan to stick to the word count.
7. Attempt to sum up your essay (what it’s going to be about/say/argue) in one sentence. If you find this very hard to do, think about the possibility that you are trying to do or say too much in your work. Or possibly brevity is a skill you need to work on!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Units 5&6

• Referencing and Bibliography
• Bibliography

 

Referencing

The Chicago or Turabian style, sometimes called documentary note or humanities style, places bibliographic citations at the bottom of a page or at the end of an essay. The Turabian style is to be used for your major essay. You should consult the 8th edition of Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, edited by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, and the University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff (University of Chicago Press, 2013), Please note that it is worth consulting (and purchasing) the newest edition as older ones do not have the formats for modern referencing (such as websites). Referencing is difficult (and can be a tad frustrating) so it is good practice to have a copy of the text and to consult it regularly.

For students completing a major essay with a considerable component of Scripture, you should consult the SBL Handbook of Style (1999) available in full as an online PDF. This text gives specific guidelines for Ancient Near eastern, biblical and Early Christian studies that require substantial reference to the biblical text.

You should use the Notes-Bibliography style (see below for detailed examples. Footnotes rather than endnotes should be used and a full bibliography should be included (see below more details).

You may also find useful:

• www.press.uchicago.edu/books/turabian/turabian_citationguide.html

The official short guide to citations in Turabian style.

• http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/DocChicago.html

The Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin gives an excellent overview of using Turabian with very clear notes on plagiarism and when to cite. There is also a free PDF download (to the right of the page) that gives a clear overview of the system.

Footnotes

Footnotes serve many functions as any matter which seems inappropriate within the text may be put into the notes. Thus footnotes may contain supplementary bibliographical references, translations, editorial comments, explanatory statements, definitions, and so forth.

The first mention of a work is accompanied by the full biographical information. Thereafter, it is clearly not necessary to repeat this information when referring to the work or quoting from it. If the subsequent reference is to the same page of the same work, the word Ibidem (Latin for “in the same place”) is used. More commonly, this is abbreviated to Ibid. If the subsequent reference is to a different page of the same work, Ibid. is followed by the new page number. This is only possible, however, when no other books have been referred to in the meantime. When reference has been made to some other work, a new reference is introduced by the author’s surname, followed by an abbreviated version of the title and the page number.

Notes-Bibliography Style: Sample Citations

The following examples illustrate citations using notes-bibliography style. Examples of notes are followed by shortened versions of citations to the same source (these should be used the second and subsequent times a work is cited). For more details and many more examples, see chapters 16 and 17 of Turabian.

Book

One author

1. Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (Boston: Little, Brown, 2000), 64–65.

2. Gladwell, Tipping Point, 71.

Gladwell, Malcolm. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Boston: Little, Brown, 2000.

Two or more authors

1. Peter Morey and Amina Yaqin, Framing Muslims: Stereotyping and Representation after 9/11 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011), 52.

2. Morey and Yaqin, Framing Muslims, 60–61.

Morey, Peter, and Amina Yaqin. Framing Muslims: Stereotyping and Representation after 9/11. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.

For four or more authors, list all of the authors in the bibliography; in the note, list only the first author, followed by “et al.” (“and others”):

1. Jay M. Bernstein et al., Art and Aesthetics after Adorno (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010), 276.

2. Bernstein et al., Art and Aesthetics, 18.

Bernstein, Jay M., Claudia Brodsky, Anthony J. Cascardi, Thierry de Duve, Aleš Erjavec, Robert Kaufman, and Fred Rush. Art and Aesthetics after Adorno. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.

Editor or translator instead of author

1. Richmond Lattimore, trans., The Iliad of Homer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), 91–92.

2. Lattimore, Iliad, 24.

Lattimore, Richmond, trans. The Iliad of Homer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.

Editor or translator in addition to author

1. Jane Austen, Persuasion: An Annotated Edition, ed. Robert Morrison (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011), 311–12.

2. Austen, Persuasion, 315.

Austen, Jane. Persuasion: An Annotated Edition. Edited by Robert Morrison. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011.

Chapter or other part of a book

1. Ángeles Ramírez, “Muslim Women in the Spanish Press: The Persistence of Subaltern Images,” in Muslim Women in War and Crisis: Representation and Reality, ed. Faegheh Shirazi (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010), 231.

2. Ramírez, “Muslim Women,” 239–40.

Ramírez, Ángeles. “Muslim Women in the Spanish Press: The Persistence of Subaltern Images.” In Muslim Women in War and Crisis: Representation and Reality, edited by Faegheh Shirazi, 227–44. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010.

Preface, foreword, introduction, or similar part of a book

1. William Cronon, foreword to The Republic of Nature, by Mark Fiege (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2012), ix.

2. Cronon, foreword, x–xi.

Cronon, William. Foreword to The Republic of Nature, by Mark Fiege, ix–xii. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2012.

Book published electronically

If a book is available in more than one format, cite the version you consulted. For books consulted online, include an access date and a URL. If you consulted the book in a library or commercial database, you may give the name of the database instead of a URL. If no fixed page numbers are available, you can include a section title or a chapter or other number.

1. Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration (New York: Vintage, 2010), 183–84, Kindle.

2. Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner, eds., The Founders’ Constitution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), chap. 10, doc. 19, accessed October 15, 2011, http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/.

3. Joseph P. Quinlan, The Last Economic Superpower: The Retreat of Globalization, the End of American Dominance, and What We Can Do about It (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010), 211, accessed December 8, 2012, ProQuest Ebrary.

4. Wilkerson, Warmth of Other Suns, 401.

5. Kurland and Lerner, Founders’ Constitution.

6. Quinlan, Last Economic Superpower, 88.

Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. New York: Vintage, 2010. Kindle.

Kurland, Philip B., and Ralph Lerner, eds. The Founders’ Constitution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. Accessed October 15, 2011. http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/.

Quinlan, Joseph P. The Last Economic Superpower: The Retreat of Globalization, the End of American Dominance, and What We Can Do about It. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Accessed December 8, 2012. ProQuest Ebrary.

Journal article

In a note, list the specific page numbers consulted, if any. In the bibliography, list the page range for the whole article.

Article in a print journal

1. Alexandra Bogren, “Gender and Alcohol: The Swedish Press Debate,” Journal of Gender Studies 20, no. 2 (June 2011): 156.

2. Bogren, “Gender and Alcohol,” 157.

Bogren, Alexandra. “Gender and Alcohol: The Swedish Press Debate.” Journal of Gender Studies 20, no. 2 (June 2011): 155–69.

Article in an online journal

For a journal article consulted online, include an access date and a URL. For articles that include a DOI, form the URL by appending the DOI to http://dx.doi.org/ rather than using the URL in your address bar. The DOI for the article in the Brown example below is 10.1086/660696. If you consulted the article in a library or commercial database, you may give the name of the database instead.

1. Campbell Brown, “Consequentialize This,” Ethics 121, no. 4 (July 2011): 752, accessed December 1, 2012, http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/660696.

2. Anastacia Kurylo, “Linsanity: The Construction of (Asian) Identity in an Online New York Knicks Basketball Forum,” China Media Research 8, no. 4 (October 2012): 16, accessed March 9, 2013, Academic OneFile.

3. Brown, “Consequentialize This,” 761.

4. Kurylo, “Linsanity,” 18–19.

Brown, Campbell. “Consequentialize This.” Ethics 121, no. 4 (July 2011): 749–71. Accessed December 1, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/660696.

Kurylo, Anastacia. “Linsanity: The Construction of (Asian) Identity in an Online New York Knicks Basketball Forum.” China Media Research 8, no. 4 (October 2012): 15–28. Accessed March 9, 2013. Academic OneFile.

Magazine article

1. Jill Lepore, “Dickens in Eden,” New Yorker, August 29, 2011, 52.

2. Lepore, “Dickens in Eden,” 54–55.

Lepore, Jill. “Dickens in Eden.” New Yorker, August 29, 2011.

Newspaper article

Newspaper articles may be cited in running text (“As Elisabeth Bumiller and Thom Shanker noted in a New York Times article on January 23, 2013, . . .”) instead of in a note, and they are commonly omitted from a bibliography. The following examples show the more formal versions of the citations.

1. Elisabeth Bumiller and Thom Shanker, “Pentagon Lifts Ban on Women in Combat,” New York Times, January 23, 2013, accessed January 24, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/24/us/pentagon-says-it-is-lifting-ban-on-women-in-combat.html.

2. Bumiller and Shanker, “Pentagon Lifts Ban.”

Bumiller, Elisabeth, and Thom Shanker. “Pentagon Lifts Ban on Women in Combat.”New York Times, January 23, 2013. Accessed January 24, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/24/us/pentagon-says-it-is-lifting-ban-on-women-in-combat.html.

Book review

1. Joel Mokyr, review of Natural Experiments of History, ed. Jared Diamond and James A. Robinson, American Historical Review 116, no. 3 (June 2011): 754, accessed December 9, 2011, http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/ahr.116.3.752.

2. Mokyr, review of Natural Experiments of History,752.

Mokyr, Joel. Review of Natural Experiments of History, edited by Jared Diamond and James A. Robinson. American Historical Review 116, no. 3 (June 2011): 752–55. Accessed December 9, 2011. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/ahr.116.3.752.

Paper presented at a meeting or conference

1. Rachel Adelman, “ ‘Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On’: God’s Footstool in the Aramaic Targumim and Midrashic Tradition” (paper presented at the annual meeting for the Society of Biblical Literature, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 21–24, 2009).

2. Adelman, “Such Stuff as Dreams.”

Adelman, Rachel. “ ‘Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On’: God’s Footstool in the Aramaic Targumim and Midrashic Tradition.” Paper presented at the annual meeting for the Society of Biblical Literature, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 21–24, 2009.

Websites

A citation to website content can often be limited to a mention in the text or in a note (“As of July 27, 2012, Google’s privacy policy had been updated to include . . .”). If a more formal citation is desired, it may be styled as in the examples below. Because such content is subject to change, include an access date and, if available, a date that the site was last modified.

1. “Privacy Policy,” Google Policies & Principles, last modified July 27, 2012, accessed January 3, 2013, http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

2. Google, “Privacy Policy.”

Google. “Privacy Policy.” Google Policies & Principles. Last modified July 27, 2012. Accessed January 3, 2013. http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

Online Assistance

I have been using Turabian for years and still find footnotes and referencing the hardest part of my work. I use www.worldcat.org. Essentially this is a network of library catalogues that is set out in a very user friendly way. I have only ever failed to find the rarest and most obscure of books on this site and find it to be a very useful tool. If you search for a book, for example The Gift of the Psalms by Roland E. Murphy (usually you can just type in the name of the book into the search bar) and click on the results, you can find all editions and formats of the book (for example an online PDF or an e-book).When you have found the edition you are using (for a specific year for example), you can use the “cite/export” button (to the right of the results) to export the book (using copy and paste) into your bibliography in the correct format (in this case the last option, Turabian). It’s not always foolproof and you do have to check each reference, but it does make life a little easier!

The site also mentions online and electronic means of collecting and collating your bibliography such as EndNote and RefWorks. EndNote and Zotero are free to download and many students find them useful. They are not entirely necessary for undergraduate work and can often cause their own problems with formatting but if you find them useful and you are familiar with them, I encourage you to use them.

Bibliography

All works used in preparing a paper should appear in an alphabetical list of Selected Bibliography at the end of the essay. Essentially a bibliography should be a list of texts that you have used in your footnotes. It is not a list of books you “consulted” in writing your essay. It should not be a reading list for the subject addressed in your work. Think is it as a list that the reader can consult if they want to go and find a particular book that they have seen referenced in your work. The Bibliography should begin on a separate page to the end of your essay.

The Bible is never cited in the bibliography. You should note in the text (usually in a footnote) which edition of the Bible you are using. This is normally done the first time you footnote a biblical text. You only need reference (for example New Revised Standard Version rather than a specific edition). Where there are several works by the same author, the name in all entries after the first is replaced by a line eight spaces long, followed by a full stop.

Example of a Bibliography:

Bibliography

Kristeva, Julia. “A Tragedy and a Dream: Disability Revisited.” Irish Theological Quarterly 78, no. 3 (2013): 219-30. Accessed January 24, 2015. http://itq.sagepub.com/content/78/3/219.full.pdf+html.

Le Grys, James. “Blondel’s Idea of Assimilation to God through Mortification of Self.” Gregorianum 77 (1996): 309-31.

Masterson, Patrick. Approaching God: Between Phenomenology and Theology. London: Bloomsbury, 2013.

Strunk, William, and E. B. White. The Elements of Style. 4th ed. London: Longman, 2000.

The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, s.v. “Apocrypha.”

Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 8th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1997.

Questionnaire on Units 5&6

1. How do you plan to keep an account of all the books you read for your bibliography? Do you use index cards, a notebook, an online programme or similar? Give details of your plan.
2. Do you need to look at Turabian or online for an example of referencing that is not included here (for example a quote from an online blog). You should give the reference here. Do note any questions you might have about referencing.
3. Consult the plan for your essay and state briefly the amount of biblical texts your will need to reference. Do you need to consult the SBL Handbook of Style?
4. Submit a list of ten texts for your bibliography, correctly formatted according to Turabian.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Units 7&8

Units 7&8

• Plagiarism
• Proof Reading

Plagiarism

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is taking the words, theories, creations or ideas of another person and passing them off as your own. You should make sure to refresh your knowledge of the CIBI guidelines on plagiarism that is posted on in the Student Section of the CIBI website. Please be aware that your essay will be surveyed for plagiarism using Turnitin.

Plagiarism can occur in lots of different ways:

• copying a chunk of text from someone else’s writing without citing the source

• paraphrasing what someone else said but not showing who said it or where the idea came from (in short if it’s not your idea, you need to tell the reader where the idea came from)

• putting your references into your bibliography, but not indicating in the text of your paper where these sources are used

• copying anything that is created by someone else, such as images, tables, graphs, etc, into your paper and not naming the source

• copying from another person’s work (including another student’s)

• acquiring a complete dissertation or part of the dissertation from another source

Plagiarism is seen as serious academic misconduct.

Common knowledge is something generally known or found in many different sources; there is no single or specialist source you need to look up to get that information. You do not need to reference a source for common knowledge, and it’s not plagiarism to use common knowledge facts in your writing. However, if in doubt, it’s safest to give a source.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Reference correctly

The key to avoiding plagiarism is to learn how to reference correctly using Turabian’s A Manual for Thesis Writers.

References must be provided for all source material.

Quote effectively

To quote is to write out the ideas of another author using exactly the same words as the original.

Why quote?

• When referring to a passage that is short enough to reproduce in its original form

• To show your knowledge of other opinions on your topic

• To support your own arguments

Key features of a quote:

• Taken from a source text

• Written using exactly the same words as the original

• Uses quotation marks

• Used with a reference to the source

Dangers of quotation:

• Over-reliance on quotations

• Over-long quotations

• Quotations placed in an illogical place in your own writing

• Quotations placed in your text in a grammatically incorrect way

Mechanics of quotation:

You have three options:

1. Retain the full sentence structure of the original sentence, e.g. Doig says, “Academic essays benefit from thorough planning and thorough research.”⁴

2. Include part of the original sentence in your own sentence, e.g. Doig tells us that university essays are improved through “thorough planning and thorough research”. You must make sure that the sentence section holds together grammatically. A poor example of this is: According to Doig academic essays are improved “thorough planning and thorough research”. ⁴ This example needs a word like ‘through’, ‘from’ or ‘by’ before the quotation in order to be grammatical. To check you’ve got it right, read the sentence including your quote out loud and make sure it reads normally. And always remember to get someone else to read your writing.

3. When you use a quotation of three or more lines of text, you have to use a block quote. This means that you write the quote on a new line, indented from your side margin and without quotation marks. Try to only use block quotations sparingly.

Paraphrase effectively

To paraphrase is to write out the ideas of another author using different but similar wording – a ‘parallel phrase’ to the original.

Why paraphrase?

• When referring to passages that are too long to quote

• To show your knowledge of other opinions on your topic

• To support your own arguments

Key features of a paraphrase:

• Taken from a source text

• Written in your own words

• Does not use quotation marks

• Usually shorter than the original passage

• Retains the meaning of the original

• Used with a reference to the source

Dangers of paraphrasing:

• Using a mixture of your own words and the original’s – any original text used must be given in quotation marks

• Rewriting in such a way that the original meaning is lost or confused

• Rewriting in such a way that the original author’s opinion is misrepresented

NOTE: Always make sure that you get the original author’s opinion across in exactly the way it was intended, even though you are putting it in your own words.

Proof Reading

It is essential that you read back over your work. Once to check for errors and once to check that everything you said makes sense! It is preferable to leave a gap between finishing your essay and rereading it as it is then easier to have some distance between your ideas and critically reading them. It is very hard to spot mistakes when you are frantically trying to finish it. A good tip is to ask someone who is not familiar with Theology and your subject matter to look over the work. This means they will not be thinking about the right and wrongs of what you are saying, but instead will be able to spot errors easily. Always use spell checker and be aware that the programme will not be aware of the correct spelling of technical terms and you’ll need to check these yourself.

Be aware of how you need to submit your work and plan ahead for any difficulties you might encounter, especially if you are someone who works close to a deadline. Poor Internet connection or a broken computer an hour before the cut off point are not valid reasons for a late essay.

Some things to check for in your work:

• How accurate is your work? Have you taken care to always reference where required and to make correct and factual statements throughout the work?
• Does your essay contain some of your own ideas? The work does not have to be full of original and innovative material but there should be some evidence of you making the material your own, through careful consideration of the material covered and additional reading around a topic. Does your work read like you have just reproduced what commentators have said with no critical insight or comment> if so, go back and change this.
• Have you focused on the question set (by the question posed, not by what you think the question should be) throughout the essay? If you have veered off the topic, edit your work to remove this.
• Examine your use and range of reading – how much reading has been undertaken? How well have you used it in your work (is it just used to back up what you say or have you commented critically on it)?
• Look at the structure and organization of the essay. Is it going to be easy for your corrector to follow the train of thought and argument throughout the entire piece? Is your language clear, concise and accurate?
• Have you made the correct use of referencing in your footnotes and bibliography?

 

 

 

 

 

Questionnaire on Units 7&8

1. Visit the website www.turnitin.com and read the information on plagiarism. Write a short note on what you understand about plagiarism and how you will avoid it in your work
2. Describe briefly how you approach meeting deadlines in your work and any difficulties that you might have.
3. Write a note on how you will proofread your work and check for any errors.