PT5521 Week 6

Welcome to “Week 6” of Introduction to Theological Research and Writing! The lecture and reading for Week 6 will introduce the topics of organizing and formatting the paper, as well as making sound arguments. We will also review a sample research article.

This week’s assignments:

1. Watch the lecture for week 6. Please do not make copies of lecture recordings.
2. Read Turabian pp. 50-134.
3. Submit the “other sources” citation exercise using part 3 of the citations template under the materials tab. Annotate 2 entries. Please download a copy of this document and do not update it in the LMS directly.
4. Begin working on your mid-term survey paper.

For research papers, other sources besides books and journal articles may be needed. These other sources include PhD dissertations, book reviews, ancient sources, biblical texts, etc. See chapter 17 of the Turabian style guide for examples of the formatting of various sources. For the other sources citation exercise, update the template provided under the materials tab for Part 3 of the assignment. Add reference numbers for the footnotes in the “Sample Paragraph” and then add corresponding footnotes for the other sources on that same page. On the last page, add bibliography entries for the other sources. Annotate two bibliography entries. Submit Part 3 of the citations exercise as a Word document with Times New Roman, 12-point font.  

This week, also begin working on your mid-term survey paper of at least 6 sources, if you have not already. Try to organize your sources in a logical fashion and outline the paper before you begin writing. Here is an example of an outline for a survey of secondary sources paper. Please use the words in bold font as headings in your paper.

1. Introduction
   1. What is your broad topic?
   2. An Organizing Framework for Your Topic
   3. Related Definitions
2. Survey of Secondary Sources
   1. Summaries of Foundational Works
   2. Summaries of Specialized Works
3. Conclusion
   1. Current Issues
   2. Areas for further study

The goal of this paper is not to provide a general, broad background on the topic. Instead, it summarizes six to eight of the sources the student has found on the topic, answering these questions: who has written on the topic, and what was their contribution? As an example, you may read the “ITRW Week 6 Sample Survey Paper” in Blackbaud under “Downloads.” Please email, if you have any questions.

Best wishes,

Dr. Pat Sanders