Edify Ministries®
Building up the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12)
Edify Ministries®Building up the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12)
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Doing Papers What am I being asked to do? One of the most difficult parts of academic work is figuring out what it is that the professor is really asking you to do. If only you knew what was required then maybe coming up with a good answer, report or paper might be easy. This is true; most projects are not very hard at all. Here are some pointers to help you get started on the right track, and get the project done quickly. Find the command word(s) in the assignment. It should go with out saying that the professor wants you do something. He will do that by using one or more very carefully chosen imperatives (commands). Your first task is to locate these commands. Some typical imperatives include analyze, argue, refute, defend, define, describe, discuss, evaluate, justify, review, summarize, and trace. Note that these are all action verbs. Decode the command word(s). Now that you have found the command(s), what do they mean? Analyze This means do a detailed study. In particular you should note how each of the parts relates to the whole. First, find the elements that make up the subject and then find out how they are related to each other. You should not critique or evaluate the subject (see below) unless asked to do so. Argue, refute, defend, critique Here you are being asked to take a position and explain why that is the best position given all the evidence. When doing this be sure you are dealing with the issue and not the personalities involved in the issues. Say "the amillenial position is weak," not "Stott is weak." In all Bible college work, the Bible is considered to be the ultimate authority on a subject. Make sure that you use all the force of Scripture in making your case. Your case will be much stronger if you focus on the Bible and not systems of theology, however good they may be. Define, describe, discuss These three commands are similar. Define means to give a simple definition. Describe means to give a definition and plenty of details. Discuss calls for even more detail followed by a summary and/or evaluation. Evaluate An evaluation is a discussion of the strengths and weakness of a subject or point. It does not call of a defense of refutation of the item. An evaluation should be an unbiased appraisal of the subject. Justify This word often means the same as ‘defend.’ (See above). The professor wants you to say why a given position is correct. You do not need to refute other positions unless asked to do so. Review, summarize, trace These commands are related to each other. A review is a short comment on something. A summary is a simple statement that covers all of material. When you trace something, you show the steps involved, without showing all the detail. Make sure that you understand all of the words in the assignment. Now that you know what action you need to take, you need to know what is the object of this action. If the assignment says, "Refute the Arian heresy." you need to know what the "Arian heresy" was. Often these items will not have been covered in class discussion; you will have to look them up on your own. Generally these things will be discussed in the textbook, or suggested outside reading. A great place to start to look for terms you do not understand is in The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology by Walter Elwell. Beware! Many, if not most, assignments have multiple parts - more then one command word -- be sure to complete all parts! A typical assignment might read "Discuss and evaluate the three views of the Millennium." Be sure to do both things. Talk about each one and then give the strong and weak points of each. If you do only one of these, the professor should give you only half credit for the project. Determine how long you are going to devote to this assignment. Any assignment you are given can be answered with anything between a word, and a 1,000 page book. If the professor has specified a number of words required, use that for your guide. What you need is to do is somewhere between these two extremes. If you are in a two credit hour class then the professor has designed the class to take about 6 to 8 hours per week. If it is a three credit hour class, that number goes to 9 to 12 hours per week. These time include time spend in a "classroom." For distance learning courses "classroom" time means time spend participating in e-mail class discussions and reviewing any material that the professors has put on the class homepage. These hours per week time also include any required reading. Most professors read rapidly and they will expect you do be able to the same. Let us take a typical example. You are given two weeks to complete a project for a three-hour course. You estimate that you will spend 6 hours during those two weeks in the "classroom." Reading is going to take another 4 hours. Since this is a three-hour course, you are being expected to spend 18 to 24 hours over the two weeks. 10 of those hours are all ready taken so you have about 8 to 14 hours to spend on the project. If you divide your time about half-and-half between research and writing you will have about 5 hours for research and 5 hours for writing. This will probably give you about a 5-page paper. The average student on the average project seems to be able to produce 250 proof read words (one page) in about an hour. That is the composition and keying time. Therefore, if your project has a specified number of word to produce you can calculate how much time that will take and use the rest of your time for research. If you are required to produce a 500-word report, you will spend about two hours writing it and probably about the same amount of time doing the research. CAUTION! All of the numbers above vary greatly by student and by course. These are just some "rules of thumb." Hopefully these will give you a starting place. The method used to estimate time available for a project is the most important thing above. Do any necessary research. Always start with your textbook. The professor chose it for a reason. Then use what ever resources you have at hand. In all Bible college courses you expected to place highest priority on determining what the Bible has to say about a subject before going on to other items. Use the books that you already have before going outside for other material. Search the Internet for material. You will be amazed at how much good Bible and theology material is available this way. You will need to learn to use search engines and indexes like GOSHEN, Magellan, and Yahoo to name but a few. When using a library check out both periodicals and books. If the library does not have a book you want, ask them to get if for you through inter-library loan. (This often takes a few weeks, so do your research ahead.) One of the main reasons that librarians are hired to help YOU find what you need. Never be embarrassed to ask a librarian to help you. Make a quick outline/sketch of what you are going to write. This is an extremely important step. If you do not have a plan for your composition then it will be hard for the professor and others in the class to understand what you are trying to say. The ideas in your mind may be wonderful, but if you do not plan your report your grade will something less then wonderful. Now write it. Make full use of your word processing program! The outline modes that many of these offer are a great way to create the outline mentioned above, and then to fill it in. You do not have to write a project form top to bottom. When you get an idea that belongs near the end of you project, go put it there, then come back to where you were. If your ideas seem fuzzy write them out anyway, then go back, and fix them up. The insert and delete feature will probably be your best friend. Close to them is the ability to rearrange sentences and paragraphs in a document. Learn these and other features and use them well. It will save you many valuable hours, and boast your grades. Proof read it. First, read your paper. Professors are frequently amazed, but not amused at the papers they receive that obviously have never been read from being to end by the writer. Most word processing programs come with a spelling checker. Use it. Some of these programs also have a grammar checker. Set it to the most formal style it has and then follow most of the suggestions that it gives. Now reread your paper. If possible have a friend read it. Apply any corrections and repeat the spell check. Check for mechanics (grammar, spelling, format etc.) as well as logical development, and quality of research etc. Get it in early or at least on time! What are you going to do if your Internet provider is not accepting mail on the due date? Or more likely, what are you going to do if "faithful fido" (your computer) eats your homework? Many of you are in activity ministry while taking this course. It is the nature of ministry that people make unscheduled demands on you. They always seen to have family feuds, want to get married, go in for major surgery, or die on the day that your course work is due. Your first priority is your ministry, but that may mean taking a late penalty in your course. If you give yourself some slack you will be able to handle ministry emergencies and get the grade your hard work deserves.
The moral of this is your will get a much better night’s sleep if your work is in a day or two early.
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