R 201:EASTERN RELIGIONS
Winter 2003

THE ASSIGNMENT

MAIN OBJECTIVE OF THE BOOK REVIEW

SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS FOR THE REVIEW ESSAY

EXAMPLE PAPERS

PAPER TOPIC CHOICE

TEAMMATE CRITICAL REVIEW OF PAPER DRAFT

FORM OF FINAL PAPER

POSSIBILITY OF RE-WRITE

RESPONSIBILITY FOR COURSE CONTENT DURING WORK ON PAPER

DOCUMENTATION

THE ASSIGNMENT

The assignment consists in a thoughtful and thorough review in accordance with the guidelines given below of a single book from among those on library reserve under the heading, "Sources on Interreligious Dialogue."  To write a good review, you will, of course, have to read the book through and with care to answer the questions given below.

It is permissable for teammates to choose the same book to review.  However, they should write two separate reviews, following the guidelines which follow.

The assignment is due either Jan 31, Feb 21, or Mar 17 (at Noon), depending on which date you sign up for by Jan 10.

MAIN OBJECTIVE OF THE BOOK REVIEW

The main objective of this project is to have you empathetically enter into a genuine interreligious dialogue between two or more of the three traditions we are studying and critically reflect on its genuineness, depth and effectiveness.  It should represent your best efforts to bring out and make plain what it means and feels like to be a participant in the dialogue, making accessible for your reader the religious experience of the insiders to the dialogue represented in the book.  You should take pains to come to realize what a genuine meeting of minds and hearts in interreligious dialogue involves and how significant and rare an achievement it is.

Your review essay must
 
• clearly identify the objectives of the "dialogue" or "trialogue" or overall presentation represented by the book;

• evaluate the author's or contributors' realization of those objectives and the extent of their achievement of empathetic objectivity;

• support your evaluation by way of summarizing and citing relevant parts of the book which illustrate your evaluative claims; and clarify where the book agrees or disagrees with relevant matters we have covered in class.
• be given a constructive critical review by a teammate in accordance with the Peer Review Guide for Book Review in its next to last draft, in order for you to take into account the review in writing your final draft.

At least one paper illustrating the book review assignment is available for your review on the R201 library reserve.

Your choice of Paper Option II and the title of the book you will be reviewing must be submitted in writing to me for review and approval not later than two weeks before it is due (Jan 15 for the first set of papers, Feb 5 for the second set, and Feb 26 for the third set). The book on interreligious dialogue which you choose must be relevant to material covered in the section of the course in which it is due.  Thus a book on interreligious dialogue relating to Hinduism can be chosen only for the first set of papers, one relating to Buddhism for the second set of papers, etc.  You will receive feedback from me on your choice at the next class session.

• Once you have a readable draft of your paper -- preferably, one that is nearing its final state -- have at least one of your teammates give it a thorough constructive critical review in light of the guidelines given here in accordance with the Peer Review Guide for Book Review.  Then revise your paper in response.

• Acknowledgment of the assistance you have received from your teammate(s) must be given in a note after the concluding paragraph of your paper.

• The final paper is to be between 5 and 10 typed, double-space pages.

• The term paper (whichever option you choose) is expected fully to address the assignment as given and be
• coherent,
• the result of your own work (i.e., avoid plagarism at all costs),
• neatly typed with double-spacing,
• free of minor spelling and grammatical errors (i.e., proof-read and corrected before you write your final draft), and
• characterized by full and accurate documentation in MLA format (Modern Language Association format, the format used in Humanities courses at Western) for all sources on which you have directly relied (even when not quoted directly), including the book you are reviewing. See the section on Documentation below. For further specifics on MLA format, click here.
Failure to meet these minimum expectations will result in a substantially lower grade than you otherwise might deserve, and perhaps no credit for your work at all.

See me individually if you wish to receive feedback during its development. In any case, re-writes for an improvement of the paper and an improvement of the grade are encouraged (though simply making minor spelling and grammatical corrections will likely not improve your grade significantly. Papers due Mar 17, to be eligible for a re-write, must be turned in by Mon. Mar 10.

Please note that not taking one of the examinations for credit does not relieve you of responsibility for mastering the course content for that section of the course (e.g., completing the assigned reading). Your paper (whichever option you choose) is expected to reflect mastery of that content so far as the content is at all relevant to your paper. In any case mastery of that content will put you in a more secure position to evaluate your sources critically. Your not having to take the exam is for the purpose of freeing you to focus more effectively on your paper.

• "Documentation is the process by which credit is given to the appropriate source for every borrowed idea used in a paper. Such ideas may be in the form of direct quotation, summary or paraphrase. Regardless of form, proper credit must be given in a specific conventional style that allows the reader to trace your sources. For literature courses [and religious studies courses taught by me] that style is MLA, which uses parenthetical documentation where references are placed in parentheses within the text itself. This eliminates the need for foot notes or end notes. The parenthetical note refers the reader to a works cited entry which includes complete publication information for the source." (From the WOU English Department's "Style Directions")

• More specifically, for most parenthetical notes, the reference will be of the form: (author's last name followed by page number) -- e.g. "(Cannon 42)" -- with no comma or "p." between. Then in your Works Cited or Bibliography, your reader will easily be able to identify the source. Where more than one source is by the same author, the parenthetical note will have a comma after the name, followed by an easily identified abbreviation of the particular source, which will then be followed by the page number -- e.g., "(Cannon, Six Ways 42)". (For a full explanation of MLA documentation, consult chapters 4 and 5 of Gibaldi, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 4th ed., on reserve for R201.  For a short version of MLA documentation as it relates to the course, click here.)