World History 9
Christianity, Buddhism, Islam
21st Century America is a bit different than the Sixth Century BCE, or the First Century
CE, or the Seventh Century CE. So, the question to answer is, which religious figure (Jesus,
Buddha or Mohammed) would be either (a) the most upset with, or (b) the most supportive of,
21st Century American Culture and Values (2CAC&V). Inherent in the answer to this question is
to explain why you have come to the conclusion you do.
In order to support your thesis, you must use quotations from each of the following texts:
Sermon on the Mount, The Quran, and The Dhammapada.
For example:
A would be very supportive of 2CAC&V because of reasons 1, 2, and 3 (use and explain
quotations here – AND THEIR RELATION TO 2CAC&V).
B would be less supportive than A because of reasons 4 and 5. (use and explain
quotations here – AND THEIR RELATION TO 2CAC&V).
C would certainly be the least supportive because… and so forth.
The paper is due on Thursday, November 12. Hand everything in, stapled, in this
order: notes, outline/organization, first draft, second draft, third draft if there is one, and
final draft.
When writing this paper, you are expected to follow these steps – in fact useful for all papers you
write in this class.
1.
Pre-writing.
Brainstorm: Take time to think. Generate ideas and thoughts and write them on paper.
Reread parts of the handouts or your notes. Ideas don’t have to have any order at this point. You
are simply brainstorming. (This process should take about 30-45 minutes.)
At the conclusion of brainstorming, develop a thesis: Your answer to the question.
On Wednesday, November 4, bring your brainstorming and your thesis to
class (as a homework assignment).
2.
Organize: Now, take the ideas of your brainstorming and organize them. This can be
done in many ways including writing an outline or a web. In any event, the organization must
show an introduction, body and conclusion to your paper. Here is where you get specific,
linking evidence to your thesis. This should also take about an hour to prepare the order of your
paper.
On Tuesday, November 10, bring this to class (again, as a homework
assignment).
3.
4.
Write. Using your prewriting and organizing ideas, write a draft of the paper.
First edit.
Make large changes to the draft that might include:
Order of paragraphs
Rewrite awkward sentences
Include transitions from one paragraph to the next
Correct sentence fragments.
Obvious misspellings
On Monday, November 16, bring this draft to class.
5.
Print out the paper and read it out loud – yes, out loud. As you read, make edits that
are needed. This is when awkward sentences and sentence fragments will jump out at you.
6.
Make final edits for the final draft.
7.
All papers are to have one inch margins, be double-spaced, and use 12 point type.
Stay away from the following “sins” of formal writing.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Use of contractions! e.g. don’t, can’t, shouldn’t.
Use of the phrases “I think”, “I believe”, or “In my opinion,” or anything resembling these.
Confusion of “there”, “their” and “they’re” (which would be written as “they are”).
Confusion of “than” and “then”.
Run on sentences. If there is an “and” in the sentence as a connector, break the sentence
into two sentences.