Writing in Religious Studies

Writing in Religious Studies shares much with writing in other disciplines in the Humanities (English, Philosophy, History). All strive for precision. This means you will want to be careful with your choice of words. Another aspect of good writing in Religious Studies is good clear argumentation.

Word Choice

Many words will have similar or related meanings, e.g., acidic, piquant, sour, bitter–all tastes. But note that acidic and acerbic can describe opinions also. Be careful of words that look and sound alike like affect and effect. If you are unsure, consult a dictionary, even one on-line. You may browse through suggestions on the Thesaurus function of your word processing program, but do not choose an alternative offered without good knowledge of its meaning.

Clear Argumentation

Persuading a reader that your point of view is correct or the most adequate is not simply a matter of amassing facts or opinions. One needs to relate them to a reader in such a way that the reader will believe the veracity of your facts and the logic of your stance. There are many guides to logical fallacies. Some will be in your English manual of style. "Stephen’s Guide to the Logical Fallacies" is an excellent collection of descriptions of fallacies with examples. If you find logical reasoning a challenge or you want more practice, consider taking UD’s PHL 201, Practical Logic.

Another aspect of clear argumentation is accuracy in referencing. This has its own section below, "Inclusive Language."

Documentation

As in all good writing, you are expected to give credit where credit is due. To fail in this regard is to commit plagiarism. For this university’s policy on academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, see the Student Handbook. Go to the Academic Information page and look for the statement on "Academic Dishonesty." Your instructor’s syllabus may contain additional information or policy materials.

If you know that you need to document the sources you have used in your paper, you still need to know how to do it. each discipline has its own styles of documentation. You will have been taught the MLA style sheet in English. This uses in text or parenthetical citations. Religious Studies and History generally use footnotes or endnotes. Guidelines for writing these are in The Chicago Manual of Style. The CMOS covers just about every kind of documentation you can think of. An abbreviated version of the CMOS is Kate L. Turabian’s, A Manual of Style for Writers of Term Papers. The latter is available at the UD bookstore. A simplified on-line version is available at the "Chicago/Turabian Documentation" page at the University of Wisconsin. This site also shows how to make a second or subsequent reference to the same book or article (no, you don’t have to write out the full entry each time.