Resources for Writing Assignments

Advice

Scott Brown has assembled an excellent guide to writing in the study of Religion. I highly recommend reading it and predict that taking its advice will improve your essay substantially

"Guide to Writing Academic Essays in Religious Studies"

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a very serious academic offence.

It shall be an offence for a student knowingly:

(d) to represent as one's own any idea or expression of an idea or work of another in any academic examination or term test or in connection with any other form of academic work, i.e. to commit plagiarism.

Wherever in the Code an offence is described as depending on "knowing", the offence shall likewise be deemed to have been committed if the person ought reasonably to have known.

In addition to Scott Brown's advice on avoiding plagiarism, Dr. Margaret Procter, Coordinator of Writing Support at UT, has written advice specifically for UT students on recognising and avoiding plagiarism.

"How Not to Plagiarize"

Format

Scott Brown's guide includes adequate formatting advice, but if you want a more comprehensive set of guidelines use the following resources (listed from most suitable to merely adequate):

Alexander, Patrick H., John F. Kutsko, James D. Ernest, Shirley A. Decker-Lucke, and David L. Petersen, eds. 1999. The SBL Handbook of Style. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson. ["SBL" stands for "Society of Biblical Literature"]

Turabian, Kate L. 1996. A Manual For Writers Of Term Papers, Theses, And Dissertations. 6^th ed. rev. by John Grossman and Alice Bennett. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

University of Chicago Press. 1993. The Chicago Manual of Style. 14^th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Libraries

More than just the Robarts Library may be necessary. Trinity, Emmanuel (at Victoria), St. Michael's, and Knox all have substantial collections in religion that may be useful to you. Librarians at these smaller libraries are more likely to be familiar with bibliographic research in religion.

Writing Centres

The writing support resources offered by your college may be a source of great help, provided you do your work in advance and don't treat them as a last minute solution.  "I couldn't get an appointment with the writing centre" is not an adequate excuse for late work.

Writing at the University of Toronto

Web Sites

I hesitate to point students too quickly to the web because of the danger of quick information replacing quality information. Not that quality information is unavailable on the web; it's there in some cases, but the temptation to be persuaded by availability and copiability, rather than by responsible method and argument proves too great for some students. That being said, here is a summary of some of the best available.

New Testament Gateway

A broad and judicious set of links on topics related to the study of early Christianity

Five Gospel Parallels

A gospel parallels tool including the Gospel of Thomas

Perseus

A substantial collection of texts and tools for the study of Greco-Roman antiquity. The Roman side is less robust.

ATLA

An index of periodical literature in the study of religion

Argos

A peer-reviewed search engine on the ancient world

Library Guide

I have published a library guide for RLG 241 at the University of Toronto. It is not exhaustive, but contains many relevant electronic resources.

Recommended Journals