FINAL PAPER AND SITE VISIT INSTRUCTIONS Assignment | Homework Help Websites

For the final paper, students will write an essay on a particular religious tradition and topic of their choice. However, the paper should focus on a religious tradition different from the student’s own tradition or spiritual practice. For this assignment, students are required to visit a place of worship outside their own faith tradition, for a prayer/worship service or a religious or spiritual ritual.  Students should take detailed notes from their site visit and then incorporate these into the final paper. Final papers should be 1700-2000 words (about 7-8 pages).

Detailed guidelines for the site visit and incorporation into the final paper:

For the purposes of this project, you will act as a participant observer, and possible interviewer, depending on whether you simply observe a worship service/religious ritual, or speak with community leader(s)—if you can do both, all the better, although an interview is not required.  Ideally, you will have conducted some preliminary research prior to the site visit, in order to formulate a focus for the paper (in this way, you will be prepared to ask community leaders or service participants questions most relevant to your particular area of interest/research). At the same time, you should also be open to any information/experiences that your interviewees would like to share with you.

For the project, your observations of the worship service should constitute the “centerpiece” of your essay, but the essay should also incorporate your thoughts, reactions, and reflections about the service and/or interview(s).

Additional guidelines:

• Arrange your site visit well in advance.  Many places of worship have a website or other online presence (see the handout for a listing of a few places of worship in the Bay Area).  Make sure to call or email beforehand to schedule a visit and let them know the purpose of your visit.
• During your visit, be respectful and mindful of the community’s customs and practices.

The following website, part of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University, also provides useful guidelines. Although this website is not applicable in its entirety to the specific research your essay will entail, it will provide you with a valuable context for religious research in general.  The section on “Etiquette” (and its subsections) is particularly relevant:

http://www.pluralism.org/research/guidelines.php

If you have any further questions about the parameters of the assignment, please let me know.