Lilith

Diabology:
The Devil and the Demonic in Ancient & Medieval Times
Dr. Bennie Reynolds
Research Paper 30%
Students will produce one research paper over the course of the term. The paper should be approximately 2,000 words (1750–2250). It will be a part of your writing portfolio (thus, in addition to serving as a component of this class, it will also serve as one of the moments at which Millsaps formally evaluates your writing proficiency). The paper will be submitted in four stages. In the first instance, you’ll submit a two sentence topic statement. Next, you’ll submit a 150 word précis and working bibliography with five sources. The précis and bibliography will not be graded per se (there will be no letter grade). Those assignments help me confirm that you have found a manageable thesis and sufficient source material to write your paper. Next, you’ll submit a first draft on Tuesday, April 8th. The first draft should not be treated as a “rough draft.” It should be a polished, final product. I will offer corrections and suggestions to the draft and will assign a grade. (*Note: it is important that the first draft be submitted on time so that you will have the opportunity to benefit from comments and corrections before submitting the final draft). You will then have approximately one week to improve the draft and resubmit by email no later than 5pm on Thursday May 1st. The first draft will count for 10 % of the research paper grade and the final draft will count for 20% of the paper grade (=30% total). The final draft will be the one used for your writing portfolio.
For this paper, you will write a biography of a devil/demon figure. Allow me to emphasize immediately that this biography cannot simply report 4–5 interesting facts about the figure. It is crucial that you make an original argument. In other words, you must take the data from your primary sources and secondary sources and use them to solve a problem/answer a question/make a claim. This paper is not a “report.” You should think of your work not as a report on a topic but as the pursuit of a question. Research papers do more than simply repeat what others have already written. You must make your own contribution.
Topics
You may choose a figure that we have encountered (or, will encounter) in our class: Satan (or, satan), Devil (diabolos), Lucifer, Belial, Mastemah, Azazel/Asael, Grendel, Yetzer hara (the evil inclination), Cerberus (hell hound), Geryon (winged monster), Mammon, Beelzebub, Moloch.
You may also choose a figure that does not fall within the primary intellectual arc of the course: Asmodeus (Persian/Jewish), Wayob (Mayan), Lilith (Jewish), Mara (Buddhist), Samael (Jewish), Djinn (Islam), Iblis (Islam), Shaitan (Islam), Yama (Hindu), Kali (Hindu), Voland (German/Norse), Leviathan (Jewish & Christian), Mephistopheles (German), Buer (German).
These lists are merely suggestions. You are free to choose a different figure (just check with me to ensure that the figure will work for this project). For most of these figures, one can observe an evolution from ancient to medieval times (in some cases the evolution continues in modern times). You may (and in many cases should) discuss both the ancient and the medieval evidence, but you may not consider ancient or modern evidence alone. Medieval thought is a crucial part of the class and should be examined in this paper.

Format/Style
1. All papers should be turned in via email.
[email protected]
2. File name: The file name of your paper should begin with your last name and first initial followed by the title of the paper.
Exs.: Reynolds B How to Boil Water.docx
Reynolds B What is Prophecy.docx
(If everyone sends me a paper called “paper 1” or “devil paper” I cannot tell them apart).
3. Headings:
a. The paper should begin with the title centered and in bold letters
b. Two spaces below and right-centered your name, the date, and the word count of the paper should appear. *On a PC, one can locate the word count by clicking on the review tab and then the “word count” button. Footnotes do not count in the total, so one should un-check the box that would include footnotes in the count.*
c. In the heading of your paper, you should include the word “Pledged” to indicate that your paper satisfies honor code requirements even in its electronic form, i.e., Name/Pledged: Bennie Reynolds

4. Thesis statement: Every paper should include a clear and precise thesis statement in which the writer tells the reader what he or she will argue and how he or she will do it. The thesis is typically expressed in the last sentence or two of the introductory paragraph.
5. Format: One should compose the paper in a basic, 12 pt. font (not a stylized font with lots of serifs, i.e., that is difficult to read). Both right and left margins should be justified.
6. No plagiarizing. You must give credit to writers whom you quote, cite, and paraphrase. (I spend most of my time reading books on this material and doing some writing of my own. If you swipe someone else’s super-cool idea, I’ll know it – I’ll probably personally know the individual you robbed – so just don’t do it!) If you paste a paragraph or two from Wikipedia, you’ll fail the paper – even if you change up a bunch of the words. This assignment is not designed to see if you can collect or repeat facts. It is designed to showcase your own creativity in problem solving. See below for a help sheet by Dr. Darby Ray on how to recognize a scholarly source.
7. Please cite sources appropriately. You may choose to use Chicago, MLA, or APA style (all the cool kids use Chicago). The most important thing is to be consistent. (You must use one style guide and not make up your own system!)
a. It is not easy to be consistent when one is continually jumping from one style to another (different professors want different styles$%^&*). My advice: invest in a good citation software (e.g., Endnote). In this way, the computer does the formatting for you and you can concentrate on producing limpid prose.
b. Need help with a style format? Try these quick and easy guides:
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/how-we-cite/
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/why-we-cite/
http://www2.lib.unc.edu/instruct/citations/
Identifying “Scholarly” Sources

A “scholarly” source is one that is written or edited by a “scholar”– that is, a person who has earned a graduate degree in the field they are writing about. Having such a degree (usually a Ph.D.; synonym: a doctorate) means the person has had to prove that they have studied the field extensively and have mastered it well enough to be considered an expert in it. This doesn’t mean that the person’s interpretation of their field is beyond question or debate; rather, it means that they at least know enough about the field to have an INFORMED interpretation (in other words, one that others ought at least to consider).

People who are professors at a college or university can be considered “scholars” because they have usually earned a graduate degree in their field of knowledge.

People who publish books can usually be considered “scholars” because most publishers only publish books that have been reviewed by two or more experts in a field, which means that at least a couple of experts have agreed that the author of the book is well enough informed about their chosen subject matter to be considered a scholar. Hence, a book may safely be considered a “scholarly” source.

Articles in a journal that is published by a college or university can be considered “scholarly” because “scholars” have approved those articles.
Articles in a journal that is published by a scholarly group such as the American Medical Association, American Bar Association, the American Academy of Religion, or the Society of Biblical Literature can be considered “scholarly” because, once again, such articles have been reviewed by experts in the field.

If you aren’t sure whether or not the group that publishes a journal is “scholarly” or not (for instance, maybe you’ve never heard of the Modern Language Association and so don’t know that it is the association of college and university English professors), you can look at the section in the journal where the list of editors is given. Scholarly journals usually list not only the editors’ names but also their academic credentials (what degrees they have earned, or where they are a professor). If a journal offers no such list, then chances are it is NOT a scholarly journal because if it were, it would list the names of its scholars. You can find this information by looking at a hard copy of the journal or by visiting the journal’s webpage and searching for its list of editors.

If you run across a random article on the Internet, you need to ask at least two questions:

(1) Who wrote the article, and is that writer a “scholar” (see definition of scholar above)? If no credentials of the author are listed, then he or she is probably NOT a scholar. If no author is listed, then the source is definitely NOT a scholarly source.
(2) Is the article sponsored by a scholarly organization (such as a university or college or scholarly journal)? If so, it can be assumed to be a scholarly source.

Magazines like Time and Newsweek often have good information in them, but because they usually do not document how they got that information (whether it came from reliable, well-informed sources or not), and because the authors of their articles are not usually “scholars” (refer to definition above), they are not usually considered scholarly sources.

I hope this explanation helps you determine whether or not your sources are scholarly. Again–if you have a question about a source, ask a librarian about it (Rachel Renick or Jamie Wilson or Tom Henderson), or, if they are not available, bring it to your professor.
–Darby Ray, Professor of Religion Studies, Bates College

 

8. If you want to become a better writer (or a great writer if you are already a good one), I suggest the following resources:
a. The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White (read it once a year!)
b. The Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
c. Easy Writer by Andrea Lunsford
d. Endnote X4 by Thomson Reuters
e. Grammar Girl: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-girl
There are a few more pieces you should read before writing an academic paper within the field of Religious Studies.
I. A brochure by Patricia Kain, produced for the Writing Center at Harvard University on how to do a “close reading.” Most papers I assign require one to do a close reading of primary texts. If the expression “close reading” is unfamiliar to you (or even if it is familiar), you should read this brief brochure: http://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/how-do-close-reading
*Most of us have had interaction with religious ideas and practices in one way or another. For many of us, these ideas and practices are central in our lives. So it is often the case the students approach writing a paper in the field of Religious Studies in the same way they might approach a thought experiment within their faith tradition. In most cases, however, this approach will not produce successful results. As a way to make sure that your approach (i.e., the kind of questions you are asking and the methods of analysis you are employing) is appropriate, you may find it useful to peruse these two guides to writing papers in Religious Studies:
II. A guide to writing Religious Studies papers from the University of North Carolina: http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/religious-studies/
III. Sample two is currently offline.

Process
1. Formulate your question: What are you interested in? What are you curious about? What do you want to learn? Make a list and then narrow it down.
a. The answer to this question may not be “yes” or “no.”
b. The answer must require more than the rehearsal of primary and secondary sources. In other words, it must require your own creative input.
c. The answer must be articulated in the framework of an 8 page paper. Beware of choosing a question that is too broad for the scope of the assignment.
d. The question may not be one on which you have written a research paper in high school or at any other college or university, and it may not be one on which you have written or are currently writing a paper this semester in another course. But your question may be one that grows out work you have done in this class.
2. Your Precís should tell the instructor:
a. What is your question (not merely your topic, but your question)?
b. Why is the question important or relevant?
c. What is your working hypothesis? What do you think will be the answer (this may change multiple times).
3. Your initial bibliography should tell the instructor that you have begun to find sufficient sources to write your paper.
a. You may need to use interlibrary loan to get some of the sources you need, so you cannot wait until the last minute.
b. Google is great, but a random Google search is unlikely to turn up the kind of sources you need for this paper. Your sources must be scholarly sources (see the attached guide from Darby Ray).
c. Your initial bibliography should include five secondary sources in addition to your primary sources. Your final bibliography will almost certainly include more sources.
4. Questions to ask yourself when writing:
a. Have you articulated clear, narrow thesis? (I.e., is your paper more than a report on a topic?)
b. Have you consulted an array of sources or are you presenting one scholar’s ideas?
c. Are you creatively shaping the question and content or are you just repeating what others have already said?
d. Have you proofread to eliminate problems of style?
e. Do you reach a clear conclusion and do you methodically lead the reader to that conclusion? Do your conclusions match your thesis? Or have you inserted new ideas or claims at the end? Make sure that your paper has a logical flow and that its main ideas are linked explicitly and easily navigated.
f. Is your paper organized? Did you outline it ahead of time? Have you used transition sentences? Or is the paper merely a collection of sentences related to a topic?

 

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