Reference no: EM132561839
Overview
The News Articles Portfolio is an opportunity for you, the student, to reflect on various news articles that pertain to religion, and, in doing so, relate this class to real-world events. It must be on five different news events, each of which will examine a different religious group or belief system (e.g., do not submit five articles on Roman Catholicism). The portfolio must demonstrate that you understand the material presented and that you are capable of critically reflecting on it. It must devote at least one page to each news article, including a summary of the article (less than 50 words) and a critical reflection piece (200+ words). Hence, in total the News Article Portfolio will be 1200-1500 words. The portfolio must also be free of any grammatical and/or spelling errors and contain proper references (to both the news article and any other sources).
As an example, suppose you find an article on a FLDS group that is being charged with polygamy. The first 50 words would be devoted to summarizing the article and the remainder of the assignment would critically reflect on relevant questions (e.g., Why might such groups practice polygamy? Why might the government be concerned about such practices? Should religious freedoms be respected in this case? Does the media do enough to distinguish FLDS groups from the LDS Church?). Certainly not all of these questions could be explored in such a limited space. Instead, you would probably want to focus on one or two of them.
Submission Requirements
Portfolios must be submitted on the assigned date by midnight. I require one electronic copy (submitted into the Canvas drop box). 20% will be deducted for every day that the portfolio is late.
Other Things to Consider
You do not have to restrict yourself to the religious traditions that we have discussed in class. You may certainly write about any religious tradition or set of beliefs, including atheism and agnosticism.
If you happen to refer to or quote an external source, you must properly reference it. I do not have a particular preference in this regard (APA or MLA is fine), but your citations must be consistent throughout the paper. If you happen to cite your lecture notes, please cite them as such. On a somewhat related topic, Google searches generally do not generate scholarly sources. The Buchanan Library contains a number of online books and journals which should be used instead of Google.