Page 98 - THBI Student Handbook - 2020

2. As you should clearly know by this point, THBI is more concerned with developing your
understanding much more than with accumulating mountains of information that can be
quoted, referred to or otherwise used to prove how much you “know”! We are much more
concerned with how well you are able to edify other people - - imparting both, what you know
and more importantly, how to make practical use of that information in THEIR lives!
B. COMPARISONS: There are several “styles” or “types” of a graduate paper that are called for
in various settings, environments or agendas. These include (not an exhaustive listing):
1. Expository - - Intended to explain or describe
2. Argumentative - - Expressing our divergent view; expressing opposing positions
3. Persuasive - - Convincing someone about a certain or specific position or point of view
4. Instructive - - To edify with something useful

C. REQUIREMENT: All graduate papers are expected to be, at their core INSTRUCTIVE! This
means that while there may be elements of other “styles” throughout your graduate paper, what
your paper must be, in the final analysis, is INSTRUCTIVE!
1. If you want to state your position on an issue, you must instruct, or enlighten, others how
adopting that position will benefit them in their living reality.
2. If you want to explain why you have a divergent viewpoint on some topic, you must explain
and encourage the reader as to how they can develop that same or similar divergent viewpoint
and in doing so how they will gain a useful advantage in their life’s role.
3. If you want to explain or describe some Biblical statement, person, command, etc., then you
must show a real-life application that will improve the reader’s own life or some vital part of
life, such as ministry service.

II. OBJECTIVES
THERE ARE THREE PRIMARY OBJECTIVES in graduate papers required by THBI graduate degree
programs. If you fail to meet any of these requirements, you will fail.
A. CORRECT COMPREHENSION: That is, the student’s original thought being presented

illustrates that the student has genuinely learned the curriculum presented in his/her degree program.
1. By “genuinely learned” we mean that the student is able to show that he/she has a Biblically
and spiritually correct comprehension of the subject matter.
B. IMPARTS UNDERSTANDING: Throughout the graduate paper, the student is able to impart
to the reader the practical application into his/her own life of what the student is presenting.
1. An academic exercise in showing the student’s scholastic knowledge acquired through the
course of his/her studies only illustrates that student’s acquired information.
2. Regardless of the subject matter, if there is no practical application given to the readers, then
how does it help the reader live a more complete and successful spiritual life as a child of God,
that is a person who is born-again?
3. THIS THEN IS THE UNDERLYING PURPOSE of the graduate paper - - to show that you
have developed UNDERSTANDING, that is, the practical application of your acquired information!
a) Think about it: This is the great expectation upon every ministry leader … to be able to
impart understanding (that is, how to apply the Truths and Principles of God into everyday
life) to those being served by his/her ministry leadership!
C. EXHIBITS LEADERSHIP ABILITIES: Genuine and effective leadership is not merely about
how much you know . . . MORE IMPORTANTLY IT’S ABOUT WHAT DIRECTION YOU ARE GOING
AND AT THE SAME TIME, ENLIGHTENING OR INSPIRING OTHERS TO GO IN THAT SAME DIRECTION!

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