Page 72 - Computer Basics - Research

you will be called upon to produce early in your seminary career. As your courses advance, however, you will be
expected to be able to generate and defend original ideas. Typical research/term papers will vary greatly in
length and expectation from course to course. You can probably expect anything from 6-10 pages, and you will
almost always be expected to demonstrate significant interaction with other works in the field. You will need to
interact with monographs, multi-author works, and journals.

Literature Reviews
You may be called upon to produce a literature review of nearly any length, depending upon the course and the
professor. A literature review is a brief description of various authors’ works on a topic. The intention of the
literature review is for you to be able to demonstrate that you can grasp the main ideas of each work and the
contribution that this work makes to a topic. You will also usually be expected to point out basic strengths and
weaknesses of the work. You may instead be asked to write simple one- or two-page reviews of a particular
article or chapter that the professor has assigned for reading.

Reaction/Application Papers
A reaction paper is typically intended to demonstrate that you have thoughtfully read through a particular book
or article and thought about how you might apply the author’s ideas. You will often be asked to respond to
whether or not you agree with the author’s ideas and why or why not. You will often be required to supply a
particular application drawn from the ideas of the author. It’s important to recognize the difference between a
principle and an application. A principle is a general idea (Prayer is important, I need to pray more), while
application is a direct, measurable response to that principle (I need to pray for 30 minutes per day).

The temptation of giving your Research a Twist from reality.

In writing a research paper, the author can mislead their readers or make false
conclusions about the information presented. Here are some things to avoid when
writing your paper:

1. Emotionally Loaded Terms— Words with positive connotations (suggestive, associative, emotional meaning),
while “words with negative connotations (e.g., “paying the price”) try to sway readers away from an opposing
point of view” (Behrens & Rosen, WRAC, 54-56).

2. Ad Hominem (literally, “to the man,” which means “the writer rejects the opposing views by attacking the
person who holds them.” Here are some examples:
I could more easily accept my opponent’s plan to increase revenue . . . But the fact is, he’s a millionaire
with a millionaire’s tax shelters

It’s no surprise that Carl Sagan argues for life on Mars—after all, he was a well-known atheist. I don’t
believe it for a minute (Weston, RA, 56, 73).

3. Faulty Cause and Effect— “The fact that one event precedes another in time does not mean that the first
event has caused the second.” Here are some examples:
Fish begin dying by the thousands in a lake near your hometown. An environmental group immediately
cites chemical dumping by several manufacturing plants as the cause. But other causes are possible. A
disease might have affected the fish; the growth of algae might have contributed to the deaths; or acid
rain might be a factor.

“In Latin, this fallacy is known as post hoc, ergo propter hoc (“after this, therefore because of this”)

Event or condition E1 is regularly associated with event or condition E2. Therefore, event or condition E1
causes event or condition E2.

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