Religion and me

Please write about buddhism

Purpose:

  • To reflect on your experience with religion thus far in your life.
  • To enable me to know where you are coming from as you begin your study here.
  • To demonstrate your writing skills: this is the first written paper you produce for me as well as your first graded assignment. Make a good first impression!

Hands that are held so they appear to hold a setting sun

Directions:

1. In an approximately 500 word essay: Discuss your personal experience (or lack thereof) with and perspective on religion to this point in your life and reflect on what you expect from this course.

Here’s a worksheet to help you take stock of your experience with religion: BeenThere, Done That

Click for more options

(Open in new window).

Some guiding questions:

    • Would you consider yourself to be a “religious” person? Why or why not?
      • What religion(s) are you personally most familiar with?
      • How is your involvement with religion today different from how it was when you were growing up?
    • How do you think this course might relate to your own life and/or program of study/present or future career?
    • How might this course challenge you: intellectually, spiritually, academically or otherwise? How do you plan to address those challenges?

Note: Contact me if you have written this paper for me in a previous course (or another course concurrently). Be aware that I will not give credit for the same paper in two different courses.

2. Save your work to your computer in one of Blackboard’s support file types (make sure your name, assignment name and course number are included in your paper)

3. Submit your file by clicking the submit link above

4. Check your grade book (“MY GRADES” button in the menu in the left margin) to make sure your work got submitted correctly. You should see an exclamation mark (!) in the spot for this assignment. If the spot remains blank, try the submission again. Be sure to click the “submit” and not just the “save” button. Once I have reviewed and graded your work, a score will show up in this spot and you will be able to review any feedback I’ve left.

Grading:

This assignment is worth 50 points (5% of your grade in the course). Grading based on:

  • Length: approximately 500 words (grade penalty for every 10% [50 words] below target).
  • Content: Focus and specificity. Respond to all prompts with sufficient depth and detail to give me a good idea of where you are coming from and where you expect to be going (as far as this course content is concerned): a good overview of your experience with and perspective on religion and discuss what you expect from this class and how you will meet any challenges
  • Composition: demonstrate suitable college level writing skills (avoid errors in spelling, word usage, grammar, syntax, etc.)