Writing Assignment 1 Parameters and Standards

Compose a college level essay in which you explore two religious holidays, festivals, or celebrations as expressed in at least two different major world religions studied in the first half of this course: a specific Indigenous Tradition, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, or Shinto. Be sure to pay attention to all of the details below. Quick View Checklist (all of this is discussed in greater depth in the Parameters section that follows):

□ Select 2 (and only 2) specific religious holidays, festivals, or celebrations to explore. □ Your selections should represent at least 2 different religions from the first half of the course: a specific Indigenous Tradition, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, or Shinto. □ Each holiday, festival, or celebration is discussed in terms of activities, events, observances, and beliefs. □ Research sources are academic, scholarly, or primary sources (scriptures or doctrines of the religion). □ Include an MLA formatted bibliography of at least 3 sources.

□ Submission is at least 1100 words (bibliographies are not a part of the word count). □ Contains appropriate sentence and paragraph formats, proper grammar, and correct spelling and punctuation. □ Quotes are limited to primary source materials only and are no more than 10% of the paper content. Parameters: Here are the complete parameters of this research assignment: EVENTS – You will discuss two different religion inspired holidays, festivals, or celebrations. RELIGIONS – The holidays, festivals, or celebrations discussed represent events from two different religions studied in the first half of the course: a specific Indigenous Tradition, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, or Shinto. This means that you cannot provide two holidays, festivals, or celebrations from a single religion. Instead, you are to provide an exploration of different religious traditions. In some cases, you will find events are observed by multiple religions. When this happens, you should identify each of the participating religions; but isolate your full analysis to only one (1) religion. CONTENT – You should describe the various activities and events associated with each, the religion(s) responsible, and the beliefs behind them. Are there specific activities, props, and/or dietary aspects associated with the event? To what extent do the people participate? Are there variations in activities, events, observances, and beliefs based on geographical or divisional/denominational differences? Are the celebrations publically observed or isolated in the religious communities? Have they become secularized at all? Deductions of up to 30 points will be made for errors related to Events, Religions, and Content. STRUCTURE – This paper should be done in a traditional essay format: Introduction paragraph, two to three content paragraphs, a conclusion paragraph, and then a bibliography of sources consulted.