Thinking and on to Researching

I published this a year ago. But it is relevant to the ideas on choosing essay titles.

The last (Oct2020) blog post was all about where to start, what to start thinking about. This one takes it on a step. Researching! Sound 'highfalutin' to some! Only Phders do that don't they? No -primary school kids start doing it as soon as they are told to work on a project, whether it was what they ate for breakfast and where the flakes came from or whether it is a news project on Black Lives Matter! We are now all battered with so much information that we have to focus and dispose of a whole lot of distracting material coming our way. Put that Facebook page away; look at your Whatsapp feed later.

Research! Back to basics. The bread and butter of it all.

We start as if commencing with a Level 4 BA project (year 1). I simplify Level 4 as answering 'What...' and Level 5 as 'How?' and Level 6 as 'Why?' about your subject matter but all three can be involved from level 4 onwards if you want good grades. You are presented with the topics to choose from and decide on one. 'Why?' You may reply, 'Because the others look more complex?' or 'This one looks like the whole topic I can do from lecture notes? Be careful, you may have gone for the one that is most abstract and lends itself to waffle! No essay can be answered from lecture notes, those given or those you've taken down yourself. It always has to be taken on, developed, researched.

At level 4 we are looking for those illusive facts I talked about last blog. We are looking for an overview of the subject and how the learning outcomes can be woven in to achieve the purpose of the exercise and then focus down on what is actually required to 'answer the question'. Take the question apart. Is it a quotation? Look for its origins, its author, its context as well as its content. Why was it written? What does it concern?

If you have specific questions you are not sure how to handle, first ask your tutor -by email at least. Don't forget the chat facility on zoom that can be privatised, directed to the tutor alone, not seen by the rest of the class in case you are embarrassed to ask such a question; it would be funny if 10 others in the class did the same thing! If that sort of contact is a problem - try me! I can help you ask the right questions perhaps even if I don't know that particular area of speciality in depth. I have a fair range on theological issues through experience of running the library for a theological college for 20 years.

Story time!

What Mirabel did next! She had to make up her mind. THINK!! Was she going for this question on the list of essay projects or the next one? John's gospel. Discuss critically the I AM sayings in John as to why John included the key items. Well, it refers back to The I AM of the revelation of God to Moses right? Exodus 3 and 6. But there are debates as to how many 'I am' sayings there are in John's gospel; ones that are finished with a noun- like I am the Light of the World, for instance, comes twice (8:12 + 9:5); I am the way the truth and the life (14:6)- is that one or 3? Her tutor had said, 'Go through the 21 chapters and highlight each I AM saying'. So what next?

Work out a conclusion? Do that first. So where will it all lead if I pick up all these 'I Am' sayings? Obviously, they are all 'Christological'. But what does it really mean? Aah -thinking has started! Is there an 'A-Haaa!' moment coming! What is John saying about WHO Jesus is? How would the first hearers have reacted? What negative reactions towards Jesus would there have been? Don't assume we 'know' this; we've heard it preached a dozen times, but there is a huge depth to it. Leon Morris at the start of his The Gospel of John in Modern Interpretation (p.17) said something to the effect that 'A child can paddle in John's gospel and an elephant can swim in it' John's gospel, So are you going paddling at the edge? No, you are diving in deep. Read over some commentaries, some books on how scholars have viewed the "I am" sayings. Getting hold of them- how was Mirabel to get them now libraries are locked down? The college had a subscription to Perlego and gave her an access code. She ought to try it, get used to it....and Ebsco Ebooks too. This was becoming more intriguing. Mirabel wanted to stay all day at this... but the family called; she was not the only one home-schooling! Her kids were too! "I'll have to make a plan," she thought, "and make a structure for the essay later. 'I am the bread of life' will have to be turned into lunch!