Tips for RS80a Research Paper
Fall 2004

You are required to write an 8-10 page research paper on a topic related to this course. Your paper should present and prove an argument.

STEP ONE: TOPIC SELECTION
Perhaps the hardest part of this assignment is choosing an appropriate topic, a topic that fits the course but is suitable for a 10-12 page paper.

Start with a reference book
The following is a selection of some of the reference books from the UCSB Libraries that might help you pick a topic. Remember to pick something that is interesting to you because it is really difficult to write a good paper on a topic that holds no interest to you. Decide which aspect of the course appeals to you the most and then choose a reference book (from the list below or another you might find) related to the topic.

• The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism
  Reference BL501 .E53 1998
• The Ancient Gods Speak: A Guide to Egyptian Religion
  Reference BL2428 .A53 2002
• The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
  Reference BL2450 .G6 W56 2003
• Encyclopedia of the Early Church
  Reference BR66.5 .D5813 1992 (2 volumes)
• Encyclopedia of Christianity
  Reference BR95 .E8913 1999
• The Oxford History of Christianity
  Reference BR145.2 .O85 1993
• Encyclopedia of Early Christianity
  Reference BR162.2 .E53 1997
• The Expansion of Christianity: a Gazetteer of its First Three Centuries
  Map & Imagery Lab, Public Area, Reference BR165 .M96 2004
• The NIV Exhaustive Concordance
  Reference BS425 .G62 1990
• Anchor Bible Dictionary
  Reference BS440 .A54 1992 (6 volumes)
• Women in Scripture: a Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanoical Books, and the New Testament
  Reference BS575 .W593 2000
• A Companion to Western Historical Thought
  Reference D16.8 .C65 2002
• History of the Ancient & Medieval World
  Reference D117 .H57 1996
• Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean: Greece and Rome
  Reference DE59 .C55 1988
• Encyclopedia of Greece and Hellenic Tradition
  Reference DF77 .E539 2000
• Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome
  Reference DG75 .A35 2004
• Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire
  Reference DG270 .B86 2002
• Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations of the Near East and Mediterranean
  Reference DS57 .E47 1997
• Atlas of Ancient Egypt
  Reference DT56.9 .B34
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
  Reference DT58 .O94 2001
• A Dictionary of Ancient Egypt
  Reference DT58 .S55 1995
• The Penguin Guide to Ancient Egypt
  Reference DT60 .M837 1996
• Historical Dictionary of Egypt
  Reference DT75 .G65 2003
• A Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt
  Reference DT83 .D2 1996
• Atlas of Classical History
  Reference G1033 .G65 1994
• Food in the Ancient World from A to Z
  Reference GT2852 .G8 D35 2003
• Women's Roles in Ancient Civilizations: A Reference Guide
  Ethnic Gender Studies Reference HQ1127 .W654 1999
• Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Greek and Roman Women: Notable Women from Sappho to Helena
  Ethnic Gender Studies Reference HQ1136 .L54 2000
• The Music of Ancient Greece: An Encyclopedia
  Arts Library, Music Reference ML167 .M5
• The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egyptian Architecture
  Arts Library Reference NA215 .A7515 2003
• Ancient Roman Writers
  Reference PN141 .D52 v.211
• Roman Building: Materials and Techniques
  Arts Library Reference TH16 .A3313 1994
• Historical Dictionary of Ancient Greek Warfare
  Sciences Engineering Library Reference U33 .S64 2002

Once you have an idea for a topic, use this worksheet to help you develop research questions. After some preliminary research on your question(s), you will be able to develop a thesis statement (defined by Professor Christine Thomas as "your considered answer to a question for which several answers are possible").

Look at this sample worksheet based on the example based on the outline online with other course materials. Then fill out the worksheet for your topic(s).

STEP TWO: FINDING SEARCH TERMS
Now you need to identify key terms or concepts from your research question. Then come up with similiar concepts for each of those terms. These will be the words you use to search. You can print out this chart to help you build your search.

Research question: How did ancient Egyptians and Israelites incorporate meat in ceremonies?

To build your search string, use OR to connect the similiar concepts; use AND to separate the different ideas. Use PARENTHESIS when combining OR with AND:
(egyptians OR israelites) AND (meat OR animals OR food) AND (ceremonies OR rituals OR rites)

STEP THREE: FINDING SOURCES
Books
Use Pegasus to find books for your topic.

• Do KEYWORD searches combining terms from different columns in your keyword search strategy chart
  • example: jews rome
• Click "words as phrase" if you want an exact phrase
  • example: sun worship
• Subject keyword search if you are looking for books ABOUT an author or a famous work
  • examples: homer or iliad
• Subject keyword search if you are researching a specific significant literary character
  • example: achilles

Articles
To find articles, first you must use an article index and then you have to find the actual article itself. To access these databases from off campus, you must go through the proxy server. From the Library's home page, select RESEARCH then ARTICLE INDEXES & DATABASES to find the following databases.

Expanded Academic ASAP

• Keyword search to find articles on your topic
  • examples: philo and josephus or Gilgamesh
    (egyptians OR israelites) AND (meat OR animals OR food) AND (ceremonies OR rituals OR rites)
• LIMIT to refereed publications (this gives you scholarly journals
• Results are either full-text articles, abstracts, or citations
  • If the result is an ABSTRACT or a CITATION, use UC e-links to check if UCSB has the journal

ATLA Religion

• Keyword search to find articles on your topic
  • example: philo and josephus
• yellow-blue icon indicates that UCSB has a subscription to the journal
  • to get your hands on the article, search the JOURNAL TITLE (found in the "Source" field) as a TITLE in Pegasus
  • UC e-links does not always give you reliable information when linking from ATLA

Project Muse
This is a good place to find full-text articles, but you need to know what you are looking for before using this one. Be specific.

• example: childbirth rites and ancient egypt

Web Pages
Be careful when searching for web pages for your research. Be critical; you don't want to cite some grade-school kid's webpage. Use our How Do I Know What's Good on the Web? guide to help you evaluate what you find.
A good place to find quality websites is Rutger University's Virtual Religion Index: Ancient Near East.

You can also talk with a librarian about your searches as you begin working on your class project. The librarian for Religious Studies (Anne Barnhart) will hold office hours in the Religious Studies departmental library (third floor of HSSB) 9:30-11:00 Wednesday mornings. There are reference librarians available at the Reference Desk of Davidson Library Monday - Thursday 9am-9pm, Friday 9am-5pm, Saturday 1pm-5pm and Sunday 1pm-9pm. Feel free to ask any of them for help as you need it.