Religions Religious Site Visit Reflection Paper
Rel 101 “Introduction to Religions” Online 3, Spring 2022-2023
Instructor: Dr. Fei Lan
Option 2 — “Religions Religious Site Visit” Reflection Paper
Religions Religious Site Visit Reflection Paper: 50 points
Due: Friday, May 5, 2023 @ 11:59 PM
Suggested Sites:
Magnolia Grove Monastery
Address: 123 Towles Rd, Batesville, MS 38606
Phone: (662) 267-6437
India Cultural Center and Temple Inc., Memphis TN
Address: 12005 US-64, Eads, TN 38028
Phone: (901) 202-6070
The assignment requires students to attend and critique a religious site with a purpose to develop
students’ critical thinking through exploration and analysis of how religions such as Buddhism and
Hinduism are practiced in our local areas. The assignment demonstrates critical thinking in the
following 3 ways:
o 1. Students apply their knowledge of the beliefs, doctrines, philosophical ideas and
practices of the particular religious tradition to explain how the practitioners
appropriate their religious beliefs and doctrines in practices and ritual performances.
o 2. Students analyze the practices and rituals by explaining the way in which how
the practices are connected with certain sacred/key texts in the regarded tradition
and why the practices are important to their religious beliefs and doctrines;
o 3. Students compare and evaluate the practices and rituals performed at the visited
religious site and those learned and discussed in papers to reflect on their (students’)
own experience of the religion in the specific socio-religious context to form a new
understanding of the studied religious tradition.
Assignment Details:
Format:
• Word format; 12-point font; double-spaced; standard margins (1 inch);
• Heading should include: Rel 101-Online 3 and your name (single-spaced);
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• The title of the paper;
• For sources other than our textbook, you must provide a “Works Cited” page for your sources.
This includes the website of the organization or any other web-based source; (No Wikipedia!)
• For citation references to our textbook, use a simple parenthetical style which includes author’s
name and page number.
Content:
A good paper is expected to include the following elements:
ü Very brief background info on your site, including when it was founded, what “school” or
“branch” it represents, and the make-up of the community you observed (such as size, gender,
racial/national composition). You should use the organization’s website or printed material for
this in addition to your observations. The part on background information should be no more
than 3 sentences or so.
ü Describe and analyze the religious practice light of what you have learnt at class. This should
comprise about 1-1.5 pages.
a) Make sure that you identify clearly the specific characteristic you observed.
b) Give concrete examples of each characteristic from your observations at the religious
service and ritual you attended.
c) Use tradition-specific terms to identify what you are observing, such as puja,
mindfulness, dharma, etc.
d) Please note, a thorough review of the religion is unnecessary and undesired.
Only discuss those things that you have observed in person.
ü Describe your experience as an “outside observer”, such as how it made you feel or whether it
was difficult to understand the service or whether or not it enriched your understanding of this
religious tradition, etc. 1-1.5 pages.
ü Conclude your paper with 2-3 sentences.
ü Clear writing and organization (including the absence of typos and misspellings).
ü Fulfillment of the formatting guidelines specified above.
Submit via Blackboard Assignment by Friday, May 5, 2023 @ 11:59 PM.
Grading will take into account: clarity of the summary and explanation of the issue; accuracy of the
information; thoroughness of your discussion; evidence that you have synthesized material learned in
class with material learned in your research; and overall quality of composition (including large-scale
organization, thesis statement or topic sentence, paragraph structure, transition sentences, sentence
structure, word choice, punctuation, and spelling).
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Religious Site Visit Project– Rubric of Evaluation (total 50 points)
(1) Thesis statement or topic sentence (5 points):
(2) Accuracy of the information and clarity of the description of the visit (10 points):
(3) Effectiveness of your observation and argument (10 points):
(4) Evidence of synthesizing knowledge learned in class and your own experience at the religious site you have
visited (10 points):
(5) Structure and organization of the paper (10 points):
(6) Sentence structure, word choice, punctuation, spelling, and reference information (5 points):
