HSC Studies of Religion Question Thread

[jozzl]

That said, you can know one better than the other if you want to. I prepared for Islam more thoroughly than I did for Christianity, because I knew I would use Islam for my essay

Thank you!!

[tahmina]

hello, i was just looking at the 2011 paper, for religion and the 20 marker on the religious tradition ' some religions emphasise justice, while others emphasis compassion'? what does this mean ? as in what would we talk about with a question like this ? any help or suggestions!

[jamonwindeyer]

hello, i was just looking at the 2011 paper, for religion and the 20 marker on the religious tradition ' some religions emphasise justice, while others emphasis compassion'? what does this mean ? as in what would we talk about with a question like this ? any help or suggestions!

This was a tough question! So it's pretty broad; you could talk about things like:

- Ethics, and how your religious tradition applies them (is it justice or compassion, strict or loose?)
- How the expression of your religion was influenced by your significant person to be more just or more compassionate
- How your practice demonstrates justice or compassion

It strongly relates to ethics; whether your religion promotes strict rules and justice. or compassion and understanding in its ethical concerns! You could also look at linking this to a dynamic living religion

[tahmina]

has anyone done jewish feminism ? - the school of thought!

[kimmie]

Hey guys so my main concern is i always write ugly intros which drags my mark down. I have written one for this question, "Explain how sacred texts from TWO religious traditions guide individuals towards achieving inner peace" any feedback would be great. (yall can be brutal, kill me pls)

Christianity guides adherents towards achieving inner peace through emulating Jesus’ life and ministry as outlined in the New Testament. As Jesus is the ultimate model of peace through his agape love and forgiving nature, Christians emulate his ministry through peaceful relations with others and with themselves. Thus, Jesus' commandment of love in "love thy neighbour" and "(love your) enemies" reinforces the intrinsic understanding that forgiveness and manifesting Godliness in your life is intrinsic to foster inner peace. Comparatively, Islam guides individuals in achieving inner peace through a constant remembrance of Allah and submitting to his will by following the Quran and the Hadith. The internal struggle with one’s nafs connotes a ‘greater’ jihad by rejecting “the short enjoyment of this world” (An-Nisa) and “enjoin[ing] what is good (Muhammad PBUH).” Therefore, as Muslims are promised a “great reward” in the afterlife for their worldly struggles, it fosters a sense of purpose and tawakkul within their hearts that guides individuals towards achieving inner peace. Thus, their respective sacred texts, act as motivators to a significant extent for bringing about inner peace.


***also, for religion and peace essays, is it necessary to state that the sacred texts promote peace but the misinterpretations have led to conflict or should i just leave that out

[tahmina]

hey guys, how would you structure an significant person essay - I'm doing jewish feminism right ? so can i do


parra 1 - development
parra 2 - expression
parra 3 - effect

[elysepopplewell]

Hey guys so my main concern is i always write ugly intros which drags my mark down. I have written one for this question, "Explain how sacred texts from TWO religious traditions guide individuals towards achieving inner peace" any feedback would be great. (yall can be brutal, kill me pls)

I would start by using a sentence that combines both religions - the question asks for both so I think it's best to put them on an even platform for comparison, and then go into describing them individually.
Christianity guides adherents towards achieving inner peace through emulating Jesus’ life and ministry as outlined in the New Testament. As Jesus is the ultimate model of peace through his agape love and forgiving nature, Christians emulate his ministry through peaceful relations with others and with themselves. Excellent! Thus, Jesus' commandment of love in "love thy neighbour" and "(love your) enemies" reinforces the intrinsic understanding that forgiveness and manifesting Godliness in your life is intrinsic to foster inner peace. Comparatively, Islam guides individuals in achieving inner peace through a constant remembrance of Allah and submitting to his will by following the Quran and the Hadith. The internal struggle with one’s nafs connotes a ‘greater’ jihad by rejecting “the short enjoyment of this world” (An-Nisa) and “enjoin[ing] what is good (Muhammad PBUH).” Therefore, as Muslims are promised a “great reward” in the afterlife for their worldly struggles, it fosters a sense of purpose and tawakkul within their hearts that guides individuals towards achieving inner peace. Thus, their respective sacred texts, act as motivators to a significant extent for bringing about inner peace.

***also, for religion and peace essays, is it necessary to state that the sacred texts promote peace but the misinterpretations have led to conflict or should i just leave that out

I think this is a great introduction - but it is borderline being just a little too much. So as is, it works well, provided that you are going to give each of the points you've raised good fleshing out in the body paragraphs. This is the excellent foundation you need for a great essay! As I mentioned, I would put a sentence before you talk about Christianity, that combines the two together. You use quotation marks a lot - and I don't think it's entirely necessary. If you aren't putting the source of that quote in, then I'd leave the quotation marks off simply because it breaks up the flow of your wording by drawing attention to unattributed quotes

As for your question at the end - I would leave this out for a question like this one! If the question asked you about the interpretations of peace...then potentially. For example, if one religion puts an emphasis on inner peace coming as a result of community peace, but the other promotes peace in a way of family peace, then sure the discrepancy is worth mentioning. But misinterpretations within a religion...mmm...I think I would only do it if the question specifically asked you to probe into the way that peace teachings may guide people. This question is too specific for you to need to discuss misinterpretations. I generally suggest steering away from misinterpretations of peace teachings, but there may be times where it works well with your discussion

[elysepopplewell]

hey guys, how would you structure an significant person essay - I'm doing jewish feminism right ? so can i do


parra 1 - development
parra 2 - expression
parra 3 - effect

You definitely can do it like that! Although, i think that the more cohesive way to do it is by joining the "effect" in with your other two sections. So maybe:

-One example of development and effect
-One example of expression and effect
(continue repeating until no more points)
(Alternatively, do development paragraphs consecutively, then expression paragraphs consecutively)

I think it is difficult to talk about the development and expression without bringing in the effect of that then and there...I think you'd be leaving your sentences a bit unfinished if you didn't mention the effect. I could be wrong, I haven't tried this structure before! But, I think that pairing the effect with the example of development/expression is the most effective way of bringing together a cohesive essay

[supercooper284]

SOS - my friend and I are confused as the the difference between DESCRIBE and DEMONSTRATE questions in terms of the significant practise study. Eg. we are looking at Baptism and want to know what to include specifically in a 5 marker "Describe your significant practise" style question, because we can't figure out how much info is too much info for only 5 marks. In my trials I got marked down for not being succinct enough in these sections, but when we are "describing" should we be linking back to core beliefs, or do we save that for the 'demonstrate' 15 marker questions?

Hopefully that sort-of makes sense. Please can someone help explain??

Thanks 

[elysepopplewell]

SOS - my friend and I are confused as the the difference between DESCRIBE and DEMONSTRATE questions in terms of the significant practise study. Eg. we are looking at Baptism and want to know what to include specifically in a 5 marker "Describe your significant practise" style question, because we can't figure out how much info is too much info for only 5 marks. In my trials I got marked down for not being succinct enough in these sections, but when we are "describing" should we be linking back to core beliefs, or do we save that for the 'demonstrate' 15 marker questions?

Hopefully that sort-of makes sense. Please can someone help explain??

Thanks 

I've always found it to be a bit ambiguous in SOR - exactly when do you link to things like core beliefs, sacred texts and writings, etc. I totally understand your pain! I think that the most likely phrasing for a demonstrate question about the practice is going to be something asking you to do something like, "Demonstrate how the practice expresses the principal beliefs of Christianity." So to demonstrate here, you are literally following a simple structure like this:
-This aspect of the practice brings people together, thus expressing the belief of...
-This other aspect of the practice calls adherents to reflect on the belief of...

So you're just following a structure of linking a belief to an aspect of the practice. You have to be specific. It's not going to get you the marks by saying that the practice in general reflects the beliefs - you'll have to specifically link to aspects of the practice (whether it be events, symbols, clothing, etc).

Describe is very similar, so don't stress about finding the differences. It's just a bit more "wholesome" in my mind - as in, you aren't restricted with being super specific about the aspects, but rather approaching it as more of wholesome practice, with specific examples within.

I'd be saying for a 5 marker, about 5 to 7 sentences should do the trick. Ask yourself "Am I directly proving my response to the question in this sentence?" It is the easiest way to stamp out waffle. You're likely to find yourself waffling with things that you're proud of yourself for knowing and studying, but it isn't actually what you need for the question. Eg. You're keen that you memorised a quote, but the quote doesn't answer the question. But you want to be impressive and use it anyway.

So, ask yourself exactly what you're contributing to your response in every sentence. That's how you find succinctness

[biancadunn_]

SOS - my friend and I are confused as the the difference between DESCRIBE and DEMONSTRATE questions in terms of the significant practise study. Eg. we are looking at Baptism and want to know what to include specifically in a 5 marker "Describe your significant practise" style question, because we can't figure out how much info is too much info for only 5 marks. In my trials I got marked down for not being succinct enough in these sections, but when we are "describing" should we be linking back to core beliefs, or do we save that for the 'demonstrate' 15 marker questions?

Hopefully that sort-of makes sense. Please can someone help explain??

Thanks 

My teacher made us go through our answers with the marking criteria and mark our own stuff constantly (to our annoyance) but it did actually help so maybe have a look at the marking guidelines for different questions and compare the criteria and suggested answers?

[Celeriac]

Hi 

I was looking at the notes from the marking centre from 2014 in regards to a 4 marker that asked for the significant practice to be described.

They wrote: Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- describing the ritual rather than giving an overview of the practice

What exactly do they mean by this? I thought when describing the practice, we discuss the general processes involved in the ritual. I feel like this basically is an overview of the practice, so I'm not sure what the markers meant by this.

[jamonwindeyer]

Hi 

I was looking at the notes from the marking centre from 2014 in regards to a 4 marker that asked for the significant practice to be described.

They wrote: Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- describing the ritual rather than giving an overview of the practice

What exactly do they mean by this? I thought when describing the practice, we discuss the general processes involved in the ritual. I feel like this basically is an overview of the practice, so I'm not sure what the markers meant by this.

I interpret this as an overview being key features, why its important, its relation to beliefs; little bits on everything you've done about Baptism. Description is like "Yep, this is what Baptism is. This happens, and then this happens, and then this happens, and then this happens, and this is why that happens." That's my take on it anyhow

[Celeriac]

I interpret this as an overview being key features, why its important, its relation to beliefs; little bits on everything you've done about Baptism. Description is like "Yep, this is what Baptism is. This happens, and then this happens, and then this happens, and then this happens, and this is why that happens." That's my take on it anyhow

Thank you for that (and happy birthday by the way!) 

So if we were asked to outline baptism for three or so marks, would we just identify the main aspects of the ritual (e.g water and oil) rather than describing the entire process step by step for a describe question? Should a connection be made to beliefs or the significance of the practice for an outline question?

[elysepopplewell]

Thank you for that (and happy birthday by the way!) 

So if we were asked to outline baptism for three or so marks, would we just identify the main aspects of the ritual (e.g water and oil) rather than describing the entire process step by step for a describe question? Should a connection be made to beliefs or the significance of the practice for an outline question?

Careful not to get too caught up in significant symbols in the practice, like the water and oil. I think it is very important to identify the significant beliefs expressed, or at the least, make some comment on it being a central rite in Christianity. By all means, the water and oil are good things to talk about. But, for a three marker, I'd be more inclined to identify the importance to the religion as a whole, followed by the significance it has for the individual and community (or just adherents in general) and then a sentence that highlights some of the rituals within, like the water, oil, prayer, etc. Three sentences, maybe four, just like that, is ticking all of the boxes