Academic Writing and Theological Research: A Guide for Students
- Johannesburg, South Africa South African Theological Seminary Press 2008
- 270p TOC (iii-vi); Bibliography (259-262); Topical Index (263-264)
Preface
This book emerges from several years’ experience working with both undergraduate and postgraduate students at the South African Theological Seminary. It has a single purpose—to help theological students write better assignments and theses. My colleagues and I have witnessed at first hand the struggles and pitfalls facing our students. We felt it was time to put the lessons we have learned on paper in the hope that they will empower future students to learn from their forerunners.
We have divided the work into two parts. Part 1 addresses academic writing in general. It should be relevant to all students, whether they are writing first-year assignments or a doctoral dissertation. Part 2 is written mainly for postgraduate students who are preparing to write a thesis or dissertation. It deals with intermediate to advanced aspects of theological research.
Although I am solely responsible (for better or for worse) for the final writing and editing of every chapter, I am deeply indebted to two colleagues at the South African Theological Seminary for their contributions. Dr Mark Pretorius, our senior assessor, did the research and wrote the first drafts of the chapters on assignment writing and plagiarism. Having assessed countless assignments, he brings years of personal experience, to bear on the challenges of writing assignments and avoiding plagiarism. Dr Noel Woodbridge has successfully supervised many theses involving empirical research. He is better qualified than I am to write chapters onpractical theology and descriptive research. I am grateful to him for having done it. He also contributed substantially to the chapter presenting a design for exegetical research.
Because of the valuable inputs from Noel and Mark, and the fact that the content of the work to some extent reflects the shared experience of the faculty at the South AfricanTheological Seminary, most references to the authors are in the first person plural (we, us and our). When the references switch to the singular (I, me, and my), they point to my personal comments or experiences.
Since we serve at the South African Theological Seminary,our frame of reference comes from the South African highereducation system. Although certain aspects, such as the preferred system of referencing and the requirements for length of thesis, reflect local norms, we believe most of the book is sufficiently generic to benefit theological students in general.
Since our framework is theology, we tend to use Bachelor of Theology (BTh), Master of Theology (MTh) and Doctor of Theology (DTh) when referring to the three levels of higher education qualifications. Please feel free to substitute alternate qualification titles, such as MA for MTh or PhD for DTh, if your institution uses these particular titles.
We use the term thesis freely for research reports at Bachelor’s, Master’s or Doctor’s levels, while reserving dissertation for the doctoral level. Thus, we can speak of a DTh thesis or a DTh dissertation, but only of an MTh thesis. Some institutions reverse these names, speaking of Master’s dissertations and Doctor’s theses. This is simply a matter of institutional preference, so be aware that your institution may use these terms differently to the way we do.
Finally, I would like to express my deep gratitude to those who have helped make this work a reality: to Dr Reuben van Rensburg, for supporting the initiative; to Jenny Mason, for managing the logistics of publication; to my colleagues and advisers, Profs Arthur Song and Sam Kunhiyop, and Drs Dan Lioy and Frank Jabini, for significantly shaping my thoughts about theological research; and last, but certainly not least, to my beautiful wife, Lyndi, for her support and sacrifice.