ASSESSMENT 2: Essay outline summary 20% — due April 29
Type of assessment: Individual
Word count: 500-750 words
Rationale: An essay outline serves as a valuable tool for organising and structuring one’s thoughts and ideas
before embarking on the writing process. By providing a clear roadmap, it helps the writer maintain focus,
coherence, and logical progression throughout their essay. There are several compelling reasons to invest
time in creating an essay outline. Firstly, an outline allows the writer to develop a coherent and wellorganised argument. Secondly, an outline helps manage the overall length and structure of the essay.
Additionally, an outline facilitates the inclusion of necessary transitions between paragraphs, creating a
smooth flow of ideas and enhancing the overall readability of the essay. Lastly, an essay outline saves time
and effort during the writing process. Having a clear outline in place eliminates the need constantly to pause
and consider the next point or argument, reducing writer’s block and promoting a more efficient workflow.
Overall, investing time in creating an essay outline is a prudent step that leads to a well-structured, coherent,
and compelling final piece of writing.
Task Description: Submit an outline of Assessment 3. There are various resources that detail on how to carry
out this assessment in the assessment folder on Blackboard.
Format: A complete set of rubrics will be made available on Blackboard.
Submission: Submit any written work as a Word document via Turnitin in Blackboard. No other file formats,
including PDFs are not allowed.
CORE1000, Semester One 2024
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Feedback: Feedback will be provided via Turnitin. Markers will provide feedback by filling in your score
according to the detailed rubric below.
Rubric
Criteria Excellent (3) Good (2) Fair (1) Poor (0)
Organization
The outline is wellstructured, with clear
and logical organisation
of main ideas, subtopics,
and supporting details.
The outline is mostly
well-structured, with a
clear organization of
main ideas, subtopics,
and supporting details.
The outline has some
structure but lacks
clarity in organizing
main ideas, subtopics,
and supporting details.
The outline is disorganized
and lacks a clear structure.
Content
The outline
demonstrates a
thorough understanding
of the topic and includes
all the necessary main
ideas, subtopics, and
supporting details.
The outline
demonstrates a good
understanding of the
topic and includes
most of the necessary
main ideas, subtopics,
and supporting details.
The outline
demonstrates a basic
understanding of the
topic but lacks some
main ideas, subtopics,
or supporting details.
The outline demonstrates
a limited understanding of
the topic and is missing
several main ideas,
subtopics, and supporting
details.
Clarity and
Coherence
The outline is clear,
coherent, and
effectively
communicates the
relationships between
main ideas, subtopics,
and supporting details.
The outline is mostly
clear and coherent but
may require minor
improvements in
communicating the
relationships between
main ideas, subtopics,
and supporting details.
The outline is
somewhat unclear and
lacks coherence in
communicating the
relationships between
main ideas, subtopics,
and supporting details.
The outline is confusing
and incoherent, making it
difficult to understand the
relationships between
main ideas, subtopics, and
supporting details.
Completeness
The outline is
comprehensive and
includes all the
necessary components,
such as an introduction,
body paragraphs, and a
conclusion.
The outline is mostly
complete and includes
most of the necessary
components, such as
an introduction, body
paragraphs, and a
conclusion.
The outline is partially
complete and may be
missing some
components, such as
an introduction, body
paragraphs, or a
conclusion.
The outline is incomplete
and lacks essential
components, such as an
introduction, body
paragraphs, or a
conclusion.
Grammar,
spelling, and
punctuation
The outline
demonstrates excellent
grammar, spelling, and
punctuation, with no
errors that affect
readability.
The outline
demonstrates good
grammar, spelling, and
punctuation, with
minor errors that do
not significantly affect
readability.
The outline
demonstrates basic
grammar, spelling, and
punctuation skills, but
there are noticeable
errors that may affect
readability.
The outline demonstrates
poor grammar, spelling,
and punctuation skills,
with frequent errors that
hinder readability.
ASSESSMENT 3: Applied Reflection: Philosophical/Theological Apology 50% — due May 20
Information about this task
Type of assessment: individual
Length: 1500 words
Rationale: This task gives students the opportunity to demonstrate understanding of a basic philosophical or
theological text on an area of their choice. They will consider how the ideas and arguments in this text
confirm, deepen or challenge their own ideas about what is true, good, or beautiful, and how it potentially
affects their own pursuit of human flourishing.
Task description:
Part 1 (approx. 300-400 words)
1. Choose a portion of text from one of the required weekly readings from weeks 2 – 10.
CORE1000, Semester One 2024
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2. Identify and present the central argument or point of the text. This will include its key conclusion/s, and
the reasons, evidence or examples the author has used in support of them.
Part 2 (approx. 1100-1200 words)
a) Present your own previous (or current) beliefs on the particular topic being discussed.
b) Show how the chosen reading confirms, deepens or challenges your own position on this topic.
c) Does this task affect your own pursuit of truth, goodness, or beauty. Be sure to present reasons for your
answer.
Students should refer to at least two other academic sources as part of their research to help understand
concepts in the chosen article or chapter, explain other relevant concepts which are introduced or
demonstrate wider reading. It is recommended (but not required) that they use for their other academic
sources the supplementary readings provided on the CORE1000 course site on Blackboard.
Tips for Part 1:
1. Check with your tutor during the semester as to whether your selection of text is suitable. Remember to
pick a text that resonated with you, and which you believe you understand fairly well – this gives you the best
opportunity to do well. Also, remember that a selection of text that is too big or too small, could also make it
more challenging.
2. At the start of your paper tell the reader what your chosen text is, including the specific section/page
numbers you will be focusing on.
3. Be sure to accurately communicate the author’s ideas – this will involve being attentive to their choice of
words. Do not read into the author’s words your own ideas, or what you think they want to or ought to say.
Avoid attempting to psychologise the author by getting ‘behind’ the text to their hidden motives. The goal
here is to accurately and fairly communicate the arguments (premises and conclusions) of the other person.
4. This section should avoid the use of evaluative language. Save this for part 2.
Tips for Part 2a:
5. Do not give some piece of autobiographical information as a substitute for presenting your ideas. For
example, telling the reader something about your family, school, or (non)religious background, and then
proceeding as if your own conclusions and reasons are self-evident. It is essential to take responsibility for
one’s own ideas, and to learn to communicate them clearly along with one’s own supporting reasons.
6. When it comes to presenting your own previous or current ideas, be sure to address the specific topic of the
reading. For example, it is probably not relevant to be presenting your assumptions or judgments about
‘religion’ and ‘philosophy’ in general.
7. Do your best to use your own words, not bringing in terms, concepts or claims from the reading that you
did not know or use before. This will give you more to consider when it comes to comparing the author’s ideas
to your own.
Tips for Part 2b:
8. To help you think about your response, consider questions like, ‘Has the author raised points I had not
considered?’, ‘Has the author helped me realise I have hidden presuppositions which need more thought?’,
‘Even though this is a conclusion I agree with, are these reasons valid?’, ‘Even though I disagree with the
conclusion, does it actually follow from the reasons given?’, etc.
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9. Remember the goal is always to arrive at the truth, therefore avoid unnecessarily politicising the issue (e.g.,
reducing it to party lines or jumping to political consequences), ad hominem attacks (e.g., ‘She is only saying
that because she is a…’) and flights into relativism or scepticism (e.g., ‘It is different for everyone,’ or, ‘No-one
knows’).
10. Remember this is about engaging your ideas with those in the chosen reading. To the degree you get
involved in analysing ideas that are neither your own nor the authors, it is missing the point of the task. Also,
don’t try to guess what your reader thinks or wants to hear, and pretend these are your own ideas – this only
makes the task unnecessarily difficult (or impossible), compromises the integrity of the task, and often leaves
the reader sensing confusion or contradiction in the paper.
Tips for Part 2c:
11. To help you think about what you might include, consider whether the task led you to seriously consider
something for the first time, re-consider something after a long while, or perhaps inspired you to take up or
cease a particular course of action, etc.
12. Again, don’t try and guess what the reader wants to hear. If it hasn’t affected you, then saying so and
thoughtfully considering why that’s the case, is essential for a good reflection.
Format: Your submission can be in one of the following formats
Written in essay form – please see guide on Blackboard.
Presented in oral form. For this option, please see the guide on Blackboard. The presentation can be either
a podcast or video. To be the equivalent of 1500 words it needs to be between 9 and 10 minutes long. Oral
presentations must be accompanied by a written transcript of the presentation, so that the presentation can
be checked by Turnitin’s plagiarism and artificial intelligence detection features.
Submission: Submit any written work as a Word document via Turnitin in Blackboard. No other file formats,
including PDFs are not allowed.
CORE1000, Semest
