Discussion: Radiocarbon dating

Discussion: Radiocarbon dating

Comparative essay on radiocarbon dating (old-earth vs. young-earth methods/assume

Content

In general, your paper must contain an introductory paragraph, the body of your work, and a conclusion. In terms of the body, the following items must be discussed:

1. The old-earth viewpoint related to your topic.

2. The young-earth viewpoint related to your topic.

3. Compare and contrast these two viewpoints. How are the two viewpoints similar? How do they differ significantly?

Outline

Use the following outline when writing your paper. Each point on the below outline must be a separate section (with a section heading) within your paper. You will notice that these section headings correspond to the content points above.

I. Introduction

II. Old-Earth View

III. Young-Earth View

IV. Compare and Contrast

V. Conclusion

Length

This paper is to be 3–4 pages. Do not exceed this page limit. The title page and bibliography do not count toward this page total.

Format

You must use current APA formatting. Papers must be double-spaced with 1-inch margins all around. Font is to be Courier New or Times New Roman, 12-point. Include a cover sheet with your name, instructor’s name, course number and title, date, and paper title. There is no need to include an abstract in your paper. APA formatting rules can be found at the following site:http://www.liberty.edu/media/2108/apa.pdf.

Sources

Your Comparative Essay must include at least 2 literature sources, not including the course textbooks. One of these additional sources must be from an old-earth perspective and the other from a young-earth perspective. Sources must be journal articles, manuscripts, scholarly textbooks, and/or internet sites from .edu or .gov sources. Avoid internet sites from .com, .net, .org, etc. sources as the information contained therein are not often peer reviewed. Also, Study Bibles are not appropriate for this assignment. List all of your sources in a bibliography at the end of the paper.

Citation

Be sure to cite your sources in the body of your paper using proper APA formatting. APA formatting rules can be found at the following site:http://www.liberty.edu/media/2108/apa.pdf.

I take the young-earth view, Christianity, and want to focus on this evidence and methods and assumptions.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.