Stimulus incorporation in Studies of Religion

Incorporating a stimulus in Studies of Religion isn’t easy (can’t we just leave a stimulus to English?). The notes from the marking centre for 2015 noted that candidates can improve on their engagement with the stimulus in every single religious tradition for the essay. Yikes! You may see a stimulus for the multiple choice, but you’ve got a 1 in 4 chance of getting it right there. As for the short answer and essays? Here are some tips to help you get your head around it.

Tips for incorporating the stimulus!

If it’s a quote, you can use little bits as you need. You don’t need to use the entire two sentence quote each time you reference it. In fact, picking out the little bits that suit your argument best will help seamlessly blend the prompt into your work. This doesn’t mean that it’s ok to ignore a chunk of the stimulus – that’s not the point. Rather, you can deal with little snippets of the quote as it suits you.

Use the source of the quotation to reference it. A response that consistently directs the reader to “the stimulus” as opposed to “Matthew 5:18” won’t have the same sophistication of terminology. Plus, if you can reference more Sacred Texts and Writings – why wouldn’t you? Markers look for those!

Images can be very tricky. To me, the first possible image stimulus that pops to mind is for the short answer question. If the question is on census data – they very well might have some kind of graph or statistic there. If the question is quizzing you on Aboriginal Spirituality, they might well have a visual representation of kinship. When you’re referencing the stimulus, be specific about which section you’re discussing (eg. “The waterhole in the diagram…” in order to show the marker that you are being perceptive about what they’ve presented you with.

Images are awaiting copyright? Ask your teacher for as many past trial papers as they have in storage. Finding an image stimulus on the BOSTES website that is not awaiting copyright is like memorising the census data: REALLY HARD. Basically, you’ve got to do what you can and get your hands on whatever is around.

Don’t just restate the stimulus – explain it. This is why picking out specific sections of the stimulus might actually be really beneficial to your work. By selecting specific aspects, you are forcing yourself to make commentary on that section. That is what the markers want.

Engage with the stimulus. It isn’t enough to dance around the prompt, but in fact you should engage with the stimulus. Focus on the stimulus at a macro and micro level. Don’t hold back from honing right in on something that makes a lot of sense to you and your argument, and then pull back to discuss the quote or image as a whole.

Top and tail your paragraphs, and then colour them in. The easiest way to make sure that you are showing you aren’t afraid of the stimulus is by incorporating it into the start and end of your paragraphs. Really round of the paragraphs with it. But, that can cause some criticism as well because you’re just ticking it off like a chore. So once you’ve set up a skeleton of incorporating the prompt in your framework, then make it your mission to put it into your analysis and arguments throughout the body of the paragraph as well. Don’t just leave the stimulus to your introduction and conclusion – it needs to be present throughout!