Guidelines Authoring a Sound Open Book Assignment

 Guidelines for writing an erudite paper:

Writing an essay frequently appears to be a dreaded chore among our
students. While an essay is a sizable endeavour, there are several measures a
student can take that will categorize the assignment into manageable chunks.
Following this process is the most fool proof method to draft a thriving essay,
whatever the question & the course might be.

 Table of Contents
1. Basics
2. Quantitative Guidelines
3. Qualitative Guidelines
4. Checklist

1. Basics Blueprint:
The following points build the foundation on which your essay would be holding.

a. Readability : Font should be Balarama, Font Size should be 12.

b. Familiarity : The first line should be the question itself.
c. Authorship : The second line should be Student's Initiated Name.
(If not initiated, then legal name. No need to write both the names).
d. Evaluating : Assessment(s) is marked on quantitative grounds, meaning how
much of the answer is relevant to the question.
e. Quality : There is a qualitative review of the essay as well. The quality
feedbacks doesn't grade the paper. However, it provides feedback to the author,
enabling them to write healthier, presentable & comprehensible papers in the
future.

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2. Quantitative Guidelines:
These guidelines are statutory. Papers will be unquestionably graded & ranked
against these points.
1. Most of the questions can be divided into parts. For the reason of forming a
question, they are compiled into one single line. Divide the question into parts and
attempt all the pieces according to their weightage. You may seek the help of your
course coordinator to know the division and weightage of each section. However,
the practice should be that the student should be able to divide the question by
themselves. Thus, one good practice is to divide the question into sections by
yourself and then run that against the marking scheme provided by your course
coordinator. Do note that it is the discretion of the course coordinator to share the
marking system or not. The course coordinator doesn't share the marking scheme
for the second half of the course in most cases as they desire to encourage
student's development of cognitive understanding to split the question into parts.

Example Question:
With reference to Bhagavad-Gita Chapter 14, verses and purports discuss, in your
own words:
 Ways you are personally influenced by the modes of passion and ignorance.
 Practical ways you can develop the mode of goodness.

Division of Question into Parts:

i. Reference to Bhagavad-Gita Chapter 14, verses and purport
ii. Ways you are personally influenced by the
a. Mode of passion
b. Mode of ignorance
iii. Practical ways you can develop the mode of goodness.

2. The maximum word limit at any time, any place and any circumstance are 900
Words written by the student. There's usually a negative marking for 1 Point for
every 200 Additional Words.
3. The minimum word limit is 600 to 800 Words written by the student.
4. Students should use Quotes, References and Sanskrit terms with moderation. It
should not be more than 20% of weightage than the original words written by the
student.

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 5. Unless the question explicitly asks for Quotes, References and Sanskrit terms,
students are not obligated to present comprehensive references. However, there
should be a fashion that a Quote or Reference should support each theological,
philosophical point or statement made.
6. References should be distinctly visibly (preferably in the next line) and in italics.
7. There is a fixed deadline for each Open Book Assessment. Extensions can be given
at the discretion of the course coordinator.
8. Students can do rework only one more time as per the ISKCON Board of
Examination Rules.
9. The colour scheme of the paper should be black & white. Students are strongly
discouraged from using highlights and colours.
10. We will not accept handwritten or scans or photographs of essays. Essays must be
in a word file. PDFs are also discouraged.
11. Use of Words such as Srila Prabhupada, Krishna, ISKCON are not counted in the
Word Limit. However, for the reason of raising the word count, a student should
not overuse these terms. There is a negative marking for that.
12. Students should use diacritics wherever possible. Although, it is not mandatory.
13. Only one OBA should be per word file.

3. Qualitative Guidelines:

The following steps and resources will enable a student in writing a quality paper and
a checklist to go over to be sure you wrote a good paper. Research writing can be a
challenge, but with a little practice, it can become an important part of your academic
and professional toolkit.
1. Try to write in paragraphs instead of bullet points. Even though points-wise writing
is acceptable, but it doesn't give a scholarly outlook to the article. It becomes more
of series of headlines than an actual report.
2. To start with, regularly begin with writing a plan of contents for your piece. It may
be a time-consuming process, but with this technique, the overall writing essay
always takes significantly less time than writing without a plan. A design can be in
the form of writing the headers or a mind map.
3. Understand the Question: This is the most crucial guideline. But the fact is that
missing to understand the question correctly is one of the most common reasons
behind a mediocre or inferior essay. Does the author understand that are they
being asked to evaluate something critically? or compare and contrast two or more
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 themes? or analyse a particular circumstance or a thought? Or evaluate the
usefulness of a specific concept?

4. Map Your Essay: Think of your essay as an educational lecture or a speech. It

should have a logical structure, with all your points coming together to answer the
question. Please start with the basics: it is best to choose significant points which
will become your essay's sections or headers. Three main sections is a good
number as you have a word limit to abide by. Organize your points in a flow of
points. This method will ensure that you are always focused on your theme and
not deviate too far from the question.
Example:

5. Introduction: The opening of the essay catches the eyes of the reader. Keep the
introduction short, but it should have the qualities of raising some crucial
arguments which the rest of the paper will answer. The introduction need not
explain anything. A good introduction catches the reader's attention and makes
them curious, which further results in them reading the rest of your paper. Always
keep in your mind, you are asking your readers to spend their valuable time and
energy. Make it exciting and worthwhile.
6. Paragraphs: Always write your understanding for the said subject matter & never
make claims, especially claims that contradict Srila Prabhupada. Instead, give
clear ideas to support your opinion; build a case for your reader. Make sure that
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 your reasons do help or lead to the conclusion you wrote. Your readers should be
able to tell precisely what your understanding without confusion is. You need to
give your reader signals and have a clear structure that is easy to follow. Avoid
lengthy and confused or inconsequential texts or tangents, and clearly show the
transitions.
7. References: Quoting is an art that improves over time. Some students quote too
excessively, where they are basically presenting a book in condensed form. This is
stylistically poor and doesn't show the reader that you actually understand the
question. More typical is a shortage & absence of quotes—most students comment
on the subject matter without citing or quoting Srila Prabhupada. Citing is not
simply good academic etiquette or helpful to the reader, but it keeps you honest,
holds you accountable to the text. Srila Prabhupada, in his lectures and writings,
always quotes from different scriptures quite often. Citing each claim will help keep
you from making this mistake, especially since we all remember philosophy a little
differently as per our understanding. Never let quotes stand on their own—explain
them. Before quoting, one should realize that it is one skill to pick out relevant
quotes and another skill to understand what it says.

8. Headers: Give headings to your sections which should maintain an

understandable structure. Good headers are either overview or summary of the
paragraph/section in few words. Do not have sentences as headings. Headings are
more of a cue, less of an explanation.

9. Conclusion: It is an integral part of the essay as it provides closure for the reader
while reminding of the contents and importance of the exposition. This is done by
recapping the bigger picture of the essay. A conclusion does not include new
thoughts; instead, it clarifies the aims and objectives of the paper. A conclusion
should be no more than 100 words, and if someone is quoting Srila Prabhupada,
then perhaps use the most reasonable quote which becomes the bottom-line
(meaning there is nothing else to explain now.)

To Summarize: Quick checklist while writing an essay:

 Break questions in parts.
 Analyse & weight each part.
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  Make mind-map or outline of contents.
 Write section headers.
o Find Srila Prabhupada Quotes or References for each Section.
 Write body/paragraphs of each section.
 Write Introduction & Conclusion.
 Proofread & edit – on two different days.

Writing essays can be a challenge, but these writing suggestions can make the
process a little easier and a lot less painful. Of course, essay writing is an art form,
and there can be more than one acceptable way to master essay writing. Thus, the
motive of these guidelines is not to limit the writer's approach but give the
newcomers an understanding of the working framework.

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