Summary: Academic papers should be based on the student's analysis of sources located through research.
Learning how to locate reliable sources and recognize sound theological evidence is one of the most important skills for a seminary student to develop. It is a lifelong skill that is applicable to your entire ministry, not just to your time as a student. Sound scholarship allows you to formulate a solid, orthodox argument, and in turn, to have your message taken more seriously. Regardless of why you are pursuing a theological degree, you should “be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
Some of your papers will require you to incorporate information from primary sources. For example, your Liturgics professor might ask you to compare the Eucharistic liturgy in an early edition of the Book of Common Prayer with a later one or to compare editions from two different countries. There are both print and online versions of the BCP editions, and most of these can be trusted as reliable reproductions of the original text. But unless you have studied the topic extensively and can write about the it authoritatively, you will also need to consult sources written by experts to learn what they say about the liturgy, as well as their interpretation of any differences in it over time or across geographical lines. Therefore, one of your first actions upon receiving an assignment should be to find out whose interpretations to read first.
In your courses at CTH, take note of the authors to whom your professors often refer and the sources mentioned in your textbooks so that you will know who's who in a given field. For example, if you want to do research about any aspect of the Book of Common Prayer, you would most likely consult works by Peter Toon and Percy Dearmer at a minimum.
With reliable experts as your starting point, you can then examine the citations in their work to find additional sources. For example, Percy Dearmer's classic work entiled The Parson's Handbook includes an extensive list of sources about the BCP, at least some of which should lead to additional bibliographies that will, in turn, open up additional avenues of discovery.
When reading a novel, you can sit back and passively be drawn into the narrative. But when reading to understand a topic well enough to write about it, you must engage with the text, deciding whether you agree with the author's view and if not, constructing an argument against it. As you come across a passage that seems pertinent to your topic, read, mark, and inwardly digest it, take notes on it using the preliminary outline you developed (see Getting Started), and ask questions about it. Identify quotations that you will use in your paper, and determine what you want to say about them and how you want to introduce them. A good writer will produce an original argument that is supported by quotations and other evidence rather than having multiple quotations quilted together by a few threads of transitional phrases.
Once you have read each of your sources and determined how each of them fits with your topic, your next task is to determine how your sources fit together. Do all of them present the same view of the topic, or is there some disagreement among them? Which one makes the most convincing argument and why? Which ones will you use to support your thesis, and which ones will you refute?
Additional Resources
Book Chapter: Research and Critical Reading. The section on active reading is particularly useful in developing good research strategies.