Mr. Matthew Arbo:  Homeschool Conference Speaker and Workshop Leader Details

On Research and Writing
As early twenty-first century Americans, we find ourselves inhabiting a culture of pervasive inexpressiveness. Institutions of higher learning have taken note of this deleterious phenomenon in recent years and rightly attributed it to steeply declining literary skills among incoming freshmen. Introductory composition courses have retreated to covering basic grammatical rules like proper punctuation and subject-verb agreement as many incoming students are widely believed to lack rudimentary writing skills. Research skills likewise appear to be drastically underdeveloped. Students often fail to distinguish legitimate authorities from illegitimate and very often do not grasp the difference between textual consultation and plagiarism. This presentation surveys some essential principles and methods in response to a few key questions: (1) how is research initiated and organized? (2) How does writing accentuate good research? And (3) how can the writing task be simplified (at first) to enhance the ideas presented?

• Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics at Midwestern Baptist College,
• M.A. and B.A. in Philosophy from Liberty University
• M.Th. and Ph.D. in Christian Ethics from the University of Edinburgh.

He teaches courses in ethics, philosophy, the humanities, research and writing, and Christian political thought. He has published prestigious journal articles in the U.S.A. and Europe and has written several scholarly reviews. In addition, he has presented numerous papers to various societies and theological foundations. His research interests range broadly, encompassing Christian ethics, political theology, Augustine, philosophy of religion, historical theology, and the history of economic thought.