An example of an A- paper.

I suggested that you focus on one single topic and examine it in detail. This paper focuses on the way in which women in Latin America, who are living in an extremely patriarchal society, find ways to use religion to their benefit.

From the start, the topic is clear:

One perplexing question is why women seem to be consistently more religious than men. This fact seems to remain constant across cultures, but there is an even higher rate of religiosity in women in cultures such as Latin America, which are characterized by a high rate of domestic violence and sexism.

 Compare that to the following opening paragraph: 

Religion is found in every country of the world. Many people base their life on religion and most people follow a religion. It is important to have in mind that religion moves people all over the world. This can be seen when a new pope is announced, people from all over the world travel to the Vatican city in order to be present for the announcement. As religion is still so important for people, so are its rituals...

You are trying to impress me with your research, your ability to find interesting new facts and ideas. Am I really going to be impressed with the observation that lots and lots and lots of people are religious, or be impressed that you noticed lots of people went to Rome to see the new Pope? None of those observations are particularly relevant to the paper, they are just filler.

This topic is mentioned by Bruce and Trzebiatowska, who cite the paper by Elizabeth Brusco that I discussed in class.

Notice how everything in this paper is properly referenced. The claim that Latin American society is particularly chauvinistic is not based on an appeal to a popular stereotype, nor is it derived from personal observation, it is based on documented evidence found in a peer reviewed source.

We don't just have facts, but a possible theoretical explanation for the facts, based on the theory that religion is a group adaptation, helping groups cement their internal relationships by providing a means of signalling costly commitments. So there is a theory that is being used to provide a plausible explanation for the evidence, although criticisms of the theory also receive a mention.
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