- Maker: Stefan Henry
- Genre: Academic Paper
- Level: Graduate
- Program: Composition, Rhetoric, and Digital Media
- Course: WRIT 5400: Technical Writing
- Instructor: Dr. Eric Mason
- Semester Created: Fall 2025
Description
This project was inspired by my fascination with The Shroud of Turin, a linen burial garment said to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Venerated as a relic, its authenticity has been in dispute for hundreds of years. While the Catholic Church has never declared it authentic, it has been recognized as an item of reflection and hope. The Shroud has been heavily scientifically scrutinized since the 1970’s. However, there has not been any definitive conclusions regarding its authenticity as a result of the disparate results garnered from various tests.
The paper seeks to determine how the Shroud acts as both a rhetorical and technical document and how it bridges the gap of spirituality and materiality.
Reflection
I grossly underestimated the amount of research that I would have to do to make a compelling argument with regard to this topic. Additionally, much of the testing on the Shroud was done in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, so the articles are decades old. More modern research has not been published in a peer reviewed capacity, making it at the very least questionable. Also, I regret not having started my research earlier. I think that having given myself time to research I would have tried to track the popularity of the Shroud over the modern era to see when it was most popular and determine how public opinion drove research, and, or the lack thereof. Also, what effect the state of the world had on the public’s interest in the Shroud would have been an interesting dynamic to explore as well as it would have added more depth to the paper.
Overall, I do no think that I successfully accomplished what I set out to do, but that was simply my own doing by underestimating the time I needed to write a compelling paper.
