Latin 501 Fall 2017 Guidelines for Paper #1 (due Thursday, October 26, 11:59pm; late papers will be penalized) •
The paper must have a narrow, argumentative focus, suitable for the development of a thesis in 5pp. (consult with me about the focus and thesis); assume a readership with specialized knowledge of the subject (i.e. do not waste space on “general background”).
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Your paper is to be 5 full pages in length, double-spaced; use 12 point type (Times or Times New Roman fonts) and standard margins (i.e. 1 inch at Top and Bottom, 1.25 inches Left and Right); as 1 page = 300-350 words, your paper should contain at least 1,500 words (not including your Works Cited).
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The Works Cited (not a Bibliography, as in the reports) will contain only secondary works referenced in the paper; use the citation formats required for the report.
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Use short, in-text references within the body of your paper, e.g.: Smith 2005: 76 asserts, “Lucretius loved hemlock.” A lengthy biographical tradition details Lucretius’ love of hemlock (Smith 2005: 71-85, Wilson 2003: 45-67).
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Footnotes, if used, are for relevant digressions (not citations) which, if included in the body of your text, would impede the progress of your argument.
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Quotations of 2 or more lines of text should be indented and single-spaced; you must provide your own translations of all Latin (and Greek) texts that you cite throughout the paper.
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Cite ancient authors and texts using abbreviations listed in the front of the OLD, the OCD, or LSJ.
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Cite specific text according to the usage of one of the reference works immediately above; do not use Roman numerals or the word “Book”, e.g. (after OLD style) Lucr. 5.322 (though you won’t need to use “Lucr.” in a paper focused on Lucretius, wherein this is obvious), not Lucr. Book V.322.
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In your Works Cited (as in a report Bibliography), don’t include journal fascicle numbers, unless your reference is from 2017 and not all the year’s fascicles have been published in a single volume, e.g. Classical Philology 98: 23-34, not Classical Philology 98.3: 23-34 or Classical Philology 98 (3): 23-34.
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Elide page and line nos. wherever possible, e.g. 146-9, not 146-149.
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Include (i.e. in your Works Cited) URLs only in rare instances where a publication exists only online; virtually all Classics journals still exist in hard-copy, which is the same as what you see on JSTOR, etc.; nor does your readership need to know when you accessed an online version of a publication.
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Submit the paper to the D2L file (under “Assignments”), where it will be scanned by Turnitin.
