Last updated: Jan. 27, 2007

Classics Section Romance Languages Bowling Green State University

Due Date:  Mon. June 18. (Anything turned in after 3:30 will start accumulating late points.)
 

Description: A 5 page paper or equivalent project involving reading and research beyond the required course materials. (Double-spaced, 1 inch margins, 10-12 pt. font.)
 

Description: A 5 page paper or equivalent project involving reading and research beyond the required course materials. (Double-spaced, 1 inch margins, 10-12 pt. font.)
 

Necessary Elements: A bibliography of the reading(s) on which your paper is based. It doesn't have to be much (this is a very small project), but whatever you used in writing the paper should be in the bibliography (which should be on a separate page, and doesn't count as one of the 5 pages).

e.g.

Porpoise, Bob Bob the Angry Porpoise's Big Book of Classical Myths (Cetacean Institute Press, 1776)

Schmoe, Joe 14 Amazing True Facts about Myth (Thinbooks Ltd., 2007)

 
Any time you refer to or quote from the work you should cite a page number (or equivalent).

e.g.

"Heracles was always a horrible person with bad table manners," Demeter claimed. "We never should have let him into Olympus." (Porpoise, p. 222.) On the other hand, since Demeter had been known to eat other people's shoulders at dinner (Schmoe, p. 7), her own table manners were not above criticism.

Topics: Anything that relates to the course subject.

Suggestions (meant to be illustrative, not exhaustive)

Myth papers might compare a Classical myth or hero to a nonclassical one (e.g. Heracles vs. Beowulf, Norse Creation vs. Greek Creation, Classical myth vs. modern "urban legend"), investigate a Classical myth in greater depth (e.g. Medea's story, Heracles' "First Trojan War"), review a movie (book, video game, etc) with myth content. If you do a second review for your final paper, though, you still need to do some reading/research beyond the required course materials. If you would rather not do a paper and want to do something else entirely (e.g. a short piece of mythic fiction; a work of art; an interpretive dance representing the victory of the Epigones over Thebes etc.), run the idea by me first. I'm not necessarily hostile to the idea, but I'll want to ensure it entails a reasonable amount of research.
 

Sources: Anything reasonably scholarly will do. In general, a book which gives you the evidence on which its assertions are based (e.g. citations of primary evidence) is scholarly. If it doesn't, it's not scholarly, even if it was written by a scholar. Children's books (e.g. D'Aulaire's fine Book of Greek Myths) won't do, unless you are specifically writing about myth in children's literature. When in doubt about a source, consult me (via e-mail, phone or in person). Be especially cautious about internet sources: there is a great deal of misinformation masked as information on the WWW. (There are plenty of excellent sites, too, though.) Do not base your paper on an internet source without consulting me first.
 

A Final Warning: Remember that plagiarism, at minimum, will earn a zero for the assignment, and potentially an F for the course; in extreme cases plagiarism may be punished by suspension or expulsion from the university. Don't risk it. I don't mean to sound like a paranoid, but this issue (plagiarism) does come up from time to time. Remember that anything you can find on the Web I can find with equal ease. If you are wondering whether the use you are making of a source constitutes plagiarism, ask. (There's no penalty for asking.) For a writeup on what constitutes plagiarism and the penalties for it, see the link below.

http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/writing-lab/plagiarism.html