Last updated: Nov. 28, 2011

Classics Section  Major/Minor Programs in Classics at BGSU Romance and Classical Studies Bowling Green State University

Due Date:  Fri. Dec. 2. (Anything turned in after 4:30 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. Remember: when double-spacing, do not put extra space after a paragraph break. Yes, I take points off for this.)

Technical Details: Submit it to me via Blackboard, through the "assignments" menu; don't send it to the "digital drop-box". There will be an announcement on Blackboard when the assignment has been posted. For various reasons, I will no longer accept hard copies or papers emailed directly to me.

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., 2013)

 
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.

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 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. I'm not accepting pieces of mythic fiction these days because I write fiction myself and I need to avoid zones of potential liability, i.e. even the appearance of lifting ideas from student work.
 

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. ("Is he serious?" you may be asking yourself. If I could show you all the papers I've given failing grades to because of bad internet sources, you wouldn't need to ask.)

Another problem that comes up sometimes: don't use a source that replicates the assigned texts. There are other books that retell Greek myths based on ancient sources, exactly like Powell. But this assignment asks you to go beyond that material. So: actually reading and reviewing a tragedy about Heracles, or researching the cult of Heracles (or Hercules, if you want to look at Roman material), or something like that is fine. Just giving me a rundown of the Heracles myth, much as it's found in Powell, Apollodorus etc. is not fine.
 

A Final Warning: Don't plagiarise. I don't mean to sound paranoid, but the issue does come up from time to time. This is an informal writing assignment, but standards of academic honesty still apply. (See BGSU's Academic Honesty standards, including specific definitions and mandated penalties, in a PDF file downloadable at this link.) If you're unsure whether something you're doing constitutes plagiarism ask someone (me, for instance, or someone at the writing center--a great resource whenever you're having trouble with a paper). There's no penalty for asking, whereas the penalties for being caught are fairly severe--ranging from a zero on the assignment to (in extreme cases) suspension or expulsion from the university.