0. Mechanical details: "2 pages" means two pages double-spaced with a 10- or 12-point font that's not outrageously large and one-inch margins. Anything between 1.5 and 2.5 pages is OK; less than 1.5 is too short and more than 2.5 is too long. I would like to receive all papers electronically. The easiest way to do this is just to attach the paper to an email message. You don't need to turn in a hard copy, but you may if you wish. In the very unlikely event of email or network problems, you can give me the paper on a floppy or CD, or print it and give me a hard copy and send the electronic version later when the problems are resolved. In any case, I should receive a paper prior to the beginning of class every Friday.
1. You need to have a main point or thesis. The paper should not be merely a record of your reactions to one or more of the readings, but should present and defend a claim about the reading.
Many different sorts of theses are possible. Your thesis can be interpretive, defending a view about how the text or some part of it should be understood. For example: that the Iliad represents a critique (or celebration) of heroic culture;
A second sort of thesis would be comparative, comparing (for example) heroism or warfare or the role of fate in the Iliad and the Aeneid, or the conception of justice in the Oresteia and the Republic. These topics are far too broad as they stand, but a more specific issue in this general area would be appropriate.
A third sort of thesis would be evaluative, evaluating either part of the text itself or some scene or character within the text. For example, you might argue that Plato's critique of democracy is unsuccessful, or that he never successfully refutes Thrasymachus' claim that justice is the interest of the stronger; or you could argue that Hector is morally superior to Achilles (or vice versa).
There are lots of other possibilities also. Just keep in mind that you need to have some sort of main claim whose defense requires close attention to the text. In general, the more specific the thesis the better ("The Iliad is a great work" is much too broad and vague to be a good thesis; "Zeus's leadership of the gods is due to his political savvy rather than his power or justice" is better.)
2. You need to defend your main claim. The paper needs to be argumentative; it needs to support your views, not merely present them. It needs to give your reader reasons for agreeing with you, not merely information about your own views.
In selecting a thesis, be aware of what sort of evidence or support you will need to properly defend it. Avoid theses that you don't have the time or resources to defend adequately, or that would require a lot more than two pages to support. (It's OK to offer some support for your thesis, and then conclude by indicating what further sorts of support you would try to provide if you had more time or room. In some cases you might want to use the two-page paper as a sort of prospectus or trial run for a longer paper. But you need to provide some support for the thesis in the paper.)
Thus it is a good idea to restrict yourself to theses that can be supported by careful work with the text, and to avoid theses that require a great deal of outside research. For example, it would not be a good idea to defend the claim that the Theogony is unique in mythology in defending an account of the origins of the gods. Why is that a bad thesis? Because to adequately defend it, you would need to consider all other mythologies and show that none of the others gave such an account. This would require a lot more empirical information about various mythologies than you will be able to glean from our texts.
It's also a bad thesis for a second reason, namely that even if you had all the necessary information about world mythology, it would take a lot more than two pages to survey it all in order to support your thesis!
A point to keep in mind is that a thesis that everyone would immediately agree with is likely to be pretty boring and not worth defending. For example, the thesis that Zeus in the Theogony is not a very attractive character is so uncontroversial and obvious that it's probably not worth spending two pages defending. On the other hand, if you wanted to argue that Zeus is genuinely admirable, despite minor flaws like eating his wife, that would be potentially pretty interesting.
3. Your writing needs to be clear, concise, and well-organized. In a short paper, every word counts; don't waste them with unnecessary repetition. Similarly, you should avoid overly broad openings that don't serve any real purpose (e.g. "The Iliad has been read and pondered for thousands of years. Countless people have puzzled over its significance . . ." and so on). Simply begin by explaining the stand you will take or the question or problem you will address, and then dig right into the work of explaining and defending your view. Material that doesn't directly contribute to explaining or defending your view should be ruthlessly excised.
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Last update: August 30, 2005. |