CMS 231/ History 231
Litigation in Ancient Athens
Formal Paper Requirements
These requirements relate to the form of your
paper. They are non-negotiable. The failure to satisfy any
formal requirement will result in the loss of ten [10] points
from your paper grade for each failure. Thus, a paper with 100
points without a title will receive no more than 90 points (A-); a
paper without a title and without page numbers will receive no more
than 80 points (B-).
- Your paper must have a title that
relates to the content of the paper. Thus, a paper with the
title "Athenian Litigation Paper," or "Paper," does not satisfy
this requirements. Conversely, a paper with a title like "The
Circus Maximus," will satisfy the requirement. I have found
personally, that spending time thinking of a good title actually
helps you formulate and refine your thesis. Thus, a title like
"Spectator Sport: The experience of the audience in the Circus
Maximus," is significantly better than "The Circus Maximus."
- Your paper must have page
numbers. Your page numbers must be typed. Because I
provide comments on papers, I need page numbers (e.g., the
comment. "this section repeats the argument you made on page 3,"
is more difficult for me to make if you don't have page
numbers.)
- Length: Your paper must be
between 2100 and 3000 words. This word count includes
footnotes, but excludes bibliography. Don't bother messing with
font type and size. Do a word count on your text and footnotes and
put the word count on your cover page. Note, I penalize excessive
brevity and excessive length equally. If you can only come up with
three pages, you need to reformulate your thesis. If you can only
say what you have to say in 30 pages you either need a) to edit
some more; or b) reformulate your thesis.
- Your paper must include a page providing
citations for the works you cite in the paper. You may, but
are not required to include material which you read, but chose not
to include in your paper. For example, you might read 10 letters
of Cicero or 5 articles about him, but only quote two letters and
2 articles in your paper.
- The Bates
College Statement on Plagiarism
contains excellent information about citation format. You
should refer to it and ask me about any questions you have
about citation form which the Statement doesn't answer. Other
good sources on bibliography form to consider are Kate L.
Turabian. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and
Dissertations (University of Chicago Press) [this is
what I used in college] and University of Chicago Press. A
Manual of Style [this is what I used in grad school -
either is great, Turabian is easier to use than the Chicago
Manual].
- Your bibliography must refer to at least
10 pieces of secondary scholarship.
- Your paper must have a cover page
which contains the following information:
- Your name.
- The paper's title.
- The paper's word count.
Unless I have overwhelming evidence to the
contrary, I will assume that your failure to conform to the formal
paper requirements indicates that you don't care about your paper.
Since I do give care about it, this would be a rather unfortunate
assumption for me to have when grading your paper.
Remember:
- Cover Page
- Page Numbers
- Title
- Bibliography
- Your Name
- Word Count