Political Science Essay

Format: your name, appropriate title, typed, Times New Roman, 12-point font, double spaced, normal (1-inch) margins, no header or footer, minimum length of 1,000 words (direct quotes used sparingly), plus a works-cited page.

Submission: PDF file uploaded to the submission folder in the Assignments tool (chances are that a Word file may also do just fine, but any other file, such as a .pages file, I will probably not be able to open or grade on the course website).

Instructions: Please develop your prelim thesis into an analytical paper that is at least 1,000 words. Below are further instructions for every writing component, not all of which will be on the grading rubric, however. These fulsome instructions are meant to reduce any anxiety you may have about the unknown; they aren’t meant to overwhelm you.

-title. Your title should not only refer to your central question but also at least hint at your answer. Feel free to use a title and a subtitle, separated by a colon.

-analysis and evidence. Your analysis or argument should be viable in the academic study of classical literature, that is, it should be open to debate, not obvious, and it should be based on evidence from the text, namely passages from Aristophanes; it should not be based on religious or irreligious truth claims (such as: ‘God exists // God does not exist, therefore ….’). In addition to, but not as a substitute for, evidence from the text itself, you’re welcome to bring in material from the intro and notes to Claughton & Affleck’s edition of Aristophanes as well as material from Denova. Do not use unapproved online sources: no Wikipedia, Google, etc. The purpose of the assignment is for you to rely on your own critical reading and thinking skills to make your own analysis or argument. I’m interested in what you, not others, have to say about the text.

If you want to get into the present-day implications of your topic, what’s at stake, for whom, and so on, you definitely can, but be sure to hold that until the concluding paragraph or two; don’t lead with that.

-organization and flow. You should have a deliberate introduction, body, and conclusion. Each should consist of however many paragraphs are fitting. At the macro level, there should be a conscious sequence of elements, and this sequence should be intuitive to the reader. At the micro level, there should sign-posts to guide the reader (such as first/topic/bridge sentences, key terms and phrases, transitional terms and phrases, pointing words).

-citation and works-cited page. You should use MLA style for all citations, and you should cite your source/s in-text. Citations should be consistent. Source/s should be summarized, paraphrased, or quoted appropriately, and any quotations should be smoothly integrated into your writing. Keep direct quotes to a bare minimum; summarize or paraphrase instead, leaving as much room as possible for you and your analysis or argument.

You should include a works-cited page at the end of the paper on its own page. Though required, it does not count towards the length of the paper (1,000 words). Here below are some sample entries that you are fee to copy and paste:

• Claughton, John, and Judith Affleck, eds. Aristophanes: Clouds. Cambridge, 2012.
• Denova, Rebecca I. Greek and Roman Religions. Wiley-Blackwell, 2019.

If you need additional help with MLA style, you go to D2L > Library Tools > Research & Writing Tools > Citation Style Guides > OWL MLA guide.

-language usage. You should proof read to make sure your writing is free from sentence-level mistakes (grammar) as well as word-level mistakes (spelling, diction). Grammatical rule breaking, creativity, and neologisms are not off the table, but any instances must be justifiable besides intentional. Your rhetorical style and tone should be appropriate for an academic university setting, and they should comply with the Behavior Policies and Online Etiquette in the Syllabus here. A further note about rhetorical style: this does not mean that you are required to write in ‘academese.’ For instance, if you want to write “My argument is …” instead of “this paper will argue …,” do that.

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You can revisit the reading from Graff & Birkenstein and their strategies for communicating agreement and disagreement in academic settings, if you like.

You can do this instead of a Google search, if you have the urge for additional information besides what’s in the edition of the text.