Prof. Edith Foster
Kauke Hall 202
Campus phone #: 2352
Office hours: Monday and Wednesday from 1:00 to 1:45 and by appointment. Please make an appointment or call before you come in.
E-mail: efoster@wooster.edu

Course Goals:
The main goal of this course is to facilitate the production of your Junior IS thesis. As its secondary goal, this course aims to introduce you to some of the methods, concepts and resources of classical studies.

Remarks on the Class Format:

The class is divided into group meetings and tutorials. About half the time the class itself will involve no preparation on your part: we expect that you are working hard on your junior IS thesis every day. The other half of the time, the class will require some kind of preparation. This preparation is quite various in its forms and it is important for you to prepare carefully and thoroughly each time preparation is required.

As you will notice from the syllabus, you will be inventing your own writing process, including setting your own deadlines for handing in drafts. I will take these deadlines seriously once they are set, i.e. you will need a good reason not to adhere to them.

Tutorial appointments are not entirely easy to remake. Please do not miss them.

December 12 is the last possible day to hand in your Junior IS Thesis.

Grading Scheme:

Grades: Participation (coming to class, preparing assignments, participating in class, handing in your drafts on time, handing in all your drafts): 40%. After one unexcused absence from class, each further absence will be penalized by a 3% reduction of this mark. Each unexcused late or missing assignment will be penalized with a 5% reduction of this mark. (The absolute last thing you want to do is to fall behind.)

Junior IS thesis: 60%.

The Syllabus

Week 1

Tuesday, August 29: Introduction. The Syllabus. The IS Handbook. IS Assessment in the Department of Classics. Recording your learning goals for the long term: Rough Draft. The Copeland Fund and jr. IS. Sundry other topics as they arise.

Assignment: Research is life. Throughout the first part of this course we will read parts of articles, reviews, and book chapters chosen by students. Whenever it is your turn to choose an article, I need you to give me a copy the day before we read it in class.

Also: If you don’t subscribe to BMCR, you must subscribe at least for the duration of this course.

Thursday, August 31: Discussion: Writing Long Papers. 1) The writing process. Keeping records of the writing process, records of research, and the relation of research drafts and records to producing drafts. 2) Narrowing down a topic, and developing a thesis statement from a topic. What is a thesis statement? 3) Discussion of a student chosen article.

Assignment: Develop several tentative topics, if you don’t already have one, and write a description of your topic if you do already have a topic.

Week 2

Tuesday, September 5: Discussion: Topic Selection. 1) Why did you choose your topic, what are the parameters of your topic, what is the interest of your topic for yourself, for society, and for scholarship? 2) Your topic and your writing plans. What kind of writing plan can help you complete your paper? Are there alternatives? 3) How will your recording schemes mesh with your topic and your plan? 4) What hardware do you need in order to fulfill your goal? 5) This syllabus and your writing plan.

Assignment: Make up tentative writing plans.

Thursday, September 7: Presentation of writing plans and progress thus far. Your writing plan will include some deadlines which I will record and consider firm deadlines, i.e. if you don’t meet them you will need to give me some kind of explanation. Thus you should consider approximately how many sections your thesis will contain and when you think you can produce each section. It isn’t easy! But in order to get the job done it’s very important to make those expectations clear to yourself.

Week 3

Tuesday, September 12: Tutorials. This week will be devoted to one on one meetings with each student.

Thursday, September 14: Tutorials

Week 4

Tuesday, September 19: Discussion: Book Reviews. Why should I read them? Prof. Foster will bring in some reviews, which we’ll read together and assess for their usefulness.

Assignment: Be ready to read a section of your work in class on Thursday. Yes, I’m serious.

Thursday, September 21: Class Reading 1. Read and discuss your work with the class.

Assignment: One student will choose an article or book chapter for us to read.

Week 5

Tuesday, September 26: Library visit. Discussion of Oxford Texts, commentaries, and other aids. 2) The role of translations, and how to assess translations. 3) Discussion of scholarly writing chosen by student. Meeting Place TBA.

Assignment: Prepare research questions for the research librarian. Make the most of this opportunity: ask hard questions.

Thursday, September 28: McCoy Lab/Research Librarian visit.

Week 6

Tuesday, October 3: Tutorials: This week will be devoted to individual tutorials.

Thursday, October 5: Tutorials.

Assignment: Prepare to read a section of your work to the class next Tuesday.

Week 7

Tuesday, October 10: Class reading 2. Read sections of your work to the class; discuss problems, ask questions, get suggestions.

Assignment: One student will choose an article or book review for us to read.

Thursday, October 12: Discussion: Formatting and Citation Horrors. We’ll have this class before the break so that you have time to get over it. 1) Integrating citations, use of footnotes, use of annotated bibliographies, etc. 2) Special problems: Illustrations, citing the web, citing non-standard works (e.g. Hellenistic scholia, 17th or 18th C editions). 3) Greek and Latin in your thesis. 4) Plagiarism and Academic Honesty: How can I tell when I’ve crossed the line?

Discussion of student chosen article.

Week 8

Tuesday, October 17: Break

Thursday, October 19: Tutorials by request.

Week 9

Tuesday, October 24: Class Discussion: Classics and the 19th C. In class reading and discussion about the founding and origin of the discipline of classics. What is classics for? What is its relation to other disciplines, for instance History and Archaeology?

Thursday, October 26: Class Discussion: Classics Today. 1) What is classics like now? 2) Who does it, what are the subfields, what are they called? Epigraphy, numismatics, paleography, archaeology, etc. are exactly what sorts of things? 3) Classics and literary theory. Art History, Aesthetics, and Philosophy. Science and Feeling. God and the World.

OCC Conference, Oct 28-29.

Week 10

Tuesday, October 31: Tutorials

Thursday, November 1: Tutorials

Week 11

Tuesday, November 7: Class reading 3. Read your work to the class for comments and suggestions. Report on your writing process: how is it working, what parts of your process have you changed, what have you learned?

Assignment: All students will find an article, book review, or some other scholarly writing they either disagree with or dislike, and find an appropriate section of this work for us to discuss in class.

Thursday, November 9: Discussion: The Bosom Enemy. In class reading of articles students dislike or disapprove of. 1) Citing your opposition and making the most of opposing arguments. 2) Respecting your opponents.

Week 12

Tuesday, November 14: Tutorials

Thursday, November 16: Tutorials

Week 13

Tuesday, November 21: Producing drafts, redux: 1) Your table of contents. 2) What is a section? Your section drafts. What do they look like, and why? How is a draft of work done different from a draft of a thesis section? In class perusal of selected volunteer drafts.

Thursday, November 23: Break

Week 14

Tuesday, November 28: Tutorials

Thursday, December 30: Discussion: 1) Producing an abstract of your jr. IS thesis. 2) One of your final tasks: Revising the introduction and summary conclusion sections of your thesis. You’re almost there!

Week 15

Tuesday, December 5: Oral Presentations of Jr. IS Theses. This presentation involves presenting the main ideas and conclusions of your thesis and well as reporting on your writing process.

Thursday, December 7: Emergency tutorials.

Week 16

Tuesday, December 12: Last possible day to submit Junior IS Theses (include SASE if you want your thesis back over Christmas).