Latin 521
Fall 2023

Paper Guidelines

• The paper must have a narrow, argumentative focus on a scholarly problem, debate, or controversy suitable for the development of a sharply focused thesis in 5pp. (please consult with me about the thesis in advance).
  
  
• Assume a readership with specialized knowledge of the subject: do not waste space on general background, plot summary et sim.
  
  
• Your paper is to be at least (but not significantly more than) 5 full pages in length (not including your Works Cited), double-spaced; use 12 point type (Times or Times New Roman fonts) and standard margins (i.e. 1 inch at Top and Bottom, 1.25 inches Left and Right.
  
  
• The Works Cited (not a Bibliography, as in the reports) should contain only secondary works referenced in the paper; use the citation formats required for the report. If you use standard Latin and Greek texts (e.g. OCT, Teubner), you don’t need to cite these in your Works Cited.
  
  
• Use short, in-text references within the body of your paper, e.g.:
  
  Smith 2005: 76 asserts, “Seneca loved hemlock.”
  A lengthy biographical tradition details Seneca’s love of hemlock (Smith 2005: 71-85, Wilson 2018: 45-67).
  Smith’s 2005 biography discusses the philosopher’s reputed love of hemlock (71-85).
  
  
• Avoid lengthy block quotes of Latin text; cite only words and phrases (with minimal surrounding context) that you discuss in detail.
  
  
• Footnotes, if used, are for relevant digressions (not citations) which, if included in the body of your text, would impede the progress of your argument.
  
  
• Use only curved (= inverted commas, i.e. “. . . ”) not straight quotation marks (" . . .").
  
  
• Quotations of 2 or more lines of text should be indented and single-spaced; you must provide your own translations of all Latin (and Greek) texts that you cite throughout the paper.
  
  
• Cite ancient authors and texts using abbreviations listed in the front of the OLD, the OCD, or LSJ.
  
  
• Cite specific text according to the usage of one of the reference works immediately above; do not use Roman numerals or the word “Book”, e.g. (after OLD style) Luc. 5.322 (though you won’t need to use “Luc.” repeatedly in a paper focused on Lucan, where the reference is obvious), not Luc. Book V.322.
  
  
• In your Works Cited, don’t abbreviate the titles of journals; don’t include journal fascicle numbers, unless your reference is from 2023 and not all this year’s fascicles have been published in a single volume, e.g. Classical Philology 98: 23-34, not Classical Philology 98.3: 23-34 or Classical Philology 98 (3): 23-34.
  
  
• Elide page and line nos. wherever possible, e.g. 146-9, not 146-149 or 146-49. Note that in the case of “teens” you must use two digits to avoid the appearance of backwards reading, e.g. 15-17, not 15-7.
  
  
• Include (i.e. in your Works Cited) URLs only in rare instances where a publication exists only online; virtually all Classics journals still exist in hard-copy, which is the same as what you see on JSTOR, etc.; nor does your readership generally need to know when you last accessed an online version of a publication.  
  

Submit the paper in MSW to the D2L file (under “Assignments”), where it will be scanned by Turnitin.

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