Attached you will find a pdf labeled Paper Topics, you can choose any that deem fit for you. I choose Antigone because it seems the easiest, if you want to do another - please let me know and I will provide you with what you need. You will also find the a

General Guidelines for Papers (For anything not covered here, use MLA format.)

General Guidelines - 1

All papers must be typed and double-spaced. Use twelve-point Times font (about 400

words per page). Use one-inch margins (top, bottom, left, and right). Put your name and my

name on top of the first page of your paper. Give your paper a title, number your pages, and

spellcheck. Staple your pages together (do not use paper clips or elaborate plastic devices). Be

consistent with spacing: either put two spaces after all periods, question marks, and exclamation

points or put one space (MLA style). Put one space after commas, semicolons, colons, and the

like. Do not put extra space between paragraphs. Be consistent when you show emphasis: either

use italics or underline your wordsl; do not use boldface.

When quoting a passage more than a few lines long, you must set it off through

indentation, a blank line before and after the quotation, and single-spacing. (MLA format allows

for double-spacing, but I would advise use single-spacing unless you want to practice MLA

format.) Here is an example from Plato:

You know, gentlemen, I’m not really making my own defense here, far from it. I am here to defend you against making a mistake about the god’s gift to you by convicting me. For if you do kill me, you will not easily find my replacement. I am literally (if it’s not too ridiculous to put it this way) stuck on the city by the god, as if on a big whopping horse that because of its size is rather sluggish and needs to be waked up by a horsefly or something—it seems to me the god has sent me to the city to be something like that fly; I wake you and convince you and criticize each and every one of you and am constantly at it, all day long, settling all over you. A replacement for that kind of person you’re not going to get so easily, gentlemen; I want to convince you to conserve me. (24)

Notice how I do not start a new paragraph after the quotation. In a novel, every quotation would

require a new paragraph; in a literary paper, only begin new paragraphs when you have finished

with the ideas in that paragraph. Also notice that the quotation does not use quotation marks.

You need to use quotation marks when you quote a line in the middle of a sentence, but you must

not use them with indented quotations. Finally, notice that I give the page number in parentheses.

Technically I should use a footnote the first time I quote from a work, but for purposes of this

class only use a footnote if you cite a text not used in the course.

General Guidelines - 2

When quoting a short passage in the middle of a sentence, use quotation marks. For

example, if I wanted to quote “You know, gentlemen, I’m not really making my own defense

here, far from it” (24), I would punctuate as I just did. Notice that the page number in

parentheses immediately follows the quotation and is in turn followed by a comma. If it were

already clear which page the quotation was from, I would not have provided the number in

parentheses. Thus the same quotation, “You know, gentlemen, I’m not really making my own

defense here, far from it,” would have the comma inside the quotation marks when no page

number followed. A period (or a question mark or an exclamation point) would also remain

inside the quotation marks; a colon or a semicolon would go outside the quotation marks. Thus

you might point out that Socrates first compares himself to a fly that is “stuck on the city by the

god”; he then goes on to compare the city to “a big whopping horse that because of its size is

rather sluggish and needs to be waked up by a horsefly or something.”

With indented quotations (block quotations without quotation marks), the page number

follows the quotation without any punctuation other than the parentheses. With quotations in

your sentences (quotations with quotation marks), page numbers should never hang without a

punctuation mark between sentences. There should always be some punctuation mark—usually a

period—following any page number in parentheses at the end of a sentence. If the quotation

itself ends with a period, a period is placed outside the quotation marks after the quotation when

it is followed by a page number, as in the following: “You know, gentlemen, I’m not really

making my own defense here, far from it” (24). If the quotation ends with a question mark or an

exclamation point, the question mark or exclamation point stays inside the quotation marks, and

whatever punctuation mark would normally end your sentence—usually a period—is placed after

the page number in parentheses. Here is an example from Plato: “Is there anybody who does not

believe in horses but believes in horsey things?” (20).

On occasion you may find it necessary to modify a quotation to fit the grammar of your

sentence. You should never distort the original quotation, and the modifications you make should

always be minor and made evident to your reader via square parentheses. An example will make

General Guidelines - 3

this point clear. In the original text of Plato, Socrates says: “I would be surprised if I were able to

root out so much prejudice in such a little bit of time” (17). You might want to say that Socrates

claims that “[he] would be surprised if [he] were able to root out so much prejudice in such a

little bit of time” (17). Minor modifications include changing capital letters to lower-case letters

(or vice-versa), and switching the entire sentence from one tense to another. The meaning of the

sentence should never be changed. You should use an ellipsis to indicate that you have left out

some of the original text: “I am literally… stuck on the city by the god” (24).

When quoting verse in a paper, try to make the text appear as close to the original as

possible. Always recognize line breaks, as in the following passage from Othello:

Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors, My very noble and approved good masters, That I have ta’en away this old man’s daughter, It is most true; true I have married her. (I.iii.76–79)

If you quote some verse in the body of your paper, indicate a line break with a slash (/): “Most

potent, grave, and reverend signiors, / My very noble and approved good masters.” To indicate

stanza breaks, use two slashes (//). Take, for example, the following lines from Archibald

MacLeish’s poem, “Ars Poetica”:

A poem should be palpable and mute As a globed fruit, Dumb As old medallions to the thumb.

Here is how to quote these lines in the body of your paper: “A poem should be palpable and

mute / As a globed fruit // Dumb / As old medallions to the thumb.” For poetry and plays, it is

often better to substitute line numbers (act numbers, scene numbers, book numbers) for page

numbers, as in the above example. If you have given the page number for a passage from a short

poem, you do not need to give it again if you continue to quote from the poem. Note: The rules outlined above are for American English. British English differs.

General Guidelines - 4

Other helpful hints: 1. Avoid plot summary when at all possible. 2. Assume your audience has read the text you are analyzing, but may not have noticed some details that struck you. If it helps, think of your reader as a fellow classmate. 3. When referring to what goes on in the text, use the present tense when possible. It makes your prose more alive. 4. Avoid making sweeping statements about culture or history. Remember, you are writing short papers; your argument should be based mostly on the text you are analyzing. 5. If you use arguments from class discussion, you must add something substantial of your own. The goal is originality, not regurgitation. 6. When reading a book, we inevitably and rightly bring our own cultural and present-day concerns to bear on it. From this perspective, there may be instances when it is impossible to distinguish what comes from the book from what comes from ourselves. Still, try to let the book “speak for itself” rather than impose your views on it. To keep yourself honest, ask yourself whether your argument could have been made without the details of your analysis: if the answer is “yes,” it is likely that you are not delving deeply into the text. 7. It is important to use quotations from the text as pieces of evidence. It is also important to analyze the quotations, especially the long ones, whenever possible and appropriate. 8. If there is an obvious counter-argument to your argument, it is generally good to recognize this argument rather than sweep it under the rug. 9. Some picky points. If you use contractions, use them sparingly (some professors will tell you not to use them ever). If you use the first person (I, we), try to confine these uses to rhetorically effective moments (ex. beginning or end of paper, moments when you absolutely must distinguish what you are saying from what somewhat else has said). When referring to a century, write out the number. Example: “the sixteenth century.” When you use the century as an adjective, you need a hyphen. Example: “this sixteenth-century novel.” 10. Your conclusion should do more than restate your argument: put matters into perspective, explain why your argument is important, suggest some ramifications of your argument.