CLST/WSGS 295-WI: Women in the Classical World Fall Semester 2009 Dr. Jacqueline Long

Problem-paper

Goals

• To gather information from a literary text
• To analyze your information, compare it to other related information, and identify significant facts and patterns
• To generate, test, refine, and develop a thesis arising from your analysis
• To build from your information and analysis an argument that advances your thesis persuasively
• To set forth your argument clearly, concisely, and correctly according to widely-accepted standards of good style

The approach:

1. Read the passages of Apollodorus, Against Neaera selected as L&F³ 90 (Dem. 59.18-42, 45-60, 72-73, 78-29, 85-87, 110-14, 122).
2. Identify information within L&F³ 90 that helps to answer the following question (note section-numbers, the Arabic 18, 19, etc. that are marked parenthetically in the text, as the most convenient system of passage-references for this document; when you get to the point of writing, include passage-references for each item of information you quote or paraphrase):
   In what respects does Apollodorus allege that Neaera's experience violated norms of "respectable" women's lives in fourth-century BC Athens, and what do these violations demonstrate about the social values that governed both "respectable" and "non-respectable" women's experience?
3. Analyze your information, bringing into comparison relevant items of information in other sources we have considered.
   • Compare and contrast Neaera's alleged experience to a "respectable" fourth-century Athenian woman's experience. What facts or actions Apollodorus alleges would have significantly transgressed "respectable" standards? What facts or actions Apollodorus alleges would have conformed to "respectable" standards?
   • Analyze the comparisons you draw. What social values make Neaera's alleged conduct and experience seem transgressive? What social values are expressed in Neaera's not-so-transgressive alleged conduct and experience, and in "respectable" women's conduct and experience as contrasted with Neaera's?
4. On the basis of your analysis, generate a thesis answering the question.
5. Take your thesis back to the source and test it. Does your thesis account for all the relevant information in the source, both in the sense of being complete and in the sense of being right? Refine your thesis as necessary.
6. Compose an argument demonstrating your thesis persuasively. Summarize concisely the information you draw from your sources, and explain concretely how this information supports the interpretations you have formed. Include source-references with all information you paraphrase or quote, so that a reader can confirm your information readily.
7. Compose an introductory paragraph setting up concisely the problem you will be analyzing and the thesis you will be arguing.
8. Compose a concluding paragraph confirming your argument and indicating what consequences your proof of your argument entails.
9. Write out your introduction, argument, and conclusion. The whole things should fill about 4 word-processed, double-spaced pages in 12-point Times Roman (roughly 1000 words).
10. Doublecheck Strunk and White and make sure you are writing clearly and correctly.
11. Proofread.
12. Print out your paper.
13. Come to class Wednesday 7 October with your paper in hand, ready to contribute to peer-review and collaborative discussion. The papers will be collected in class.

Revised 29 September 2009 by jlong1@luc.edu
http://www.luc.edu/classicalstudies/