Length: 5 pages (Works Cited are NOT a separate page)
Style guidelines: MLA format available on the SFU library site.
Write your name and student number on the top left corner of the first page of the paper. Number your pages. Place the paper title of your choice at the top centre of the first page, underneath your name and student number.
Formatting: 1” margins.
Use Times New Roman. 12 pt.
Line spacing: double.
Spacing: 6 pt before and after. DO NOT LEAVE EXTRA SPACE BETWEEN PARAGRAPHS.
Indentation: first line.
Insert page numbers.
Quotations shorter than 3 lines should be in-text and within quotation marks. Quotations longer than 3 lines should be indented at 0.5” (no quotation marks).
Set punctuation marks (. , ?) at the end of a quoted passage within the quotation marks (e.g.: “He fell.”) but after the brackets if the page citation follows
(e.g.: The poet’s opening invocation, “Sing, Muse” (Odyssey 1.1), gestures toward … )
FOLLOW THE BREAK-DOWN OF THE LINES OF THE ORIGINAL POEM.
Parenthetical citations: title of the text (Odyssey), book, and lines. E.g.: (Odyssey, 2.10-15). You can omit the parenthetical mention of Odyssey if the book source is already clearly mentioned in your paper and there is no possible confusion with other citation sources. The purpose of citations is always achieving clarity and allowing the reader an easy retrieval of the original information.
Secondary sources are cited parenthetically by author and page number. E.g.: (Ferrucci 38).
Works Cited: At the end of the paper, not a separate page. E.g.:
Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. R. Fagles. New York: Penguin, 1996. Print.
(Use the paragraph function “Hanging” for all bibliography).
If needed, use footnotes but not for citations.
General guidelines (read carefully):
Your essay should contain a title of your choice.
Do not repeat the essay question in the introductory paragraph.
An argumentative (persuasive) essay builds an argument—a critical position—with regard to the essay question. A thesis is not a comment or observation but a central claim that responds to the question: “So what?”
Your essay should contain a clear and well-structured argument, linking thesis to examples. Be specific in your examples.
Deadline: March 25 at 11pm.
Use of secondary sources. This assignment asks that you include at least one secondary source, but limits your choice to those sources indicated by the instructor. This is done so that no risk is taken in choosing sources not appropriate to the task. An academic essay involves a scholarly conversation. No student or researcher develops their ideas in a secluded context. Sharing information and opinions is an important aspect of research. Equally important is the development of an argument by taking into consideration what other experts have said (we can’t reinvent the wheel every time we write). It is not a question of agreeing or disagreeing, but once we have established that the research of experts is sound, we will include it in order to open a conversation about the topic. Even if we don’t know the researchers in person, we engage with their own writing. We will bring such writing into our own research by 1) acknowledging they are the originators of their own ideas (i.e., proper citation), and 2) responding to their argument. In this way, our own ‘central claim’ (i.e., the thesis of the paper) will slowly take shape. EVERY ACADEMIC ESSAY contains the writer’s orchestration of different scholarly voices in order to consolidate the writer’s argument. It is not done for the sake of exercise. Research aims at higher knowledge. In the future, other scholars will contribute new ideas and will incorporate our own research. The process is ongoing. For the sake of this course—at a 100-level—you will discuss your ideas and develop an argument by taking into consideration the claims of another scholar.
Choose one of the following topics. Your essay should contain at least one secondary source among those suggested. Do NOT use sources outside of those listed. Use the material listed in the Bibliography-folder on Canvas or Fagles’s list at the end of the book, which is available through the library online sources.
The essay questions already direct you to the appropriate source.
Cite secondary sources appropriately.
WARNING: The selected material uploaded on Canvas is for course use only and cannot be reproduced or circulated outside of the class. The full publications are available in the library.
In order to help you develop a well-constructed argument, I have formulated the essay topics with specific guidelines for discussion.
You are welcome to come up with a different topic but you will need to run it by me first.
All essay topics focus on Homer’s Odyssey. The topics are formulated through different questions in order to help you think critically about the poem and the function of myth in societies.
A GOOD ESSAY always includes a close-reading and in-depth analysis of the material. Make sure that at least TWO of the episodes you discuss are analyzed in depth (not just “summarized”). Although specific, your discussion should show awareness of the larger context of the poem.
Discuss the characterization of Odysseus in the Odyssey. Does Odysseus undergo a radical change or is he reasserted as the character we expect him to be? How does he differ from the Odysseus of the Iliad? Do you agree with Thalmann’s description of the Odyssey as “an epic of return” and Odysseus as the hero “absent,” “in transition,” “wandering,” and “returned”? How does the etymology of Odysseus’s name, as discussed by Stanford, add to our reading of the poem?
(Suggested secondary sources: Thalmann, Stanford, Kohen)
