Important Information

Report Guidelines

You have three reports due this semester. 

• Each is a 1-2 paragraph analysis of a resource that might be useful to others doing research. 
• Although these reports are brief, they cannot be half-baked.  They are going on our web page so they must give effective, helpful information, and be well-written and comprehensible by the average student.  If there are problems with the early version(s), you’ll redo them until I give them the OK (a process I will help with if needed)!

Resources are of three types.

• Article and/or chapter reports:  These are reports from an article or book chapter on the topic of Amazons.  For books, a chapter is an appropriate report topic.  (I will suggest that if we have books to review, a team of people agree to share the book, review each other’s work, and produce a completed report on the book.)  For some lightweight books, several chapters can count as one assignment – we can decide together what’s appropriate.)  Everyone must do at least one article/chapter report on a serious academic article.
• Ancient Author reports: There are a number of ancient authors who write on Amazons.  Your report gives the basics of that author’s time/place/genre and an overview of his contribution to our knowledge about Amazons.  You may do one or two author reports.
• Website Reports. There are many websites on Amazons.  Your report should analyze the contents and perspective of the site, so that others wanting to use its resources will know what resources this site offers.

Requirements:

Article Reports

• Head the report with a bibliographical entry in the following format:
• Brown, Frieda S. and William Blake Tyrell (1985).  Ektilosanto: A reading of Herodotus’ Amazons.  Classical Journal 80.4: 297-302.
• Blok, Josine (1995).  The Early Amazons: Modern and Ancient Perspectives on an Ancient Myth.  Leiden and New York: E. J. Brill.
• Include the following information:
• A summary of the main arguments of the article
• A description of the author’s audience/perspective/level of expertise (i.e. is it written for scholars & serious researchers?  Is it introductory material for students?  Is it a new age tract? etc.)
• Observations of the sources the author is working from (e.g. archeological evidence, literary sources, imaginative musings, whatever)
• Your summary should convey to a student of your intelligence and knowledge, what information that article will reveal, and whether it is trustworthy and appropriate for that student’s research or reading.

  Ancient Author Reports

• Head the article with the ancient author’s name, genre  and accepted dates, e.g.:
• Herodotus (historian, ca. 484-430 BCE)
• Include a description of the author’s work, and if possible his methodology (i.e., did he report myths uncritically, was he a writer who was allowed creative license, was he making a political speech when he mentioned Amazons?)
• Summarize what he says about Amazons, especially noting if he is the only source for a piece of interesting information.

Website Reports

• Give the website’s name, address through a hyperlink, and note the last day you visited it (since websites are always changing), e.g.:
• Mysteries of Ancient History and Archeology: The Amazons (Aug. 20, 2002)
• Observe who the website authors / maintainers are; note academic qualifications if any;
• Note the range of the site’s contents (you want to provide information that will be useful to people perusing a group of links to see what they want to check out);
• Observe the quality and perspective of the site’s information.  Appropriate comments are the authors’ awareness of primary sources & research methods, political or spiritual perspective, recreational or academic purpose, etc.

Research Project Guidelines

Our goal this semester is to create a webpage that unites all of our research into a helpful document for other students.  This has several implications.

• We need to coordinate our research topics so we get a strong overview of Amazon issues.  Within this framework, there should be plenty of room for people to explore their individual interests.  It is likely that some people will work on longer, more coordinated projects while others work on shorter projects to fit into out overall framework.  If your preferenceis for a “research paper” type of project, fine; if you would rather write a similar amount but on several different issues, that’s fine too.
• Some projects will be group projects, while other people will prefer to work alone.  Some group projects may be individuals coordinating the final stages of their topic, while in others, the whole group may do most of the work together.
• We need to present our information in an appropriate way for the Internet.  This means that we need to think in terms of interconnections between our work, and structuring research in a way that you would find appealing if you were doing Internet research.
• All of our research material needs to be well written, clear, and accessible.  Writing must be grammatical and clear.  Stilted, “academic-sounding” writing is counterproductive, and a very colloquial style might not support our mission to present good, scholarly information.  We are going for clarity and easy comprehension.  Write as if you were talking to your classmates – assume intelligence and some knowledge, and if you think they wouldn’t get what you’re saying, rework it.  If your classmates don’t understand your points, your Internet readers won’t either.

Grading and Requirements:

There is no specific length requirement for your topic.  But the effort should be equivalent to what you put into a significant paper, say 12-15 pages.  I don't want that all to come in length, though.  I want your effort to be apparent in the quality of your information, how completely you have used primary and secondary sources, and in the quality of your writing and presentation.

You may show me material you are working on at any time.  On the due date, you turn in your material for a grade.  But you can have two rewrites.  Your project grade is a combination of the grades of your rewrite(s) and first presentation.  If you do a great project right off, then you're done early, and you get the A you earn then.  If your first attempt is a C, then you can better that through working with me.  My hope is that everyone will make the A- to A+ level by their final draft, because that is the quality of work we need for the web page.  

Submission Guidelines:
How to submit your writing for the Web Page:

• Submit it in a Word document, not saved as a web page.
• Typeface Times New Roman.
• Single spaced.
• Titles (for articles and chapters) without formatting, including bold and italic.
• Text without formatting, except for italics for foreign words or to reflect auhtor’s use of it in quotes.
• No paragraph indents or overhangs, no double space between paragraphs.  (A double space between paragraphs will automatically appear in html.)
• attach it to an email or bring it to me on a clearly labelled disk.  Do not cut and paste into the body of an email message.

November 14 Project Submission:

We will not have class on Nov. 14, so you need to bring your projects to me at LH 273 sometime that day before 5:00.  You must bring 2 things:

• Your project in hard copy
• Your project in electronic format (see Submission Guidelines); you may either bring me a clearly labeled disk or email me your material as an attachment.  As the guidelines suggest, DO NOT give me your work in anything other than a Word document, because my computer will not read it.

What you send me via electronic submission is what will be posted on our web page for other students to review and offer suggestions on.  It will help for this material to be as complete as possible, so your fellow students will be able to offer the most helpful comments.

I will choose the topics to be discussed in each remaining class of the semester. I should have the first three chosen and posted by Friday, Nov. 15, and the rest by Monday, Nov. 18.

Your final version is due 7-10 days after the class discusses your project, or by Dec. 16, whichever comes first. 

Critique: The System

Offering Critique:

• On the assignments page for each class, several project drafts will be posted.  You are expected to offer some meaningful feedback on at least half of the projects.  You may choose to comment on some in more depth than on others.  Your comments count as part of your class participation grade.

• Turn in your comments to the person whose project is being discussed.  You may want to keep a copy for your portfolio as well to be doubly sure that I have a copy of all of your input.

Receiving Critique

• When your project is discussed, you will receive comments, suggestions and resources from other students.  

• Keep these (using what you find useful) while you revise your project, then turn them in to me when you turn in your revisions.  Treat them carefully because they are part of someone else’s grade – don’t sabotage your fellow students by losing their work! 

• Please also assist your fellow students by telling me whether you found some comments particularly helpful.  You may write your responses on the critique sheet you receive.

• I will tell you how I want your revisions -- in some projects you'll want to incorporate them into a new document, or I will schedule a time for us to work on it together, or I may wask you not to incorporate revisions but work with me to put them directly onto the web page.

Providing Good Critique

• First rule: be courteous.

• Second rule: be specific.  Not "I noticed several typos" but "In section xx I saw the following typos"; not "You could have included a lot more about x" but "in class we discussed x y and z and these ideas might work well in q section of your project", not "I read somewhere that xyz" but "Tyrrell says on p. x that . . ."   Of course, if you don't have specific information but still have ideas you want to convey, this is helpful too -- but do remember that you want to provide as much specific help as possible.

• Speak honestly: if you see a problem or if you think something is not working or is incomplete, you can say so.  (These are drafts after all and many will see major revision).  Always remember that you are trying to help people make their own work be the best it can be.  This means pointing out both flaws and good points, and it also means that even your most telling criticisms should be constructive.

Web Board Discussion

Form now until the end ofthe semester, we will be engaged in a discussion of two interrelated issues: 

• Did the Amazons Really Exist? 

• What is an Amazon?

What to Post: I will edit our discussion and include it in a special section on our web page.  I want this to be an interrelated discussion so I will try to preserve the sense of give and take as we approach these issues from our differing perspectives.  Write with the sense that others from outside our class will be reading this, who do not necessarily have our specialized knowledge.  Refer specifically to primary sources or to secondary sources.  Check your messages for spelling and grammar.  I don't expect everyone to write flawlessly and it is fine to have an informal, conversational style -- this is a different thing from our reports, for example.  But do speak coherently, persuasively, and courteously.

Access: Our web board is accessible from Campus Pipeline.  Log on and select School Services.  You will see your class schedule.  Click on Amazons, and to the left, under class tools, you will see Message Board.  Click on that and follow the largely intuitive guidelines for posting.

Due Dates