There are three components to this exercise: 1) the
preparation of an abstract of your paper in accordance with APA guidelines; 2)
an oral presentation of no more than 15
minutes (this time limit will be strictly observed); and 3) the seminar paper.
Due dates and (rough) guidelines:
Abstract: Please
submit this to me as an email attachment no
later than the day prior to your presentation; they will be distributed to
the class.
Writing abstracts is a skill you should all begin to acquire
– most conferences will require you to submit an abstract as a condition
of acceptance to present a paper.
For our purposes, you should follow the guidelines for writing an
abstract for the American Philological Association. I have provided you with a copy of these guidelines as well
as some sample abstracts.
Oral presentation:
Your presentation should be no
more than 15 minutes in length (so please make sure you have timed
yourself), and should present the gist of your thesis together with supporting
evidence/discussion. Please note
that the presentation need not -- and indeed should not -- represent the final
product. Treat the presentation as
an opportunity to talk a bit about what your topic/idea is, discuss some
preliminary research and thinking, and where you think the paper is
headed. There will be ample
opportunity for feedback following your presentation, which hopefully will
contribute to your refining and honing the paper.
Seminar paper: Typed,
10-20 pages (I am loath to stipulate paper lengths, but I cannot imagine you
can write one less than 10, and anything more than 20 risks becoming a
monograph!). This should of course
be a fuller explication of what you cover in your talk, fully researched and
properly documented. Please follow
current guidelines for Transactions and Proceedings of the American
Philological Association in preparing your paper (IÕll give you a
copy of these).
IÕd like your paper no later
than Wednesday, December 16.
Earlier submissions gratefully received.