Preparation: After reading the feedback you got on your Prelim Thesis, carefully

Preparation: After reading the feedback you got on your Prelim Thesis, carefully weigh that and in response plan to make any necessary adjustments to your thesis as you develop it into your Second Analytical Paper. You’ll probably also need to plan where and how to expand your thesis with further supporting reasons, points, evidence, or related questions to explore, in order to reach the minimum required length for the paper, and that may entail a bit of re-reading in your notes and in Cicero.
Format: your name, appropriate title, typed, Times New Roman, 12-point font, double spaced, normal (1-inch) margins, no header or footer, minimum length of 1,000 words (direct quotes used sparingly), plus a works-cited page.
Submission: PDF file uploaded to the submission folder in the Assignments tool (chances are that a Word file may also do just fine, but any other file, such as a .pages file, I will probably not be able to open or grade on the course website).
Instructions: Please develop your prelim thesis into an analytical paper. Below are further instructions for every writing component, not all of which will be on the grading rubric, however. These fulsome instructions are meant to reduce any anxiety you may have about the unknown; they aren’t meant to overwhelm you.
-title. Your title should not only refer to your central question but also at least hint at your answer. Feel free to use a title and a subtitle, separated by a colon.
-analysis and evidence. Your analysis or argument should be viable in the academic study of classical literature, that is, it should be open to debate, not obvious, and it should be based on evidence from the text, namely passages from Cicero; it should not be based on religious or irreligious truth claims (such as: ‘God exists // God does not exist, therefore ….’). In addition to, but not as a substitute for, evidence from the text itself, you’re welcome to bring in material from the intro and notes to Walsh’s edition of Cicero as well as material from Denova. Do not use unapproved online sources: no Wikipedia, Google, etc. The purpose of the assignment is for you to rely on your own critical reading and thinking skills to make your own analysis or argument. I’m interested in what you, not others, have to say about the text.
If you want to get into the present-day implications of your topic, what’s at stake, for whom, and so on, you definitely can, but be sure to hold that until the concluding paragraph or two; don’t lead with that.
-organization and flow. You should have a deliberate introduction, body, and conclusion. Each should consist of however many paragraphs are fitting. At the macro level, there should be a conscious sequence of elements, and this sequence should be intuitive to the reader. At the micro level, there should sign-posts to guide the reader (such as first/topic/bridge sentences, key terms and phrases, transitional terms and phrases, pointing words).
-citation and works-cited page. You should use MLA style for all citations, and you should cite your source/s in-text. Citations should be consistent. Source/s should be summarized, paraphrased, or quoted appropriately, and any quotations should be smoothly integrated into your writing. Keep direct quotes to a bare minimum; summarize or paraphrase instead, leaving as much room as possible for you and your analysis or argument.
You should include a works-cited page at the end of the paper on its own page. Though required, it does not count towards the length of the paper (1,000 words). Here below are some sample entries that you are fee to copy and paste:
Walsh, P.G., ed., Cicero: The Nature of the Gods. Oxford, 2008.
Denova, Rebecca I. Greek and Roman Religions. Wiley-Blackwell, 2019.
If you need additional help with MLA style, you go to D2L > Library Tools > Research & Writing Tools > Citation Style Guides > OWL MLA guide.
-language usage. You should proof read to make sure your writing is free from sentence-level mistakes (grammar) as well as word-level mistakes (spelling, diction). Grammatical rule breaking, creativity, and neologisms are not off the table, but any instances must be justifiable besides intentional. Your rhetorical style and tone should be appropriate for an academic university setting, and they should comply with the Behavior Policies and Online Etiquette in the Syllabus here. A further note about rhetorical style: this does not mean that you are required to write in ‘academese.’ For instance, if you want to write “My argument is …” instead of “this paper will argue …,” do that.
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You can revisit the reading from Graff & Birkenstein and their strategies for communicating agreement and disagreement in academic settings, if you like.
You can do this instead of a Google search, if you have the urge for additional information besides what’s in the edition of the text.
You can revisit the tips for avoiding plagiarism here, if you like.
You can learn more about how to use the Assignments tool in the D2L Help Pages here.
Idea 1. I might write my paper on the topic of Is there anything that can prove the existence of God? For example, in Book I of On the Nature of the Gods, “What power of mental vision enabled your master Plato to descry the vast and elaborate architectural process which, as he makes out, the deity adopted in building the structure of the universe? What method of engineering was employed? What tools and levers and derricks? What agents carried out so vast an undertaking? And how were air, fire, water and earth enabled to obey and execute the will of the architect? “(Walsh page/23s). I think this passage means Plato’s ideas were ridiculed by later generations, and people did not believe in things that could not be proven. People who laugh at Plato’s views seem to be very dissatisfied with the environment created by God and the flaws of man himself. They believe that if God exists, the world should be made a better place.
Idea 2. Or I might write about Believing in the existence of God is not the same as believing in God. For example, in Book I of On the Nature of the Gods, ” For all these are tributes which it is our duty to render in purity and holiness to the divine powers solely on the assumption that they take notice of them, and that some service has been rendered by the immortal gods to the race of men. But if on the contrary the gods have neither the power nor the will to aid us, if they pay no heed to us at all and take no notice of our actions, if they can exert no possible influence upon the life ” (Walsh page/5s). I think this passage means Even if life is not fair, believing in God will give life meaning. But this meaning needs to be found in a deep belief and cannot be avoided by believing in something supernatural. Everyone may have a different meaning of God in their hearts, and this God will affect us in some way
Hi Vincent,
I think your first idea will make a great topic for a paper. There are a lot of different perspectives when it comes to believing in God and believing a God exists and while this would be an interesting paper I feel that there will be many more parallels and therefore more supporting information between the text and your first topic. The second topic, in some ways, lends itself to questions of bias and Christian motives, etc. Additionally, the question of whether or not believing in God is different from believing a god exists isn’t really asked. The text seems to focus almost exclusively on whether or not the gods exist.

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