(1)  All papers must be typed, double-spaced, have 1 or 1.5-inch margins, and in 12-point font.  The final version should be around 5 pages long (thus, between 4-6 pp.).  They may be slightly longer or shorter as needed, but I encourage you to adhere to the limit as closely as possible.
(2)  Please number your pages and include your name and a creative(!) title on the first page.
(3)  Your essay should make direct and indirect references to at least 4 texts we will have read in class, including Plato's Timaeus, Hesiod's Theogony, Genesis, Job, the Gospel of John, the Qur'an ("The Table"), and The Golden Ass.  For purposes of citation, parenthetical, in-text references to the sources are fine.  Thus, please cite sources according to the following format: (Timaeus, 25), (The Golden Ass, 284), or (Theogony, lines 200-202).  Note that the titles of published works should be either underlined or italicized, but not both.  You do not need to append a "Works Cited" page to the paper.
(4)  Write as though your audience are readers like you--familiar with the works we are using, but otherwise formal and academic.
(5)  Your paper should discuss and be based only on the assigned readings, not on external sources.
(6)  Your paper should have a thesis, an argument.  Remember, a simple statement of fact (for example, “Hesiod wrote about the Greek gods.”) or basic comparison does not qualify as a thesis.  For more information and background on what a thesis is and how to create one, consult Ways of Writing, pp. 22-24, 28-33, and especially pp. 72-74.
(7)  Please proofread—this is often the difference between an “A” and a “B” paper.
(8)  Please hand your papers in, after giving them a final proofreading, in mentor section.

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Late paper policy

I accept late papers, but not without penalties attached.  Penalty guidelines are as follows, and include weekends:

• 1 day late = 1 small grade step deduction (i.e., from A to A-; A- is highest possible grade)
• 2-5 days late = 2 small steps deduction (i.e., from A to B+; B+ is highest possible grade)
• 6-10 days late = 1 full grade deduction (i.e., from A to B; B is highest possible grade)
• 11+ days late = 2 full grade deductions (i.e., from A to C; C is highest possible grade)
  

Students may also request an extension.  Mitigating circumstances such as a demonstrable, documented medical condition or acute personal crisis may be grounds for an extension, but only if requests are made in advance of the paper due date.  Extensions will never be granted on the day the paper is due, or afterward.  The instructor will arrange with the student an appropriate date on which the work will be turned in.  Students may ask for and receive only one extension request per term.

Note that late papers may be returned after the rest of the class has received its papers back, and with fewer comments.

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Assignment guidelines for the final version of the first essay:

To date we have read a selection of cosmographies--writings about the creation of the universe--and foundational religious writings from antiquity that grapple in various ways with questions surrounding creation, order, religious belief/practice, the supernatural, and the place of humanity in the universe.  Using a minimum of four texts--including Genesis, Job, Theogony, Timaeus, Gospel of John, the Koran, and The Golden Ass--expand on your initial draft along the lines of the assignment given below.  You are not expected to answer every question!  As before, essays will be evaluated based on the presence of a thesis statement, organization of ideas, direct and indirect use of sources to demonstrate argument, ability to analyze sources, and spelling, punctuation, sentence syntax, etc.

Please note that in some cases you may have to modify or adapt your initial paper to accommodate the ongoing assignment.  This may mean changing or adapting your thesis from the first essay, considering other kinds of evidence, and so on.  However, in most cases, I'd expect that you will be able to build on the first paper and incorporate significant portions of it.

Final paper assignment

The texts we will have read thus far span a period of approximately 1,600 years and have centered primarily on the ancient Near East, including Greece, western Arabia, northern Africa (Apuleius), and Egyptian and Roman Palestine.  In the first draft, you were asked to analyze the creation stories of Plato and Hesiod.  For your final paper, I would like you to consider how at least four of the ancient texts treat and discuss the place of mankind in the created universe.  What is the connection between cosmologies and ideas about the place of humanity in the universe?  How do the texts describe humanity's role and creation?  What is mankind's relationship to the gods/God?  How is this relationship established (e.g., in creation stories), and how does mankind achieve knowledge of this relationship?  Do humans simply "know" their roles?  Are they taught?  Do they learn them the hard way?  Test and/or reject their roles?  How and why might faith in higher powers or an ultimate reality have been important to humans living thousands of year ago? (Note that I am not asking how or why--or if--faith is important to humans today.)