Prepare a brief paper, five pages in length (12-pt. font Times New Roman), in response to the following:
What are the main arguments of E.J. Watts in Hypatia: the Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher? What does Watts reveal about the social and intellectual life of late Roman Alexandria? How does Watts’s study illuminate major historical issues pertaining to the later Roman Empire?
The source material is Edward J. Watts, Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher. Women in antiquity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.
This assignment is due 11/26/24, and you will upload your paper to ELMS. Your instructor will evaluate your performance based on the following guidelines:
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Historical method. A good historical paper employs specific evidence (sources, written or material) to answer important historical questions. For this case the evidence is EJ Watts’s study of Hypatia. Use only this source to write your paper.
Another part of the historical method is documentation. Each statement of fact that you present in your paper must be documented with reference to a specific passage in your source. In short, this paper will have many references to Watts, probably 15-25 of them. Please use parenthetical citations to refer to the page numbers in Watts; e.g. (Watts, 8).
Naturally, every word in your paper should be your own, i.e. written by you, not taken verbatim or paraphrased from another author. Please use quotations sparingly. Of course, any quotations you use from Watts must be set in quotation marks (“. . . ”), or put in the form of a block quotation (set-in and single-spaced) if longer than one line.
2. Logic of presentation. When you have studied the assigned text, construct a logical argument. You may wish to prepare a written outline to assist you with this procedure, or you may not. Be sure to begin with a short introductory paragraph stating what you intend to do and how you propose to do it; proceed by doing it; at the end, summarize by stating what you have done. This instruction is deceptively simple but critical to your success as a writer of expository prose.
3. Correct use of English. Be careful with the mechanics of grammar and spelling because your instructor will emphasize mechanics in her evaluation. Check every word longer than two letters for spelling and meaning. Do not dangle your participles, split your infinitives, or use pronouns that do not have a clearly expressed reference. Every sentence must have both a subject and a verb. Your use of commas and semicolons must correspond with standard American usage.
4. Format. Your paper must have 1″ to 1 1/4″ margins and footnotes (or endnotes) in the proper form. It must come to double-spaced five pages (i.e., more than four, less than six). Be sure to provide page numbers. You do not need a cover page or bibliography.