Guidelines for Honors in Classics

The Advantages of Taking Honors

The honors course in Classics gives you the opportunity to research in detail a subject which interests you and write up your results in an extended paper (40ñ80 pages). By taking honors you will be able to work independently (with some guidance from your advisor) and thus experience the trials and rewards of research. If you are well prepared and serious in your work, writing a thesis can be the most interesting and fruitful academic experience of your undergraduate career. For these reasons, the department strongly encourages suitable candidates to consider taking honors.

Before proceeding, however, you should decide whether this is the best option for you. In some cases it may be more rewarding to take two 300-level courses on central authors or subjects you have not yet studied. We encourage you to discuss your options with your advisor, the Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS), and other members of the faculty.

A. Prerequisites for Candidacy

The candidate for honors must normally have:

1. a GPA average of at least 3.3 in Classics courses (including courses counting for the major under the rubric of ìrelated coursesî) and
2. a grade of A- or above in at least one 300-level course in the field of Classics relevant to the candidateís proposed thesis.

   The candidate must also submit to the honors committee:

3. a proposal for study (cf. B.1. below),
4. the name of an advisor who is willing to supervise the thesis, and
5. a term paper or essay which gives evidence that the candidate will be able to meet the guidelines for a complete thesis (cf. C below).

Candidates who do not meet these criteria may apply for special dispensation, providing they obtain the support of a potential thesis-advisor and the DUS.

B. Timing Guidelines

The honors course is an 8-credit unit completed over two semesters. In addition to the research that you conduct under the direction of your advisor, you must adhere to the following timetable.

Fall Semester

1. During the third week of classes in the Fall semester, you the candidate should submit to the Honors Committee (by way of the Undergraduate Program Secretary) a 2ñ4 page proposal for research.

   [The proposal should outline the subject that you want to investigate and include a preliminary bibliography (at least 3 relevant books or articles) and a plan of research. You do not need to know your precise thesis at this stage.]

2. One week after classes end for the Fall semester, you should hand in to your advisor a bibliography of works read to date, a revised version of the proposal, and a rough outline of the thesis (2ñ3 pages).

   [The bibliography, revised proposal, and outline will be used by the advisor (in consultation with the committee when relevant) to determine whether you have completed enough research to be able to write an honors thesis in the short period remaining before your graduation. If your advisor finds that this is not the case, your work in the Fall term must be converted by petition to a one-semester independent study.]

   Spring Semester

3. Four weeks before the deadline for honors grades (or 2 weeks before the end of classes), you should submit to your advisor the final draft of the complete thesis.

   [The purpose of this requirement is to allow adequate time for the advisor to advise, and for the student to hand in a thesis which meets the scholarly requirements outlined below. This should allow you to finish with a serious piece of work, worthy of your efforts over the year. Failure to hand in the final draft on time will automatically disqualify the candidate from highest honors.]

4. Two weeks before the deadline for honors grades (or by the end of classes) you should turn in the completed thesis to the committee (by way of the Undergraduate Program Secretary).

   [The purpose of this requirement is to allow the committee sufficient time to appraise all the honors theses fairly. Failure to hand the thesis in on time will automatically disqualify the candidate from highest honors. If the thesis is handed in too late for the committee to evaluate properly, the candidate will not receive honors.]

C. Assessment of Honors Theses

Candidates are reminded that it is an honor to receive honors. The course of study may result in any of the following:

1. Honors. If the thesis meets the criteria of research, thought, originality, and scholarly presentation outlined below, you will be awarded honors at the appropriate level (cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude), in addition to the grade for your research (considered as an independent study).
2. No honors. If the thesis is handed in too late or is incomplete or otherwise inadequate, no honors will be awarded. Your work will be graded as an 8-credit independent study, on the normal letter-grade scale of A-F.
3. Termination of honors course after the Fall term (cf. B.2. above). In this case, you will be graded as a 4-credit independent study for the term on the normal letter-grade scale of A-F.

D. General Criteria for Honors

1. Although it is difficult (and perhaps too restrictive) to set out rigorous guidelines for the appropriate level of ìresearch, thought, and originalityî, the following points are designed to give you a rough idea of the kind of work we hope that you will produce.

   Research. To receive honors, the thesis will typically give evidence of a serious attempt to understand the relevant secondary literature. This will usually involve detailed attention to some 5ñ20 articles or chapters which focus on the specific issues you discuss in addition to some recognition of the general scholarly consensus (or lack of consensus) exhibited in more general studies (e.g. encyclopedias or introductions to topics, authors, or translations, etc.).

   Thought. To receive honors, the thesis will give evidence of serious thought about the issues and arguments involved in the thesis. This will typically be shown by the way in which you develop the thesis with respect to the context of scholarly thought on the subject and by the cogency of the arguments developed in the thesis.

   Originality. To receive honors, the thesis must display a level of originality appropriate to your knowledge of Classical culture and scholarship. A thesis which develops the ideas of previous scholars with flair and cogency may be considered ìoriginalî in this sense; theses which independently develop ideas that have been published in languages or publications deemed by the advisor to be inaccessible to you may also be considered ìoriginalî.

2. It is not so difficult, however, to discern the requirements for scholarly presentation: you can see them manifested in (most of) the articles which you read during your research. The following are merely some of the more significant features that a laudable thesis will exhibit.

   Bibliography. The thesis must have an adequate bibliography (as determined by its specific subject matter and the honors advisor). Some guidelines have been suggested above (under ìresearchî). The bibliography will normally contain at least: 5ñ20 relevant articles, some introductory works; and texts, translations, and editions of the Classical authors or material used.

   Annotation. The thesis must have appropriate notes. These will vary with the subject, of course, but will usually involve:

   1. citations of primary and secondary sources (primary sources should be cited in their original languages, if possible, and translated);
   2. passages from primary texts supporting the interpretive claims you make; and
   3. citations of secondary sources noting agreement, disagreement, or further reference on an issue which exceeds the scope of the thesis.

   English. The thesis must be written in clear, grammatically correct English. It should not contain spelling errors (it has been revised, after all, several times).

   Thesis advisors will select an article or chapter in the relevant field of study for you to use as a model for the presentation of the thesis. (The model(s) should exemplify, e.g., a citation convention and bibliographical format.)

E. Criteria for High and Highest Honors:

In order to receive an honors grade, a thesis must meet the criteria enumerated in D.1 and D.2 above; to receive a distinction of magna (or, more rarely, of summa) cum laude, a thesis must further exhibit excellence in one or more of the categories enumerated in D.1. (In borderline cases, the committee may consult the studentís academic record in order to determine the appropriate level of honors.)

F. Note on Choosing an Appropriate Topic

If you reflect on the criteria laid out in D and E, you will see that your choice of topic will be the major contributor to the ultimate success of your thesis. Some topics are too vague; some are too well studied to allow for original thinking; others are rich with unexplored and interesting possibilities, but require a modern language you donít know or reading more primary texts than you can cover. What you need to come up with is something that you both want to do and can do now without additional preparation.

Look for a new perspective on a subject that interests you. The big issues in that subject will be easy to discover; but what are the smaller questions that determine those issues? You may find that some part of one of these questions or arguments relies upon an assumption which you will be able to test if you formulate it correctly. By formulating that question correctly, and testing it, you will contribute to the understanding of the larger subject (even if everyone does not accept your results). This is the kind of thing to look for.