1. Papers should be between 8 and 12 pages, Times New Roman double-spaced.

2. Topics should use class readings as a starting point. For example, you can choose Cicero's understanding of fame as the conceptual center of your research. After you read carefully through the Cicero text and your notes, you can pose a number of relevant questions (Can fame be a good thing, too? Have the conditions for fame changed historically? etc.). These questions and your preliminary answers to them can become the introductory part of your paper. The middle of your paper needs to explain how you arrived at these preliminary answers (usually this is where you will need some further readings to use as substantiation). The third part is where you conclude how successful your inquiry has been and what further questions remain unanswered.

3. You should feel free to bring in any outside sources from history, philosophy or another related field.

4. Pictorial reference and tables can be great but I would encourage you to make sure that they have direct relevance to your argument. These are not mandatory, of course.

5. A great way to stay focused would be to just choose two (or more) of the readings we've done and compare them in your paper. This would mean less additional research and would also give you the benefit of class notes.

7. Ideally, you should be able to send an outline to me that shows the structure of your intended paper. This would include a list of the research problems/questions and the respective answers (pertaining to the first part of your paper), some information of your approach to these answers and the readings to be used (second part) and your conclusions (third part).