Write an essay on the readings that advances a thesis about the meaning rivalries had in this context.

ESSAY QUESTION:
In this module we learned that what was special about Athens during the classical era (beginning in the 5th century BCE) was how mass assemblies and courts emerged that provided venues for managing conflicts and power struggles in the city. We read three speeches delivered by citizens who were locked in rivalries and conflicts with other citizens. We also read a three-part play by Aeschylus that dramatized the classical Athenian view of rivalry and strife. Write an essay on the readings that advances a thesis about the meaning rivalries had in this context. Devote half your essay to the reading on Athenian Speeches (topic 6 on the website) and half to Aeschylus (topics 7 and 8).

Your first paragraph should have the following structure:
First, in your own words (around 100-150 words), briefly explicate and clarify the problem raised in the question.
Second, state your thesis in bold. As stated in the essay instructions, a “thesis is a single (unitary), specific, informed and meaningful insight that responds to the essay question” or problem. This should be one sentence.
Third, in around 100 words or so, explain how your thesis addresses the problem raised in the question.
Finally, briefly outline the steps you will take to explicate and develop your thesis.
ESSAY INSTRUCTIONS:
What material to use for your essay
Primary sources: Course readings. All essays on this course are on the course readings of the module. Your points must be supported by direct quotes, paraphrases, and summaries of the course readings.

Secondary sources: Lectures. The essay assignments are on the readings, not my lectures. My lectures are only resources to help you understand the readings and put them in perspective. They are not substitutes for your own independent reading. If you base your essay on my lectures without doing the readings for yourself, you will get both the readings and my lectures wrong. For example, in my lectures I base my analyses and interpretation on a close reading of the text, often by pulling together different pieces of the reading, and then thinking through their connections and implications for understanding law and morality. If you haven’t done the reading yourself, you will confuse the results of my analysis with the text that I am analyzing. Students who do this often claim that the text says something when in fact it is me who said that after thinking through the text. If you are unable to tell the difference between another person’s commentary on a text and the text itself, you do not know either and you will get both of them wrong.

Never use sources outside the course. Anything in an essay that is based on outside sources will not count toward the grade. Furthermore, essays that use outside sources will receive a penalty of 25% to 100% depending on how much they rely on those sources. Read as much as you like, but don’t use it in your essay if it is not on the syllabus for the course.

Length

Essays should be 6-8 double-spaced pages (2000-2400 words) in length, excluding title and bibliography. Your goal in each essay is to tie together insightfully the readings in a given module in response to the problem raised in the essay question. You will need space to do this adequately. If you need an extra page or two, that is fine.

The essay question

Essay questions will present you with a conceptual problem that defies simple, factual answers. This problem will come from the readings and be central to the readings, but addressing it will push you beyond merely summarizing the readings. So, once you’ve studied the texts, your main challenge will be to reflect on the problem, and think through what makes it difficult, what causes it, what its consequences are, what is at stake in addressing it, how different views expressed in the readings stand to this problem, what it means to notice this problem, how to differentiate between adequate and inadequate ways of dealing with this problem. All this will require careful, individual thinking and reflection. Since essays assignments ask you to do more than simply summarize the readings, you will need the kind of thesis described below.

Thesis requirement

If your essay lacks commitment to a thesis, the highest grade it can get is C+. You are asked to commit to a thesis in your first paragraph, and use the rest of the essay to develop it, grow it, explicate it, elaborate its significance, and use it to think more deeply about the reading. In this course, a thesis is the key lesson that someone, in your view, would be able to draw from the texts to thoughtfully answer the problem or difficulty raised in the essay question. A thesis is not a topic, fact, issue, summary, nor a collection of any of these things. Rather, in HUMA 1825 a thesis is a single (unitary), specific, informed and meaningful insight that responds to the essay question. Let me break that definition down:
A thesis is a “meaningful insight”: it makes a difference to (has an effect on) how one reads the text. It generates meaning from the text that is not already evident from a mere summary or description of what is written in the text.
It is a “single” or “unitary” insight: this means you haven’t merely offered a list of topics or points as a thesis, but you’ve stated explicitly the insight that connects each point to the next to form a conceptual whole. A thesis will not tie your essay together if the thesis itself is not tied together.
It is a “specific” insight: a thesis is specific if it provides focus to your essay and reasoning. A thesis is specific if it is distinct, it stands out, is obvious, has clear boundaries of what supports it and what does not support it.
It is an “informed” insight: this means that your thesis is about the readings and it reflects an awareness of the readings in their entirety. If your thesis reflects only a partial understanding of the readings, it is not “informed”.
It “responds to the essay question”: A thesis that addresses the essay question needs to discern the problem that the question poses to the reader to provoke some insight. There are specific issues raised in every essay question, and these issues together form a specific problem that invites reflection. In preparation for writing your essay it is vital to read slowly every part of the essay question, and break things down (just like I’ve done here for this definition of a thesis).
Wording a thesis

Expect to spend time wording and re-wording your thesis statement many times until you find the right way to capture the conceptual connections and nuances that you find important for addressing the question. If your wording is unclear or vague, you haven’t thought things through enough. On the other hand, if your thesis is well phrased, it will make your essay memorable and meaningful, as you will be able to invoke it repeatedly as you develop the insight it expresses over the course of your essay.

To check whether you have a thesis

Does your thesis make any difference to how one should read the texts? That is, can you draw a clear contrast between what the texts mean on a first impression, and what they would look like to someone who re-reads them with your thesis (and essay) in mind? If your thesis makes no difference to how one should read the texts, you are not developing a meaningful insight that puts the texts in an interesting or different light, and you do not yet have a thesis.

How a thesis in HUMA 1825 differs from what you may have been taught in other courses

Follow the above definition of a thesis for this course, not other definitions that you may have encountered in other courses or in high school. For example, students are often told that a thesis is a list of three points on the essay topic. Or, they are told that a thesis is a position in a debate against rival opinions. The definition of a thesis that we will use in this course is neither of these. Rather, and as stated above, it is a single, specific, informed insight:

To move beyond the “three point essay”: If you are in the habit of thinking that a thesis is a list of three points on the essay topic, ask yourself the following: what is the single insight presupposed by each of these points that makes them necessary to each other and resolves any potential incompatibility between them? That is, what is the key insight that permits us to think each point through each other so that to think one is to think them all? The answer is your thesis that you are free do develop in as many paragraphs as you need as described above.

To move beyond the “argumentative essay”: If you are in the habit of thinking that a thesis is an argumentative position in a debate against rivals, focus instead on the task of interpreting the readings as deeply as possible, not on defeating others in a debate. Ask yourself the following question: what, for you, is the one key insight about the readings that would put them in a clear light so that one can get as much out of them as possible and make them memorable?
As stated above, finding the words to express your thesis can be difficult because it requires crystallizing different connections into a concise phrase that you can invoke repeatedly as you develop the insight it expresses in your essay. Phrasing your thesis takes practice, and above all it takes individual work: thinking the readings through for yourself as truthfully, sensitively and as rigorously as you can, and phrasing and rephrasing your ideas over and over in drafts and redrafts until you can distill and clarify the conceptual unity of your thinking.

Steps for writing an essay

It follows from the above that essay writing is a process of self-clarification for the writer: you often need to get the first draft out of the way so that you can figure out for yourself what your thesis really is. With that in mind, here are the steps for writing your essay:
Step 1: Do the readings, write answers to study questions, take notes on the lectures.
Step 2: Carefully analyze the wording of the essay question and decide on a list of things you need to cover to address it thoughtfully and comprehensively.
Step 3: Decide on a provisional thesis and outline, write a first draft. At this stage, you can get feedback from your TA during office hour or by appointment.
Step 4: Fine tune or revise your thesis, reorganize your essay to fit it. Check for “coherence” (see “Essay grading” below). Use the writing tips on the website (under topic 1).
Step 5: Tidy up (fix grammar, sentence clarity, citations).
Paragraphs (how many, what they are)

Imagine how hard it would be to read an essay if there were no breaks between sentences and no commas. Well, the same problem happens when you don’t add breaks between paragraphs. Paragraph breaks are like commas and periods: they give the reader a chance to pause and consider what you are writing. Readers need a break from your stream of words to think about what you wrote and reflect on whether they agree with you. If you don’t use paragraph breaks, you come across as only talking to yourself in your own world, which can be tiresome for your reader. A “run-on paragraph” is a paragraph that is missing one or more breaks.

There is no set number of paragraphs for an essay. Paragraphs are simply groups of sentences on the same topic or point. A paragraph is one clear and distinct step on the path of your whole essay.

If a paragraph is too long, it will lose cohesion. You will seem lost, and your essay will be confusing. Similarly, if your paragraphs are too short, they become little more than point form notes, which fragments your essay and makes you seem lost. A basic rule of thumb, then, would be to write 5-8 sentences per paragraph: the first sentence should state your main point, the middle sentences should support your point with close engagement with the reading, the closing sentence should explicitly connect your point to your thesis.

Your first paragraph

Your first paragraph should have the following structure. First, in your own words (around 100-150 words), explain and clarify the problem raised in the question. Second, state your thesis in bold. Third, in around 100 words or so, explain how your thesis addresses the problem raised in the question. Finally, briefly identify the parts of the readings that you will focus on to explicate and develop your thesis.

Essay format

Essays should be in a standard 12-point font, with 1” margins. It should be double-spaced, and there should be no additional space beyond this between the paragraphs. The first line of each paragraph should be indented. Save essays in MS Word before uploading to the website.

Essay grading

Each essay question will be on the readings, but it may ask you to make some reference to a lecture too. Essays will be assessed according to the following five standards:

1. Accuracy. Does the text say what you claim it says? Answers that are inaccurate are ‘wrong’ or ‘misleading’. Note: instructors often will identify an inaccuracy by writing an ‘X’ in the margin.

2. Detail. Strong essays provide perceptive and nuanced accounts of the text(s). Essays that lack detail are ‘vague’, ‘general’ or ‘undeveloped’.

3. Clarity. Strong essays are easy to read. The writing has proper paragraphing, sentence structure, and word choice. The writing is simple and direct, it is it free of slang, jargon and clichés. Answers that lack clarity are ‘disorganized’, ‘hard to read’, ‘awkward’, or simply ‘unclear’. When grading your answers, instructors often will identify a lack of clarity by writing a question mark in the margin. Note: you will lose grades especially if you don’t write in proper paragraphs.

4. Coherence. In strong essays, every point builds on another and the whole has a clear and explicit logical flow and conceptual unity. Strong essays have explicit transitions from one point to the next to orient the reader. Weak essays are a collection of notes lacking explicit logical development or conceptual unity. Essays that lack coherence are ‘disjointed’, ‘inconsistent’, ‘fragmented’ or have ‘coherence problems’. Your paper will lack coherence if it doesn’t have a proper thesis, or if you don’t focus on your thesis. Never let your reader lose sight of your thesis.

5. Insight. Strong essays go deeper than mere summary or description. They show sensitive concern about truth and human experience. They probe meanings and make connections. Essays that lack insight are ‘superficial’, ‘weak’, ‘thin’, ‘simplistic’ or merely ‘descriptive’. Your paper will lack insight if it doesn’t have a proper thesis as defined in this document.

Please see topic 1 on the website for more information on essay grading, including the essay grade sheet that TAs will use in the course.

ESSAY CHECKLIST:
I made it clear that I engaged with the views and ideas expressed and described in the readings. This is evident not only in the direct quotes, paraphrases and summaries I provide, but also in my approach to the problem raised in the essay question.
I did not use the lectures as a replacement for the readings. I did the readings myself, and used the lectures only to help me understand the readings and think them through.

I did not use sources outside the course for writing my essay.

I have a proper thesis, as described in Appendix III of the syllabus (Essay instructions).

I have proper paragraphing, as described in Appendix III of the syllabus (Essay instructions).

I followed the instructions in the course citation policy on the website (topic 3). This includes following the specific citation conventions for the readings I used in my essay.

My essay is in a 12-point font and is double spaced. The first line of each paragraph is indented, and there is no extra empty line between the paragraphs.

I uploaded my essay to the website in MS Word at least 15 minutes before the deadline.

If I needed a short extension, I asked my TA for one at least 48 hours before the deadline.

If I encountered an emergency preventing me from meeting the deadline, I emailed Neil (braganza@yorku.ca) before the deadline to indicate that I am choosing to postpone this essay to the end of the course, as it is one of the essays that I would like to write. I read the policy on this in Appendix III of the syllabus (Essay instructions).

the book for this essay can be accessed through my ebooks.com website the username is: lizaaelbarbary@gmail.com and password is: Liza@123
and the other reading for this essay is attached along with the citation policy

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