Ancient Greek Culture
Classical Studies C101, Fall 2002
Prof. Tarik Wareh

So you have a topic, and you know who your groupmates are. What now? Read on...

I. Bare-Bones Requirements

1. Text
   • This is where you articulate the responses and original ideas that you have produced about the materials covered by your topic. Aim for 500 words (about one single-spaced typewritten page) per group member: that is, around 2000 words total. Use the content guidelines below to determine what is or isn't appropriate to write!
2. Images
   • Locate at least three appropriate images. Links are provided for collections of images specifically relating to the ancient Greek world. But if you have a thoughtful comparison or contrast you'd like to make to something in the modern and/or non-Greek world, you are welcome to include an image to make this point, together with text explaining your point. For example, you could use an image of a modern poetic/song/dance performance, political or intellectual gathering, etc., if you can use it to say something interesting that helps your reader better understand ancient Greek culture. (Using a digital camera or imaging software, you might even be able to come up with an appropriate image of your own creation.) For all images you did not create yourselves, you must add a note stating the source clearly (including URL).
3. Links
   • You should also include several appropriate links to web pages. Go for a variety of interesting and complementary information available on the web by choosing pages to link that overlap as little as possible with each other. Links are easy to find and make, so spend some time looking for a few high-quality pages, and/or the best-presented collections of texts, images, information, etc., that you can find.

II. The Big Idea: What to Write and What not to Write

1. Our motto is "ideas, responses, and questions, not information."
2. This means that you are not researching and presenting facts. Instead, you are developing your own thoughts about the course materials and putting them into your own words. This is the most important general principle of this assignment—your ideas in your voice. (Of course, any interpretations or words or selection ideas that are not original with you must be cited fully: see the Plagiarism section below.)
3. The topics listed on the sign-up sheet are intended to make this approach possible and enjoyable. If you come up with an original topic (for which my approval is required), be sure that it fits in with this philosophy! Getting me to consent to the topic you choose does not mean that the requirements stated here don't apply. Whatever topic you choose, your job is to provide appreciation, analysis, questions, and ideas—not a summary of facts or a lot of "background information."
4. You can and should quote the original Greek material, but do not use the space of your own written work (the 500 words per group member: see above) to summarize or state the obvious. Now is the time to remember everything you learned in W131 or any other writing courses you may have taken. You are expected to ask questions and probe the possible meanings of the text in ways that require you to go out on a limb and have to argue the ideas that come from your own close reading and reflection. While some introductory remarks are appropriate for this assignment, the main body of your text should not be what anyone who read your materials would agree is true. Be brave and don't worry about being wrong, as long as you are showing an effort to analyze and make the material your own.
5. Don't think, however, in terms of finding a "thesis" to prove. Too often, that would result in laying out the evidence point-by-point for something that is in fact fairly obvious. (If you really believe you have an original thesis, then go for it!) Instead, use your space to try to bring some of the subtleties—things that would be easy to miss—to the attention of your readers. Explain how they may have a variety of possible meanings, or might be too complicated to describe in a pat thesis. You are trying to show that you have thought about your material, so say something thought-provoking.
6. (You may mention a couple of key facts about dates, circumstances, biography, etc. But you should only do so if it is immediately relevant to an interpretation or idea you're advancing. The specific relevance to your point should be clear—no "background information.")
7. Don't despair because you might not have anything that seems authoritative or earth-shattering to say about your material. It's all right for these pages to be written in the voice of a student. What is your response to the material? If there are aspects you find difficult, spell out in words what puzzles you, and what some of the possible answers might be.

III. The Technical Stuff: Making a Web Page

The point of using web technology for this project is not to make it more difficult. It's to allow you to create original work that is not just for the professor's eyes, but shared publicly among the entire class. Your work is intended to help your classmates (and anyone else who is interested in ancient Greece) to think through what is interesting, remarkable, strange, profound, puzzling, etc., about ancient Greek culture. There is also an advantage to having a project with classwide participation: many perspectives give more insight than just one, and by reading and linking to other students' pages, you will create a stronger and more interesting Guide to Ancient Greek Culture. (It is in the second phase of the Group Web Page Project assignment that you read through the whole class's pages and add appropriate links and responses on your own page.)

But how is it done? You have your text, images, and links, but how do you create and publish a web page? In many cases, someone in your group may already have the necessary knowledge. If not, we are committed to making this as simple as possible. Putting your thoughts on the web is, of course, a valuable life skill for anyone, and worth some trouble to learn. But you should get help editing and posting pages from Cassie or me before you start banging your head against the wall!

You can create or edit a web page with programs such as Netscape Composer or Microsoft FrontPage, which are installed on IU computers. Also, you can use a plain text editor to create or edit HTML code from scratch. If you want, start by using this web page template. Note that the page can be very basic.

Here's a streamlined list of the simplest steps to get your page on the web.

1. Create your web page as a Microsoft Word document. Insert the images by cutting and pasting from their stable location on the web, or (probably better) by downloading what you find to your hard drive and then choosing "Insert/Picture/From File."
2. Choose "Save As/Web Page.". Use the filename "index." This will create a file index.htm and a folder (with your images, etc.) called index_files.
3. Initialize your Steel account. To do this, you must first login using a program called SSH Secure Shell Client, which is available on campus computers. Select as host "steel.ucs.indiana.edu" and give your id and password. The first time you login, you will be given a list of options, telling you to choose #5 if you don't know which one to choose. So choose #5, and wait five minutes as instructed.
4. Sign in a second time to your account on steel.ucs.indiana.edu with SSH Secure Shell client. When you get the dollar-sign prompt, type: spinweb -r, and then the one-time process of making your Steel account ready is complete!
5. The program used to transfer your files to the web is called SSH Secure File Transfer Client. Run this program, and again choose steel.ucs.indiana.edu and login. Open up the "www" folder. This is where all web page files and folders must go. Now, simply drag your web page files and folders into the www folder, and you're on the internet! Your page (if it was called index.htm) will appear at php.indiana.edu/~jsmith/ — or if your id is sbeckett and your page is named godot.htm, then it is at php.indiana.edu/~sbeckett/godot.htm!
6. Whenever you want to update your file, save an updated version and repeat the last step above.

Someone in your group will need a Steel account. How to get one was covered in lecture outline #1. Note: Web page storage space is also automatically available to all C101 students through Oncourse.

Because of IU security requirements, you will need to use the SSH program to publish your web page and images to your Steel account. (If you want to install this program on your own computer, here are the Windows version and the Mac version.) See further:

• At Indiana University Bloomington, how can I put personal pages on the World Wide Web?
• If I use a Web authoring tool such as FrontPage, Dreamweaver, or Netscape Composer, how do I publish my Web pages on mypage.iu.edu?
• In SSH Secure Shell for Windows, how do I transfer files?
• In Windows, how do I transfer a Web page to my account on Steel?
• In Windows, how can I save my Web page on mypage.iu.edu from Steel onto my computer's hard drive?

IV. Your Nightmare and Mine: Plagiarism

As explained above, this is not a research project, and you should not be basing your work on outside sources. Still, you should not make any assumptions about the uses of all sources (primary and secondary). Please reread the course and IU plagiarism policy as given on the syllabus. Whenever you put on your page any words or ideas that belong to someone else, it is plagiarism unless you use quotation marks and a full citation. When in doubt, cite! If you could not have put it the way you put it without looking at another source, that source must be cited. Paraphrasing someone else's words or ideas is plagiarism as much as reproducing them verbatim. If you read a discussion of Oedipus the King that quotes four really interesting lines from the play, and you then use those four lines to make your own completely original points, it is plagiarism unless you state clearly, "Bernard Knox has called attention to four very interesting lines..." If you have any questions, consult me. Plagiarism is the one sure way to do this assignment but receive a failing grade (and worse).