Senior Dossier

Most of the documents you are required to submit are materials you have generated already in your regular coursework (or for which you will at least have laid the groundwork).

Essay

• Short Essay: Take some subject that you have encountered in your coursework (and found interesting) and write a very brief (ca. 3 pages) essay that frames and defends some argument of your own devising. You may choose to adapt (or submit as is) a paper that you have already written. Include your full name in the document to help us identify your work. Name your file LASTNAMEFIRSTNAME_ShortEssay.

Personal Reflection

• Personal Reflection: Detail briefly what your expectations for the program were when you became a major (what you hoped to learn and get out of it short- and long-term by way of skills and personal enrichment). Did you have personal goals and, if so, have you achieved them? Have your expectations changed since you declared? In your opinion, has the program met these expectations? How might we have done better? Please be candid. Your honest reflections will help us greatly to improve the program. You might usefully think of this item as a sort of retrospective look and reaction to your own “first-year questions” and “long range plans” (completed online). Name your file LASTNAMEFIRSTNAME_PersonalReflection.

Papers and Reports

• Capstone Research Paper: The paper (revised if you like) that you write for the Capstone course (required for the major). Include your full name in the document. Name your file LASTNAMEFIRSTNAME_CapstoneResearchPaper.
• Other Research Paper: If you have written a research paper for one of your other courses (besides the Capstone) include it in the dossier (revised if you like). Include your full name in the document. Name your file LASTNAMEFIRSTNAME_OtherResearchPaper.
• Outside experience report: Did you study abroad? Did you dig? Did you work at a museum? Did you have any sort of formal learning experience outside a Duke classroom? If so, write 2 to 3 pages on your experience: how did it change or enrich your experience with Classical Studies? Include your full name in the document. Name your file LASTNAMEFIRSTNAME_OutsideExperienceReport.
• Senior Thesis, or product of Independent Study (if produced): If you write a senior thesis or a paper for a research independent study (CLST, GRK, or LAT 293 or 493), include the paper. Include your full name in the document. Name your file LASTNAMEFIRSTNAME_SeniorThesis or LASTNAMEFIRSTNAME_IndependentResearchPaper, as appropriate.

Classical Languages Majors

• Prepared Translation: Take a roughly 30-line section of Latin or Greek (it can be something that you read in one of your classes; please, nothing new and not too long) and translate it into your most polished English. Include your full name in the document. Name your file LASTNAMEFIRSTNAME_PreparedTranslation.
• Sight Translation Competition: The Sakai website has a folder that contains short passages of unseen Latin or Greek (under "Resources—Documents, including Quizzes and Sight Passages"). Classical Languages Majors will have the opportunity to translate one or the other of these passages (or both, if you’re so inclined) and to enter their translations into their dossiers. The author of the finest translation will be acknowledged and honored at graduation. Include your full name in the document. Name your file LASTNAMEFIRSTNAME_SightTranslation.

Classical Civilizations Majors

• Classical Knowledge Contest: The Sakai website has a folder that contains a very brief quiz on knowledge of the ancient world; the quiz is in the same document that contains the Sight Translation passages (under "Resource—Documents, including Quizzes ad Sight Passages"). Classical Civilization Majors will have the opportunity to take this quiz and enter the completed quizzes into their dossiers. The author of the finest quiz will be acknowledged and honored at graduation. Include your full name in the document. Name your file LASTNAMEFIRSTNAME_ClassicalKnowledgeQuiz.

These instructions cover how to submit the files that make up your senior dossier. A copy of this information is also on the Sakai website.

Deadlines

• If you are graduating in the Fall, you must complete your senior dossier by December 20 of your senior year as a requirement for graduating with a Classical Studies major.
• If you are graduating in the Spring, you must complete your senior dossier by May 1 of your senior as a requirement for graduating with a Classical Studies major.

Naming Conventions For Your Files

Please be sure to include your full name in each document that you submit. Create your document with EXACTLY the following filenames (substituting your last and first name for the italicized placeholders):

• LASTNAMEFIRSTNAME_SightTranslation
• LASTNAMEFIRSTNAME_ShortEssay
• ​LASTNAMEFIRSTNAME_PersonalReflection
• LASTNAMEFIRSTNAME_ClassicalKnowledgeQuiz
• LASTNAMEFIRSTNAME_CapstoneResearchPaper
• LASTNAMEFIRSTNAME_OtherResearchPaper
• LASTNAMEFIRSTNAME_OutsideExperienceReport
• LASTNAMEFIRSTNAME_SeniorThesis
• LASTNAMEFIRSTNAME_IndependentResearchPap

These labeling and identifying protocols helps handle the dossier files more easily. If you clearly label each file with the file identifiers above (SightTranslation, ShortEssay, etc.) AND put your full name in each filename AND in each document, we can easily review your documents, notwithstanding the congeries of similar documents. Both who created each file, and how you classified it, should be clear. (It is not always easy to distinguish a “short essay” entry from an “outside experience report” or “other research paper” purely on the basis of content).

Where to Submit Your Files

You will submit your files through Sakai. When you have assembled your complete dossier, put them in the “CLST Sr Majors Port” Dropbox folder and appropriate subfolders created for you on Sakai (each subfolder bears the name of a category—e.g., “Outside Experience”).

Questions?

Please contact Director of Undergraduate Studies José González if you have any questions.