Latin IA Dossier SL Help

[EmmyNeander]

Hi, so I'm the only student doing Latin this year and I'm pretty sure I'm the first ever student to do Latin at IB level at my school, so my IB Coordinator and I are pretty lost. I have private Latin lessons from a teacher who works at a public school, so she knows nothing about the IB at all. So, I have a couple of questions about the dossier.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

It has to be about an Ancient Roman topic, right? Can it be a comparison of some aspect of society (e.g. women's rights) in Ancient Rome AND Ancient Greece or must it be solely about Rome? Also, it has to be in the language of examination (English for me), not in Latin, right? At SL maximum word count is 800 and sources should be between 7-12, right? Now, I found a sample dossier on the IB website which got 21/30 but had only TWO sources! How the hell is this possible?

So the research question I had in mind was "How did the portrayal of Augustus differ with ancient and modern historians?" and I was going to compare how ancient authors saw him with how he saw himself (in De Vita Sua, his autobiography) and how modern authors saw him compared to how he saw himself AND how ancient and modern authors differed. Now, I'm not sure whether this is too complex for the word count, so please help me with the topic if you can. Also, we have to include segments of primary literature, right? And this is only ancient Latin literature, right? The extracts don't count in the word count, do they? And do they have to be translated into English or do they HAVE to be in Latin, and do I have to translate them or can I use an edition?

If you've written your dossier or are going to write it any time soon ANY help AT ALL would be very much appreciated. Such as, what was your research question, or what would you write about if you had to write another one?

Thank you very much in advance.

[doro39]

I am not entirely sure about the comparison between Rome and Greece, but there are basically 3 options that you can choose for your IA.

A - ResearchDossier (like you mentioned it)

You need an introduction (justify + explain the choice of question), source material (primary - latin sources or paintings etc., but only from ancient time) with annotations that justify and explain the choice of the source, a conclusion and a bibliography. It is an annotated collection of source material, not an essay! You can give further information using footnotes. For SL 7-12 sources are suggested with a word limit of 800 words not including source material, footnotes or bibliography. If you take Latin sources, a translation is needed, but you can just take them from a book.

Examples for a topic are "A comparison of the portrayal of Hector in the Iliad and the Aeneid" (therefore I think it would be ok to combine Greek and Latin...?), "Influence of Ovid's metamorphoses on later art" etc....

B - Oral presentation

You read one ore more passages aloud (whis has to be recorded) and supply a written commentary.

C - Composition

You translate a single, short piece of verse or prose from English, French or Spanish into Latin and write a commentary of 800 words at SL

I hope I could help you. (I took the information from the IB classical language guide, which is together with the syllabus - why don't you ask your teacher to give it to you or look for it at ibo...?)

[JohnHumbra]

This may be a bit late, but I saw this topic while I was looking for info for my latin IA (due tomorrow, yay for fulfilling IB-procrastinator stereotypes!), and I thought I'd add this, which a friend showed me. It's a perfect outline of exactly what you need to do

http://www.rickards.leon.k12.fl.us/ForLang/Latin%20Course%20Documents/Latin%20Research%20Dossier%20Help.pdf

(Note: this is just for the dosier option)

Happy latining!

Edited March 25, 2011 by JohnHumbra

[smartypants093]

Criterion A: Quality of Ideas

0-The work does not reach a standard described by the descriptors below

1-2 Quality of ideas is barely existent, the assignment shows no personal engagement, The sources selected are not appropriate

3-4 Quality of ideas is very limited, the assignemnt rarely shows any evidence of personal engagement, few of the sources selected are appropriate

5-6 Quality of ideas is limited but generally adequate, teh assignment shows some evidence of personal engagement, though this may be limited, the sources selected are sometimes appropriate

7-8 Quality of ideas is consistently satisfactory, the assignment shows some personal engagement, some judgment has been shown in selecting a range of sources.

9-10 Quality of ideas is good, the assignment shows considerable personal engagement, considerable judment has been shown in selecting a varied and interesting range of sources

Criterion B:

0 The work does not reach a standard described by the descriptors below

1-2 Knowledge and understanding of the task are barely existent. There are virtually no meaningful annotations, making it difficult to discern any knowledge of the topic or understanding of the relevance and importance of the chosen sources.

3-4 Knowledge and understanding of the task are very limited. Annotations demonstrate poor knowledge of the otpic and a very limited understanding of the relevance and importance of the chosen sources.

5-6 Knowledge and understanding of the task are limited but generally adequate. Annotations demonstrate some knowledge of teh topic and limited understandign of the relevance and importance of the chosen sources.

7-8 Knowledge and understanding of the task are consistently satisfactory. Annotations demonstrate knowledge of the topic and understandign of the relevance and iimportance of the chosen sources.

9-10 Knowledge and understanding of the task are good. Annotations demonstrate a wide knowledge of the topic and a good understanding of the relevance and importance of the chosen sources.

Criterion C: Coherence and Clarity of Argument

0 The work does not reach a standard described by the descriptors below

1-2 Coherence and clarity are barely existent, the material is not organized and there is no logical development of ideas, arguments show no focus, development, or relevance

3-4 Coherence and clarity are very limited, there is a poora ttempt to organize the material and to develop ideas in a logical manner, very few arguments are focused, developed, or relevent

5-6 Coherence and clarity are limited but generally adequate, there is an attempt to organize the material and to develop ideas in a logical manner, some arguments are focused, developed and relevant

7-8 coherence and clarity are consistently satisfactory, the material is organized and ideas are developed in a logical manner, arguments are mostly focused, developed, and relevant.

9-10 Coherence and clarity oare good, the material is well organized and there is a logical flow of ideas, arguments are well focused, developed, and pertinent.

Hope these criterion help.

My teacher also said that it is better to have closer to 10-12 sources. Also, teh document does not need an introduction, especially since anything included in the intro contributes to the total word count. The sources and annotation should be able to stand alone.