Hi,
I am in need of a writer who is familiar with Plato’s Phaedo. You will be writing a summary and a reflection, which will both equal to around 1500 words (so the summary can be 750 and the reflection 750 words). The reading i have chosen is Platos, Phaedo. I am aware that this reading is quite long and there are many arguments in it, so I selected his last argument to do the reflective summary on which can be found roughly between 102b-107b. I still reccomend you read all of Phaedo because it will be useful for contect purposes and for the summary. I have attatched Phaedo, which starts on page 93 of the book. I also attatched an example of what a reflective summary should be, and I have written all the instructions below. PLEASE CAREFULLY READ ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS:
Format and Requirements:
The Reflective Summary should include the following information at the top of the first page:
– The title of the work (Plato, Phaedo),
– The word count: RS should be no more than 1500 words in length. The information at the top of the first page doesn’t count towards the word limit
– The Reflectove Summary should be divided into two sections, with one section labelled Summary and the other section labelled Reflection.
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The summary should not contain direct quotes, secondary sources, footnotes or endnotes. The reflection may include direct quotes or secondary sources but you should only use them if they are necessary for developing your position or argument.
Citations: When you cite Plato, you must use the Stephanus pagination (the numbers in the margins of our text). For example, if you were summarizing or discussing the first sentence from the Euthyphro (“What’s new, Socrates, to make you leave the Lyceum, where you usually spend your time, to spend it hear today at the King Archon?”), you would cite it as “(Euthyphro 2a)”. If all of your citations are from a single text, you don’t need to include the title of the work (i.e. you could just write “(2a)”)
Summary:
– Summarize, (1) in your own words, (2) the main conclusion being argued for and (3) the specific assumption(s), or arguments
that the author puts forward in support of that position.
Pro-Tip: Before you start your summary, read through the text at least twice. The first time
that you read the article try to get a sense of the overall objectives and structure of the argument. Once you have a sense of what the author is trying to accomplish, you can go through the reading again and decide what should be included in the summary. You don’t have to summarize every point that the author makes. The best summaries are concise.
– Present the most charitable position you can while summarizing. (Imagine the author was reading your paper, you’d want them to feel like you treated them fairly).
Reflection:
(1) You took a definite position at the beginning of the reflection portion.
(2) Your argument adds something to the conversation you summarized. Discussing strengths and weaknesses of the argument you are responding to is a good way to put your own thought in the context of an ongoing conversation.
(3) It is clear who you disagree with and why you disagree.
Pro-Tip: Before you start your reflection ask yourself if you agree with the author’s position
or arguments (note: it’s possible to agree with an author’s thesis but also think that his/her arguments fail to establish that position). If you disagree with the author’s position/arguments, you could write a reflection that outlines the problems. If you agree with an author’s position/arguments, you could write a reflection that raises an objection and then responds to that objection. A thought provoking reflection usually has one or more of the following:
– An original and crucial criticism of a technical move in someone’s
argument,
– A well-developed, creative and compelling example or thought experiment,
– An application of theoretical distinctions to the “real world”.
– A set of reasons for favoring one interpretation of a work over another
– Don’t try to discuss or criticize every point that the author makes. Focus on a single point or argument. In a reflection depth is better than breadth.
– Always assume the reader disagrees with you. Your job in the reflection is to convince the reader that you are right.
Writing Quality: The paper was easy to read, properly cited, grammatically correct, politically correct, and used technical terms appropriately.
Pro-Tip:
– Write in short sentences. Semi-colons aren’t impressive.
– Use first-person and present-tense phrases like: “I argue that…”
– Don’t use man or mankind to refer to all human beings. Feel free to use she or
they instead of he in examples or when you need to use a third-person pronoun to
make a general claim about human beings.
– It’s okay to be boring. Refrain from using “flowery” language.
– Use technical terms when necessary but outside of technical terms don’t try to use
a “fancy” vocabulary. Clarity is the most important thing.
– Proper citation is always necessary in academic writing.
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– Proof read, preferably out loud and more than once. On important papers, editing
can take as long as writing.