Paper 3: Plato, Symposium
Due by Monday, April 22, at 10 am.
Please submit the paper both in hard copy and via Moodle (to the assignment called “Paper 3”).
Length: 1000-1400 words. Please double-space and leave ample margins.
Suggested topics (which you may modify as you see fit; or you may invent your own):
Explain and discuss one of the major speeches occurring in the dialogue. What is the speaker’s argument? What are its strengths? What objections could be made to it? How might the speaker reply to these objections? You may also choose to focus on just a part of a speech.
The disagreement between Aristophanes and Diotima concerning Love.
What the Symposium teaches us about the character of Socrates.
Socrates versus Agathon (passages you may wish to consider: 175c-e, 194a-c, 199b-201c).
A careful explanation and analysis of a passage or issue in the dialogue which you find important.
If you are looking for commentaries on the Symposium, here are two good places to start:
The interpretative essay in the back of our edition of the text
Mary Nichols, Socrates on Friendship and Community, chapter 2. Available digitally in the JCU library.
Guidelines:
Imagine you are writing the paper for someone who has not read the text you are discussing.
Provide an introductory paragraph in which you state the subject of the paper and a concluding one in which you summarize your argument or draw your final conclusions.
The paragraphs should follow one another in an orderly and logical way.
When writing or revising your paper, ask yourself: What is the overall thesis of my paper? Have I made this thesis clear to the reader? Ask yourself the same question about each paragraph, and even each sentence.
Provide textual evidence to support your statements (citing page numbers or marginal numbers). You must use the assigned translation of the text.
Be thrifty in your use of direct quotations: usually it is better to paraphrase rather than quote, or to quote a word or a phrase rather than a whole sentence. Be especially wary of long quotations; they generally contain more material than you need. Be sure to explain whatever in the quotation needs to be explained.
A good paper will not only summarize but also explain and interpret the text.
Narrow your topic down to something manageable. Better an in-depth treatment of a limited topic than a superficial treatment of a broad one.
Good grammar helps the reader follow your argument.
“Omit needless words” (Strunk and White, Elements of Style).
Academic honesty (Official JCU policy)
The academic community is founded on a belief in the free exchange of ideas. An integral part of this free exchange is recognition of the intellectual work of others, and respect for the instructor and fellow students. All members of the John Cabot community are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity in all aspects of the University’s academic programs.
A student who commits an act of academic dishonesty is subject to disciplinary action. Two reported acts of academic dishonestly could result in dismissal from the University.
Definition
Academic dishonesty is taking credit for academic work (including papers, reports, quizzes, examinations, etc.) that is not one’s own or has not been originally produced for the course in which it has been submitted.
Academic dishonesty can take many forms:
Knowingly assisting another student in submitting work not their own
Plagiarism, which includes direct copying, as well as any use of another’s ideas, words or created product, without properly crediting the source. Plagiarism can be deliberate or accidental; students are responsible for ensuring that any work submitted with their name on it is properly referenced.
Although individual instructors may suggest their own guidelines for avoiding plagiarism in papers and reports, the following rules should generally be observed:
a. Any sequence of words appearing in a student essay or report that does not originate from the student should be enclosed in quotation marks, and its source fully and accurately identified in a note or in the text. Great care must be taken that quoted material is quoted accurately.
b. A paraphrase should not be enclosed in quotation marks but should be marked using a proper bibliographic reference.
c. An interpretation or idea based on a book or other source of information should be identified via a bibliographic reference.
The unauthorized use of generative AI
Cheating, which includes giving or receiving assistance on a quiz, examination, or other assignments in any way not specifically authorized by the instructor. Cheating also includes the unauthorized possession or use of generative AI, calculators, notes, formulas, dictionaries, tables, graphs, charts, or other memory aids on a quiz or examination. Students are responsible for making sure that all unauthorized materials are completely put away, and may be sanctioned for mere negligence in appearing to possess unauthorized materials.
Submitting the same work in more than one course, without the explicit approval of both instructors. This includes courses with the same code (like different sections of EN 110), so that a student who is retaking a course may not submit the same work in a subsequent semester without the permission of the instructor.
Paying a third party to prepare work that is submitted for academic credit in a student’s name
