Reading Plato's Apology
Information Literacy
Reading and analysing Plato's Apology was the second assignment in Philosophy 100. In this assignment we had to read, take notes on, and write about Plato's apology. This was difficult for two reasons: the first being that I have a difficult professor, and the second being that this is a primary source. Primary source materials, especially in historical philosophy, are much more difficult to read and understand than any secondary source material. In addition to that, Plato wrote just about everything, including his apology, in the form of a dialogue. So reading and studying this was very similar to reading a play. After reading and taking notes on the Apology we had to answer a series of questions with quotes and proper citation of whatever we used in the apology along with citation of any outside sources we happened to use.
Information Literacy was, by far, the most important. I started out by reading Plato's Apology after that, I took and refined notes on it, next I took notes and cited any and all outside sources, and finally I put all of that information to good use by answering all questions about Plato's apology.
Honestly, I'm pretty proud that I actually got an A in this assignment. Don't get me wrong, I did get a couple points off because I didn't fully answer a couple of the questions in the depth that my professor wanted. But apart from that, I still didn't have any issues with citation or accuracy of my answers, and I'm pretty proud that I didn't get anything wrong or mess up any citations when I was reviewing a primary source.
The only reason that I could've ever done so well on this assignment is simply because I improved my Information Literacy skills. If I hadn't I would've gotten somewhere along the lines of a C because of improper citation and things that were dead wrong, similar to my first draft of my What is Philosophy essay.
The most difficult part about completing this particular project was dealing with the fear that I could indeed get something wrong. I happen to be somewhat of a perfectionist, to the point where I end up taking much longer than I need to on tests and assignments, simply because I check my work way too much. So having to deal with a lot of information and a relatively short deadline forced me to constantly resist checking my work and, as it turns out, that doesn't exactly come naturally to me.
If I could start over I'd try to get out of my own head and stop worrying about constantly checking my work. If I managed to do that a bit better I could've spent more time sharpening my Information Literacy skills so I could've been more accurate and so that I didn't miss parts of the questions.
Answering questions about a piece of literature like this really brings me back to all of the English Language Arts classes that I've taken part in. It feels like each and every book report and analyses of a passage that I've done in school thus far has been preparing me for college assignments like this. Even though these assignments are both more demanding and under much more scrutiny than any academic papers I've done in the past I still think that each and every writing assignment, especially the work I did in English 100, was extremely helpful.
In addition to being related to my previous assignments, this research assignment along with most of the other stuff that I did in Philosophy 100 will be absolutely invaluable in the future. These assignments along with a particularly demanding professor gave me an amazing incite in what kind of work I'll be doing in college level English and Sociology classes. In addition to that, reading material as difficult as Plato's Apology in a quick manner and write about it is perfect practice for the reading, science, and writing portions of the ACT test.
Information Literacy was, by far, the most important. I started out by reading Plato's Apology after that, I took and refined notes on it, next I took notes and cited any and all outside sources, and finally I put all of that information to good use by answering all questions about Plato's apology.
Honestly, I'm pretty proud that I actually got an A in this assignment. Don't get me wrong, I did get a couple points off because I didn't fully answer a couple of the questions in the depth that my professor wanted. But apart from that, I still didn't have any issues with citation or accuracy of my answers, and I'm pretty proud that I didn't get anything wrong or mess up any citations when I was reviewing a primary source.
The only reason that I could've ever done so well on this assignment is simply because I improved my Information Literacy skills. If I hadn't I would've gotten somewhere along the lines of a C because of improper citation and things that were dead wrong, similar to my first draft of my What is Philosophy essay.
The most difficult part about completing this particular project was dealing with the fear that I could indeed get something wrong. I happen to be somewhat of a perfectionist, to the point where I end up taking much longer than I need to on tests and assignments, simply because I check my work way too much. So having to deal with a lot of information and a relatively short deadline forced me to constantly resist checking my work and, as it turns out, that doesn't exactly come naturally to me.
If I could start over I'd try to get out of my own head and stop worrying about constantly checking my work. If I managed to do that a bit better I could've spent more time sharpening my Information Literacy skills so I could've been more accurate and so that I didn't miss parts of the questions.
Answering questions about a piece of literature like this really brings me back to all of the English Language Arts classes that I've taken part in. It feels like each and every book report and analyses of a passage that I've done in school thus far has been preparing me for college assignments like this. Even though these assignments are both more demanding and under much more scrutiny than any academic papers I've done in the past I still think that each and every writing assignment, especially the work I did in English 100, was extremely helpful.
In addition to being related to my previous assignments, this research assignment along with most of the other stuff that I did in Philosophy 100 will be absolutely invaluable in the future. These assignments along with a particularly demanding professor gave me an amazing incite in what kind of work I'll be doing in college level English and Sociology classes. In addition to that, reading material as difficult as Plato's Apology in a quick manner and write about it is perfect practice for the reading, science, and writing portions of the ACT test.