It is becoming clearer and clearer to me that I want to have significant changes in the outcomes my students experience in my course, yet I am reluctant to venture too far out of my comfort zone. Thanks for giving me that extra nudge. I now realize that I can change my objective to "write an effective analytical paper." Since philosophy is, by its very nature, abstract, I had a lot of difficulty conceiving realistic applications. (Give an example Plato's principle of opposites in a restaurant? How would you use Hume's views of induction in forecasting iPad sales in 2013? Explain the York College course registration process from a Nietzschean perspective?) What this exchange has done is shifted my perspective. My goal is eminently concrete: develop effective writers. The philosophical content (Plato, Hume, Nietzsche) is not the end but the means. The philosophy texts are the vehicle, not the destination. Thank you! Mike