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Writing a Philosophical Essay: A Brief Tutorial
Summary: I. Resources II. What is a philosophy paper? III. How is a philosophy paper graded? IV. How to write a philosophy paper. V. Mistakes to avoid. VI. Plagiarism VII. Citation Guide, MLA style.
I. Resources
- This handout
- Web pages http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/writing.html http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/philosophy.html http://unilearning.uow.edu.au/critical/ http://www.liu.edu/cwis/CWP/library/workshop/citmla.htm (MLA citation guide) http://www.tvu.ac.uk/lrs/guides/harvard.html (Harvard citation guide) http://www.scc.rutgers.edu/douglass/sal/plagiarism/intro.html (Plagiarism tutorial)
- Books Martinich, A.P. (1996) Philosophical Writing. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Holowchak, M. Andrew. (2004) Critical Reasoning & Philosophy. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield. Strunk, William and White, E.B. (2000) The Elements of Style. Prentice Hall.
- Your lecturers and professors
- (^) Compiled and written by Cara Nine with text from Joel Walmsley, Vittorio Bufacchi, Lilian O’Brien and other
members of the UCC Philosophy Department.
II. What is a philosophy paper?
Philosophical essays prove some point through the use of rational argument. A philosophical essay is not about flowery language, story-telling techniques, or surprising the reader. The beauty of a philosophical essay is found in your ideas; the language that you use is only a tool for conveying these ideas to the reader. The art is in proving one’s point clearly.
The philosophical essay generally follows a very simple structure:
- State the proposition to be proved.
- Give the argument for that proposition.
- Show that the argument is valid.
- Show that the premises are true.
- Consider an objection to your argument and respond to that objection.
- State the upshot of what has been proven. (Martinich, A.P. (1996) Philosophical Writing. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. p. 53.)
The historical philosophical essay has a different emphasis. Although one should follow the steps above, one’s argument will hinge, in part, on exegetical issues. For example, one may be arguing against a particular interpretation of a text and for a different one. In such cases, the first step (1 above) of one’s argument would require explaining a common (or one philosopher’s) interpretation of a particular part of a text, and then saying that you intend to show that a different interpretation is correct. Although your argument must be sound (3, 4 above), it will depend on interpretative issues, such as correct translation, the philosopher’s historical, the philosopher’s other views etc. It is still important to either directly assess the merits of the philosophical positions that you attribute to the philosopher, or at least, to show sensitivity to their philosophical merit – is the position that you believe a particular philosopher defends true, or well defended etc? How much emphasis is placed on this latter dimension of your paper depends on the question you are trying to answer.
III. How is a philosophy paper graded?
Mastery is the condition of knowing some particular topic backwards, forwards, inside out and sideways. If you haven't mastered a topic, you can't write well about it. You can't master a whole field in a few weeks, but you can master some tiny part of it. This is the reason that most philosophy papers are written about very narrowly defined topics.
Original Contribution. There's the difference between merely understanding a topic and mastering it. If you understand, you can explain what particular philosophers say about a topic, what their arguments are, and what the relevant facts are. When you've mastered the topic you can talk about other possible arguments, what might be wrong with these arguments, why those particular facts are relevant and what would happen if the facts were different. Mastery means understanding a topic well enough to go beyond what's already been said to work out for yourself which arguments work and which don't and even to work out
“Really?” “Why?” These comments appear when people do not acknowledge that a position that they're advocating is contentious, or when they assume that people should accept that something is debatable
“Awkward” or “Unclear”
“More detail needed.” “Give an example.”
“Not relevant” “What does this show?”
“Not answering the question.” One of the most frequent ways in which people lose marks is by not answering the question.
“Incorrect grammar.”
IV. How to write a philosophy paper.
Writing a first draft.
Some people find it useful to write an entire first draft, warts and all, before beginning to revise it (don't worry if it's too long, confused etc. It might be just a good idea to get everything out, and use the draft as a basis for further revisions). Here are some tips.
Introduction with Thesis: state in clear language at the beginning -- don't worry about spoiling the surprise. Begin BOLDLY, not BLANDLY. Leap into your essay in a purposeful way, and say what you're going to say.
(Tip: Many people find it helpful to write a longish intro paragraph which later gets cut to help you get started. Do edit it out: don't submit a paper that only begins in the second or third paragraph).
Roadmaps: Every paragraph should be a link in the chain of the argument. It is enormously helpful to add lots of signposts to help guide the reader through the argument (it also helps to show how you're answering the question). You can say what you've done so far, what you're going to do next and so on.
All this hand-holding might seem a little patronizing, but it's what you're aiming for: sometimes it should feel like you're trying to explain things to a third-grader. This comes across in two ways:
- Third graders have short attention spans. You should keep reminding me where you're at, and where we've been so far to keep me focused on what you're up to.
- Third graders need simple plain prose. The virtues of keeping things simple, avoiding jargon and long clumsy rambling sentences and being PRECISE cannot be understated. Many professional philosophers get bad marks for this, but they are famous despite writing obscurely, not because of it.
Make your Argument.
Precision. Arguments are combinations of expositions and criticism. To criticise a view, you have to state it in enough detail to get the right amount of precision. You have to get it EXACTLY right, so be careful when paraphrasing the views of others. Also, philosophers may use terms in very specific ways, thereby departing from everyday usage of those terms. For example, in everyday contexts we may treat the term “idea” as interchangeable with terms, such as, “notion”, “thought”, and “concept”. However, for most philosophers “idea” will NOT be interchangeable with any of those other terms. (i) In general, be very careful about substituting one term for another – in written assignments for other disciplines you may be criticized for using the same term repetitively throughout your document. You will NOT be criticized for this in philosophy. We encourage it for the sake of clarity. (ii) It is a great idea to define your terms, to avoid ambiguity.
Charity. A lot of philosophers say things that sound CRAZY (pretty much every conceivable position has been held by some philosopher at some point (Thales: Magnets have souls)). But they're not stupid (if they were, we wouldn't be studying them). If a view looks silly, maybe that's because you're relatively new to philosophy. Directing your arguments against the most reasonable position the philosopher had in mind (and not a straw man) makes your arguments more powerful.
(Note: Sometimes, being undecided is a good enough view in itself. You don't have to have a solution -- many a good published philosophy paper is valuable simply because it throws a problem/ambiguity into sharp relief. It's OK if you end up with a situation in which you are unable to decide -- as long as you have well argued reasons for doing so.)
Always check yourself against common sense. If you end up with a premise or conclusion that is very silly (or runs contrary to common sense), then you’ve probably gone wrong somewhere. Example: It is impossible to violate the Law of Nature. Stealing violates the Law of Nature. Therefore it is impossible to steal.
Conclusion. End well. Don't babble about what lies outside the scope of this paper or what still needs to be done. End with a sharp, punchy restatement of what you showed. Did you demonstrate what you set out to (and if not, why not, for that too is a conclusion). Don't make feeble rambling pseudo-profound generalizations.
Rewrite! Jacques Barzun: “Writing is rewriting". Nobody writes a good essay in the first go. Even if they do, they could make it better by revising it. Revision is the key to good writing. It's the process of revision in which everything comes together.
That's why a day or two is helpful. Often things settle out overnight. When you re-read over the essay you'll think \why did I write that?" If you can't remember, cut it.
Don't be afraid to edit things out. Don't become too attached to a nice turn of phrase or colourful metaphor. If it doesn't contribute to communicating your point, bin it: every sentence must do some work (focus).
Revision is NOT the same as checking for spelling errors. It will involve BIG changes. You might, in your first draft, have ordered the paragraphs so as to say A, B, A&B implies C,
Breaches of the rule against plagiarism are equivalent to cheating in your examination. There is a range of serious penalties for cheating. These are listed in the Guide to Examinations.
Please view http://www.scc.rutgers.edu/douglass/sal/plagiarism/intro.html. This website walks you through several academic integrity dilemmas; it may help you to understand what is ethically expected of you while writing your papers.
VII. Citation Guides
MLA Citation Guide†
In-Text Citations: The Basics
Basic In-Text Citation Rules
In MLA style, referring to the works of others in your text is done by using what's known as parenthetical citation. Immediately following a quotation from a source or a paraphrase of a source's ideas, you place the authors name followed by a space and the relevant page number(s).
Human beings have been described as "symbol-using animals" (Burke 3).
When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name. Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work, or italicize or underline it if it's a longer work.
Your in-text citation will correspond with an entry in your Works Cited page, which, for the Burke citation above, will look something like this:
Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method. Berkeley: U of California P, 1966.
We'll learn how to make a Works Cited page in a bit, but right now it's important to know that parenthetical citations and Works Cited pages allow readers to know which sources you consulted in writing your essay, so that they can either verify your interpretation of the sources or use them in their own scholarly work.
Multiple Citations
To cite multiple sources in the same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a semi- colon:
...as has been discussed elsewhere (Burke 3; Dewey 21).
When Citation is not Needed
Common sense and ethics should determine your need for documenting sources. You do not need to give sources for familiar proverbs, well-known quotations or common knowledge. Remember, this is a rhetorical choice, based on audience. If you're writing for an expert audience of a scholarly journal, they'll have different expectations of what constitutes common knowledge.
Citing Multiple Works by the Same Author
† (^) Taken from The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. 26 Aug. 2005. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue
University. 31 October 2006 .
