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n philosophical writing:Avoid direct quotes. If you need to quote, quote sparingly, and follow your quotes by expla. ning what the author means in your own words. (There are times when brief direct quotes can be helpful, for example when you want to present and interpret a potential amb.
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- 1 Philosophical writing
- 3 Who are you writing for?
- 4 Structuring your discussion
- 5 Concrete illustrations
- 6 Argumentation
- 7.1 Write clearly and straightforwardly
- 7.2 Using \I"
- 7.3 Attitude and tone
- 8.1 Quotations
Compared to some forms of writing, philosophical writing is straightforward. This re ects that the goal of a given piece of philosophical writing is usually directed at a fairly straightforward task, such as presenting and criticizing another philosopher's argument for a given conclusion, or presenting a new philosophical argument or account. Philo...
At this stage of the philosophical game, you should be writing in such a way that an intelligent person who is unfamiliar with the topic at hand will be able to follow your discussion, at each and every step along the way. Your mother or father, or one of your non-philosophy friends, should be able to read your paper and understand what is going on...
Help your reader out by dividing your paper into sections. Start with a short introduction (usually just a single paragraph), where you say in a concise and general way what problem or issue you will be addressing, and how you will be addressing it. The intro is e ectively a general map to the rest of your paper. Remember that your reader needs to ...
Philosophical arguments and views can sometimes be pretty abstract. It is usually very helpful to your reader if you can give a concrete illustration of what is under discussion. For example, if you are discussing claims of type C, give some speci c examples of such claims. Similarly, if you are presenting objection O to a given account, provide a ...
Reasoned argument, of course, is the heart and soul of philosophy. There's nothing mysterious about this. Arguing in a reasoned fashion is just what you are doing when, for example, you pro-vide a counterexample to some account, or note that a given thesis has a certain (good or bad) consequence. There are certain terms and expressions philosophers...
Write clearly and straightforwardly. Avoid ambiguity. Avoid pretentious or overly formal prose.
It is perfectly OK|and indeed, desirable|for you to insert yourself into the discussion (using \I", \in my view", etc.). Ultimately, a philosophy paper is supposed to be an investigation into what you think about a given position, problem, argument, etc. Indeed, it is very important that you cue your reader about who is claiming (assuming, arguing,...
In philosophy, opinions and feelings don't count for much, so in general it isn't useful or illuminating to simply express your opinions to your reader. You may not like a given claim, but what counts in philosophy is giving some principled reason for not liking the claim. On the other hand, intuitions can be worth noting, since in philosophy our i...
Don't \over-quote" when presenting a given author's position or argumentation. Paraphrase except when the exact wording is somehow crucial to what you are saying.
How to Write a Philosophy Paper David Jones, PhD; Timothy O’Neill, MA; and Brendan Shea, PhD Rochester Community and Technical College Writing a high-quality philosophy paper requires somewhat different skills than writing papers in other disciplines. In particular, you’ll need to think about the following three things: 1.
o add information about the course, the instructor, and the assignment,if. ou wish, but it is not absolutely needed unless your. rof asks for it.)Please remembe. to put you. me on your assignment. I need your whole name, not just“Joey.” Crea. a descriptive t. e paper more memorable and it also.
Give your outline your full attention. It should be fairly detailed. (For a 5-page paper, a suitable outline might take up a full page or even more.) I find that making an outline is at least 80% of the work of writing a good philosophy paper. If you have a good outline, the rest of the writing process will go much more smoothly. Start Work Early
A philosophy paper consists of the reasoned defense of some claim. Your paper must offer an argument. It can't consist in the mere report of your opinions, nor in a mere report of the opinions of the philosophers we discuss. You have to defend the claims you make. You have to offer reasons to believe them.
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Tips for Writing an Argumentative Philosophy Paper (Paul Raymont, RGASC @ UTM, Jan.19, 2017) One kind of philosophy assignment is the argumentative essay, which typically includes an expository component and a lengthier, argumentative section. Often, the essay’s argument consists of a critique (or critical evaluation) of a given author’s ...
