final project

Essay: Analysis of a Scholarly Article

The following guideline is one you must follow precisely. It serves both as your guide to writing your analysis and as my guide to grading your analysis.

You will analyze one of the assigned essays.

The first thing you must do is read the article, ideally two to three distinct times. In each reading, you should use a different color pen to mark important aspects of the essay.

Because this is a philosophical analysis of a philosophic essay you should avoid the following:

· Personal attacks on the author; do not question the author’s motives

· Complaining about the author’s writing style or choice of words

· Suggesting that the author is confused or unclear

·

Moreover, you should avoid any lengthy, direct quotations. I do want you to quote the essay three distinct times, but these quotes should never be longer than two sentences. Be sure you cite the quote in the precise way I show you in class.

Format

Your analysis must contain the following four sections:

· Introduction

· Summary

· Critique

· Conclusion

· Format

You must provide a heading at the beginning of each section. That is, write, underline and make bold the heading: Introduction , for example.

The formatting criteria are listed on a separate page. Thus, your essay will be worth up to 50 points, 10 points per section.

Introduction

Your Introduction should consist of 2 to 3 paragraphs:

1. In the first and second paragraphs identify the article and describe the problem or topic the essay addresses.

2. In the third paragraph articulate what your own analysis will address and what it is you intend to accomplish. This replaces the standard thesis statement: you will inform your reader of what you intend to do and provide a map of your analysis.

Summary

This is the main body of your essay. It must do the following:

1. You should begin by summarizing those aspects of the article that are relevant to your own critique. You should not attempt to summarize the entirety of the article; you are not simply writing a general review of the essay.

2. Your summary must represent the author’s views in the best possible way. You do not want to misrepresent the author’s views, or to represent them in such a way that you can then easily destroy them. Avoid the “straw man” fallacy. If you don’t know this fallacy look it up.

3. The summary of the author’s article must not include any critical comments.

4. The summary should not simply elaborate on the sequence of the author’s ideas. That is, you should not write a summary that simply does this: “The author begins by discussing . . . . Then she goes on to discuss . . . .” Your challenge is to present your summary in a way that draws the relevant parts of the author’s essay together in a way that prepares for your critical discussion of it. That is, your summary must be related to your thesis, or what I called your “map.”

Critique

1. Your critique should be organized according to your summary. This means that your critique, like your summary, will reflect those parts of the article that you have selected, parts that develop and illuminate your thesis, or “map.”

2. Your critique might focus on ideas you embrace, ideas you reject, and/or ideas about which you are unsure. Remember: critique does not mean being negative. You might actually find that you agree with an author, and if that is the case, you want to reflect that in your critique.

3. One of your greatest challenges is to tease out the philosophic aspects of the article. This requires you to draw from your other readings: keep in mind the work of the philosophers you have studied. Note Well: this part of your “Critique” is the most important part of your “Critique.” You must “step back” and “tease out” the philosophic principles “in play” in the essay.

Conclusion

In your conclusion, restate – although not verbatim – your thesis. Bring together the main themes of your essay and point to a broader application or assessment. The conclusion should be two to three paragraphs.

You should work carefully through the following check-list prior to submitting your essay:

· My essay is double spaced.

· My margins are set at 1 inch all the way around

· My essay is written in Times New Roman font

· My essay is written in 12 point font

· My essay has page numbers on each page

· My essay contains my name on the right hand corner of the first page

· My essay has no cover page or folder

· My essay’s pages are stapled together

· My essay does not use the words “feel” or “believe”

· My essay contains pronoun agreement throughout

· My essay does not contain any direct quotations from class lectures

· My essay contains at least 3 direct citations from the original article

· My essay cites the 3 direct citations exactly as instructed in class

· My essay’s introduction contains my thesis/map

· My essay’s introduction follows the above guidelines precisely

· My essay’s summary follows the above guidelines precisely

· My essay’s critique follows the above guidelines precisely

· My essay’s conclusion follows the above guidelines precisely

· My essay’s format follows the above points precisely