Term Paper : Philosophy

Requirements for a Rough Draft of a Term Paper Mark Thames

I. What is a paper draft and why have one? a. A draft of a paper is when a student submits a paper as if it were what they were

going to turn in, and get comments from the instructor as if she were grading it—

only it is not yet the student’s final version, and the comments are not actually for

a grade.

b. This allows the instructor to give the student advice on how to proceed or to fix their paper before handing it in, and gives the student a clue as to whether they are

doing the assigned work in the way the instructor intends. That way, nobody has a

horrible surprise when the final paper is turned in for real grading.

II. General Requirements. a. The usual for all academic writing in college: the draft must be typed, double-

spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font (or equivalent), with average one-inch

margins.

b. Chicago Humanities is the only acceptable style for papers in philosophy and religion (in general, but certainly with Dr. Thames). See the paper writing guide

for Dr. Thames’s courses. Remember the big difference is footnotes and

alphabetical-order bibliography, not in-text citations or end-notes with works

cited.

c. The draft does not have to be in final or polished form. That’s why it’s called a rough draft. However, the more finished it is, the more I can say about it. So you

do not have to have your footnotes in the draft, or have your bibliography together

and alphabetized, but if you do, I can help you with it; if you don’t, I can’t help as

much.

III. Minimum and Maximum. a. The maximum rough draft is your entire, finished, formatted paper, with notes

and title page and bibliography page and everything. If you give me this, or

almost this, then I can and will tell you what grade it will get if you submit it as is.

I will also tell you what you might do to raise the grade if you wish for a higher

grade than I indicate the paper will currently receive.

b. The minimum rough draft is what is called an “annotated outline.” Show me how your paper will be organized, and what sources you’ll be using where. An

example is on the next page.

IV. Submission. As with other assignments, you should hand in a hard copy on the day it is due. You

have five days to turn it in late (i.e., 120 hours from the due-hour, which is start of

class on the due date).

Pattern of an Annotated Outline Submitted as Rough Draft

I. Introduction (introduces your paper, not the subject matter. That happens at the start of the body of the paper.)

a. My topic: Baruch Spinoza, or, Hindu and Muslim concepts of marriage.

b. Why I picked it: Spinoza’s disagreeing with how he was brought up is like my situation, so I wanted to see how he handled religion—or, I

love weddings, but I know people have different ideas about what

marriage is, so I wanted to see what other religions say.

c. Thesis: I hope to show that Spinoza threw the baby out with the bathwater when he rejected religion in favor of pantheism—or, the

Hindu notion of marriage is compromised by the various possibilities

of the soul’s reincarnation, and Islam’s by the provision for polygyny.

I think Western companionate marriage is better than both.

II. Argument A. Spinoza / Hindus say X.

1. Quotation from Spinoza himself / Hindu scripture with discussion. 2. Quotation from secondary source with discussion. 3. What I think, critically, about Spinoza’s / Hindus’ view of X. 4. My view, now, of X (with evidence / reasons).

B. Spinoza / Muslims say Y. 1. Quotation from Spinoza / Muslim scripture, with discussion. 2. Quotation from secondary source, with discussion. 3. What I think about Spinoza’s / Muslims’ view of Y. 4. My view, now, of Y (with my evidence and reasons).

C. For as many points as there are—D, E, F, whatever…then, G. When I compare Muslim and Hindu views of marriage, they are

similar in Z way, and different in W way.

H. When I consider Spinoza’s view of religion, its strengths are V and U, and its weaknesses are S and T.

III. Conclusion. Not a summary. The conclusion must relate to the thesis, like so: having

read Spinoza’s views on religion, I think my initial thesis was correct /

wrong / partly true, but partly off-base—or, having studied Hindu and

Muslim notions of marriage, I find my thesis confirmed, even though I

worry that it’s only because I am an American that I prefer our way of

marriage. Etc.