ESSAY

Due date: Feb 12th 2014, at 2:10 pm.

After this time, no essays will be accepted (unless you have made a previous arrangement with

me). This essay must be handed in to me during class, printed on paper. If you email me an attachment, slide it

under my door, or come in at the end of class to hand it in, you will receive 0%.

Length: 750 words.

Your essay should be as close to exactly 750 words as possible, but it absolutely must not be any longer than 750 words. If your essay is over 750 words, you will be penalized. I am very strict about this requirement, because it is my belief that anything worth saying can be said succinctly. Furthermore, learning to write with precision and eliminate unnecessary content will make everything you write easier to read, clearer, and better. YES the word limit includes references, bibliography, title, footnotes, name, appendices, etc.

Value: You will be given a score out of 20. This essay will be worth 10% of your final grade.

Assignment: This assignment has two parts. The first part (worth 10 points) is based on your participation in an argument workshop on February 20th (details below). The remaining ten points can be earned by handing in a very high quality, completed paper that answers following question:

Nielsen suggests that Socialism does a better job than Capitalism of sustaining and furthering several important North American values. Explain what he means, and evaluate his arguments.

Grading: The best papers (those that receive the highest grades) will have the following things in common:

 They will have a clear thesis, stated at the beginning of the paper. (In the case where more than one thesis will be defended, this will also be made clear).

 They will be well organized. One good way to organize a paper is to break it down into several discrete sections, and to accomplish a clearly stated expository or argumentative goal in each section. Alternatively, well-constructed paragraphs with clear transitions can also help make a paper seem more organized. A well-organized paper should have a distinct introduction at the beginning, and a clear conclusion at the end. If a paper is poorly organized, it can be very difficult to understand the author’s argument. This means that a very disorganized paper will get a very low mark.

 They will have strong arguments. It will be evident that the writer has thought through the issue, and has articulated a very good argument in favor of his or her thesis. See below for more detail about what counts as a ‘strong argument.’

 They will directly reference to the assigned readings, and will demonstrate comprehension of the course material. Students should strive to accurately and succinctly explain the relevant points from the readings and, when appropriate, use short quotations from the text to support their interpretations. Students should also be sure that their arguments reflect and demonstrate their comprehension of the readings (for example, if a student’s argument criticizes one of the authors we read in class, and it becomes evident that the student misunderstood the author in question, the student will lose quite a few points, as this would be a problem with both comprehension and argumentation).

 They will not suffer from many grammatical errors, spelling errors, typos, or awkwardly-phrased sentences. (These problems are easily preventable. Read over your paper on several occasions, on different days, before handing it in. You may also consider having someone else read it over.)

 They will have all of the following: the name of the author, a title, the word count, and a staple. Seriously. Staple your essay.

If an essay lacks any of the qualities described above, it will lose marks. The lowest graded papers will have the following things in common. Students will lose points if their papers:

 …contain inaccurate interpretations of the readings from class.

 …contain examples or quotes that are not relevant, or are not explained.

 …contain many typos, grammatical errors, or spelling errors.

 …contain arguments that are very weak, or are easily refutable.

 …are unclear.

 …are too long.

 …are vague.

 …are disorganized.

 …are repetitive.

There are many other reasons why a paper might lose points, but these are some of the most common ones.

What makes an argument strong?

Students often worry because the concept ‘strong argument’ seems to be very subjective. I assure you that this is not the case. Here is a short description of what, for the purposes of this class, I will consider to be a strong argument:

For an argument to be considered strong, it need not persuade me, and it need not be airtight. If I can tell that a student has genuinely thought about an issue, wrote out the strongest argument he or she could think of, revised it in order to respond to or circumvent specific objections, and worked to make the argument as clear as possible, I will almost always consider that to be a strong argument. The following are all elements that contribute to a strong argument:

 The author should not simply report what his or her beliefs, values, or feelings are . I am asking you to defend a position, not tell me what you believe. Phrases like ‘…my opinion is…,’ ‘…I think that…,’ ‘…I feel…,’ and similar constructions should not appear in your argument. Alternatively, you may consider using constructions such as ‘…I will argue that…,’ or ‘…I have shown that…’

 It is clear exactly what the author thinks is true, and it is extremely clear why the author thinks it is true.

 The author has explicitly stated any assumptions that are essential to the argument (or, in other words, the author has explicitly stated any important premises).

 The assumptions, or premises, that the author appeals to are either independently plausible, or are defended by the author. (If an author takes an assumption to be independently plausible and thus believes that it needs no further defense, the author should indicate this).

 The author has taken into account what opponents would say about the argument. This can be done by framing the argument in such a way that the opponents’ response would not undermine the argument, or by explicitly responding to an obvious and looming objection.

 The author’s argument does not rely on any fallacies (or, in other words, faulty patterns of reasoning). If you don’t know anything about fallacies, I recommend looking at a few webpages that list and explain common fallacies. Here’s one example of such a webpage: http://utminers.utep.edu/omwilliamson/ENGL1311/fallacies.htm. Alternatively, you could just take Philosophy 110 (shameless plug for my Critical Thinking class!)

 The author’s argument does not rely on any false or unsubstantiated factual premises.

If all of these things are true of your argument, I will consider it to be a strong argument. However, if many of these things are not true of your argument, I will consider it to be weak, and you will receive a low grade.

But I’ve never written a philosophy paper before! I don’t know where to start!

Everyone’s writing process is different, but many writing guides tell you to go through a process like the one I will describe below. I use a process very much like this for my own writing, and in my experience,

most students who follow these steps wind up writing very good papers. This process can be somewhat time consuming, but nonetheless I think it is the most reliable way to produce a good philosophy paper.

1) Start right now. Seriously. The longer you give yourself, the better your paper will be.

2) Pick which question you want to write on, and figure out which of the course readings are most relevant for this question.

3) Re-read those readings, or at least look over your notes. Write down, as succinctly and accurately as possible, what those authors say about the question you’ve chosen to discuss.

4) Write a very rough, quick draft of what you want to say. You may want to refute one of the positions, or articulate a different position that was not found in the readings. State your thesis, and write out why you think that thesis is true. Write in a way that makes you feel comfortable, as at this stage you’re only writing for yourself. You can use a conversational tone, you can use short forms, you can use swear words, or whatever makes it easier for you to get words on the page (but note that none of these should appear in your final draft). Just get down a quick, simple statement of what you think and why you think it. Write as much or as little as you need to (it’s better to write too much than too little at this stage). If you need to answer more than one question, do this with each question.

5) Re-read your writings from step 4. Figure out which ideas you want to abandon, and which you want to explore. Write down the shortest, most concise, most precise version of the argument that you made, and make all of your assumptions explicit. I find it useful to do this stage in bullet points.

6) Plan your essay. Write out your thesis (or theses) and break the paper down into sections, or steps. For each section, or step, assign a rough number of words based on order of importance, and the amount of space you think you’ll need. Then fill in, in bullet point form, what you need to show in each section.

7) Write out each section/step independently. If you get stuck on one section/step, go on to another and come back to it when your ideas are clearer. Once again, it is better to go over your assigned word limit and then cut it down after than it is to stop writing prematurely.

8) Re-write when necessary. Very often, you can find a much better way to say something if you come back to it a day or two later and try to re-write it. Do not be afraid to abandon your previous work in favor of something better.

9) When all the stages/sections are complete, put them together and add short transition sentences between them, to make sure that the essay flows. Re-write or replace opening/closing sentences of the sections when necessary.

10) Add a conclusion that briefly summarizes what you have argued, and how you have argued for it (remember to leave 50 or so words for this when breaking down your word limit).

11) Add an introduction that succinctly explains what you will argue, and how you will argue for it (remember to leave 50 or so words for this when breaking down your word limit).

12) Read the paper, over and over again. Fix awkward sections, clarify key ideas, and cut out redundant material. The more times you read it, the more you’ll catch problems. The more problems you fix, the better it will be.