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html, 24-04-2009

How To Do Philosophy
By
Jeff McLaughlin Ph.D.
Thompson Rivers University

How To Listen To a Philosophy Lecture

How To Read a Philosophy Paper

How To Do Philosophy
How To Plan a Philosophy Paper

How To Write a Philosophy Paper

1. How to Listen to a Philosophy Lecture

If you are a new student or a returning mature student it can sometimes be difficult to get
the most out of attending class. At one extreme your approach to class might be trying to
write down every single word that your professor utters. This is a bad strategy since it
doesn’t allow you any time to digest any of the material and copious note taking fails to
delineate between the mundane and the essential. At the other extreme you might just sit
back and try to absorb what you hear. Of course, this is problematic since the moment
you leave the room, you’re bound to forget everything. – Of course, this doesn’t stop
many students! The following brief commentary is probably obvious to most but it
doesn’t hurt to get a reminder!

Complicating the matter of trying to get the most out of a lecture is the issue of classroom
dynamics. You might be in a class where no one talks or there might be one person who
drones on and on (besides your professor!). In both situations you may be apt to tune out
and try to just make it through a very long hour. The room might be hot or cold or there
might be someone sniffling and sneezing beside you. You might be in a bad mood, tired,
hung over, sick, or plain bored. Your instructor might be dynamic or dull. She might just
read from the textbook or use overheads or write on the blackboard. You might even luck
out by having the instructor present you with handouts or prepared lecture notes. If she
does, make sure you write the date on them and if possible insert them into the general
area in your own notes for quick retrieval. Accordingly, each course you take will be
different from another, and each class in each course can be different from another so you

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want to aim to be consistent in your own approach to create a personal rhythm that works
best for your needs.

Steps to increase what you get from the class lecture.

1. Come with sufficient paper and pen – of course, but also don’t forget to bring the text
book, a highlighter pen to identify passages in the book or in your own notes that are
significant. If you are not planning on keeping the text book, or want to keep it clean,
use a pencil to put light marks in it. You may also want to have a hole-puncher with
you just in case of handouts.

2. If there is assigned reading do it before class, not during! If you do have an

opportunity to read everything before class, at least glance at the material so that you
are not completely lost as to the topic of the day.
3. Read the materials for the class, after class as well. You may find that the lecture
helped you get a clearer picture of what was being said in the book. This is especially
the case with older works that are not written in ‘modern English’. Furthermore, in
some classes, it may be more useful to read the text after the lecture so that if you
didn’t understand the lecture, it might make more sense to you in the book and vice
versa.
4. Ask yourself questions while you are reading.
5. Ask questions in class
6. Related to 3, 4 try and answer these questions yourself then compare your notes with
what the instructor has to say. This does not mean that you should ask your question
then answer it outloud!(as this will make your classmates groan); rather you might
phrase it along the lines of: I wasn’t sure what the author meant by blah, but it seems
to me that it means this...am I on the right track? This shows a) you’ve been reading,
b) thinking about what you’ve been reading c) keen enough to want to know more...

When taking notes be sure to capture the following:

Main theme of the lecture.

Main points, feel free to use arrows or flow diagrams to link the points up to each other
(or to previous lectures).
Make reference of any pages or passages instructor refers to.
See how these notes fit in with last lecture and how they might suggest where the lecture
will be going next class.
Rewrite your notes, trying to put them into your own words.
You may consider summarizing them again (esp. if studying for a test).
Write objections, or further defend the points that you have written down.
Try to accomplish these tasks on the day of the lecture so that it remains fresh in your
mind.

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2. How to Read a Philosophy Paper
Part One: Reading

As a student who may be new to philosophy, the task of writing a philosophy paper is
usually the first thing that you’ll focus on - and dread: "Gee, I have to write a 2000 word
essay on Utilitarianism". However, what will become a more immediate concern to you is
getting through your philosophy text without getting utterly disheartened and
overwhelmed. It is often difficult for newcomers to philosophy to make sense out of
some of the articles that you are asked to read. The difficulties that you may discover are
often simply due your being unfamiliar with the writing styles of academic philosophers.
In this brief discussion, I’ll offer some suggestions on how to work your way through a
philosophy article or chapter. Two bits of warning though. First: don’t read while lying
down on a couch or in bed...you’ll probably want to drift off to sleep. Second, you will
have to read each article more than once. Sorry, but as an old film professor told me
once: "If a film isn’t worth watching twice, it isn’t worth watching once".

Part of your difficulty getting ‘used to’ reading philosophy is that the styles that you will
encounter can be quite different than what you are familiar with. Styles can differ
depending on the author's intended audience (Is it for laypersons, other philosophers,
other professions etc.?) and whether the article is a translated work (Are you reading an
English translation of a Greek text?). Even the century that the work is drawn from will
affect your reading comfort level. As well, the particular school of thought that the author
comes from can have significant impact on how the piece is presented (Is the philosopher
from the Analytic or Continental tradition?). Finally, the author’s own personality and
style will often come through his/her writing. So, even though all philosophy papers have
the intent to convince the reader of some point or other, how the author conveys his/her
views can vary considerably.
The use of complicated phrases or sentences, the development of complex arguments,
combined with your limited experience, requires that you develop an active reading
skill. So, without further ado here are a few tips on how to better understand philosophy
papers.

I. UNDERSTANDING
First, skim over the article in order to get a general idea of what the author is trying to
say. Pay attention to the title and subtitles as they will often inform you of the area of
inquiry (for example, the title of this piece gives you a pretty good idea what it’s about.)
Pay attention to the opening paragraphs since authors will sometimes offer summaries or
overviews of their paper (e.g., "In this paper it will be argued that...") or they will set the
context of their paper (e.g., what area of concern their paper in, what issue it will deal
with, or even who it is in response to.)

Working your way to the conclusion, you want to make a note of it: this is what the
author wants to convince you of. Underline it or highlight it (assuming it’s your own
copy and not the library’s). Try and write the conclusion down on a piece of paper in
your own words. Now, go back to the beginning of the paper and with the conclusion in

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mind, try and see how the author tries to take you there . . . In other words, think of the
challenge as being akin to rereading a murder mystery novel: it was fun to try and figure
out who the murderer was, you saw clues here and there, and perhaps you were able to
figure out some but others alluded you. Now that you know who the culprit is, it can be
fun to see how all the clues that you missed fit together (This approach is one reason why
I don't like Agate Christie novels: it seemed to me that she never provided enough clues
and the murderer only shows up in the last 5 pages - so most of the novel is irrelevant to
its ending! Of course I’m overstating my perception of her work but you get the idea: It’s
no fun reading something or watching a movie when the writer brings in a character right
at the end with no previous connection to the story. Keep this in mind when you are
planning your own essay!)

While you are reading each paragraph, the first and last sentences will often provide you
with key elements of the author's thought process; here you may find a conclusion or
premise of an argument or sub argument. I should explain a few of these terms. An
argument is made up of at least one premise and at least one conclusion. This argument
may itself be used to defend a further claim. The conclusion is what the writer is trying to
convince you to accept. The premise(s) is the reason that he/she offers to try and get you
to accept his/her conclusion. Consider the following claim: "Kamloops, British Columbia
is a great place to live." Why? "Because it’s a safe place to live." Why? "Because you can
walk outside late at night and leave your house unlocked." The first statement is the
conclusion that I’m trying to convince you of (although I could have just as easily put it
at the end of my argument.) After each ‘Why?’ question, is a premise or reason or claim
that I use to defend or justify my conclusion. I can then use this argument to try and
convince you to move to Kamloops. In doing so, the argument about Kamloops being a
great place to live becomes a sub-argument for the conclusion that you should move here.
What is important is that the writer does in fact offer you a reason for the conclusion
otherwise they are just stating an opinion. If I said: "Universal health care is a good
thing", all you can do is either just smile or say something like: "That’s nice." I have not
given you anything more than a simple statement on what I believe. I've just given you an
unsupported claim. Accordingly, you may agree or disagree with me but because I
haven’t stated any reasons for my opinion, you don’t know what to make of it. I must
offer a defense of my position before you can determine if you should rationally accept or
reject my position. Even if you agree with the opinion, you don’t want to jump the gun
and agree with me since you may not agree with my reasoning and that is just as
important as agreeing with my viewpoint. Here’s an example. I say: "I think capital
punishment is wrong." You say: "I agree!" Then I say, "I think it's wrong because those
murdering so and so's should be tortured slowly instead!" Now, because you didn’t wait
to hear my reason you have, or you have at least given me the appearance that you have
bought into my rather shocking belief - but more than likely you would want to disagree
with me. People can agree on the same points but for different reasons and some of the
reasons may be good and others may be bad. Another quick example: You and I both
agree that the sum of 2 + 2 is not 5. You (rightfully) believe that 2+2 does not equal 5
because it actually equals 4 while I (wrongfully) believe that 2+2 does not equal 5
because it equals 17. Accordingly, you must consider both the premises and conclusion
before making a final judgement. Think of paragraphs as an opportunity for the writer to

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offer a somewhat self-contained argument. Each self-contained argument then may be
intended to substantiate some larger position of the author.

Premise and conclusion indicator words will often (but not always) help you distinguish
the different parts of the arguments as well as distinguish arguments from non-arguments.
These words that indicate or signal that there is a reason (or premise or evidence,
justification etc.) being offered in support of a viewpoint (or conclusion) include
'Because, Since, Due to, It follows from...' etc. Conclusion indicators include: "Therefore,
Accordingly, So, Hence, Thus...' etc. If there are no indicator words and you suspect that
you are dealing with some part of an argument, try inserting an indicator word of your
choice to see if makes sense.

Making notes in the margin is useful. For example, you might put a couple of words
beside each paragraph that highlight the topic of the paragraph. Don't simply underline
every word since not every thing the author will say will be significant and/or relevant to
the main thesis. He/she might provide you with background factual information,
introductory comments, personal asides, etc. Look for stipulative definitions where the
author defines what he/she means when he/she uses a certain term (e.g., "Universal health
care means that everyone receives health care regardless of their ability to pay, regardless
of where they live, are regardless of the amount of responsibility or ‘blame-worthiness’
that they have for causing their own injury or illness"). See if he/she offers distinctions
between his/her views and those of other writers (e.g., "It is a mistake to believe that a
persistent vegetative state is the same as a permanent vegetative state.") As well, look for
the use of other writers' ideas either as supporting evidence or as positions that the author
wants to refute (e.g., "In 1993, Balderson argued (rightly/wrongly) that...").

Next, try to put the main arguments (the premises and the conclusions) of the paper in
your own words. The challenge, later on, is to see if what you believe the author is
arguing for is, in fact, what the author intended.

Notice what has happened. 1) You’ve skimmed over the article to get a general sense of
what it is about. 2) You’ve put the conclusion (or what you think is the conclusion) in
your own words. 3) You’ve gone back to carefully re-read the article to draw out the
various arguments that the author raises or rejects in his/her paper (Remember, not
everything that the author says is going to be a positive thesis. They will often argue
against other people at the same time, attempting to show why their opponent’s view is
unsatisfactory, and, subsequently why their own views are right.) 4) You’ve taken these
points (many of which you’ve jotted down in the margins) and listed them on a piece of
paper. 5) Now take a moment to look at what you’ve got. Do you follow the flow of the
paper? Perhaps you can draw arrows and diagrams connecting the various points. Do you
understand what the writer has said and why he/she has said it? If not, guess what you
need to do. Yes, you can read it again, and if that fails, ask well-formed questions of you
instructor or peers. For example, try phrasing the question as: "On page 34, the author
states X, but I don't see how this fits with the conclusion Z. Is the author saying that X
leads to Y and Y leads to Z?"
Once you understand the article only then can you go back and evaluate it.

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II. EVALUATION
So, for sake of argument, let’s assume that you have a reasonable grasp on what the
writer is trying to ultimately convince you of. Now the question is, is the writer
successful? No one is saying you must accept or reject every single point made. Some
arguments can still survive even if you've cast doubt on some of the premises. Perhaps
you’ll like the argument in general but find a few weak areas. Perhaps you’ll think the
argument is terrible and seriously flawed from the get-go. Whatever you believe, you’ll
ultimately have to convince others of the same. In order to do that, you’ll need to know
how to write a philosophy paper. However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves yet.

Here is one approach that you can use to evaluate the author's position. First, you will
want to isolate the reasons that the author offers to defend his or her conclusions (i.e., the
premises of the arguments) and you will want to consider whether or not they are
rationally acceptable. This means, amongst other things, that you will want to determine
if the reason or premise is defended in a deductively sound or inductively strong sub-
argument. For example is the premise successfully defended elsewhere by the writer in a
sub-argument, or even in another article, or by another person? Is it a matter of common
knowledge or is it supported by a proper appeal to authority?

If for some reason you don't know if the premise is acceptable, and you don't have
evidence to suggest that it is unacceptable then you may wish to provisionally accept it
and move on to look at the author's other reasons (This is one reason why we hear people
say: "For argument’s sake, let’s assume that such and such is true".) However, if you
don’t understand the argument please don’t use provisional acceptance as a way to justify
your laziness. Sometimes reading a particular paper on a philosophical topic will require
to you go and do a bit of background reading. The author keeps talking about another
person's argument - do you need to go read the original article? What is the context of the
piece, do you need to familiarize yourself with details on the surrounding issues? Just as
it is inappropriate to walk in on another person’s conversation and start arguing with
them, it is intellectually inappropriate to start arguing against an author before you get the
full story. Do some research. Research doesn't have to be confined to the task of tracking
down other lengthy books; you can try a philosophy encyclopedia for good overviews.
You can try a philosophy dictionary for help on terminology. You can talk to your peers,
you can ask for directed assistance from your instructor and so forth. Research in this
sense is simply taking action in finding out what you need to know in order to make a
reasoned decision about the piece that you are evaluating.

The next stage of your evaluation will involve determining if the premises are positively
relevant to the conclusion(s). To be 'positively relevant' the truth of the premise will
count towards the truth of the conclusion. For example, the premise: "It is sunny and
warm today." is positively relevant to the conclusion: "I should wear shorts and a T-shirt
if I want to avoid being uncomfortable today." Whereas the premise: "All ravens are
black." is not relevant to the same conclusion: "I should wear shorts an a T-shirt if I want
to avoid being uncomfortable today." In other words, premises are relevant to the
conclusion when they offer some evidence (any evidence!) to support the conclusion.

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Only after identifying the argument and its parts, and after determining if the reasons are
relevant to the conclusion may you then consider whether or not the author has provided
sufficient evidence for you to rationally accept the conclusion. In order to do that, you’ll
have to engage in ‘critical thinking’. Unfortunately, critical thinking is not something you
can learn about by just reading about it especially in such a short essay as this. You can't
just read about how to develop critically thinking skills because in order to learn
philosophy you have to do philosophy.

I’ve come to the end of my very brief paper. What I've suggested is just the first step in
your journey. Perhaps the best way to start you on your way is to get you to perform the
above suggestions on this work. And so, "In your own words, tell me, how do you read a
philosophy paper?"

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3. How To Plan a Philosophy Paper

Part Two: Planning

Introduction

So, your philosophy class is only days old and your professor, who’s name you don’t
even know, is already talking about the first essay that isn’t due for weeks if not months
down the road. You might be tempted to wait until the very last minute to actually start
writing it but by then five other assignments from your other classes are also due. Not a
smart move, but understandable. It’s only human nature to try and avoid doing those
things that we don’t like, whether its homework or going to the dentist. Even if you get a
‘B’ on the paper, image what you could have gotten if you had spent more time on it.

What is the consequence of waiting until the very last minute? Well, on the positve side,
you’ve managed to avoid doing something that you don’t really want to do. But on the
negative side, you’ll lose a lot of sleep, skip a few early morning classes, be cranky and
stressed and submit a flawed piece of work that doesn’t accurately represent what you
think or what you are capable of. Oh, and you’ll probably get a poor grade too.

Writing guides are intended to assist you in expressing your views and arguments clearly
and with philosophical force. Poor grammar and uncritical thinking combined with weak
presentation and research skills will interfere with your attempts to convince the reader of
your claims. Your reader wants to be enlightened by your writing, not confused; and most
certainly, they don’t want to have to treat your essay like some jumbled word puzzle with
no clear direction or purpose. Readers should not have to work hard at deciphering your
intent.

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In fact, you really don’t need to spend more time writing your paper, you need to spend
more time planning it. In this second part of our "How To" series, you’ll learn how to
systematically plan your philosophy paper.

Before we begin, let’s be sure that we are on the same track. More often than not, a
philosophy paper is a position paper or argumentative paper. It is not a ‘research paper’.
A pure research paper involves amongst other things, establishing or discovering facts,
for example, medical facts, historical facts, governmental facts etc. A position paper is
just that, a paper where you take or explain a position or point of view. You are trying to
convince your reader of the thesis that you put forward.

In order to successfully convince the reader of your own views, your professor will be
checking to see whether you adequately grasp the material and its implications, can
critically analyze and evaluate the relevant issues and can reasonably defend your thesis.

A position paper should not be considered just an opportunity for stating your own
opinions (opinions are philosophically uninteresting since they simply are unsupported
claims.) Although we are contrasting this process with a standard ‘research paper’, we are
not saying that you don’t do any research for your project. Research is a key element to
find out more about your topic as well as the different views and arguments that people
have offered regarding it. You’ll need to do research to first understand the topic, the
surrounding issues and implications; then you’ll need to do research to find out what
other people think and then you’ll need to do research to support your own views. Doing
all of this requires time. Something you will sorely lack if you put the paper off until the
last minute.

If there is any theme of this paper it is to stress the need have enough time to devote to
your project. Let’s repeat that again: GIVE YOUR ASSIGNMENT, YOUR TOPIC AND
YOUR READER THE TIME THEY DESERVE.

You need time to reflect, conduct research, reflect some more and put your ideas down
on paper. You need time to walk away from those ideas and time to revisit them. You
need time to dig around in libraries and the Internet and then armed with this additional
input, alter, strengthen and revise your work. You will then need more time to do the
mechanical bits like editing and proofreading and making sure that you have ink for your
printer…

And since time is important, let’s get on to the main points shall we?

1. Understand nature of the assignment.

Your topic may be assigned to you or you may be directed to choose a topic within
certain parameters. Regardless of which approach is taken by your professor, you must
understand the topic and the assignment requirements for although you might write a
competent paper it might completely miss the point! Be sure about the instructions. Are
you asked to analyze a particular work or concept? Are you asked to summarize without

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evaluation? Are you asked to compare and contrast the positions of different philosophers
or philosophies? How many words are required? Is it a short paper or a longer one?
Whatever the length, be mindful to stay close to the established limits. Writing a too-
short paper will entail that you don’t spend adequate time to sufficiently develop and
explore complex ideas. A too-long paper may suffer from repetition or may be ‘long
winded’ and simply defeat the purpose of the assignment (e.g., to be able to present
material in a concise manner).

If you are unclear about the assigned essay topic or if you are unfamiliar with the topic
background, or if you are unsure about the philosophical terminology, look to the
reference section of your library for a philosophy dictionary or encyclopedia. This
reading will also help you frame the topic within a larger context and has the potential to
provide you with information to assist you when you actually start the formal writing
process. Do not simply turn to a standard dictionary (like Webster s) since the definitions
that you will be supplied with will either be hopelessly incorrect or incomplete. If you
prefer to look on the web, try sites such as Garth Kemerling’s Dictionary of Philosophy
or the How to Read a Philosophy Paper to assist you in this aspect of your preparation.

If you are required to come up with your own essay topic you should pick one after
considering the following four guidelines.

Pick something that is relevant.

It sounds obvious but sometimes students will get off track quickly and choose a topic
that isn’t quite what the professor wanted. This might be due to your not understanding
the nature of the assignment or due to your choosing a topic that is too general or vague.
It’s wise just to clear your topic with your professor to see if you are on the right track.
He or she will then be able to give you some further direction on what to do.

Pick something that you are interested in.

They say time flies when you are having fun... While some topics may seem easier than
others, don’t let your initial impressions be the overriding factor. If you are not interested
in the topic then the actually writing process will become more difficult since you don’t
have anything vested in the project.

Choose a topic that is do-able .

Essay topics like "The philosophy of Aristotle", "What is Truth?", or "Science versus
Religion", are far too broad. When thinking about your topic it is better that the "pool be
small and deep, rather than wide and shallow". That’s a murky metaphor but basically it
means don’t bite off more than you can chew. You don’t want to touch on fifty different
and disjointed points and say nothing substantial about any of them (or you run the risk of
writing a ‘too-long paper’). Instead, you want to pick a manageable topic that allows you
some room for an in depth exploration of the particular issue. Are you keen on the topic
of euthanasia? What aspect? Voluntary vs. Non-voluntary? Active vs. Passive? The role

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of non-family members as decision makers? Consideration of potential negative
utilitarian consequences of a newborn euthanasia policy? Narrow your focus and develop
your exploration of it.

.Pick something that you can find materials on.

While you may find a topic that interests you, you should check to see what sorts of
resources available. You might struggle with arguments and ideas if you can’t find more
than 2 or 3 pieces that only mention your topic in passing.

2. Make preliminary notes about the topic from your own perspective.

Once you have tentatively chosen a topic and have an understanding of it, try putting
some of your own thoughts down on paper. Put your comments down as potential areas
that you may want to explore later on. Just because you have chosen a topic doesn’t
necessarily mean that you clearly know what you think about it let alone know what you
want to say about it. Try and answer the following questions What do you think about the
topic? What do you want to say? What troubles you about this topic? What do you like
about it? What do you find interesting or confusing? Do you see it leading to particular
consequences? Can you think of any examples that highlight any of your concerns or
which highlight the claims being put forward by proponents of the particular position?
Now is the time to start the creative juices flowing. Do you find that you seem to be in
favor of one stance over another? Are you leaning in one direction but aren’t quite sure?
Just put your thoughts down on paper. This doesn’t have to be any sort of formal
presentation right now and by no means do these precursory comments have to be well-
developed or even consistent with each other. The challenge is to just get started. The
mechanical process of writing, of putting pen to paper –even if you are not sure what you
want to say- will help you.

3. Conduct your first search for potential sources.

After you’ve got your topic and put down a few thoughts about it you need to find out
what is out there. While you might think that the Internet is the best place to go to see
what sorts of resources are available it isn’t the best place to start with. Look first to your
own class text. It may contain a bibliography or a list of ‘recommended readings’. Does
the author or editor have an introduction to the text or for each chapter? In it he or she
might explicitly refer to other books or at least raise some discussion questions that may
provide some key terms that you can use for your searching. The book or article might
mention other sources like journals or some other texts that you can go search for in your
university’s library. Look at the footnotes provided in the different resources. These too
will point you to other sources. Remember, each source, whether it’s an encyclopedia, a
journal, a book, an anthology, an index, a glossary of terms or a footnote has the potential
to lead you to other sources. Interestingly, this process of using one reference to link to
another is just the same way we use hyperlinks on the World Wide Web. So sit yourself

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down in the middle of the library stacks and start flipping through various journals and
texts that you find on the shelves. You will be pleasantly surprised by what you can
discover by just spending an hour digging around.

If you aren’t having luck finding anything on your topic, you may want to ask for further
guidance from the librarian or from your professor. It may be the case that you’ll have to
just change your topic to find more fruitful material.

We should point out that if you haven’t taken an official tour of your library yet, do so.
Find out where things are. Find out how to look things up. Find out where the reference
books are, the periodicals, the photocopy machines... Ask questions. Ask for assistance.
Scout out the place before wasting any more time otherwise you’ll be doing this every
time you have to return to the library to research a paper. Related to this, if you are not
comfortable going on-line, work your way through the tutorial on searching the web. It is
important to be able to search effectively and critically so you can distinguish between a
dubious site from one that is a potential goldmine.

4. Get your preliminary sources together.

It’s now time to get your readings together. You may find that some of the sources aren’t
appropriate or quite what you need, but for now, get a small collection together and start
searching them for applicability. Often it doesn’t take very long to figure out that a
particular article is relevant or irrelevant to what you want. Read the table of contents,
look at the author’s introduction, look at the index to see what key terms are mentioned
frequently. Use those key terms to find other sources. If you look up a book on a shelf,
look at all the others on the same shelf. If you found a useful article in a journal, look at
previous issues and later ones (perhaps someone has written a rebuttal to the piece you
like!) If there’s a blurb on the book jacket, read it. For the name of the reviewer on the
book jacket might be someone you want to research. After plopping your self down in a
library aisle and finding potential sources, grab a photocopy machine and start making
copies (be sure to check the copyright regulations!) for your personal use.

While you can tentatively rely on the fact that the library books or journals that you are
using are ‘quality’ works given that they were selected by someone to include in the
university collection, remember to critically evaluate any work that you are considering
to use as support for your own views. This is even more pressing when you turn to the
World Wide Web where anyone can publish anything on-line. Fortunately, many people
have taken the time to put together websites that list various resources for you to use.
You will find a few listed on my homepage. As well, search engines like HIPPIAS go a
great distance to help people find philosophical materials.

5. Understand, then critically reflect upon the articles you’ve found.

Read the articles that you’ve selected. You need to be a bear (as in Goldilocks and the
Three Bears) about your research now. You don’t want too many references to
overwhelm the project because you can’t tackle everything (remember the shallow pool

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metaphor from earlier) and you don’t want too little (remember you need to demonstrate
an understanding of the issues and not just use the paper as a soapbox for your own ideas,
no matter how marvelous they may be). You must understand the material before you can
evaluate it. Make notes on your photocopies, use a highlighter, or a pen to capture ideas
or quotes that you want to use (but don’t plagiarize!). If you are not sure how to read the
articles effectively, be sure to check out on part 1 of this series for further help. Take time
to digest and reflect upon the information.

6. Create an outline.

Go back now to the ideas that you jotted down a while ago. Are there any common
threads? Can you pull some of them together to form a sense of where you might want to
go? Do the articles that you found offer new insights and leads? Do they answer any
questions or do they lead you to ask more? How do the articles that you’ve been reading
help you? Think of this process as teamwork. Many others have been down the road you
are traveling and can offer suggestions on where to turn and what to watch out for. Try to
build on what they have done. Now is the time to create an outline of your arguments or
at a minimum, sketch out your ideas and construct an informal flow chart connecting this
point to that and so on.

7. Write your first draft.

Start writing your essay. See Part 3 of our series by Prof. Berkeley for assistance. Once
you have composed the first draft (yes, you will require more than one draft of your
paper!) WALK AWAY FROM YOUR ESSAY.

8.Walk away!

You need time to be able to shut off your goal-driven mind and re-examine your paper.
This is because when you’ve been writing for extended periods of time you can lose your
objectivity. For example, have you ever read one of your own essays over and over again
and had a friend just glance at it once and spot typos that you never saw? This is because
you are so used to what you have written and are so intimate with the ideas that you can
skim over all the miscues. This is also why when reading the paper it may be clear as day
to you but to someone else it makes no sense. The reason for this is that you know what
you wanted to say, and you know what you mean and where you are going, but these
things may not be adequately reflected by what actually appears on your paper. You want
to avoid having to admit that "what I really meant to say here was..." Avoid it by coming
back to your paper not as the writer of the piece but as someone who is disinterested.

9. Revisit and revise viciously!

By taking the time to clear your head (at least one good night’s sleep!) you can return to
your paper from a more objective point of view. You can see what you may have missed
or what needs to be rewritten or deleted or further defended. Often reading the paper out

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loud to yourself or to a friend can bring out any leaps of logic, incongruities, digressions
and basic presentation problems. Here are some of the things you should be checking for:

Do you offer a clear thesis and tell the reader where you are going to take them? Do you
take them where you said you were in the most effective manner? Do you state your
arguments? Do you offer a credible defense of it –- not only by supplying your own
reasons but the reasons of others? Do any of your claims that you use as justification
require further justification themselves? Do you offer and consider other points of view?
What have other people said both in favor and against the sorts of views that you are
putting forward? Why should the reader accept your argument as opposed to the others
that are out there (and which you may even discuss)? Do you consider their implications
on your own position? Can you reasonably cast doubt on views that are inconsistent with
your own? Can you see the implications of your view? Do you accept these implications?
Do you see any weaknesses with your theory? Have you explicitly acknowledged any
potential criticisms and attempted to meet them head on? Are these criticisms serious
enough to require a wholesale review of your argument or can you accept the weakness
by altering your position within reasonable limits? Are there areas that are ambiguous or
vague? Are there any inconsistencies? Have you committed any fallacies?

10. Check your paper manually before handing it in.

Finally, you’re almost done. After editing the content of your paper, check the
mechanics. Run a spellcheck program. If you haven’t done so already, print off a copy of
your paper. Manually proofread your paper. Often students will just do the former but
the spellchecker won’t see errors such as "These cent tents says dough not make scents."
By looking at your essay on paper rather than on your computer screen you may catch
obvious errors, leaps in logic, unconnected paragraphs and poor transitions that you
might miss if you only view it on the screen. Now repeat the last two steps until you are
happy and/or until it is time to hand your paper in!

Now do you see why we assign essays weeks in advance?

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4. How To Write a Philosophy Paper
Part Three: Writing

The process of writing a good philosophy paper can begin when you are evaluating the
works of others; that is, you can learn by example. Unfortunately, for a variety of
reasons, not all ‘classics’ are good candidates for you to follow. What follows here are
just a few suggestions on how to write your own paper. Of course, any requirements or
recommendations of your Professor will take precedence over these instructions.

Your Title
Although the first thing a reader will see is the title of your essay, the choice of title is
perhaps best left for last. This is the case because a title should give an good indication as
to the nature of the work – and you’ll have a better idea of what this is when the paper
has been completed.

Why should the reader read your paper and not someone else’s? Make the title
informative but not too specific – it’s a title, not a wordy thesis statement. Feel free to
personalize the title but don’t make it wildly outrageous!

Let’s image that you are writing a paper in Epistemology. One possible title would be:
Truth Problematic? Definitely. ‘Truth’ is far too generic, and a bit pompous to boot.
How about: The Correspondence Theory of Truth. – Better; but it is still too broad and
it doesn’t provide the reader with a sense of the paper’s purpose. The Correspondence
Theory of Truth: A Defense – This is even better as it gives the reader an indication as
to what you’re examining and hints at what your point of view will be. Of course, it’s not
very sexy but we leave that possibility up to you.

Your opening
Your opening paragraph(s) should set the stage for the rest of the paper. You are
providing your reader with a contextual roadmap of what they can expect. It provides the
reader with some indication as to why the topic is important, what the general problem is
(or has been) and what your general thesis will be. If you have the space, you may wish
to provide a brief glimpse of the main points you will be making- but be careful, you
don’t want to spend 1/3 of a short essay just explaining what the essay will be about. Just
like your title, you may want to write the first paragraph last. This is due to the fact that
you may not be quite sure what direction the paper will ultimately take and what the
various arguments will be. Thus, instead of trying to force your paper to comply with the
limits that you set out in a poor opening paragraph, just sketch the start of your paper to
begin with and then jump right into the main text. Of course, the creation of an outline
prior to this (see ‘How to Plan your Paper)will benefit. Once you’ve written the first
draft, then you can go back and tweak the opening paragraph.

Your text
While the opening sentence of each paragraph should be a new idea or an expansion of a
previous one, it must flow naturally from the last sentence of the previous paragraph.

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Take care that you don’t jump around from point to point without warning the reader –
otherwise the reader will be lost as to where you are going and what you are trying to
accomplish. Of course, there are many different approaches to write your essay, and
sometimes it just becomes a matter of what works best for you, the topic and what your
instructor wants. For example, you may want to present the issue, your views, then the
possible objections and your responses; or you may wish to develop these things all in
tandem. That is, present an argument and a possible objection then resolve the criticism
and move on.

The central sentences of a paragraph will provide details and expand the claim being
made while the final sentence will leave the reader with a strong sense of what this key
point is as well as setting up the next paragraph. Paragraphs should not be overly long
however.

As a general rule, stronger arguments should be reserved for later on in your paper. Start
with the more fragile or the less significant ones first, and then build up your case. You
don’t want to end on a weak note since the last things you say will be the first things that
the reader will remember. Don’t be afraid to offer an apparent weak point – so long as
you are able to recognize that it is a difficulty and are able to successfully respond to it.
For example, let’s say your claim is that ‘any form of euthanasia is immoral and it should
never be an institutionalized practice because physicians are in the business of curing
people, not killing them’. One objection (and there would be many) might be the fact that
this blanket prohibition means that there will be people who will be suffering needlessly:
“Is it fair to force an elderly woman who is terminally ill to be in a constant state of pain
until her death?” To this you might reply that not permitting euthanasia doesn’t mean that
we should stop caring for patients. Perhaps a new drug regiment can be put into practice
to ease her pain; perhaps legalization of medicinal marijuana is needed, and so forth.

Your conclusion
Your conclusion should pull the pieces of your paper together for one final ‘send-off’.
This is the last chance you have to grab the reader. The conclusion is used to restate your
thesis and main arguments with reference to the specific concerns of your paper as well
as to the general topic. It should complete what you started in such a fashion that the
reader can walk away gaining some insight into what you were trying to do all along.

Your paper’s characteristics

Let’s assume you are writing a relatively long argumentative paper. When constructing
your paper be sure that:
• The course concepts and presentation of others’ views are clear and accurate.
• You attempt to be original.
• Any use of others words or ideas directly or indirectly are clearly cited. (see ‘How
to cite your sources’ below).
• The paper has correct spelling, punctuation, diction and is expressed in
appropriate formal language including gender-neutral terminology.
• The paper is well-organized & you do not digress. This organization is also made
clear to the reader.

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 • The paper clearly presents the issue it will discuss and selects appropriate aspects
of that issue for discussion.
• The paper is not too broad in attempting to answer ‘every problem’ but deals with
select elements in-depth.
• The arguments are presented clearly, logically and understandably.
• The writer takes a definite position on the issue.
• The paper gives appropriate and cogent reasons for the position taken.
• The paper considers the viewpoints of others.
• The paper gives appropriate reasons for rejecting these views.
• The paper considers reasonable objections to its own positive argument including
any that were presented in class or found in assigned readings.
• The arguments for rejecting these objections are clear and cogent.

How to Cite Your Sources

MLA Footnotes and Bibliography

Footnotes or endnotes can be used for two different purposes. The first is to give
information regarding the resource you are citing, the second is to use them for
commentary that does not fit in the main body of your paper but is still relevant and
worth stating. For example, in a footnote you might provide the entire passage that you
quoted from or you might make offer a general remark about the author or the source.

Many instructors permit inclusion of reference citations within the body of the essay. For
example,

Dualists, and even Idealists, would dispute the claim of the Reductionists since
these two schools of thought maintain that the “mind is not a material thing”
(Wilson, 63).

However, I find that in-text citations can interrupt the flow of the essay. If I am thinking
about the author’s argument, inserting references can break the visual flow of the
argument and, accordingly, my concentration. Also, if the author whom you are citing
has more than one article published in the same year, this will cause confusion unless you
now include part of the title in your citation (e.g., Wilson, I Know I Left it Somewhere
63). This, in my view, only makes the distraction more pronounced. Given that I often
make use of footnotes for both commentary and referencing, I prefer to just use footnotes
for everything – but this is merely a personal preference. Please check with your
instructor to see what format he or she expects.

Using footnotes in Modern Language Association style is very easy. There are only four
components: Author, Title, Publication Information, Page. Here are samples of the
commonly used types of sources. Follow each example exactly (i.e., use underlines,
italics, commas etc., in the same way).

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FOOTNOTES OR ENDNOTES

BOOK
Jack Wilson. My Mind: I Know I Left it Somewhere around Here. (New York:
Wadsworth Publishing, 2001), p. 210.

ARTICLE IN ANTHOLOGY
Jane Brill. “Drinking Water Concerns”, in Environmental Problems 3rd edition. eds.,
Martin Smith and Debra Hans, (Vancouver: Raincoast Sons, 1988), p. 34.

ARTICLE IN JOURNAL
Jason Jones. “Righting Wrongs: Utilitarianism and Capital Punishment” in Philosophy
and Public Issues. Vol. 12, No. 2. (Jan.-Mar. 2003), p. 111.

FURTHER CITATION OF SAME AUTHOR - SAME SOURCE

Wilson. My Mind: I Know I Left it Somewhere around Here p. 212.

CLASS NOTES
Jeff McLaughlin. ‘Philosophy 666 lecture’. January 7, 2004.

ONLINE REFERENCES
Information is the same as above with additional remarks. No page reference is required.
Note: the first date below refers to when the article was posted or last updated (if known)
and the second is when you visited the website. See the MLA Style site
http://www.mla.org/style_faq4 for other details and other kinds of online sources.

Jeff McLaughlin. “How to Do Philosophy”. home page, May 1999, Visited: 12 June
2002. <http://www.jeffmclaughlin.ca>.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Put the author’s last name first and keep the information the same as above (but drop the
parentheses and page references).

Church, Jessica. Neurology and Personal Awareness. Chicago: New Press, 1993.

Some final remarks:

1. Reference numbers are sequentially ordered: 1,2,3,4,5,6 etc. Numbers are also
superscript (small numbers placed above the text line)1[1] All MS Word programs
do this automatically.

2. Long quotes must be separated from the body of your text, indented and single
spaced. Quote marks are not used in this case and the passage is followed with a
citation number. For example:
1[1]
Text citation.

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In the summer of the last year of the great War, men and women back home started to

return to their normal lives. Yet the world was not the same place as it had been.

According to the New York Times journalist Jackson Smith:

Although many women began to return to their previous lives as homemakers, the
few men who were starting to return from the front lines in Europe and the Pacific
where discovering that the jobs that they had left years ago had in fact left them.
Women had replaced men on the assembly lines and in the factories when there
was a shortage of able bodies during the war. These same women were found to
be extremely capable workers and the economic situation in North America had
changed forever. 2[2]

3. If you wish to delete some of the quoted text because it is irrelevant use three dots
… to signify that text is deleted. For example,

The original source:

She listed many household appliances including hot water tanks, dishwashers, clothes
dryers, television sets that were considered expensive.

Your quotation:
“She listed many household appliances …that were considered expensive.”

4. If you need to add/change a word (to clarify the meaning of the sentence) or
capitalize or remove capitalization from the quote, use square brackets []. For
example,

“[The child] listed many household appliances …that were considered expensive.

5. In the following case, the original sentence started with ‘She’ but it is now part of
a new sentence:

Even though Sarah was still quite young, “[s]he [was able to list] many household
appliances …that were considered expensive.

6. Please remember that e.g., (an abbreviation of the latin exempli gratia ) is used
when you wish to give examples and i.e., (an abbreviation of the latin ‘id est )is
used when you wish to rephrase or clarify the meaning of a term in other words.
For example,

2[2]
Text citation.

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“There are many expensive (i.e., cost over $400.00) household appliances, (e.g.,
television sets and dishwashers)”.

7. Never use ‘I feel’ when you really mean to write: ‘I think’ or ‘I believe’. ‘I feel
happy’ is fine, but ‘I feel that truth is a correspondence of how the world really is,
with what the person is claiming’ suggests that you have an intuition or a ‘gut-
reaction’ about what truth is. You are not going to persuade anyone to accept your
views based upon what YOU feel. Besides, feelings are just sensations…

8. In fact, try to avoid using ‘I think’ entirely since first person usage is often
redundant. If you write: ‘I think abortion is wrong’, this provides no more
information to the reader than stating ‘Abortion is wrong’. The reader already
knows that you think abortion is wrong, because you’re the author of the essay!
There’s no need to remind them of this fact. Moreover, dropping ‘I think’
provides a subtle benefit to your claim. You are trying to persuade someone that
abortion is wrong, not just that you believe that it is wrong. To do to the latter is to
open yourself up to the obvious rebuttal that ‘what you write may lead you to
believe abortion is wrong, but it sure doesn’t convince me.’

9. Be sure to keep the paper as close to the prescribed length as possible. Part of the
exercise is to see if you can speak intelligently about the topic within the limit set
out. If the paper is too short, you will be almost guaranteed that the topic will not
be dealt with appropriately. If the paper is too long, then it is not as concise as it
should be. Both of these extremes are subject to penalties.

10. Use common sense when putting your presentation together. Buy a stapler
tomorrow if you don’t own one. Don’t use that lined or that personalized paper
covered in roses that you found in a drawer because ‘that’s all you had left’. Don’t
use odd coloured ink or strange margins or font settings. Not being professional
about how your work looks indicates how much you care or don’t care about what
you are doing.

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