A Compelling Introduction: This introduction will identify the topic, clearly outlining the structure of the argument and the counterargument, connection to modern day philosophy (paternalism and Justice), define key terms, and clearly state the thesis.
Hook: Your first sentence is designed to “hook” your reader, inducing him or her to continue reading. Yet while you should introduce your material in a general way before moving to a specific thesis, avoid overwhelming generalizations such as “Throughout history…” or “Since the beginning of time…” And while the hook should perhaps be the most general sentence in your essay, it should still be directly related to your essay’s topic.
Context: The bulk of your introduction should provide context for your reader. This is the appropriate place to include summary. But it is a careful balancing act—you will likely need to reread and revise your introduction multiple times to strike the right balance of summary: not too much, and not too little. Provide the essential information so your reader can follow your train of thought, without including irrelevant details.
Topics for summary may include:
Philosophers and works you are analyzing (directly relevant to your thesis; others can be addressed as examples within the body)
Historical context (only include details relevant to your thesis)
Ideas that provide the foundation for understanding your thesis
Thesis: The thesis should be located at the end of the introduction. The thesis statement specifies what will be argued in the paper. Therefore, it should contain a subject (what is my topic?), argument (what am I claiming?), and why/how (what is my reasoning?). Consider the thesis statement a contract between the writer and the reader, and make sure that the rest of the essay upholds the thesis statement’s proposed argument. The thesis statement establishes the tone for the essay; therefore, it should use specific and active language and avoid clichés, questions, and overgeneralizations. It is the most important and thus should arguably be the best written sentence in the entire essay
An Organized Body: Follow through on developing your thesis in the body of your paper. Ensure that you use effective transitions for every component of your argument as well as your counterargument. The body of your paper should flow logically, arguing the thesis from your introduction with highly effective examples reflecting insights from your own critical thinking process, not summarizing. The examples and facts from the philosophers and works you have examined will support your thesis, and the significance of each insight your critical thinking process reveals will be fully explained. The body will also include at least three scholarly sources and respond to each source in the form of highly relevant quotations and concise paraphrasing.
Body Paragraph: Remember to put your paragraphs in a logical order in the paper as a whole.
Transitions: Provide a sentence at the end of one paragraph and/or at the beginning of another paragraph indicating how one idea is connected to the next. A transition may be implied if the logic is clear enough.
Counterargument: Be certain to tell the reader when you are transitioning to the counterargument and what argument you are countering.
A Powerful Conclusion: This is where you pull it all together. Your conclusion will not only effectively restate your thesis, but it will pull all your claims together. Your conclusion should clearly relate how the issue represented by the thesis is important and what bigger question it raises, and identify possibilities and implications for applying philosophical inquiry to everyday situations. Remind your reader what you have set out to prove and how you have done it (without using the exact same words, of course). In other words, take the first few sentences of your conclusion to review your most important points. This is actually a rather straightforward process: Review your topic sentences, which should specify your main arguments, and reiterate their main ideas for the reader. Finally, move beyond summary to your “big idea.” Conclude something about your argument (Ask yourself, “What has my essay revealed about the topic?” or “Why has it been worth talking about?”).
