ARGUMENT PROMPT
First, I want you to gain an appreciation of what it takes to do a close, careful reading of a somewhat technical philosophical text. Most of the work that you do to write this paper, you should be doing when you read each text for this class.
Secondly, I want you to start the process of learning to write in the style of a philosophical argument. As such, your task is to explain the author’s reasoning, NOT to summarize the text (so, e.g., you should avoid phrases like, “next, Rawls says…”). Since you will not be providing a novel thesis of your own, the thesis of your paper should be something like “X argues that Y.” You want to be as clear about your thesis as possible; I recommend having your thesis as the last sentence of your introduction, and begin with something like, ‘I will argue that…’ (It is OK to use the first person!) The body of your paper ought to justify this thesis by showing how the author defends it, using their reasoning.
This is an academic paper. You should avoid excessively casual language, irrelevant facts (including biographical information about the author), and MUST cite appropriately. You are free to use any standard citation style you’re comfortable with (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.), but you have to consistently use a real citation style. This means that you should cite every claim that is not your own, and include a ‘works cited’ page at the end (if there is room, please save paper by putting it at the bottom of the last page). If you do not know how to cite properly, or build a proper works cited, please ask me or use one of the many resources on campus designed to help students with their writing. Note: Electronic ‘works cited’ creators DO NOT WORK. Build your own works cited page!
Since the goal is to get you reading the text closely and carefully, you should NOT be using any secondary sources (e.g. articles about the author, or Google, or Cliff’s Notes, or Wikipedia, or ChatGPT, or Grammarly) for this assignment, even to help you understand the text better. You certainly should not be taking ideas directly from these sources. If you do it with a proper citation, you will be docked points for failing to complete the assignment as directed; if you do not include a proper citation, I am VERY likely to find out, in which case you will automatically fail and the case will be turned over to the Office of the Provost as a violation of the university’s academic integrity policy.
Papers should be submitted on Blackboard (upload a .pdf or .docx document; don’t just copy and paste the text of your paper), and you should turn in a hard copy on the day the paper is due.
Refer to my philosophy paper writing guide on Blackboard for more general information about how to write a philosophy paper and to the grading rubric (also on Blackboard) for information about how I grade various elements of your paper. The elements from the rubric will be weighted thusly:
Please use the attached below to complete this assignment and cite it whenever you refer to this reading.
