What Each Section Should Look Like:
i. The Introduction:
Your introduction should be pretty minimal. Same with the conclusion. The intro should look very much like the following:
“In this paper, I will summarize and critique William Rowe’s argument that God exists. First, I will summarize Rowe’s argument for this conclusion. Second, I will consider objections to Rowe’s argument.”
ii. The Summary Section (about 1,000 words):
In your summary section, you should explain the author’s argument for his or her conclusion. There’s no need to summarize the parts of the article that are not essential to the argument. You are welcome to quote from the Power Point slides or the author’s article so long as you cite them properly. You should explain, in your own words, how the author defends each premise or their argument and how the premises lead to the conclusion.
iii. The Critique/Defense Section (about 1,000 words):
Depending on your goals, you will either use this section to argue against the author’s view, or you will use it to defend the author’s view.
If you are arguing against the author’s view, you should consider one objection to the author’s view. You should say how the author would respond to this objection, and you should say why this response is not satisfactory.
If you are defending the author’s conclusion, you should do roughly the same thing. You should pose an objection to the author’s view, defend his/her view from this objection, and so on.
The best papers will consider a strong objection to the author’s view. We want to object to the strongest possible version of the argument, and we want to use the strongest possible responses from the author. Otherwise, we’re only defeating or defending a straw-person version of the argument.
If you think that an objection from a different author is applicable to the author that you are writing about, then you are welcome to use it. But, you are not required to use objections from the other authors in our class. You are welcome to use your own objections.
IV. Philosophical Writing:
I’d like you to follow these guidelines for your paper. Philosophy papers are written in a particular style. In general, philosophy papers emphasize clarity and concision above everything else. Here are a few points about how I’d like you to write this paper.
i. Word Choice:
Philosophers are fine with using the same word many times in the same paper. If the word has an important technical meaning, then you should feel fine using that same word as many times as you need. It’s fine to use the same word repeatedly if it is for clarity.
ii. First Person Pronouns:
Philosophers are fine with using the first person “I” in their writing. In this paper, I want to know what you think, and for that reason, you should use the first person when you write.
iii. Directness:
Philosophical writing is supposed to be direct and to the point. It is perfectly fine to be as explicit and clear about what you are doing as possible. For example, it’s perfectly fine to begin your paper with “In this paper, I will argue that…(insert conclusion).” I want to be able to read your paper and know exactly what you are doing in each paragraph, and this can be accomplished by simply telling the reader, “In this section, I will advance an objection to the conclusion,” or “In this paragraph, I will respond to the previous objection,” etc.
V. Citation Style:
Feel free to use any accepted citation style (APA, Chicago, or MLA). But, your paper should have a full bibliography with complete citations, and you should provide an in-text citation for each time that you quote or reference an idea that is taken from another source. No external research is required, but you are welcome to use external sources if you would like to.
For improper citation style, you will lose 5 points on your paper.
