Writing Philosophy Essays

Key Points
Clarity Make sure what you write will be intelligible to your reader. Always remember that you are writing in order to be understood by somebody else who, unlike you, doesn't have an independent grasp of what you mean. Say what you want to say simply. Don't use fancy words. Better to be clear and prosaic than stylish but obscure. The profoundest of thoughts can be expressed simply and clearly. Organisation

Use plenty of paragraphs, one for each separate point. Don't mix different points in one paragraph. Opening paragraph: give a brief statement of your general position on the topic, plus a brief summary of what you are going to do in the essay. This will give your reader a feel for what's coming, and that will make it easier to follow the essay. Final paragraph: give a brief summary of what you have established. 'Signpost' your work as you go along. Explain, for example, how what you are saying is intended to relate to what you've just said, or to the overall issue you're discussing. Pause to say what is coming next - for example, at the beginning of a new section, or if you're going to move on to a new tack. Pause every now and again to summarise. Use headings if you wish.

Argument

Never simply state your opinion. A philosophical essay should consist of reasoned arguments for your beliefs. Present your arguments as clearly as possible. Label the premises and conclusion if you wish (e.g. Premiss l, Premiss 2, etc.). Make sure your arguments are valid (i.e. that the conclusion follows from the premises). Anticipate and answer any obvious objections to what you're saying. Face up to the opposition. State and criticise arguments used by writers opposing the view you are defending. Don't worry if you don't know which side of a debate to come down on. In this case give a survey of the standard arguments on each side, together with your own comments on the arguments, and your criticisms if you have any.

Originality

You're only a beginner, and nobody is expecting you to produce a highly original research paper. But nor are you expected merely to paraphrase sections of books

that you have read. It is not acceptable simply to copy or paraphrase and prcis a discussion from a book or journal article. It is your ability to think an issue through for yourself and write up your own discussion of it that we're interested in. We also want to see you discussing critically what other people (including your lecturer and tutor) have said.

In the course of your own discussion, it is perfectly acceptable to use points which have been made in the books you've read. But when you do this, you must always acknowledge that you are borrowing from someone else's work. For example write in brackets, or as a footnote, something like: this point is made by Dick Clever in Philosophical One-Upmanship, page 69. This also applies if you use a point which the lecturer has made. (See plagiarism.) To avoid any possibility of an accusation of plagiarism (that is, the unacknowledged use of somebody else's ideas or words), you must list at the end of your essay all the books you have referred to in writing it.

Some further points

Avoid long quotations. It is your statement of the point that we want to see, not someone else's. A good rule of thumb is to use a quotation only when you want to disagree with what the author is saying. Beware of metaphors. Talk of "smashing the determinist's theory" and the like will grate on your reader's nerves. Avoid rhetorical questions (e.g. "Can a caring person possibly think that the life of a foetus has no value?"). If your reader doesn't agree with you, you'll just get the opposite answer to the one you wanted. Rhetorical questions have no persuasive force, and are no substitute for rationally convincing arguments. Fully explain any unusual terms that you introduce (whether your own, or from another subject). Be relevant. Answer the question set, and don't include irrelevant material, no matter how interesting it may be. Write a plan of your essay before you start. Don't just launch out and ramble. If you want to produce a polished essay, write a draft, and extract the final version from that. Talk with your friends about how to approach your essay. This isn't cheating. Discussing things with other people will help you to develop your ideas. It is worth getting someone else to look at your essay before handing it in. They will be able to tell you whether or not it reads clearly. Don't exceed the specified word length.

Bibliography
Include a bibliography, listing all (and only) books and articles used in preparing your essay (whether or not you have quoted from them or referred to them explicitly). Place the bibliography at the end of the essay. Entries in the bibliography should be arranged

alphabetically by authors' names, and should follow this pattern: Books Author, title (underlined or italicised), editor(s) (if any), edition used (if more than one edition exists), place of publication, publisher, and date of publication. (All this information can be found at the beginning of each book, and in the book's entry in the Library catalogue.) Articles Author, title (in single quotation marks), journal title (underlined or italicised) and year; or if the article appears in a book, give the editor(s), the title of the book (underlined or italicised), and publication details (publisher, place of publication, date of publication). Examples

Neusnan, J. The Way of Evolution (2nd ed.) Encino: Dickenson, 2006. Snort, N. 'Interpretation and Experience' Philosophical Studies 2 (1999), pp 26-62. Werblow, R.J.Z. 'Logicism', in R.C. Zapp (ed.) The Concise Encyclopaedia of Living Faiths, London: Hutchison 2004. Zapp, R.C. Universal Truths, paperback edition, London: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Footnotes
Footnotes are a device for including material whose presence would clutter the main text. They should be numbered, and may either be placed at the bottom of the appropriate page, or collected together at the end of the essay. The main uses you make of footnotes will be (i) to give the origin of a quotation that you have used, or (ii) to acknowledge that the point you are making is taken from one of the books you have read. In both cases the format of the footnote is the same: give the author and the title of the article or book, which should be in single quotes in the case of an article, or underlined or italicised in the case of a book, together with the page number. Your bibliography will then give the outstanding details, such as the journal the article was published in, or the publisher and place and date of publication in the case of a book.

Typing your essay

Essays should be typed on one side only of A4 paper and double-spaced. Leave wide margins, so that the marker can write helpful comments as he or she reads through your essay. Always use a spelling checker and maybe even a grammar checker. We don't specifically mark your spelling and grammar, but careless spelling and clumsy sentence construction will almost certainly affect the marker's overall impression of your essay. Number the pages of your essay. If you wish, include a word count.

Handing in your essay

All essays must have a department essay cover sheet attached to the first page.

Supplies of these are kept on top of the essay hand-in boxes in the Philosophy Department.

Essays should not be enclosed in folders, file covers, or plastic envelopes. These make the essay more difficult to mark and in any case will not be returned to you. Put your essay in the essay hand-in box marked PHILOSOPHY. This is just inside the door leading from the lift to level 6 of the Philosophy Department. Make a copy of your essay before handing it in, since we sometimes do lose essays and sometimes students steal them. Remember to retain all returned and marked essays (just in case we lose or mis-record your mark, which can happen on rare occasions). When essays are ready to be returned, an announcement will be made in class. It is never worth enquiring about your essay prior to this announcement.

Due dates and extensions We take due dates seriously. If you are unable to submit by the due date, you must seek an extension from the lecturer concerned (who may or may not agree to an extension).

Plagiarism, and how to avoid it

This one is really important, so read carefully. It's OK to copy words from an article or book or internet source, but only if you enclose the words in quotation marks. You must NEVER use someone else's words in your essay without using quotation marks and without acknowledging the source of your quotation (see footnotes ). As a very rough guide, never quote more than about 50 words in the course of a 1,000 word essay. And bear in mind that you may not need to quote any material at all - what we are interested in is what you have to say, not words out of a book or article that you have read. If you have any doubts about whether you are planning to quote an excessive amount, ask your tutor or lecturer. Plagiarism - that is, the unacknowledged use of somebody else's words or ideas - is the ultimate academic crime, so expect all hell to break loose if you commit it. In particularly bad cases, students (and sometimes even staff) get expelled from their university for plagiarism. The emphasis in the definition of plagiarism is on 'unacknowledged'. It is fine to make use of other people's ideas and words so long as you say clearly whose they are. So you must include an acknowledgement even if you only paraphrase what your source says rather than quote the exact words. It is theft to paraphrase someone else's discussion and pass it off as your own (a theft of intellectual property). Paraphrasing is OK in an essay, but you MUST acknowledge your source. You should, for example, say in a footnote something like: 'Here I follow the discussion by David Hume on p. 33 of his book Great New Zealand Philosophers' . You should also bear in mind that an essay which simply paraphrases what one or more books say isn't terribly impressive and will inevitably produce a poor mark - a good rule of thumb is that you should only resort to paraphrase in dire circumstances, e.g. if the due date is tomorrow and you haven't yet started the essay. See originality.

Most students who commit plagiarism do so unwittingly - they paraphrase something and don't think to include an acknowledgement. So don't be caught out. Others, a dishonest minority, plagiarise because they think the marker will not possibly be able to tell. But plagiarised material usually stands out like a sore thumb - a prize idea or judgement or sentence or paragraph surrounded by material of lower quality or written in a different style. But no matter what caused the person to plagiarise, and whether or not they were aware that they were doing something wrong, shit happens in academia if you fail to acknowledge your sources.

Using other people's essays

It goes without saying that no-one should pay someone else to write an essay for them and no-one should copy or borrow extensively from essays of friends or others or from internet sources. That's cheating. There is a whole system of nasty punishments for people foolish enough to do this, the worst being expulsion from the University. There are now web sites that will in a jiffy tell a marker who smells a rat whether part or all of an essay has been downloaded from the web.

What your grade means

A+ as good as it gets A rather brilliant A- still pretty special B+ be proud, a great mark B no worries, this is the middle of the road B- still middle of the road C+ passed with room to spare C CD E you passed this is a tricky one - you have passed the course but you can't use this course to meet the prerequisites of a higher course fail mind on other things

Enjoy
Essay writing can be fun and isn't hard once you get used to it - and we want you to get a high mark http://www.phil.canterbury.ac.nz/discipline/philessays.shtml