Choose an article to write about. You may choose from any of the articles in your book that we are NOT covering in class. Yo
1. Choose an article to write about. You may choose from any of the articles in your book that we are NOT covering in class. You will have to consult the Course Schedule to see what those are. If you are in PHI 110, you also may not write on the essays by Heathwood, Rachels, or Trerise.
2. Summarize the author’s argument. The article you picked should make at least one argument. It may contain many arguments. Your job is to pick out and summarize one—and only one—argument from the article. Do not summarize the entire article. In the first paragraph of your outline and paper, boil down the argument into the clearest, most concise presentation of premises and conclusion that you can. Use the principle of charity, and fill in any premises that are needed to make the argument logically valid. The premises and conclusion should be numbered. Cite the page or pages on which this argument is found.
3. Think of the strongest objections to this argument that you can (at least three). Is there any reason to believe that one or more of the premises might be false? In your outline, you will sum up each objection in a single sentence. When you write your paper, each objection sentence will become the topic sentence of a short paragraph in which you explain this objection more fully.
Do your best to think of your own objections to the argument. This is hard, but it’s what makes you a Better Thinker. If you get absolutely stuck, and can’t think of any objections, keep thinking. And if you’re still stuck, read one of the other articles in the section that relates to your topic. Typically the articles give contrasting perspectives and will likely suggest to you possible criticisms. NOTE: if you use an idea from another author—any at all—you must cite your source. If you do not cite your source, even if it is another article in the textbook, that is plagiarism.
4. Think of the strongest replies to your objections that you can (at least three). Put yourself back in the author’s shoes and defend the argument from your own criticisms. In your Paper Outline, you will sum up each reply in a single sentence. In your final draft, each reply sentence will become the topic sentence of a short paragraph in which you explain the reply more fully.
5. Conclusion. Tell me whether the original argument survives the objections that can be brought against it, and why.
Final Draft.
When you write your final draft, you need to correct anything I told you to fix about your outline. Other than that, your main job is to fill in the explanations of your objections and replies. When you have fully explained your objections and replies, you may find that you do not have space for all of them within the 700-word limit. Be as concise as you can, but if you must, you can drop your weakest objections and replies. Keep your best material. If you need to add a couple sentences more to the Introduction or Conclusion, in order to make them read more smoothly, you may.
Format and Other Guidelines.
1. Use 12-pt. Times New Roman font.
2. 1.5 line spacing.
3. Length: 500-700 words (not including title, footnotes, etc.).
4. In the top left corner of the paper, please put your name, course and section, and a word count (not including footnotes and title).
5. Please do not put your name anywhere else on the paper. This helps me grade anonymously.
6. Remove introductory fluff: “This is a hotly debated issue,” etc.
7. Don’t use contractions (like “don’t”) or the first-person (“I think,” etc).
8. Do not repeat each premise before objecting to it. Don’t say, “Premise 1 says XYZ. But XYZ can’t be true because….” We already know what Premise 1 says; we read it at the beginning. Just write “One objection to Premise 1 is that….”
9. Each paragraph should consist of 3-5 (sometimes more) sentences.
- DO NOT USE RHETORICAL QUESTIONS. This is a rhetorical question: “How could anyone decide what’s right for the whole world?” It’s still a rhetorical question if you mistakenly punctuate it with a period instead of a question mark: “How could anyone decide what’s right for the whole world.” Write these as statements: “No one can decide what’s right for the world.”
- Do not use uncited quotations or ideas, even from the book. If an objection or reply is one which was brought up in the book, then cite the page number.
- Get some serious proofreading from a friend. Most of our papers have major proofreading issues: sentence fragments, incomplete sentences, poor word choice, misspellings, and punctuation problems.
- Refer to the authors by their last names, not their first names. And spell their names correctly.
- Use the present tense, not the past tense, to talk about the essay. “Primoratz says that…” not “Primoratz said.”
15. Italicize book titles. Put chapter or essay titles in quotation marks.
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