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• ↓ Instructions for Writing a Philosophical Essay
• ↓ Technical instructions
• ↓ Instructions for the bibliography
• ↓ What are the criteria for marking?
• ↓ See also (links)

Instructions for Writing a Philosophical Essay

1. Answer the question. Do not misunderstand the question, which happens easily.
2. Begin by raising the question. Do not write about something else, even if you were taught to do so. Raise the question, explain it, answer it, defend your answer. Nothing else.
3. One possible structure is
   • Raise and clarify the question.
   • Say which answer you are going to defend and how you will proceed.
   • If necessary introduce terminology (define terms) and name presuppositions you make.
   • Present the most plausible answer which you will reject. (Two possible ways: 1. "Smith has put forward the view ..." 2. "One answer is that ..." Add in a foot note: "Along these lines have argued Smith 2001, Reinach 1917...") Present the arguments for it. Refute these arguments. Give arguments against the answer. "X has claimed that ... But ..."
   • Repeat this for all answers which are worth being discussed but which you reject.
   • State your answer. Spell it out. Describe the object of your investigation. Lead the reader to see that this answer is true. Put forward arguments in favour of your view. Consider counterarguments. "One might object ... But ..." (Although you defend one view here, keep an open mind! Do not be dogmatic. Do not imply that defenders of another view are stupid, even if they are.)
4. Do not just say who said what. Do not just describe the content of the readings.
5. If you present a certain author's view, you should discuss it either after you have presented it or while you present it.
6. If you find the material difficult and are struggling, do this (before you write the essay, you need a document with notes for the essay):
• Make sure you understand the question clearly.
• Write down the two or more most plausible or prominent answers. You find them in the assigned readings.
• Write down the most important arguments for and against these answers. You find them in the assigned readings.
• Put them in the order outlined above.
• Write the essay. You main mindset must be "The answer to the question is this: ...", not "Author X says ...".
7. Devote at least one paragraph to each argument.
8. Use sub-headings to structure the essay.

• For every sentence you write, first form the thought in your mind, then write a sentence to express it. Do not copy sentences or phrases from other texts. When you write, do not look at any texts. Look out of the window or close your eyes and think.
• Do not copy any sentences from other texts without putting it in quotation marks and specifying the source as explained below. If you take an idea from another text and express it in your own words, name the source in brackets (see Lopez 2002, 38) or in a footnote. If we discover that you copied ("plagiarised") you will at least fail the course and perhaps also expelled from the Academy.

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Technical instructions

If you have not done so already, start learning touch typing today. That is, type with a system using all ten fingers so that you can close your eyes, look out of the window or at a text while you type. As a student of philosophy you are a professional writer, therefore you have to learn touch typing. "Search and peck" typing is very inefficient. Start learning touch typing today!

For writing essays, you need to learn to use software. I recommend OpenOffice or LaTeX or LyX, which is a front end for LaTeX. Also good, but much smaller, is Abiword. All these are free, but you can also use Microsoft Word. The best PDF-file and the best result for printing you get with LaTeX. If you ever need to typeset a book or article for publication, you should use LaTeX (not MS Word!). OpenOffice, LaTeX, and Abipro are also available for Linux, which is a very good, free operating system.

There is software which administers bibliographical data, produces bibliographies automatically, and imports bibliographical data from library catalogues or the internet. Do not type bibliographies by hand! I recommend you use Zotero (for which you need to install first the browser Firefox) (Zotero is good if you use OpenOffice or MS Word), Jabref (especially good if you use LaTeX), or Bibus (good for OpenOffice). Do not procrastinate, start using it today! I use Jabref, and additionally Zotero in order to collect bibliographical date in the web and in catalogues.

Summary: Learn touch typing, use OpenOffice, use Zotero!

Format of the document: paper format "letter" or "A4"; left margin 2 cm, right margin 5 cm, single space (unlike in the USA, where double space is used), insert page numbers. (But LaTeX's layout is always suitable.) Font size 12 pt, use a serif font for the text body (e.g. Garamond, Minion Pro, Charis SIL, Linux Libertine, or Palatino; Times New Roman is less suitable because it is too narrow and overused) (more information). Align the text with "justification" ("Blocksatz", "margen perfecto"). Use hyphenation (Silbentrennung). Leave half a line (6 pt) or one line between the paragraphs.

Write the title on the top. The title is the question you were given as essay topic. Change no word of the question. Write your name and you email address and the date on the first page.

If you use not LaTeX but a text processor like OpenOffice, use paragraph templates. So a section heading should be "Heading 1" ("Überschrift 1") or "Heading 2" ..., body text should be "body text" ("Textkörper").

Send me the essay as a file in format ODT (OpenOffice) or RTF. If you use MS Word, save as RTF. Do not send me files in Microsoft formats DOC or DOCX. AbiWord can save as ODT too. In any case you get my comments in an ODT file, which you can open in OpenOffice and other programs. If you use LaTeX, send me the file as PDF.

Name the file according to the scheme "Surname_Final-Essay.odt", for example "Lopez_Soul.odt".

Instructions for the bibliography

Unless I tell you otherwise, your essay needs to contain a bibliography, i.e. a list of the bibliographic details of those, and only those, texts you have quoted or referred to. You can use any system if you use it consistently. I recommend parenthetical referencing with the author-date system, also called "Harvard style" (Wikipedia). After a quotation you write, not in a footnote but, in the text a reference in parenthesis: "bla bla bla" (Smith 2004, 78). This means that the quotation is taken from the text by Smith, published in 2004, page 78. In the bibliography you then have to list the bibliographical date of this text. I recommend this form:

• Smith, Michael, 2004, Inflation is Theft, Oxford University Press.
• Swinburne, Richard, 1989, Responsibility and Atonement, Oxford University Press.
• Armstrong, David M., 2003, "Truthmakers for modal truths", Real Metaphysics, Hg. H. Lillehammer, London: Routledge, 12-24.
• Craig, William Lane, 1994, "The Special Theory of Relativity and Theories of Divine Eternity", Faith and Philosophy 11, 19-37.

I recommend that you do not list more than two or three parenthetical references in one place in the text. If you want to refer to more texts, put the whole reference in a footnote.

In a parenthetical reference in the text you can add a few words, e.g. (contra Smith 1978) or (following Smith 1978). If you have to say more, put the whole reference in a footnote, e.g. "An argument along these lines has also been put forward by (Smith 1978), but Smith presupposes ..."

A good, only slighly different system is described in The Chicago Manual of Style. Use "Chicago B". More information:

• Author-date (Harvard) referencing guide (PDF) (uow.edu.au), dazu auch auf uq.edu.au (PDF), leeds.ac.uk, monash.edu.au, bournemouth.ac.uk (PDF).
• The Chicago Manual of Style Online (use Chicago B)
• MLA Formatting and Style Guide (auf purdue.edu), Summary of MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (Wikipedia) and of MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (en.Wikipedia)
• Guidetoonlineschools.com: a comprehensive list of links to citation guides
• List of further "style guides" (en.Wikipedia), Yale University style guide.

Criteria for marking

In the following I specify criteria for marking a philosophical argumentative essay, answering a given philosophical question. Other courses or professors may of course require different types of essays and hence use different criteria.

Basic requirements

Normally an essay which does not fulfill all of these fails:

• The essay gives an answer to the question. That is, do not misunderstand the question, and give an answer. Often you have to think carefully to understand a question correctly.
• The essay is formatted properly. (Left margin 2cm, right margin 5 cm, single space, etc. LaTeX's formatting is always suitable.)
• The essay contains a bibliography containing all those texts which you have quoted or referred to.
• No or few mistakes of grammar and spelling.

Criteria:

The more of this applies to the essay and the higher the degree in which it applies, the better is the mark the essay deserves. Depending on the difficulty of the task and the material, the standards used for post-graduate students may be higher than those for undergraduates.

1. The structure of the essay is clear, logical, and suitable.
2. The most influential and the most plausible alternative positions are considered and correctly presented, taking into account the limited length of the essay. It becomes clear which one is the strongest alternative view.
3. The most important arguments for and against these positions are considered and correctly presented.
4. Positions and arguments by other authors are presented in one's own words (they may be quoted additionally), as clearly and simply as possible.
5. The essay shows that the assigned readings were read and understood.
6. Where necessary, terms are defined ("By x I mean ...") and presuppositions declared ("I shall assume that ...").
7. The sentences are precise. For example: "Universals are related to substances" is too vague, "Universals are instantiated by substances" is precise.
8. The sentences are clear and short. For each sentence, think hard what exactly the point is and whether it can be expressed more clearly. There are no gaps or jumps in the line of thought.
9. The essay contains that and only that which is necessary for the defense of the answer.
10. Each point which is necessary for the answer is expounded once in the essay, in appropriate length, and where it fits best. In other places in the essay the point is referred to where necessary as briefly as possible.
11. The answer is well developed and defended.
12. The answer or the arguments contains much original philosophical thought and strong original arguments. The arguments and positions are presented in an independent way, using ones own words and thoughts, and not just quoting texts. (Undergraduate essays can deserve a very good mark without much original thought.)

The marking scheme

The marks at the PUC go from 1.0 to 7.0. 7.0 is excellent, 3.9 is a fail. (HERE is a description in Wikipedia.) If you have not written argumentative philosophical essays before, do not be disappointed if you get a 4 in the beginning! If you work hard and make much progress a later better mark may override earlier worse marks. 6.8 or better will rarely ever be given.

6.5 – 7.0 means "very good" ("sehr gut"). All the criteria are fulfilled to a large degree.

5.5 – 6.4 means "good" ("gut"). The criteria are fulfilled well. For a 5.5 the essay must (so is a necessary, not a sufficient condition!) answer the question, be clear and well structured. If the essay is difficult to understand because many sentences are unclear or the line of thought is not clear, then it is not sufficient for 5.5.

4.5 – 5.4 means "satisfactory" ("befriedigend"). The criteria are fulfilled to some degree. For a 4.5 the essay must fulfill the basic requirements and present support for the answer given.

4.0 – 4.4 means "sufficient" ("ausreichend"). For a 4.0 the essay must fulfill the basic requirements.

See also (links)

• A Guide to Writing, von Michael Huemer, see also his "Publishing in philosophy" and "Should I go to graduate school in philosophy [and: Should I try to become a professional philosopher?]"
• "How To Read a Philosophy Paper" (James Pryor)
• "Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper" (James Pryor)
• Guidlines on Grades (James Pryor)
• Publishing your Philosophy by Neil McKinnon
• Resources on how to write a philosophy paper