PAPER GUIDELINES
Follow these guidelines in
preparing your papers:
1. ALL DRAFTS OF PAPERS SHOULD BE SAVED AS WEB
PAGES (IN HTML FORMAT) AND POSTED ON THE PHIL 410 PEER REVIEW SITE AS WEB PAGES
(IN HTML FORMAT) BY THE DEADLINE.
Drafts will be graded down if they do not comply with these guidelines,
especially Guideline #5 on citing. Use
the Peer Review Checklist in preparing your draft.
2. EACH STUDENT SHOULD COMMENT ON TWO PAPERS BY
THE DEALINE FOR COMMENTS. Do not
comment on a draft unless you have some suggestions for improving it. Do
not be the second to comment on a posting, unless all postings have at least
one comment; do not be the third to comment on a posting unless all postings
have at least two comments. There should
be no more than three comments on any individual posting. Make sure the paper satisfies all the items
on the Peer Review Checklist.
3. PAPERS SHOULD BE PREPARED AS WORD DOCUMENTS
(OR IN HTML FORMAT). THEY SHOULD BE
SUBMITTED TO THE PHIL 410 ELECTRONIC DROPBOX.
PLEASE MAKE SURE THE FILENAME BEGINS WITH YOUR LAST NAME. There is no penalty for length per se, but
papers exceeding the guidelines (assuming 300 words per page) will be
penalized, if the paper could have been shortened by careful editing. (Footnotes may appear on a separate
page.) Although papers are evaluated
chiefly on their philosophical merits, grammar, spelling, and diction will also
be evaluated. You are expected to express
your thoughts in clear, grammatical, English sentences.
4. OUTLINE OF YOUR PAPER. When you finish writing your paper, you
should be able to write an outline of it that shows how the different parts fit
together logically.
5. CITE FULLY AND ACCURATELY. Make sure you accurately state the position
of any author you discuss. Any time you
quote an author or attribute a proposition to an author, the quotation or
attribution must be supported by a citation to the text, with page
numbers. YOU MAY NOT CITE ME AS AN
AUTHORITY ON WHAT AN AUTHOR SAYS (UNLESS I AM THE AUTHOR!). YOU MUST CITE THE AUTHOR HIM/HERSELF. Where the reference is to a text in the
assigned readings, it is sufficient to provide page references in parentheses
immediately after the quotation or attribution.
In all other cases, provide a full bibliographic reference in a footnote
or endnote. The page limit on the paper
applies to the text of the paper only.
Footnotes are free.
6. TO SHOW THAT YOU UNDERSTAND AN AUTHOR'S
POSITION, IT IS NOT SUFFICIENT TO SIMPLY PARROT THE AUTHOR. Where you quote the author, make sure you
explain in your own words the significance of the quoted material. It is often helpful to use your own examples
to clarify the views of the author you are discussing.
7. USE CARE IN INTERPRETING AN
AUTHOR, PARTICULARLY SOMEONE YOU DISAGREE WITH.
If on your interpretation of an author, the author either is
inconsistent or has made an obvious error of reasoning, begin by assuming that
you have misinterpreted the author.
Reread the relevant passages carefully to see if you can put together a
consistent position that is not obviously erroneous. If you cannot do so, come to my office hours
or make an appointment to discuss it with me.
8. CAREFULLY DISTINGUISH VIEWS THAT YOU CLAIM AN
AUTHOR HOLDS FROM VIEWS THAT YOU CLAIM THE AUTHOR SHOULD HOLD OR IS COMMITTED
TO HOLDING. Claims that an author holds
a particular view must be supported with cites to the text. But claims that an author should hold or is
committed to holding a particular view must be supported with relevant
arguments, in addition to cites to the text.
9. USE LABELS. In your paper, you will typically have to
distinguish between a number of different theses or positions. It is often useful to give names or labels to
the various theses or positions, for ease of reference. Consider, for example, how useful it is to
define a protected sphere, and to define rights violations in terms of
certain kinds of interference in one's protected sphere. Sometimes it is useful to compare authors by
the differences in their how they would make the relevant definitions. For example, one might define Thomson's
protected sphere and distinguish it from Mill's protected sphere.
Sometimes it is necessary to consider a series of refinements to that statement
of a thesis or position. For example,
you might begin with an initial definition of a protected sphere, PS-1,
and then consider refinements to it PS-2, PS-3, etc. Whenever you
use a label, always clearly state what the label refers to.
10. USE EXAMPLES.
In philosophy, it is easy to get lost in a discussion of abstract ideas.
You should not feel that you understand an author's view unless you can explain
how it applies to relevant examples. In
your paper, you should not deal entirely in abstractions. You should try to develop one or two or more
examples which (perhaps with some variations) can be used to illustrate the
main issues in the paper. For the first
paper topic, I provide you with an example to discuss. You may still want to develop variations on
my example to illustrate the philosophical issues. For the second paper topic,
you select the issue. You must provide
the examples to illustrate the discussion of the issue.
11. CRITICAL EVALUATION. In your paper, you must critically evaluate
the positions taken by authors you discuss—that is, you must take your own
stand on which side is, on balance, the most reasonable position to take, and
explain why you think so.
12. AVOID PLAGIARISM. Whenever you turn in any assignment in this
course, the understanding is that what you are turning in is your own original
work, except to the extent that you explicitly credit others for their
contributions. You have an obligation to avoid even the appearance of
impropriety, by always attributing any argument or idea that you have borrowed,
even if you have modified it, to its source.
The source may be written or oral.
For example, if an argument was suggested by a fellow student, include
that information in a footnote.
13.
STYLISTIC SUGGESTIONS
(including some
adopted from Professor BonJour)
1. Make sure that you express
yourself in complete sentences. Each
sentence must contain, at a minimum, a subject and a predicate in grammatical
agreement that make sense together.
2. A common mistake is sentences that run on too
long. Two or more gramatically
complete sentences should be separated by a period, not a comma. If you want to link them more closely, you
can use a semi-colon, or a comma and a conjunction (e.g., "and" or
"but). Other things being equal,
two short sentences are better than one longer sentence.
3. Check the meanings and spellings of all words
that you are not sure of. It is
recommended that you use a computer spelling checker before printing your final
draft.
4. Some people believe that really good
philosophy must be very deep, and thus hard to understand. You will not be rewarded for such writing in
this course. Your goal should be to make
your papers as clear, as unambiguous, and as easy to understand as the subject
matter allows. A good way to test for
awkward constructions as well as for sense is to read your paper aloud to
someone else, or even just to yourself.
You may also have it read by one of the tutors in the