Academic Skills in Philosophy | Department of Philosophy. Department of Philosophy Home » Undergraduate » Academic Skills in Philosophy Why Study Philosophy? Major & Joint Majors in Philosophy Major in Philosophy Major in Philosophy & Economics Major in Philosophy & Political Science Major in History & Philosophy of Science Major in Cognitive Systems: Mind, Language & Computation Honours in Philosophy Minor in Philosophy Undergraduate Courses Winter 2015 Course Syllabi Summer 2015 Course Syllabi Directed Studies Academic Skills in Philosophy Preparing for Graduate Work in Philosophy Academic Advising Distance Learning Experiential Opportunities for Students Academic Skills in Philosophy Philosophy Study Guide by Garth Kamerling How to Read a Philosophy Paper by Jeff McLaughlinTaking Notes on Philosophical Texts by Peter Suber Writing a Philosophy Essay by Ronald de SousaGuidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper by James Pryor Philosophy Student Survival Guide Other Philosophy Links & Online Resources.
Writing A Philosophy Paper - Department of Philosophy. Good writing is the product of proper training, much practice, and hard work. The following remarks, though they will not guarantee a top quality paper, should help you determine where best to direct your efforts. I offer first some general comments on philosophical writing, and then some specific "do"s and "don't"s. One of the first points to be clear about is that a philosophical essay is quite different from an essay in most other subjects. That is because it is neither a research paper nor an exercise in literary self-expression. It is not a report of what various scholars have had to say on a particular topic. Above all, it means that there must be a specific point that you are trying to establish - something that you are trying to convince the reader to accept - together with grounds or justification for its acceptance.
Before you start to write your paper, you should be able to state exactly what it is that you are trying to show. Lengthy introductions. Organize carefully. Brief guide to writing philosophy paper. Writing for Philosophy. What Does It Mean to “Do Philosophy”? Americans don’t pay much attention to philosophy. Yet, in some countries—take France for example— philosophers enjoy something akin to rock star status, significantly influencing public debate and policy. What it means to “do philosophy” is a concept that is still alive and well abroad. Yet, how many American college students take a philosophy class in order to check off another general education credit, without giving any thought to the possibility that the class just might change the way they think about, or even are, in the world? Philosophy is an active discipline, not a pastime for weary retirees ruminating on arcane ideas. Reading and Writing Philosophy Is Doing Philosophy You do philosophy by writing philosophy.
Before you can write about philosophy, you have to spend some time with philosophy texts, which may be different than most reading you’ve done. When you read philosophy, others around you may think you have issues. Eflin, Juli. Writing Spaces Open Textbook Chapters | Writing Spaces. What is an Academic Paper? | Institute for Writing and Rhetoric. Writing for College How It Differs From Writing in High School One of the first things you'll discover as a college student is that writing in college is different from writing in high school. Certainly a lot of what your high school writing teachers taught you will be useful to you as you approach writing in college: you will want to write clearly, to have an interesting and arguable thesis, to construct paragraphs that are coherent and focused, and so on. Still, many students enter college relying on writing strategies that served them well in high school but that won't serve them well here.
Old formulae, such as the five-paragraph theme, aren't sophisticated or flexible enough to provide a sound structure for a college paper. And many of the old tricks - such as using elevated language or repeating yourself so that you might meet a ten-page requirement - will fail you now. So how does a student make a successful transition from high school to college? 1. 2. 3. What You Know What You Think. Academic Writing Style - Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper - Research Guides at University of Southern California. Although the accepted form of academic writing in the social sciences can vary considerable depending on the methodological framework and the intended audience, most research-level papers require careful attention to the following stylistic elements: I.
The Big Picture Unlike fiction or journalistic writing, the overall structure of academic writing is formal and logical. It must be cohesive and possess a logically organized flow of ideas; this means that the various parts are connected to form a unified whole. There should be narrative links between sentences and paragraphs so the reader is able to follow your argument and all sources are properly cited. II. The Tone The overall tone refers to the attitude conveyed in a piece of writing. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. Academic Writing. Academic Writing | ESC Online Writing Center | SUNY Empire State College. Catherine Copley (File Cabinet, The Write Way) Gary Goss (Language Games, reviewer) Larry Greenberg (technical design) Elaine Handley (Research Room, Grammar Workout, Punctuation Points) Loretta Lussier (technical design assistant) Lisa Mastrangelo (Essay Writing) Bob Miner (Style Room) Susan Oaks (Research Room, Grammar Workout, Punctuation Points, Essay Writing) Alexandra Pickett (graphic design) Jim Robinson (Writing Book Reviews) Matthew Sanders (Essay Writing) Herb Shapiro (reviewer) Stephanie Thomas (technical design) Joe Woods (Style Room) The Writer's Complex was copyrighted in 1996.