Professor Card/Directions for Writing a Philosophical Essay

First Paragraph of Essay: Present your thesis statement. A thesis statement is a sentence that identifies the position you will be defending in this paper. The thesis statement should take a form such as "In this paper, I will argue............."

Body of Essay: This contains a presentation and explanation of the philosophical views discussed in the essay. After being explained, these views will be critically analyzed in order to develop the case in support of your position. The discussion in the body of the essay should build in a logical fashion towards the position identified in the thesis statement.

A well-argued essay includes both "positive" and "negative" forms of support. The former refers to offering clear reasons for the claims necessary to establish your thesis. By contrast, the "negative" form of support consists in showing why points or positions that conflict with your thesis are problematic or are unconvincing. One effective argumentative strategy is to present and address at least one objection that a fair-minded critic may pose to your thesis. Provide a clear signal to the reader by saying (for example) "Someone who disagrees with my position might object that.........." or "A possible criticism from an opponent of my viewpoint would state that....." Then offer a clear reply to address the opponent's objection.

Final Paragraph of Essay: Restate the thesis statement, in a form such as "In this essay, I have argued.............." Then, briefly summarize/recap the main reasons offered in support of your position as identified in the thesis statement. End the essay at this point, or (optional) offer a brief reflection about the significance of what has been learned in the course of the analysis in the paper.

*For more general comments on how to write papers in this course, see Some remarks on writing the paper (on my website)