INSTRUCTIONS AND ADVICE
This essay question is adapted from your recent discussion forum work.
Now that you’ve had a bit of practice engaging with the text and your classmates in a discussion forum environment, I’ve got some ideas for how you can start to think more formally about your written work. This should be especially useful to you as you prepare your essay. Leverage what you’ve written already, consult your classmates’ posts and replies, and bear in mind my comments on your discussion work.
In addition to this video:Tips on Writing a Philosophy Essay (Links to an external site.)here are a couple of resources on writing a philosophy paper, which involves some of the skills I am asking you to develop in these discussion forums:
constructinganargument311015alg.pdf (Links to an external site.)
Please use your class discussion notes and work, reading notes, and reading quizzes to facilitate your preparation for Essay 1.
When constructing your essay, think of your reader as someone who needs your help; you are your thinker’s representative. Your essay will serve as a tutorial:
Be sure your essay is fully formed, i.e., introductory remarks, summaries, and analyses. When formulating your position, be sure to make your argument clear.
Organize your thoughts so they are expressed on paper as a coherent whole. Given the constraints of the exam format, you’ll probably write a minimum of four, and a maximum of six paragraphs. These should ‘hang together’ in a way that’s easy to follow; there is a clear progression of ideas.
Write intelligibly: sentences must be grammatical and cohesive.
Choose your words carefully. Remember, you’re constructing ideas for your reader.
Orient your essay around a single point you want to make, using your thinker(s) concepts and argument(s) as evidence.
Be sure to present, describe, and explain significant concepts and their relations:
Describe important concepts and lines of reasoning, e.g., ‘He says this, he argues that.’
Explain important concepts and lines of reasoning, e.g., ‘This is what he means by this and that.’
Connect important concepts and lines of reasoning to your thesis, e.g., ‘So, this is why…’
In addition, do not use material from any outside (i.e., secondary) sources, and do not use quotes from the primary source material longer than several words; I want to read what you have to say about the text.
When you do quote the text, however, be sure to enlist the appropriate punctuation.
As a reminder, be sure to construct grammatical sentences that:
introduce and describe important terms or concepts;
summarize the central (or relevant) argument;
explain the important terms or concepts;
explain the central (or relevant) argument
Please save your work as a Word document or similar program, so that you have a copy of your work for your records. You can then “paste” your completed essay in the text field.
Your completed essay should run between (no fewer than) 1000 and (approximately) 1200 words.
ESSAY 3 PROMPT CHOICES
Choose ONE, and only one(!) of the following essay choices. Please be sure to identify your choice when you enter your essay in the submission field:
What does freedom (or the lack thereof) have to do with a meaningful life? Choose one (and only one) thinker (d’Holbach or James) to discuss in connection with one (and only one) thinker (Schopenhauer, Sartre, Nagel, or Wolf).
What does personal identity have to do with a meaningful life? Consider the thinkers we read in Week 12: Yao (on behalf of Confucianism) or Perry, hooks, or Ladau. What is one important conceptual point of contact between one (and only of) of them in connection with one (and only one) thinker we read in connection with the question of life’s meaning (Schopenhauer, Sartre, Nagel, or Wolf)?
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