Philosophy Essay Writing Advice for Beginners

[Treadstone 71]

I'm not sure where to post this. I'm taking a university level philosophy class for the first time (ethics), and I'm about to write an essay. Now, as an advice, the prof. told me that "the more boring the essay is, the better." I'm not sure what he means, and I'm not sure what a philosophy paper should look like. Any general advices? Should I write it in the style of a math paper?

 

[Moonbear]

He means explain each step in logic used to make your point, from your initial premise, explanation of any assumptions, through to your conclusions. Don't try to be fancy, or use creative writing styles you learned in English classes, just stick with A leads to B, B leads to C, thus A leads to C, type arguments. Have you been given any reading assignments? It seems to be jumping the gun a bit to require you to write a philosophical essay without having assigned some to read first so you can see examples of the style required.

 

[GeorginaS]

Further advice about writing a philosophy paper. Don't ask rhetorical questions. Do not use abbreviations like "don't". Write the whole thing out "do not".

You begin by giving a brief description of whichever philosophical concept you are going to discuss. If you've been assigned to read one philosopher in particular, outline that philosopher's argument.

Next part, give your thesis statement. You agree/disagree with the philosopher and give short points of the arguments you intend to present to illustrate your point.

Make your points. Each argument to at least one paragraph.

Summarise.

Done.

Do not go past the allotted word count, follow these guidelines, you should be fine. I got 90s with it.

Edit: Yay! I finally wrote a post that counted as having written a post.

 

[Tide]

Way to go, Georgina! :)

 

[GeorginaS]

I'm not sure what the congrats are for, Tide, but thank you! :)

I'm wondering, Moonbear, if we arrived here too late to give Treadstone advice.