The assignment is to write an essay of exposition and reasoned,
critical argument responding to that exposition. The paper must argue for or against a clearly stated position
within the assigned topic. This is not
a “research paper” if that phrase
means dependence upon sources outside the assigned readings in the course. The point is to explain and critically
respond to some of the reasoning found in the assignments. Ordinarily additional sources are
undesirable.
Whenever a source is quoted, paraphrased, or used for ideas or
information, you must provide a note citing the source. You may use any standard form for notes, but
you must be consistent. If you use only
assigned readings, parenthetical notes would be the easiest—giving
bibliographical information only with the first citation of the author, and
simple author/page citations subsequently.
If you use only assigned readings, a separate bibliography is not
necessary. If you use any additional
materials, a bibliography is required.
You must use standard English, avoiding slang (unless necessary to
make a special point, and then within quotation marks). The careful use of words is of great
importance. Grammar counts. Paragraph structure matters. If you cannot spell correctly, use a
dictionary or a spell-checker in a word-processing program.
You may use the first person (“I,” etc.).
All of the standard rules of English prose composition must be
followed. Papers must be typed
(double-spaced with standard margins and a normal font). Do not use a binder or folder of any kind;
use either a metal paper-clip or staple.
In most cases, the essay as a whole should display a classic “thesis” structure:
1. An introduction that focuses the topic and
states your thesis in broad terms
2. An exposition of the thesis-focused topic
with accounts of some of the views and reasoning in assigned readings
3. Your main argument for your view including
some responses to anticipated objections
4. A conclusion that returns to the thesis
but with a greater degree of specificity, achieved through the exposition and
critical arguments.
In your own arguments, you should seek clarity about your
assumptions or premises and whether you share them with those to whom you are
responding. If all of the assumptions
are shared, and yet you disagree with the conclusion, you need to locate the
weakness in the structure of the argument of your opponent. If the disagreement is indeed a matter of
the starting-place of the argument, sometimes it is enough to mark the fact of
disagreement and show the different conclusions that follow from the differing
assumptions. But if your own
assumptions are likely to seem to others very unreasonable or clearly in error,
then you need to start your argument further back and support them—or simply abandon
them and find something else to say.
Remember
that intelligent, reasoned agreement is as philosophically respectable as
disagreement; however, a good essay in agreement is perhaps harder to write,
for it requires that through your own examples, analogies and clarifications
you demonstrate that you are not merely parroting someone else’s views.
The most common lapse is a failure to come down to specifics, both
in exposition and in critical argument.
The expository task is not a mere mechanical preliminary; rather, it requires creativity and
insight. Try to explain the author’s point using your
own words, images, analogies, and examples.
Make connections that illuminate the point and give it life. In a short paper this must be done rather
quickly, but with conciseness of style it is still possible—a good analogy or
metaphor can sometimes be a mere phrase, and an example occupy a sentence or
two. Sometimes an example is worth a
full paragraph or more, if it illuminates a point sufficiently. A really helpful example can even serve as a
pivot uniting exposition and critical discussion. Use your exposition to set up your critical discussion, so that
the transition to your supporting or opposing reasoning flows naturally out of
the expository account.