Writing To Reason: A Companion for Philosophy Students and Instructors

Front Cover
John Wiley & Sons, Mar 17, 2008 - Philosophy - 158 pages

Writing to Reason presents the principles of writing a clear and well-argued philosophy paper in an easily-referenced numerical format, which facilitates efficient grading and clearer communication between instructors and students.

  • Points out the most common problems students have achieving these objectives
  • Increases efficiencies for instructors in grading papers
  • Presents students with clearer information, objectivity, and transparency about their graded results
  • Facilitates clearer communication between instructors and students
 

Contents

Writing a Philosophy Paper
3
Philosophical Writing Advances a Thesis with
16
The principle of charity
23
How is an argument to be criticized?
25
Producing Arguments
28
The introduction states why you wrote the paper and why your audience should read it
29
The body of your paper follows a strategy to demonstrate your thesis
30
Consider objections to your view
32
The correct use of Latin expressions
44
The consistent use of pronouns
47
Using a term vs mentioning it
48
How to edit or add text within a quotation
49
Elements of Substance
50
Avoid using fivestar vocabulary words
52
The standard of precision in written discourse
53
Explaining Philosophical Texts
60

The conclusion of your paper explains the conclusion of your argument 34 35
34
On words that indicate conclusions and 11 Provide justification for every important claim premises
35
What makes an argument philosophically interesting?
36
The Rudiments of Academic Writing
40
Avoid using a conversational tone
41
Pages should be numbered
42
The correct use of Latin abbreviations
43
The Rudiments of Academic Research
67
Academic Integrity
75
How to Succeed in a Philosophy Course
79
What Does it Mean to Do Philosophy?
93
Keywords CrossReferenced to Section Numbers
117
Index
123
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2008)

Brian David Mogck is the author of Is Logic Syntax of Language?: Carnap’s Programme, Gödel’s Critique, and Wittgenstein’s Evasion. He earned a PhD in philosophy from Emory University and taught at Emory, Spelman College, and Clayton College and State University. He received a JD from Columbia Law School, and is now an attorney in New York.

Bibliographic information