The point of getting you to write a paper for this course is to get you to think carefully and deeply about the issues for yourself, and then to express your ideas as clearly as possible. Writing a paper is a sustained piece of work that should take you several days. It is also your main chance in this course to develop your own ideas and think them through.

Your paper should be typed, with double-spaced lines, so there is enough room for me to add comments on each page. You must keep an extra copy of your paper (either hard copy or on disc) in case I mislay your paper. Good spelling, grammar, and writing style are necessary for clear paper writing, and you will lose points if your paper is unclear.  You should do some research beyond the course book, and your paper should include references and a bibliography. You can do research on the Internet, but you should also use at least one book too. The Dowling Library staff will do their best to help you search for a book to help you write your paper, so do not be shy in asking for their help.

Extremely Important: Plagiarism: whenever you copy another text, it should be clearly marked, either in quotation marks or in separate paragraph on its own, with the left-hand margin indented. You should give a page number for quotations from books or articles, or a precise URL if it from is a web page. If you include someone else’s writing in your own paper without acknowledging the author, it is plagiarism. (This is also true even if you copy your own work that you did in another course, at Dowling College or elsewhere.) If you are paraphrasing or summarizing someone else’s work, you need to make sure that you use your own words. If you are not sure what exactly counts as plagiarism,  ask my advice. Generally , if you are in some doubt, it is best to play it safe and include a reference in your paper to explain where your ideas come from. Plagiarism is a serious problem in college these days, and I will take whatever steps I can to prevent it and detect it. If I am not sure whether your paper is your own work I will ask you to come in to answer some questions about what you wrote, to see if you understand it. If you get caught plagiarizing, you automatically fail the whole course.

• See "Avoiding Plagiarism" by Sharon Williams.
• If you want help with the format of references to other works, use the  MLA Citation Style.
• If you come to me in office hours, or make an appointment to see me at another time, I will look at and comment on drafts of papers, or give you any other kind of help.

• Your draft should be at least 1000 words long.
• It is due on Tuesday April 27, by 3 p.m.
• You lose 1% if you get it to me after 4 p.m., and 1% more for each subsequent day it is late (including the weekend).
• If your draft is not ready by the time of class, COME TO CLASS ANYWAY and explain your situation!  Do not miss class.
• Your draft is worth 20% of your final paper grade.

• I will return your draft with comments on Thursday May 7..
• You must revise your paper significantly to take account of my comments. It is not enough just to correct the typographical and stylistic errors, change a few words, and add a sentence or two.
• If you make no changes, your paper grade will be 5% less than what you got on your draft.
• Your final draft should be at least 1200 words long, no more than 1500. Include a word count.
• Your final draft is due in class on Monday May 17, by noon.
• You lose 5% if you get it to me after noon, and 5% more for each subsequent day it is late, (including the weekend).
• If you have a legitimate reason, backed up by evidence, for not handing your work in on time, and you explain this to me before the due date, I will give you an extension. I may not accept work handed to me after the due date if you have not made an arrangement with me for the work to be handed in late. Keep me updated about your difficulties with getting the work done.
• I will not accept any papers handed to me after Monday May 24.
• You should hand in both your first and final drafts of your paper.

You can fax your paper to me at 589-6123. Make sure that my name is clear on the cover sheet. It can take some time for a fax to get to me.

• For most exams and papers, you should write as if you are writing for an intelligent reader who is not familiar with the works you are discussing. This means you need to explain the ideas and terminology you are using, and cannot assume that the reader already understands them. Part of the reason for writing exams and papers is for you to achieve and demonstrate a good understanding of the texts. You can assume that the reader is adopting a principle of skepticism: whenever it is unclear whether or not you really understand what you are talking about, you will not be given the benefit of the doubt.
• It is essential that you write in clear grammatical sentences. Bad grammar and spelling frequently obscures your meaning, and when it does, you will lose points. Using a computer spell-checker can help, but it doesn't spot all wrongly spelled words, and if used carelessly, it can substitute completely the wrong word for the one you intended.
• Whenever you copy any text from a book or article, you must always give a reference to the text, with a page number. Long quotations should be single spaced, and indented. Any copying without references will be treated as plagiarism, and could result in you being failed for the whole course.
• You should always explain or paraphrase a quotation from another source to show you understand it.

• Explaining what the premises and conclusion of the argument are. Set them out as explicitly as you can. It can be useful to number each premise separately.
• Explaining how the author uses "subarguments" to justify the premises of the main argument.
• It can be very useful to give shorts quotations from the text to show that the author really does say what you attribute to him or her.

• Assessing whether the argument is valid.
• Assessing whether we have good reasons to believe the premises.
• When you make a claim that is not just obviously true, you should give some justification for it.
• In assessing an argument, it is not enough to merely say that you agree or disagree with a view, or that it seems valid, well-argued, interesting or surprising. You need to justify your comments and go beyond what the author says.
• For the evaluative part of your answers, you can set out points made in class, no matter who made them originally. You can also develop your own ideas even if they were not discussed in class.
• When choosing which questions to answer, bear in mind that it is generally easier to criticize an author's arguments than to add to them, so you will probably find it easier to discuss an article that you mainly disagree with.
• It is often very helpful when you have a point you want to make to choose a fairly detailed specific example to use to illustrate your ideas.

• Never mix up singular nouns with plural pronouns. For example, "I have a friend who believes in God, but they don't know why they believe." is grammatically incorrect, (even though it is common usage in spoken language).
• In philosophy (which may be different from other subjects in this respect), it is bad style to say "I think...", or "in my personal opinion." Philosophers aim for truth, not opinions.
• I prefer (but do not insist) that you use gender-neutral language. When you don't intend to refer only to males, for "he" use "he or she", and for "him" use "him or her". For "mankind" use "humankind." For "man" use "humans."
• Do not refer to the author as "Mr.", "Ms.", "Dr." or "Professor". When you first refer to him or her, use both the first and last name, and subsequently, just use the last name.
• Do not say that the author "implies," "insinuates," or "infers" some view if the author has actually stated the view explicitly.
• Sight/Cite/Site. Do not confuse these words. "Sight" is to do with vision, "citing" is referring to some text or evidence, and a "site" is a place.
• Don't mix up "affect" and "effect." To affect something (verb) is to have an influence on it, and an affect (noun) is an emotion. To effect something (verb) means to make it happen, while an effect (noun) is any change brought about by a cause.
• The following expressions involve wrong or very awkward word usage: She related that grass is green, she conveyed that grass is green, she views that grass is green, she expresses her ideas about grass, she extends her opinions about grass, she did express that grass is green, she opinionates that grass is green, she professes that grass is green, and she stems her conclusion that grass is green. Avoid any such expressions.
• Don't use long words when short words are adequate. E.g., "Aggression" is better than "aggressiveness."
• Make an effort to get right the spelling of the names of authors. It only requires looking at the text, and if you get the spelling wrong, you give the impression of having made very little effort with your paper.
• Avoid clichés and platitudes like "For thousands of years philosophers have pondered the question of the existence of God." These expressions are trite and overused.
• Don't put assertions in the form of a question. Is it really a good way of clarifying your meaning?