You are free to frame your paper as you like, i.e., defend a thesis, offer a critique, compare and contrast positions, etc. Should you want to write a paper on a moral topic that is not in the textbook, discuss with your TA. Minimum reference requirement: 4 (max 6). Some questions and strategies to guide your writing: – What concepts, arguments, or claims strike you as the important, interesting, or challenging? Explain why you think so. – Is the analysis correct, sufficient, or lacking? How can you improve the argument? – Are there alternative or contrasting views – based on what you’ve learned in the course, or from other texts or resources – that are worth considering? – Can you connect points raised by the paper to contemporary issues and examples? How did your understanding of these issues and examples change in light of reading the work? – [optional] What were your initial views? Did the paper’s claims strengthen your initial views? Did any of your initial views change after reading the claims of the paper? Notes on Writing – Your paper is not an off the cuff opinion piece. It is about what you think after you’ve thought about things deeply and with care. – A philosophy paper is not self-referential. You can’t defend a statement by saying it’s logical to you or it makes sense to you – you have to justify why a view is logical or sensible in view of the quality and structure of the argument and in the face of other alternatives. – Submit on the due date. Late papers are docked points to be fair to everyone who submit on time. Plagiarism is not allowed (HuskyCT has a built-in plagiarism tracker). Either directly quote or paraphrase and then cite on the paper.
