Brief Notes on Writing Essays

Tom Bowen

These notes highlight some of the essential components that need to be present in your paper. The precise structure of your paper will depend upon what thesis that you adopt what you find interesting, and your particular writing style. Whatever else is true, however, this must always be the case: you must make an argument.

There are four general components of any thesis paper: the introduction, the thesis, the body (exposition and argument) and the conclusion. I will take these in order.

The Introduction: The introduction is the portion of your essay where you introduce and contextualize your project –and hence, your thesis. Your introduction should do the following:

Explain why you are writing this essay –why it is interesting or important.
Explain the broader issue(s), concern(s) or questions that you will be dealing with –the larger context in which your specific thesis fits.
Lay out your approach. For example, if you are going to argue against Anselm’ ontological proof of God’s existence, you will first have to lay out what that argument is –and do so in a way that is fair and accurate. You may also have to articulate what the basic issues are that are in dispute and how they relate to your project. So, just take a paragraph (or two or three or four) and explain what your paper is going to do.
IMPORTANT NOTE: when writing your introduction it is essential that you avoid meaningless grand statements. Never ever say anything like: “Many people wonder whether or not God exists.” Who doesn’t know this? How does this help advance your thesis or your project? It doesn’t! All it does is waste space. Again, don’t say something like: “Plato is an important philosopher who wrote about blah blah blah.” Again, this does nothing to advance your thesis.

The Thesis: The thesis is the main idea or the guiding thread that keeps your paper together and makes it an essay –as opposed to a mere jumble of thoughts, ideas, and observations. It is, simply, the heart of the essay.

The first step in composing and writing any paper is to develop a thesis statement of some sort. The purpose of the thesis statement is to tell your reader what you are going to do in the body of your paper –what you are going to examine, or what conclusion you are going to defend. Make sure your thesis is clearly stated –a confused thesis means a confused paper.
Generally, the thesis statement comes near or at the end of the introduction.
To be particularly strong the thesis statement should make some reference back to a more general issue or topic and some specific aspect of that topic upon which you will focus. That is, it should be narrowed and focused enough that you can in fact accomplish your goal in the space allowed. Ex: “I am going to show why Plato’s theory of justice is wrong” is way too broad –far too much to cover in 2-4 pages. However, something like: “I will show that Plato’s arguments against Thrasymachus’ relativism fail to make a strong case” is narrow enough and relates your specific goal to the broader topic of the morality of abortion.
Remember that you will in all likelihood write a better paper if you choose a thesis in which you are interested.
Basic Types of Thesis. For the purposes of this class there are a number of different ways you can go about constructing your thesis.
1. Direct Argument Approach. You can pick a specific idea or proposition that you are going to argue for. Ex: “I will show how, for Aristotle, happiness requires that we engage in philosophical reasoning.”
2. Critical Examination Approach. You can decide to critically examine or evaluate someone else’s argument. Ex: “I will show how Ibn Rushd’s arguments against Al Ghazzali fail.”
3. Conceptual Exploration Approach. You can also decide that you want to explore the moral implications of articulating key concepts or conceptual structures differently in some issue or argument. Ex: “Here I will examine Plato’s concept of the attaining knowledge of the forms in terms of its implications for being able to live a moral and happy life.”
4. Issue Exploration Approach. You can also decide that you simply want to explore some salient aspects of a larger issue and see where it leads. Ex: “In this essay I will explore Aristotle’s concept of nature and necessity in terms of its implications for living a happy life.”

The Body: This should be simple enough. This is where you accomplish the goal you set forth in the thesis. It is in the body that you develop and defend your thesis. This should be the longest portion of your essay. The key here is that your thesis must be an argument. These are some general ideas/guidelines to follow when constructing the body of the essay.

You might want to outline briefly what you are going to do. Thus, after stating your thesis you may what to very quickly lay out the steps you are going to take to defend or develop your thesis –that is, outline the steps in your argument. This helps the reader anticipate where you are going, and also helps keep you on focus. For example, if your thesis is something like: “Aquinas’ proofs of God’s existence only show that no proof is possible,” then you might want to first explain what why and in what way Aquinas’ proofs fail, you might want to explain how you are using the concept of ‘proof’, and so on. So, you might spend a brief paragraph outlining your structure. “First I will explain and justify what counts as a proof of God’s existence, then I will explain how faith is more important that reason” and so on. (Of course, more detail and better writing than what is in the example above).
Your argument (and thesis) must be textually based –that is, you must deal with the work (and hence the texts) of some of the authors that we are covering in class.
Where might you find evidence to support your thesis? Well, since your argument must be at least in part textually based, you can find evidence from the texts. You can analyze and critically appraise claims made by the philosophers we will be studying in this class. However, you must not merely repeat claims or arguments that someone makes and let them stand; you must explain why you think they are good or bad arguments. You may also turn to your own experiences, thoughts and ideas. You must be careful here –you must remember that however varied and wonderful your own experiences they have limited ability for making broad general claims about the world plausible. However, your own experience and thought is a good place to start. Third, if you find it appropriate, you may use information about the world that you glean from other sources –other classes you have taken, other books that you have read, etc. Again, you must be careful here. You must make sure that the information is relevant, and you must make sure you cite any sources accurately.
A really strong argument will also consider possible objections or criticisms or problems with the thesis and its defense. So, for example, if you are going to argue against Aristotle’s basic understanding of human nature and what happiness is (by using Plato, or Ibn Sina or Ibn Rushd) you should consider carefully how Aristotle might respond to your criticisms and how you might respond to his objections. This shows that you have thought carefully about the material.

The Conclusion: The end. In the conclusion you can do a number of possible things.

You can outline in summary fashion what the result of your work has been.
You can speculate or meditate on the significance of your work for other scholars or other students interested in the same topic.
You can outline possible lines along which your ideas can continue to be developed, or other questions that your essay raises, but that you have not had time to address in detail.

General Requirements: However you decide to write your paper, you must adhere to these general requirements (some of these are repetitive, but repetition is useful):

You must have a strong, clear, thesis.
You must make an argument (and a good or strong argument at that).
You must make reference back to the material of the course. Part of what you want to do in these essays is show me that you understand and have thought seriously about the material for the course –so, your essay should also correctly interpret the texts we are dealing with (if, for example, you claim that Hobbes was a democrat, you are going to have some serious trouble).
Do not rely on outside sources for your understanding of the basic material for the course. That is, I do not want to know how Macpherson interprets Locke, but how you understand Locke. (You can use outside sources to introduce specific factual evidence if you feel the need.)
You are permitted to both paraphrase and quote in this essay as you see fit. However, a word of serious caution: I am in no way interested in your ability to quote long passages from these readings. I want to know that you correctly understand these passages and are able to work with these materials in a serious and interesting way. So, I highly recommend that you use direct quotes sparingly and never without elucidation. Also –always correctly cite your quotes.
You must organize your essay well –the paragraphs should make sense, there should be development between the paragraphs, and clear transitions from one paragraph to the next.
A good rule of thumb for writing your paper: every sentence must count –it must do something that takes us towards the end you are trying to reach. Any sentence you write that wastes my time will cost you.
The essay must be typed and double-spaced with one-inch margins. Your name, date, etc. should appear on a title page. Further, your papers should be within the page limits set for the assignment. No less than the minimum, no more than the maximum number of pages. Title pages and works cited pages do not count as part of the page requirements. This means that your work should be clear, precise and concise.
Your essay must be clear and grammatically correct. I urge you to use spell-check and to edit your work carefully. Poor grammar and misspellings will result in a deduction from the paper grade. Further, if I cannot understand what you are saying (because of poor grammar or a lack of clarity in presentation), then you have effectively not said anything. This will also, obviously, affect your grade. Now, you can get help with basic writing skills through the tutoring center or through me (though, probably the tutoring center is a better bet).
Finally, whatever the temptation (to do a good job, to take the easy way out, to save time, whatever) you may feel to plagiarize –Resist It! When you are caught plagiarizing, the minimum penalty is to fail this assignment, if it is a particularly egregious violation of the rules against plagiarism, you will fail the course. “Unintentional” plagiarism is still plagiarism, and will be dealt with accordingly. You are adults, college students, and reasonable people. You are capable of knowing what plagiarism is (or if you don’t, of finding out what it is) and are hence responsible for knowing what it is.
One last word, to dispel the unpleasant feeling of the previous point: Have Fun. While you may see this as a chore, you will do better if you can view it as an opportunity to explore your own opinions, thinking, and interests in the questions at hand.