Your essay must be typed, using only standard fonts, font sizes, and margins double spaced, with your name at the top of the first page. Do not include a cover sheet or place your essay in a folder or binder of any kind. Refer to your student style manual for guidelines regarding quoting, paraphrasing, works cited, and other matters. Do not rely solely on spell checking programs as these will not catch all your mistakes. Most essay assignments will ask you to analyze and critically evaluate a specific philosophical issue. Make sure that you understand the issue that you are to analyze and that you focus on the right issue.

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A common mistake students make is to write an essay on a related but different issue. Make sure both you and the reader know at every stage what you are doing, where you are going, and how what you are writing is relevant to the central task of defending your thesis. Each essay assigned this semester requires a defense of a thesis in which arguments are given in support of your thesis. Your thesis should reflect your considered judgment on the particular assigned issue. It need not but may reflect any of the positions that have been presented in the class readings or discussion. A thesis is a statement that makes some clear, definite assertion about the subject matter under discussion.

For example, if the topic of your paper is the morality of abortion, here are some of the many theses you might choose to defend: abortion is morally wrong under all circumstances. Each of these is a clear, definite statement that takes a position on the morality of abortion, a position that the rest of the paper will attempt to defend. A statement such as abortion, pro and con would not be an appropriate thesis for it doesn't assert anything. Nor would the statements why i believe in a woman's right to choose or i personally believe abortion is wrong be appropriate. Also, try to avoid picking a wishy washy thesis that hedges your bets, like there is much to be said on both sides of the abortion question, or there are good arguments for and against abortion.

The object of a philosophical essay is to move beyond merely reporting on the various perspectives on an issue. You should take a stand, plant your feet squarely on the ground, and argue for your thesis as well as you can. You have to come up with arguments that are designed to persuade your reader that your thesis is an acceptable one. What is an argument? to put it as simply as possible, an argument for a thesis is a reason for believing that the thesis is acceptable. When you are putting forward an argument in support of your thesis, ask yourself, if i didn't already believe my thesis, would this convince me that the thesis is acceptable? would it tend to convince a reasonable reader who is open minded enough so that he or she is willing to listen to reasons? if the answer is yes, then you have your hands on a genuine argument.

If the answer is no, then leave it out of the paper and look for a better argument. The number of arguments in an essay is not necessarily as important as the quality of the arguments. It is often better to develop one strong, persuasive argument in support of your thesis than several weak and unrelated arguments. Asking a question without answering it is not an appropriate way to give an argument. For example: what would happen if every woman who wanted an abortion got one? is not an argument. If every woman who wanted an abortion got one, millions of innocent lives would be lost is an argument, or at least part of an argument.

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Begging the question is a form of reasoning in which the conclusion of an argument merely restates the premise. Such an argument assumes or takes for granted precisely what it is supposed to establish. It is circular and repetitious, merely repeating the first statement with slightly different words. In other words, this passage begs the question and should convince no one that abortion is wrong. If you are opposed to abortions and wish to argue that abortions are immoral, merely citing the fact that thousands of abortions are performed weekly does not in itself constitute adequate support for your thesis. They require a philosophical framework in which the reader is made to understand their significance. It is perfectly all right to use an argument from a lecture you have heard or an essay or book that you have read, including your textbook.