Guidelines for Essays
Guidance for the Writing of Argumentative Essays According to Conventions of Contemporary Anglo-American Philosophy in the Early Twenty-First Century
Rodney H. Swearengin
Copyright 2025
Embedded Files
Contents
Contents
Engage with the Assigned Authors and Works
Engage with the Assigned Authors and Works
Summarize the arguments presented by the assigned authors in the specific works assigned. Cite relevant examples from the key works assigned. Give substantial quotes from the key authors. Compare and contrast the works. Then give your assessment of the arguments. Are they right or wrong?
Engage with the Overall Course Content
Engage with the Overall Course Content
Frame your essay within the overall course content. Think about the key concepts covered up to the point of writing the essay. How does your essay fit within that context? How does your current essay relate to earlier course content, including any earlier essays? Your essay should not rehash earlier material, but it should be situated within that larger context.
Think of Your Fellow Students as Your Audience
Think of Your Fellow Students as Your Audience
Write your essay to an audience of your peers at school. And think of your audience as your fellow students who are not taking this particular class. Explain what you know, or think you have discovered — and explain that as clearly as possible to someone who doesn't know what you know, but who is also in college.
Use the Ordinary Language of Students
Use the Ordinary Language of Students
Since your reading audience is fellow students, use the language that students use. Keep the language simple and ordinary as much as possible. As much as you can, write the way you talk on a day-to-day basis. When the language necessarily gets complicated — which happens in the philosophy — take some time to unpack and explain the complicated language. Define technical terminology, and give alternate phrasings of complex constructions. Make sure that a typical college student will be able to follow along with your argument.
Be Creative
Be Creative
Practice reworking your writing style. As indicated above, your writing should be rooted in the way that you talk on a day-to-day basis. But you also want to construct a philosophically cogent argument with the appropriate academic precision and completeness. To accomplish all of this you are going to need to be creative. Consciously work on transforming the way you ordinarily speak into something that effectively communicates — to a readership of your peers — the rigorous logic of your argument.
Don't Trust Artificial Intelligence
Don't Trust Artificial Intelligence
It is okay to use artificial intelligence (AI) large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Gemini. My favorite LLM is DeepSeek, which I use pretty much every day. A familiar LLM can be a great tool for research and essay refinement.
But you can't trust AI. Sometimes an LLM will just make stuff up that is factually incorrect. You have to check every single thing they say.
Essays produced by LLMs are almost always inappropriate for my courses. I want short, coherent argumentative essays. I want you to take a very specific stand, and defend that position. LLMs are trained to present multiple opinions, and be very wishy-washy about which opinions are cogent. This is not good.
Furthermore, when you ask an LLM to make an argument, the results can be way off base. Often an LLM will simply confidently spout off very fallacious reasoning — the worst thing. LLMs are particularly susceptible to the "bandwagon effect" and "appeal to authority." Beware of those fallacies, and others!
Again, it is okay to use an LLM to find out what it has to say. But what it says is almost never philosophically relevant. When you write a philosophical essay you have to tell the reader what you yourself think — and why you think the way you think — and why the reader should think like you do. LLMs are not good at this.
All this being said, it is possible to coach an LLM to produce some adequate philosophical work. But you have to put in the effort to get the right results. You can't simply trust your grade to the AI. That can be disastrous.
Follow the Rubric
Follow the Rubric
You will be graded using my "Rubric for Essays." The rubric is the scorecard by which your grade will be calculated — not by anything else. Before submitting an essay, check the rubric to make sure your essay is designed to get a high score.
Follow the Chicago Manual of Style Tutorial
Follow the Chicago Manual of Style Tutorial
Note that in the rubric (above) there are many items that have to do with Chicago style. Before submitting your first essay, complete the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) Tutorial. Then follow CMOS for all essays.
Construct a Cogent Argument
Construct a Cogent Argument
In the rubric (above) you will see that the points are weighted most heavily for the cogency of your argument. Focus on argumentation, and avoid spending too many words on anything that does not contribute to your argument.
Your opinion in regards to the main question of the essay prompt is your thesis. Your explanation of why you think your opinion is correct is your argument.
Make sure your argument is cogent. State your thesis clearly, provide factually correct evidence, and give a "strong" argument that logically compels your reader to agree with your thesis.
Thesis
Thesis
Each essay assignment will clearly indicate a "main question." Formulate your thesis as an answer to the main question of the assignment. You can be creative with the way that you answer the question, but make sure that your thesis clearly addresses the substance of the question.
Clearly state your thesis in your essay. It does not have to appear in the first paragraph. Again, you are encouraged to be creative with your style. Just make sure that your thesis is clearly communicated within the narrative of your essay.
Evidence
Evidence
Your evidence should almost always include substantial quotes from the key authors under consideration within the course. Your interpretations of the quotes also count as evidence. Examples from ordinary life can also function as evidence, including experiences from your own personal life. Make sure all evidence you present is precisely accurate and well documented. Your argument will be cogent only if you establish the truth of your evidence. Wherever possible, give a quote exemplifying an example. Cite your sources. The purpose of a citation is to allow your reader to verify the accuracy of your evidence. For personal experiences, you are the expert on your life. So, you don't have to give any citation for those. Just make sure you paint a convincingly vivid picture.
Strength
Strength
Within the study of logic and critical thinking, "strength" is a technical term. An argument is strong if it successfully proves its thesis based on the evidence presented. It is entirely about the inference from the evidence to the thesis. An argument can only be cogent if it is strong. You need to logically demonstrate that your evidence proves the truth of your thesis. This logical demonstration is the most important—and most difficult—aspect of writing an argumenatative essay. Most students have not been taught how to logically argue for a thesis. So, this is likely going to be a big part of what you will be learning through our process of writing multiple essays. Take into account the feedback I give you on earlier essays, and keep working at improving the strength of your argumentation.
For more detail on cogency, see Wikipedia on "Argument" and "Argument Terminology Used in Logic" — and also my "Critical Thinking" page.
Sample Essay
Sample Essay
The following is a sample essay that demonstrates the type of rhetorical style I would like to see from you. The PDF version contains my comments, showing that the content is not entirely top notch. The argument could be much improved. But the author of the essay, Jordan Reed, exhibits an outstanding facility with the ordinary language of students. I want to see you develop a similar writing style that reflects your own personality. With such a writing style, I can provide better feedback, and you can then make better progress over the academic term.
Jordan Reed, "The Next Step"
Taking into account my feedback, and working with a tutor and the like, Jordan Reed won the Bloomfield Scholarship at Cerritos College with a revised version of this essay in 2025.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse