General Guidelines for Essays

Engage with the Assigned Authors and Works

Summarize the arguments presented by the assigned authors. Cite relevant examples from the key works assigned. Quote the key authors. Compare and contrast the works. Then give your assessment of the arguments. Are they right or wrong? 

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

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. 

Construct a Cogent Argument

Give your own argument on the issue. Make sure your argument is cogent. State your thesis clearly, provide factually correct evidence, and show how the evidence you cite logically compels the reader to agree with your thesis (see below). 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. 

In the rubric (below) you will see that most points are based on the cogency of your argument. Focus on argumentation, and avoid spending too many words on anything that does not contribute to your argument. 

There are certain styles of writing that may work in other courses, but which will not be appropriate for this course. For example, a sequence of descriptions is not an argument. Likewise, a sequence of platitudes and clichés is not an argument. 

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 Just Repeat What You've Learned from Artificial Intelligence 

It is okay to use artificial intelligence (AI) large language models (LLMs) in researching and refining your essays — such as ChatGPT and Grok. But you can't just repeat what they say. 

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. 

Again, you can 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. 

Follow the Chicago Manual of Style Tutorial

Before submitting your first essay, complete the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) Tutorial. Follow those guidelines for all essays.

Follow the Rubric

You will be graded using the rubric below. Use the rubric as a checklist. The rubric is the means by which your grade is calculated — not by anything else. 

The Rubric

Please review the Rubric for Essays. 

Cogency

Note that in the rubric above the most significant points are assigned for "cogency." See the following Wikipedia resources for an understanding of what "cogency" means.

Wikipedia, "Argument"

Wikipedia, "Argument Terminology Used in Logic" 

Ordinary Language

Also note that in the rubric very significant points are given for the use of the ordinary language of students. 

Sample Essay

The following is a sample essay that demonstrates the type of rhetorical style I would like to see from you. The file 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" 

Essay Prep Exercises

Individual Exercises

Rubric Upload

The rubric is found above under "The Rubric." Simply create a copy of the file, and upload that. I just want to make sure that you have seen the rubric before you start working on your first essay. 

Chicago Manual of Style

As indicated in the rubric, you will be required to use Chicago Manual of Style formatting for the essays. The following resources will give you a good understanding of the formatting style. 

Introduction to Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) - Lecture Video

CMOS Described by Purdue Online Writing Lab

Create Your Google Account (If You Don't Have One Already)

How to Use Google Docs (If You Are Unfamiliar) 

Chicago Manual of Style Template Document

After reviewing the resources above, watch the following tutorial. In this video I give you step-by-step instructions to create a CMOS document. Watch the video, and copy what I do, creating your own document. For the content of the document, you can just type exactly what I type. Save this document as a template for your essays. 

CMOS Tutorial - Lecture Video

Rough Draft

Write a rough draft of your essay. Include: 

• your main thesis

• evidence, including at least one quote from the assigned authors and works

• an argument demonstrating that your evidence logically supports your main thesis. 

The rough draft does not need to be formatted in any particular way. 

Feedback for a Fellow Student

Complete the following form to provide feedback on a rough draft written by a fellow student. 

Feedback on Rough Draft

Read Markup of Previous Essay

Create a digital recording of you reading the graded and marked up copy of your previous essay. Read the content of your essay, and the comments that I made. If you have difficulty finding the markup file, ask your group for help. For full credit, record both audio and video. 

Production quality and personal appearance are of no concern (to me). Complete the recording immediately and quickly. Try to do the recording in one take. I just want to make sure you have read my comments, and that you have read your own writing out loud. If you get interrupted during the recording, pause the recording and pick up where you left off, or simply create another recording picking up where you left off and submit multiple files. I will examine the recordings only to the extent necessary for establishing a grade. I will only check to see that it is of an appropriate length, and that you are consistently reading your essay throughout. 

You do not have to read the rubric out loud. But please do look it over, and make sure you understand how the grading works. 

Individual or Group Exercises

The following exercises can be completed as an individual or with a group. These exercises will be assigned as needed. 

Cogency of Current Reading

Complete the following Google form for the current reading. 

Evaluation of Cogency of Current Reading 

ChatGPT Answer File

Ask ChatGPT the main question of the current essay assignment. Copy-and-paste that answer into a word processing file, and submit that file. Don't worry about formatting it in any particular way. Just make sure you get the entire answer so that you can reference it later. 

Cogency of ChatGPT Answer

After submitting the file from above, complete the following Google form based upon the ChatGPT answer in that file. 

Evaluation of Cogency of ChatGPT Answer 

Group Exercises

When assigned, complete the Google forms linked below with your assigned group. 

Feedback List 

Share Theses 

Share Evidence 

Feedback Check 

Find Markup