Core Paper Tips
This article shares several helpful tips for writing papers in each core class. Scroll down until you find your class and corresponding writing tips. At the end are a list of general writing tips for all core classes (or any class, for that matter). Thanks for reading!!
Writing MSB Papers (from conversations with Dr. Walker-Dale, Dr. Wallhagen, and Dr. Beattie)
FIRST, start early, right when the prompt comes out if you can, or at least a week in advance. It is much less stressful to take a little bit of the prompt each day and work through the questions one by one. That way, you can carefully go through all the steps and make sure that you answer *every* part of the prompt.
SECOND, detail, detail, detail. Examples, examples, examples. When writing an MSB paper, move beyond the bare minimum. Core papers are not like science papers. Examine alternatives to ideas and discuss them fully. List all the possible reasons, to the best of your ability, for answers to a question or the explanation of a phenomenon. It is not just about stating the answer to the problem, but instructors are also looking for you to explain why your answer is correct and show you understand the concepts by explaining them fully. Why do these concepts apply? Why do you use this approach and what justifies it? Always illustrate abstract points and ideas with examples. Many times, an "okay" answer with clear, solid explanation is better and will earn you more points than excellent answer with no explanation.
THIRD, check your work in calculations. When you have many statistical calculations to make in the writing assignment, there is a chance that you may have typed the wrong number into a calculator or onto your document. Look through your calculations again, step by step, and make sure you have not made any mistakes. This is tedious work, but it could be the difference between a B and an A for your grade. Along the same lines, when answering a non-mathematical question, explain how you arrived at a conclusion. This explanation could not only point out gaps in your argument while you are writing, but it also helps your teacher see where you are coming from with an answer.
FOURTH, take on the role of a peer tutor in your writing. Think of the paper as an attempt to teach the material to someone who does not fully understand the current concepts in the paper, but still has knowledge of the basic terminology learned earlier in the year. With this peer tutor mindset, it will be easier for you to find a balance between a thorough, explicit explanation and over-explaining every aspect of the assignment. Clarity should also be very important. Use straightforward language, and don’t try to get too fancy. Always explain technical terms in non-technical language - as if you were explaining them to another student who is struggling in the class.
FIFTH, rewrite. Very few people can produce their best work with the first draft, so give yourself at least an hour, but an extra day would be better, to look over your work. Read your draft out loud to catch any errors in calculation or spot sections that could be reworded into more concise, clear points.
SIXTH and finally, go to office hours! Asking questions of your instructor and engaging in discussion with him or her helps more than you think. The instructors are amazing when it comes to helping you work through the prompt and will even guide you towards a question’s conclusion if you are confused or lost. Another extra resource to use is your textbook. Though you can almost always find the answer or derive it from a point made in a lecture, class, or quiz, the textbook can be useful for more fully understanding a concept in the writing assignment.
Writing HSC Papers (adapted from the HSC canvas page and tips from HSC graduates)
*FIRST, do you realize that philosophy essays are very different from English essays? The sooner you get this point, the sooner you'll succeed at writing the philosophy essays. Most incoming OHSers, even those who have gone through the MSB curriculum, are generally unprepared to craft a good philosophy essay. While English essays may require you to use intricate vocabulary and employ rhetoric to convey the message of an essay, philosophy papers have to have a strong argument at their core (i.e. your thesis). Also possible differing from English essays, in philosophy essays, do not wait for the conclusion to release surprises on your readers -- make your argument and the exact logical flow of your argument very, very, very clear from the start.
SECOND, do you have a clear, informative and efficient thesis in the introduction? Your thesis should clearly state the form/method/theory/etc. you want to support, give a reason for why you are supporting it, and summarize how you will argue for that form/method/theory/etc. Specificity is key here. This is a lot to say in a thesis, though, so it is also very important to say it concisely and efficiently. (e.g., I will examine Aristotle’s support for the claim that all pigeons are bipedal by looking at a) his theory of avian motion, b) his observations of anatomical arrangement and c) his conceptual theory of footedness, arguing that his theory of avian motion is insupportable and thus that his conclusion cannot be supported in the way he presents.)
THIRD, do you have smooth, informative and relevant transitions between topics and paragraphs? If you are going to move from one topic to another, make sure that they are either clearly connected, or create a connection between them. Taking time to smoothly transition with relevant information allows for easier reading and clarity so that your teacher can focus on evaluating the actual argument of your paper and not waste time backtracking or re-reading to figure out where you are going with your ideas.
FOURTH, do you avoid hanging questions? Hanging questions are questions that are asked and never answered. If you don't have a relevant, informative answer to a question, don't ask it in your paper. Even though it might be a very interesting question, it has no purpose in your paper if you never resolve it and will detract from the more important focus of your paper.
FIFTH, do you avoid bringing up any new information in your conclusion? New information that is not supported or entirely explained will confuse the reader, and instead of *concluding* your paper, you will open up the discussion to a new topic without fully developing it, walking your conclusion off a cliff and leaving your reader hanging. Of course, your conclusion should not just restate your entire paper and leave it at that (boorring!). Writing a successful conclusion, then, is a delicate balance of reminding your reader of the major points in your paper while also bringing in a new and interesting idea that is relevant to your topic.
*SIXTH, have you gotten your thesis checked by your instructor? One of the best ways to improve your paper is to go to your instructor's office hours throughout the whole process. If you cannot take that time to interact with your instructor at every major step, at least show him or her your thesis and ask: 1) is this a solid idea? and 2) what can be improved here? Discussing your thesis with your instructor could be the make-or-break of your paper. If your teacher supports your idea, you know you are moving in the right direction, and strong thesis will create a strong foundation for the rest of the writing process. Another great way to craft a strong thesis is to meet with a peer tutor. They have excelled in the course and been nominated by their instructor, so they can help you write a thesis that your instructor approves.
*SEVENTH, have checked out JStor? Towards the end of the semester, you will have to write a 5-8 page research paper. This research paper can be about any topic that you would like to talk about related to both science and philosophy. Many students don't realize that they have access to JStor until much later on in the year, but JStor could be one of your best friends when it comes to research, especially when you are trying to write your HSC research paper. Your Stanford SUNnet ID through JStor gives you access to thousands of articles you would otherwise not have access to, and you can simply set it up by signing in through your institution ("Stanford University"). Alternatively, Philpapers.org is also a great resource for philosophy papers so you can reference any of their papers on their website -- just remember to always cite properly.
*Special thanks to Audrey Shing and Natalie LeBaron for contributing these tips!
Writing DRFL Papers (courtesy of Dr. Beals)*
GOALS. Generally speaking, a philosophy paper presents an argument in support of a thesis, or claim. The paper should be more than just an expression of your opinions. You should defend the claim you make by offering reasons to believe it.
APPROACH. Think of yourself as trying to convince an audience that is unfamiliar with the material you are discussing and disposed to be skeptical of your thesis (or at least not already convinced of the thesis). The harsher you imagine your audience, the more apt you will be to make your writing clear and your arguments water-tight.
SIGNIFICANCE. Be open to convincing yourself of something you did not believe before writing the paper. Writing philosophy papers, to be more than just an academic exercise for a grade, should put your beliefs under critical scrutiny. That you believe something is not typically a good enough reason to continue believing it. When you write a philosophy paper you have an opportunity to put your beliefs to the test and to change yourself by changing your mind if you find good reason to do so. And, even if you end up retaining the belief you started with, you will have likely gained greater insight into what it is that you do believe (which is harder to do than it sounds) and given yourself grounds for confidence in that belief in light of the defense you can now give for it.
THESIS. State your thesis at the beginning of the paper, preferably in the opening paragraph. It is perfectly acceptable in philosophy to signal a thesis by writing: "I will argue that ...." (Some disciplines discourage use of the first person pronoun, but philosophy does not: it is a straightforward way of communicating your perspective). You are also encouraged to provide a brief “roadmap” in the introduction that indicates to the reader how the rest of the paper will support the thesis (e.g., first I will explain how Rawls derives the difference principle from the original position, then I will describe Nozick’s objection to Rawls’ difference principle, and finally I will offer a response on behalf of Rawls refuting Nozick’s objection). This kind of signposting is useful to use in the body of the paper as well (e.g., “I will begin by...”, “I will now defend this claim...”, “For example...”).
NO EMPTY STARTERS. Avoid starting papers with these kinds of general, sweeping statements: "Since Plato, philosophers have sought out the meaning of justice," or "For millennia, human beings have searched for truth.” These statements don’t add anything to the paper in terms of substance, and usually in philosophy the motivation, or “So what?” question, for the topic is obvious. If the significance of the issue you’re writing about is not obvious, these statements would not help anyway.
EXEGESIS. When reconstructing another thinker’s argument or position, do so with as much charity and transparency as possible: you want to try and restate the other person’s thoughts as forcefully and clearly as possible. At times this may even involve attributing to the author a claim that she has not explicitly made herself. This is typically justified so long as the attribution is not inconsistent with other things the author has claimed and is needed to make sense of the argument. Ignoring the strongest possible version of an author’s argument consistent with the text is a waste of everyone’s time (attacking the proverbial “straw man”.)
ATTRIBUTION. When you attribute a position to someone, provide some evidence for the attribution by citing relevant passages. However, you usually do not need to include quotations, and paraphrase is preferred. You should only quote a passage if there is some reason that paraphrase is inadequate (say, because the author’s point is unclear and you need to defend an interpretation of it). Your paper should not string together a bunch of quotations. And if you do use quotations, you should still explain what the quotation means in your own words. If the quoted passage contains an argument, reconstruct the argument in more explicit, straightforward terms. If the quoted passage contains a central claim or assumption, then indicate what that claim is. You may want to give some examples to illustrate the author's point. If necessary, you may want to distinguish the author's claim from other claims with which it might be confused.
FOCUS AND CLARITY. Avoid digressions from the main topic. For example, suppose you are reconstructing Hobbes’ argument in support of the rationality of leaving the state of nature. You do not also need to discuss his arguments in favor of an absolute sovereign. Focus on the aspects of Hobbes’s view that are of immediate relevance to your thesis. Further, philosophical ideas and arguments are complicated enough that presenting them in over-complicated prose and jumbled, disjointed organization will likely make your task rather hopeless. Again, think of your audience as uninitiated and even hostile: you need to do the work of making their acceptance of your thesis as easy as possible. It is often helpful to define unfamiliar or technical terms and to offer illustrations of abstract ideas.
ANTICIPATE OBJECTIONS. When crafting an argument in support of your thesis, imagine what a person who disagrees with your thesis would say in response, even if you do not include the response in the paper. Anticipating objections will allow you to test the rational force of your argument and strengthen it if necessary by adjusting the argument so as to defang those anticipated objections.
*"No Empty Starters" to "Anticipate Objections" draw heavily upon Jim Pyror's webpage http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/writing.html.
Writing CRA Papers (adapted from tips by Dr. Hicks)
FIRST, “Do what you need to do (and avoid what you need to avoid) in order to get a draft.” Only after you have managed that first step do you need to worry about making a good draft. If thinking about structure and strategy and editing stresses you out in a way that makes you unable to get started, then … don’t think about that stuff. Not yet. This guide will still be here after you have a draft.
SECOND, use the first sentence to introduce the paper’s key theme words. Don't feel like you have to do contortions to get all the words in, but keep "include key theme words in the first sentence" in mind as a nice goal. Speaking of key theme words, use theme words to create conceptually rich transitions. Imagine that you're writing a section that discusses the different personality traits associated with the four Hogwarts Houses. You need to transition from a discussion of Slytherin, where the key personality trait is ambition, to a discussion about Ravenclaw, where the key personality trait is intelligence. You've just finished talking about ambition, which means that your reader is fixated on ambition. Think of the transition as the way to pass the baton of the reader's attention from the old theme (ambition) to the new theme (intelligence).
Check out this transition sentence: "Just as Slytherin is defined by ambition, Ravenclaw is defined by intelligence."
This sentence starts with a reminder about the old themes and then moves the reader smoothly into the new themes. Thinking about transitions in terms of managing your reader's attention and expectations can sometimes help you to see the conceptual gaps in your own understanding of your project. If you're having trouble figuring out how to move the reader from Point A to Point B, then the connection between Point A and Point B probably isn't entirely clear for you yet.
THIRD, for introductions, set up the problem that your paper will solve, and show your reader the conceptual
resources that you will draw on to solve it. Frame your argument in a way that shows what’s novel and surprising about it. What turns this particular paper on this particular topic into your paper on this topic? Make sure that your main claim is contestable; a reasonable reader should be able to agree or disagree with your paper’s thesis. (Often it helps to have a particular opposing view in mind to set up some grounds for reasonable disagreement.) Need I mention using theme words to do all of the above?
FOURTH, think about "page time" for words and concepts as the equivalent of "screen time" for actors. Figure out which ideas are the stars of your paper and which are the supporting roles, and make sure that each idea’s amount of space on the page corresponds to its importance in the cast. Readers will (often unconsciously) look at the amount of space that a particular idea occupies on the page in order to track which ideas are the important ones, so star ideas should get more page time than supporting role ideas. Halfway through the process, you might realize that ideas that you hadn't thought of as the star become a key aspect of your paper.This constant evolving of your ideas will require you to continuously reframe how you set up star roles and supporting roles in your paper.
FIFTH, dealing explicitly with opposing views, alternative readings, and so forth makes your argument stronger. Reasonable readers should be able to agree or disagree with your main claim, right? And a successful argument will convert some readers who were originally inclined to disagree. How do you sway the skeptics over to your side? By explicitly acknowledging their view and then explaining why yours works better. Give opposing views plenty of credit; spend some page time spelling them out in a nuanced and sympathetic way. Show your reader that you’ve considered the alternatives before settling on your view.
SIXTH, content is only a small part of writing. Managing reader expectations forms a much bigger part. A depressingly small fraction of your reader’s experience actually has to do with the content of your paper; the majority of their experience is more about packaging. The good news is that, as the writer, you control the packaging. Your choices control your reader’s experience. The next three paragraphs will deal with the issue of packaging.
1) Use transitions -- see SECOND.
2) Think about road-mapping and signposting. Since you're the writer, you know where you're going next, but your readers won’t know unless you tell them. Though sentences that explicitly convey your point might seem superfluous but they are crucial to the reader’s experience.
3) Consider quoting vs. paraphrasing vs. citing. Decide how to package your textual evidence by thinking about the reader’s experience. What do you need for the reader to take in from this particular reference to a passage? The three most common answers are language, concepts/claims/ideas, and recurring importance. Each one tracks with one of the possible ways to refer to the passage. Do readers need to have specific language in mind (as they do when your next step is, for instance, a close reading of a poem)? If so, quote the bit of text that uses the relevant language. Do they need to have a specific concept or claim in mind for which the text’s language is less relevant? If so, probably paraphrase; quote only if the text expresses the concept or claim more succinctly than your paraphrase could do. Do they need to have a general sense of the recurring importance of a theme in a text? If so, just listing citations is probably enough. And you can use signposting language to redirect expectations: if you’re only going to discuss, say, nouns, you can say, “Consider the nouns in the following passage.” You can italicize the nouns and say “(my italics)” at the end of the quoted section. Show your readers where to direct their attention, and they’ll usually play along.
SEVENTH, quoting raises the stakes. If something is worth quoting, then it’s worth discussing in some depth. And readers tend to use page time to gauge the importance of a discussion. In order to demonstrate that your quotation can earn its keep, you want your analysis to take up at least twice as much space on the page as the quotation itself. So, if you quote four lines of text, you want at least eight lines of analysis. If you’re having trouble producing eight lines of analysis for a four-line quotation, look back at the quotation and see whether you actually need all four lines. EIGHTH, conclusions are the worst, but theme words can help. Conclusions tend to go wrong in one of two ways: they do too little, or they do too much. Conclusions that do too little usually sound like retreads of the introduction, as if the writer went “cut, paste, rephrase, thesaurus, done.” Conclusions that do too much feel like they’re opening new cans of worms. Conclusions that get it right feel like a natural summation and extension of the rest of the paper. And they often give this impression through theme words. Successful conclusions pull together all the themes from the paper and then show how those theme words relate to one or (at most) two new themes. General Final Edit Tips for Your Core Papers (adapted from tips by Dr. Hicks)
FIRST, get rid of unaccompanied "this"-es. When you use the word "this," instructors may maintain that the next word should be the noun that answers the question "This what?" Instead of writing, “This shows that ____,” write, “this idea," "this concept," “this phenomenon,” this whatever. Never just "this." Most readers won't consciously notice this trick (see what I did there?) of adding the noun, but they will have the pleasant impression that your prose is unusually clear and comprehensible. If you have trouble coming up with the noun, this trouble is often a clue that your ideas need to be fleshed out more. The task of adding the noun can sometimes let you know when you need to add some other concepts as well.
SECOND, get rid of "there is" constructions. As readers, we're primed to look for the conceptual subject -- that is, the idea that the sentence is about -- in the grammatical subject position. So placing the conceptual subject in the grammatical subject position makes the reader's task easier, and separating them makes the reader’s task harder. Engrave this truth on your soul: Your sentence is not about "there." Since "there" is not the conceptual subject, it shouldn't be the grammatical subject. When "there" is the grammatical subject, your reader has to work harder to figure out what the sentence is about. Compare these two sentences:
1) There is a significant change in Dumbledore's behavior in Book 5.
2) Dumbledore's behavior changes significantly in Book 5.
THIRD, use active verbs; make sure your subjects do things. In the two sentences above, the move from a “there is” construction changes the verb: we switch from “is” to “changes.” “Changes” works better because it shows that the subject -- “Dumbledore’s behavior”-- does something. Subjects in “is” sentences feel inert; they just exist. Active verbs move the reader along and give the reader a sense that things are happening in your paper.
FOURTH, check your verb tense; make sure you haven't slipped from literary present into past by accident. (Or switched tenses at all.)
FIFTH, check apostrophes, particularly on possessive names that end in "s."
SIXTH, check adjectives and adverbs.Good academic prose tends to use fewer adjectives and adverbs than literary prose, so make sure that any adjectives and adverbs that you do include can carry their interpretive and argumentative weight. If you’ve chosen active verbs, those verbs will do the heavy lifting, and you won’t feel the loss of the adjectives and adverbs. In particular, cut out adverbs that protest too much: "obviously," "interestingly," "clearly," and so forth. If it's obvious, why say it? Is it really interesting if you have to say that it's interesting? If it's clear, your reader should see it without having its clarity pointed out to them -- and pointing it out makes it sound like maybe you aren't actually certain that it's clear. In short, don't let your adverbs undermine you.
SEVENTH, place your subjects and verbs near one another, particularly in long sentences. Compare the two sentences below. In the second sentence, the verb (“continues”) comes immediately after the subject (“Dumbledore’s trust in Snape”). Readers (at least in English) are trained to think in Subject-Verb-Object form, and, as soon as you give them a subject, they want to know what that subject does. In the first sentence, three full lines of text separate the subject and the verb, so readers have to tread water for a long time before finally finding out what Dumbledore’s trust does. By the time they get to the verb, they might have forgotten the subject, which means they’ll have to look back for it, and this breaks their momentum. If their attention is the baton, that baton has been dropped. So: keep your subjects and verbs close together in order to manage reader attention. Keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and your subjects and verbs closest of all.
1) Dumbledore’s trust in Snape despite Snape’s cruel and callous treatment of non-Slytherin students, his apparent friendliness toward the children of his fellow Death-Eaters, and his inability to move past his own school-day rivalries--an inability that arguably contributes to the death of Sirius Black--continues through the series.
2) Dumbledore’s trust in Snape continues through the series despite Snape’s cruel and callous treatment of non-Slytherin students, his apparent friendliness toward the children of his fellow Death-Eaters, and his inability to move past his own school-day rivalries--an inability that arguably contributes to the death of Sirius Black.
EIGHTH, check comma/semicolon use, especially around “however.”
Correct:
1) I like mushrooms. However, my mother can’t stand them.
2) I like mushrooms. My mother, however, can’t stand them.
3)I like mushrooms; however, my mother can’t stand them.
4) I like mushrooms; my mother, however, can’t stand them.
Wrong, wrong, wrongity wrong:
1) I like mushrooms, however my mother can’t stand them.
If you’re fuzzy on when to use commas, colons, and semi-colons, you can learn the rules from this handy web site: http://www.pitt.edu/~atteberr/comp/0150/grammar/compoundpunct.html
NINTH learn the difference between "may" and "might." “May” is for permission.
“Mother, may I go to the park?”
“Yes, you may.” (This rule is the easy one that everyone knows.)
Either “may” or “might” can be used for live possibilities:
I may go to the park, but I may go to the movies instead
OR
I might go to the park, but I might go to the movies instead. “
Might” is for counterfactuals: Events might have unfolded in a different way, but they didn’t. I might have gone to the park yesterday, but I went to the movies instead. Going to the park yesterday is no longer a live possibility, so “may” is wrong. The only time “may” can be used correctly to refer to the past is to refer to uncertainty: Either Fred or George stole my bike; it may have been Fred, or it may have been George. However, “might” also works in this instance -- it might have been either of them. Why does the may/might rule matter? Reader expectations! For readers who know the rules, the two words signal different things. “May” signals permission, live possibility, or uncertainty, and if you signal one of those when you need to signal counter-factuality, you run the risk of confusing the reader. And, yes, it’s usually only a brief moment of confusion (with accompanying Grammar Snob resignation and/or rage), but that moment breaks the reader’s attention. The baton gets dropped.
