What Your Professors Are Looking For
Individual Professor Responses
Dr. Ted Kinnaman, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Department Chair:
1, 5, 3. My primary concern is content and fulfilling the assignment. However, I do not consider content and style separable. Often I discover in student writing that content is not clear. Students need to figure out what goes in the paper and what goes out. Students have a hard time choosing relevant material. Also, word choice and wordiness are problems.
2, 4. I often tell my students to outline their papers in order to have an overview of what they are writing about to create a logical, clear, and well-constructed paper. Make sure everything ties into the thesis: for instance, "How do x and y relate to the thesis?" It really helps to outline a paper that has already been written, too. Outline the paper you wrote, not the paper you want to write. Basically, create an outline backwards.
Carefully plan papers and make sure you understand how ideas are all connected. Philosophy classes do not assign a huge bulk of reading, because professors want students to read carefully and slowly, probably two, three, or even four times. Fine differences in language mean a lot-so do not read quickly.
Philosophy encourages students to have a first person perspective. Students can bring in their own personal experiences; however, students must be careful because no experience is pure. If you bring in personal experience, defend and relate it to the material. Philosophy is different from other disciplines in that the readings are constructed around arguments rather than just facts. Another difference is that in history classes, you do not become an historian on the first day; in economics classes, you do not became an economist on the first day; but, you are a philosopher from the very first day in a philosophy course.
Explain a philosophical idea, but in your own words. Do not regurgitate what a professor says in class, but also think on your own, and try to analyze and incorporate your own claim. Balance is important.
Dr. Roger Paden, Associate Professor of Philosophy:
1. I want my students to show several things. First that they understand the issue at hand. That is they will need to give an account of the philosophical theory that we have been discussing in class. Then they will have to be able to give an account of the reasons that the author gives for the theory? Why did he say what he said? What arguments has he given for the position? etc. Then the students will have to evaluate those reasons (i.e., his argument). Is it a good argument? Why or why not. Thus there are three parts of each paper:
- Identifying and describing the theory in question.
- Identifying and describing the argument that is given to support the theory in question
- Evaluating that argument.
Sometimes the first part is difficult because it is hard to understand the theory and philosophers are notoriously bad writers. Sometimes it is difficult to find a supporting argument in the text. Sometimes there is only a suggestion of an argument that needs to be worked out and attributed to the philosopher. Sometimes it is hard to evaluate the argument.
2. The focus of the paper will be on doing all three parts of the paper. Don't just tell me what the philosopher said. Philosophy is concerned with reasoned argument. You must be able to evaluate arguments. Therefore you must have a good feel for what makes an argument a good argument.
3. Getting beyond the descriptive and on to the evaluative portion. Students are not very skilled at evaluating arguments. They have been trained to agree or disagree but not evaluate.
4. Content, then structure, then style. They must be philosophical. This is helped by being well organized. Style is last. I must be able to understand your argument.
See also a supplement on writing, developed by Dr. Paden.
Dr. Shannon Skousgaard, Associate Professor of Philosophy Emerita:
1. What are your primary concerns when reading and grading Philosophy papers?
a. clear thinking
b. clear writing
The writing simply cannot be clear if the thinking is not.
2. What is the most important advice you give to students writing papers?
a. think clearly
b. write clearly
c. get help early in the semester on everything you write
In other words, determine first what you intend to say; outline or mind map it so that it flows from one point to the next related point. Philosophical argumentation is not a list of unrelated points, but rather a structured argument building to a conclusion.
3. What do you find students struggle with the most?
a. clarity of thought
b. clarity of expression
As I said above, they simply cannot think clearly. But they also have no sense of what a structured argument is; rather they seem to have been completely indulged in the expression of opinions which have seemingly infinite value simply because the student spoke some words about how he felt. This is not only worthless in philosophy, but it is counter-productive. What a student feels about any idea, position, or argument is not a subject for class. Instead, he must learn to think, believe, argue — that is, to go to the reasons and justifications. It is here that the work succeeds or fails.
4. What aspects of a strong philosophy paper do you value most?
The quality of the argument.
5. Do you focus most on content, style, or structure?
Content.
Dr. Rose Cherubin, Associate Professor of Philosophy
1. What are your primary concerns when reading and grading philosophy papers?
Primary concerns are for students' papers
(a) to show an understanding of the course texts and class lectures, including a grasp of the ideas, arguments, issues, and concepts presented there; and
(b) complete the assignment, addressing all parts of the question or topic.
For (a), students need to be able to express in their own words the arguments and ideas found in the texts; to analyze and apply these arguments and ideas; and to respond to them with well-formed arguments of their own. Doing these things shows understanding of the texts and ideas; mere repetition or slight paraphrasing does not show understanding.
For (b), students must reflect on their reading and class notes, and show connections among ideas; they must also produce arguments of their own. If the assignment asked a question or a series of questions, students must answer all of these completely, clearly, and directly. In some upper-level courses, students have the opportunity to devise their own paper topics or questions to answer; in these situations, students must address fully the question or topic they have devised.
For both aspects, clarity is essential. Correct spelling, grammar, and vocabulary choice are necessary in order to express one's ideas and to answer questions accurately. Clarity of thought and clarity of expression are inseparable.
2. What is the most important advice you give to students writing papers?
(a) Read the text several times, until you think you understand it. Look through class notes to help in this. Then read the text again. There are texts I have been teaching for over a decade, and every time I read them I see something new; don't assume that one read-through is all you need.
(b) "Show all work": In mathematics and natural science assignments, you do not get full credit for just writing the number that solves the equation. Why not? It's because the instructor has no way of knowing whether you came up with that number by guesswork, or whether instead you really understood what makes that answer the correct one, whether you really understood the theorems, laws, data, etc. In order to receive full credit, you must show your understanding of the factors that make your number the correct one. Therefore your instructors (also science journals) ask you to "show all work": show how you solved the equation by correctly applying your understanding. It's the same in philosophy, only no numbers are involved.*
For example, it is not sufficient in a philosophy paper to say that you think Socrates is right about something, or wrong about something, or that he would take a certain position on an issue we encounter today, or that something he says makes no sense. You need to say also why you came to this conclusion, why you think something is true of Socrates' positions, based on what you have read. You need to identify evidence for your conclusion in the text and through analysis of the ideas in the text; and you need to show the valid reasoning that brings you from the evidence to the conclusion.
*No numbers are involved, that is, unless you're a Pythagorean; but that's another matter, best left for PHIL 301!
(c) Close attention to texts and precise understanding of concepts do not conflict with creativity; on the contrary, they enhance it. To express your ideas clearly and to understand them fully, a grasp of the vocabulary and tools of philosophical expression is indispensable.
3. What do you find students struggle with the most?
(a) Many students are not used to reading texts closely, or not used to learning from texts in ways other than memorization, or not used to doing both together. I design paper topics to help students to do this. Rereading the text with the paper topic questions in mind should help students think through the issues and ideas involved.
(b) Students generally are not used to identifying or analyzing arguments or reasoning in texts, nor are they used to providing their own arguments. I try to design paper topics that will draw students' attention to the relationships between ideas, and to think especially about how an author's ideas and reasoning support his or her conclusion.
(c) Students sometimes ask, "You don't want us to regurgitate the text, but you don't want us to give our personal opinions either - so what do you want?"
This question shows a confusion that must be addressed as early as possible. There is something very important to write besides personal opinions and exact copies of the text. Copying the text will not answer questions that call for analysis and arguments about the meaning and implications of the text. But neither will opinions. Opinions are any views a person might have, whether these are supported by evidence or reasoning, or not. (Prejudices are a kind of opinion that is developed without evidence or reasoning, for example, and philosophy's mandate is to challenge and investigate all prejudices.) Papers in philosophy do not call for you to say how you feel, or to say what you happen to think without systematic reflection. Rather, philosophy papers call for students to give their reflective, considered assessment and the reasoning by which they arrived at it. Like what is usually called an "opinion," a considered assessment is an original statement by the student, and reflects the student's ideas. However, unlike what is usually called an "opinion," a considered assessment is based on reasoning and evidence, thoughtfully considered, rather than solely upon sentiment, guesswork, mood, prejudgment, or the other unreasoning factors that affect opinions.
(Also, it's not a matter of "what I want"; it's what philosophy is all about!)
4. What aspects of a strong philosophy paper do you value most?
I look for writing that shows an understanding of the texts and ideas, and that engages with text and ideas to produce reasoned analyses and arguments. This means engagement with the issues and ideas; philosophy is not a spectator sport. It is also essential that a paper clearly address and answer the topic question(s).
5. Do you focus most on content, style, or structure?
Content, style, and structure go together. In order to answer a question fully and correctly (the content aspect), a paper must have a structure that clearly conveys the relationships between ideas that the writer is trying to express, and that clearly shows what the writer thinks the answer to the question is, and why so. The style of the paper should be such as not to obscure the point either by oversimplifying or by using unnecessarily obscure words or unnecessarily complex sentence structure. Precise wording is a goal for which to strive.