I wrote the next in response to a ‘Writing Heart’ request as to what would possibly mark variations between philosophical writing and that for different disciplines.
“What distinguishes philosophical writing from different types of educational writing?”
I feel there may be most likely higher emphasis on argumentation than in another disciplines; an perception or intelligent thought is nice, nevertheless it have to be adequately supported. Readability and precision in writing are additionally essential, since any looseness or ambiguity can undermine or obscure the that means of a declare. I actually suppose we choose extra spare prose than is fascinating in another disciplines. Alongside the identical strains, we choose that college students skip grand historic or literary introductions (“Plato was probably the most well-known Greek philosophers and everybody ought to learn his works.”) This type of remark isn’t prone to be related to the evaluation of concepts or theories.
“What are the traits of a very good philosophy paper?”
1. Clear thesis.
2. Persuasive, logically coherent argument in assist of the thesis.
3. Group that strikes the argument ahead and doesn’t distract the reader.
4. Readability, readability, readability.
5. Trustworthy consideration of opposing views or counterarguments.
6. Stick to what’s related/abjure irrelevancy.
“What are the commonest errors you encounter in college students’ papers?”
Apart from poor writing in a common sense, lack of readability and precision are frequent issues; poor argumentation [or none], poor group, and weak conclusions (“However, that’s simply my opinion.”) are additionally frequent issues. I additionally discover that some college students attempt too onerous to be spectacular; in such instances, the result’s usually verbosity and convoluted sentences that obscure the that means of the claims.
“Different considerations/issues?”
One pet peeve of mine is using ‘really feel’ rather than ‘suppose,’ as in “I really feel this place is …”
I usually discover that college students can’t distinguish between what’s related to their thesis and what’s not. Right here, I’m pondering not a lot of the historic/literary commentary, however of the inclusion of every thing the scholar is aware of concerning the thinker or concern in query.
After all, all of this presumes that the scholar understands the supplies and points.
“Is there some other details about philosophical writing that might be essential for writing tutors to know?”
College students want to simply accept, if not perceive, our emphasis on main texts and the significance of partaking these texts of their written work. This appears to be very tough for us to speak to college students. (This is likely to be the results of the reliance on textbooks in excessive colleges or in different disciplines; that’s one clarification we’ve got mentioned.)
