Term Paper Part 3

Philosophy 130 Fall 2010

Term Paper Part 3: Final Draft

*Note: the term paper due date has been extended to Tuesday, December 7.*

Your term paper will have three main sections: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion.

Introduction

The introduction will be fairly short, and will have 3 parts:

1. “Motivating the question”: give just a very brief background about what makes your question interesting and difficult (in other words, explain why it’s an important question to address).
2. Say what conclusion you’ll argue for in your paper. Philosophy papers are different from English papers this way – you’ll repeat your conclusion at the end, but you also start off by saying what you’ll be arguing for. (“In this paper, I’ll argue that we should do away with capital punishment.”)
3. Give a very brief outline of the main reasons you have for your conclusion. (“Because it fails to act as a deterrent to crime; research shows that its application is strongly biased against the poor and racial minorities; it devalues human life; and any method of application will constitute cruel and unusual punishment.”)

Body

The body of the paper will constitute most of the length of the paper. It should have 3 or 4 (possibly more, depending on how many main premises you have) main part. Each of the main reasons you have for your conclusion will be a main part of the body of the paper. Like this:

Premise 1

1. Explain your first premise (“Capital punishment does not act as a deterrent to murder”)
2. Give all the evidence and arguments you have to support your premise (show us why we should believe that your premise is true)
3. Say what someone might argue against you – give the best possible arguments against your premise
4. Show why those arguments against you are either wrong, or are outweighed by more important factors

Premise 2

1. Repeat steps a through d above for each subsequent premise.

Conclusion

The conclusion will be fairly short. Just remind the reader of what you argued for, and what your major premises were. The conclusion is just restating the shape of your general argument, because you’ll have gotten into so much detail in the body of the paper. You should not include any new arguments in the conclusion. If you have a point to make, make it in the body of the paper and defend it.

Citations

You should cite your sources in both of two ways in your paper. Use MLA style.

1. Parenthetical citations: whenever you’ve used someone else’s words or ideas in the body of your paper, those words, or that idea, should be immediately followed by a parenthesis with the author’s name and the page or paragraph number from where you got the information.
2. Works Cited page: include all the required bibliographical information for each source on a separate page at the end of your paper.

General Instructions

• Your paper should be typed, double-spaced, and around 8 pages long.
• Cite all of your sources properly, using both parenthetical citations and a Works Cited page
• Number every page after page 1
• Include your name, the name of the class and the section number, and the date
• Do not use a cover sheet
• Late papers will not be accepted unless you have contacted me prior to the due date to arrange for an extension

Here's a link to a PDF of the assignment: Term Paper Part 3