General Info:

I encourage you to stop by my office or email me if you run into any problems.

If you need extra help with your writing in general, make an appointment at the Writing Center or use their online help.

Make sure you are familiar with rules of citation (so as to avoid plagiarism) and UIC’s policies on academic honesty.  (Rules compiled by Professor Walter Edelberg).  This is not a research paper; the only sources you should consult are Descartes’ Meditations and the film The Matrix.

For class policies on late papers and extensions, and formatting/stylistic details, see the paper topic.

  The Outline:

The outline is intended to give you a “practice run” on the paper, and to get you thinking about the paper early.  This way I can highlight what you’re doing well and steer you clear of pitfalls.

Your answers to the questions should be fairly brief and to the point, but provide enough information so that I can see where you’re going with the paper.  For example, do not just give some version of a yes or no answer; briefly explain why you give a particular answer (i.e. explain you reasoning).

At the same time, don’t worry too much about getting things exactly right at this point.  The idea is to try things out and make mistakes now, before you have to write the final paper.  You’ll be expected to revise what you’ve written on the basis of my comments on your outline, and to incorporate those revisions into your paper.  It is important to contact me if any of my comments are unclear, or you don’t see what went wrong.

  The Paper:

1.         State the point of the paper (what it is you will be discussing) in one or two sentences, and do this right at the beginning of the paper (i.e. within the first couple of sentences.  DO NOT write a lengthy intro including, for example, historical or biographical info about Descartes, or general comments on philosophy).

2.         Follow this up with a sentence telling me exactly what you will cover in the paper and in what order.

3.         Now just do what you said you were going to do in the intro.  Always make it very clear what you are discussing at any given point in the paper.  In other words, think of your paper as having different sections with different (but related) topics.  At the start of a new “section”, plainly announce what you will be discussing in that section.  When you are done with that discussion, explain its relevance to the overall paper, and reiterate the point you were trying to get across in that section.  Make sure you stuck to the particular topic you were discussing in that section, and did not go off on any tangents (if you bring up another topic because you think it is related to what you are talking about, make sure you explain the relevance).

4.         At the end of the paper, give a conclusion or summing up of what you’ve done in the paper, and what the overall point was.  Make sure you have done everything your intro says you’re going to do (if you’ve changed your mind or added something, make sure you revise your intro to reflect that), and that you have covered every question asked in the paper topic.

5.         Write as plainly and clearly as possible; don’t think that you have to use long sentences and big words (with one exception, see below) you wouldn’t normally use (this tends to make writing worse).

6.         Whenever you use a philosophical term, make sure you explain it.

7.         It can be very helpful to have someone not in our class read the paper; it will help you identify any points where you’re not being clear.

8.         Carefully proofread your paper (don’t just run it through the spell check).