APPLY TO MESSIAH

How to write a philosophy paper

Tips for Writing about Philosophy

These are tips for writing a philosophy paper by Douglas W. Portmore. Select an option from the menu on the right to read more.

Copyright © 2001 (Revised 2012) by Douglas W. Portmore. Some Rights Reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Jim Pryor's Writing Guidelines

Acknowledgments

I cannot claim credit for many of the ideas contained within this guide. Many of them have come from the other guides that I've looked at—I've listed them below. I have also borrowed from handouts used by colleagues at both the University of California, Santa Barbara and the College of Charleston. I have tried to give credit where credit is due, but I may have left some people out. My sincere apologies to those individuals and my thanks to the authors of all those guides.

Other Guides to Writing Philosophy

  • A. P. Martinich, Philosophical Writing, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1996).
  • Joel Feinberg and Russ Shafer-Landau, Doing Philosophy (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2001).
  • Stephen M. Garrison, Anthony J. Graybosch, and Gregory M. Scott, The Philosophy Student Writer's Manual (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997).
  • P. Martinich, Philosophical Writing, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1996). 4 Joseph Gibaldi and Walter S. Achert, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 3rd ed. (New York, NY: The Modern Language Association, 1988), 21-25.
  • Jay F. Rosenberg, The Practice of Philosophy: A Handbook for Beginners, 3rd ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995).
  • Zachery Seech, Writing Philosophy Papers, 3rd ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1997).
  • Barry Brown, "How to Write an Essay in Bioethics." http://www.chass.utoronto.ca:8080/philosophy/phlwrite/brown1.html.
  • R. L. Franklin, "On Writing Philosophy Assignments."
  • R. W. Hepburn, "Good and bad in philosophy essays." http://www.arts.ed.ac.uk/philosophy/study_html/vade-mecum/sections/section4/4-1.htm.
  • James Pryor, "Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper." http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/writing.html.
  • Evan Thompson and Duff Waring, "Essay Writing Handbook for Philosophy Students." http://www.yorku.ca/hjackman/Teaching/handbook.pdf.
  • Michael Tooley, "Writing a Good Ethics Essay." http://spot.colorado.edu/~tooley/WritingEssays.html.
  • Adam Polak, "Essentials of Effective Persuasive Essays," at http://spot.colorado.edu/~tooley/WritingEssays.html.