Tips for writing a philosophy essay
There are a million of these guides online, but here’s mine. These are specifically targeted at University of Reading students, for whom essays are the main means of assessment. Much of this is unashamedly tailored to my preferences, but I think they are fairly common.
First, about the choice of question. Don’t be afraid of tackling the questions that interest you and taking a strong stance on them. Usually, the essay question is asking for your point of view or assessment of the issue, and that’s what gets the high (first class) marks if done well. Most of us don’t do philosophy to know what so-and-so thought about an issue (though that is certainly important), but also what reasons they may have had for thinking it, and whether those reasons are decisive. Do you agree with so-and-so, and why or why not?
You can be quite direct here. If you’ve given reasons to think that (for example) the argument from relativity doesn’t work, then don’t end with a weak conclusion like in conclusion Mackie’s argument is sound but maybe not valid in today’s society. That kind of writing provokes a “well, which is it?” response in the reader, as well as being kind of boring to read. Is the argument sound or not? If you think the argument fails, don’t be afraid to say so!
At the start of the essay, get down to business. The question has been asked, so you can just jump in to answer it—no need for a ‘since the dawn of time, XX has been very controversial’ type introduction. This just looks like padding, and most people hate it. Sometimes you may need to explain why a certain issue is relevant or important, but specific claims are usually better than sweeping vague ones.
Similarly, avoid vague “common sense” claims like ‘society is getting more diverse’. They rarely add anything important to your essay, so better just to remove them. (Of course in some essays they will be relevant, but in that case you’ll want to add a citation or other support for the claims.)
Most of the time, you need to present the views or arguments of others on some issue, and then evaluate or criticise some view or argument. It’s much better to consider one or two objections or lines of evaluation in depth (a couple of pages each) than three or four shallowly (a couple of paragraphs each). A good way to add depth is to anticipate (invent) lines of objection or response to what you are saying, and this is pretty much essential to getting above a 72.
Explain everything very clearly – write as if your reader hasn’t read the papers etc you are discussing, and doesn’t know anything about the topic. Every factual claim needs to be cited or otherwise supported (unless you are saying things like ‘England is in the northern hemisphere’). Claims that someone thinks or claims something—“Singer argues that…”—need a proper citation, including page numbers. The point of a citation is so that the reader can go and check what you are saying, and without the full information, they can’t easily do that.
The best way to summarise someone’s views and argument is to quote then explain: quote a couple of sentences, then explain what is being said in your own words:
The quote will keep you honest—it forces you to be accurate, most of the time.
It also means you read the actual material, rather than nonsensical summary websites, Wikipedia, or YouTube videos, which are usually seriously wrong.
Your explanation shows that you actually understand what the author is saying, rather than just copying and pasting.
Be specific. For example, in an introduction, don’t write “I will evaluate whether the argument works”. Write “I’ll argue that the argument fails because …”
As that example shows, don’t be afraid of ‘I’. ‘I think…’, ‘I will argue that..’ make everything far easier to read. They also make it clear when you are giving your own view, rather than just summarising what others say. It’s not compulsory to write in the first person, but in my experience it’s usually the clearest option.
As a final check, try reading your essay out loud to yourself. If a sentence sounds awkward and jarring and like something nobody would say out loud, it’s probably not a good written sentence either. But if it sounds like something you’d say, then it probably reads nicely too!
Your paragraphs are almost certainly too long.