philosophy essay writer

We can complete any papers no matter the complexity. We offer:

Plagiarism-Free Philosophy Papers

Professional Help in Getting Good Grades

Full Confidentiality

Order Philosophy Paper In a Few Clicks

Test our essay writing service by ordering 1 page!

Test our writing service!

150,000 students trusted PapersOwl

Choose your philosophy writer

PapersOwl expert writers are online and available for hire. Read through their profiles, and sample assignments to find your perfect match.

Completed orders: 727

Social media impact

• Paper Type: Essay (Any Type)
• Subject: English

100% Happiness Guarantee

PapersOwl’s priority is your happiness. Our writers always follow instructions, deliver original papers, and never miss deadlines. Our support agents are always there for you: to revise papers, change writers, and even refund your money.

Academic Paper Features

• MBA and Business
• Engineering
• A title page
• A reference page
• In-text citations
• A running head
• Page numbers

HUMAN WRITING AT ITS BEST

We follow instructions.

We check your requirements and have direct communication with writers.

We choose professionals

We only match you with writers who specialize in your subject and topic.

We meet deadlines

We make sure you’ll get all your orders on time and ready for submission.

We guarantee uniqueness

We use plagiarism checkers and verify all our essays are plagiarism-free.

Order 1 page to test our writing service. Proceed to buying the full paper AFTER 1 page testing

Submit your instructions and choose a writer. Make a deposit and start tracking your order in progress. Release the money if satisfied. Order a full version. ✅

Prices start at $13.5 for writing . The final price depends on the number of pages and the deadline.

HOW TO PLACE AN ORDER FROM YOUR PHONE

1. Submit instructions

Fill out an order form and include as much detail as possible.

2. Choose writer

Pick a writer or leave it to our AI matching system, then add funds.

3. Track order

Check the status of your order or chat with your writer at any time.

4. Check paper

Revise your paper and release funds to the writer when you’re satisfied.

OUR WRITING SERVICE ACTIVITY

Philosophy paper faq, what citation style is used to format philosophy paper, are your writers experienced in my topic, how can i pay for philosophy paper, write my philosophy research paper .

Writing a philosophy paper can be a student’s biggest undoing in academics, which is why students ask “Who can write my philosophy paper for me?”, have become common internet searches. Philosophy courses are broad making it difficult to come up with a good topic to craft a research paper. Sometimes students have to compete against time running up against deadlines which are a major cause of worry among students at all levels including college and university. Then there is the issue of difficult subjects. Philosophy may not always be a difficult subject, but students have to figure out the means of getting the best grades.

Moreover, having to handle a lot of assignments at the same time can weigh down a student’s productivity. Many ask to find out if there are places they can buy philosophy research paper. The advent of the internet brought a solution. Anyone in need of academic writing assistance can order philosophy paper online. When you appeal to a professional writing service to do your papers, you will see your academic challenges vanish, and your grades improve. Pay to have paper written at pocket-friendly prices. We take pride in our work quality and competitive prices. 

Pay for Philosophy Papers at Qualified Writing Service

The next step is finding a professional paper writing service you can rely on in completing your academic assignments. There are many agencies but it doesn’t mean they have what it takes to meet your paper’s requirements. A question we keep getting from our clients is, “Why should we use your writing services?” We are a reliable academic partner, for the following reasons:

• Top-quality philosophy papers based on in-depth research by our writers. We know what it means to submit papers that are rich in content, and that is why we take the burden from you when you ask, who can write my philosophy paper.
• We deliver assignments on time. Meeting deadlines can put a student under a lot of pressure, our writers help ease the burden and guarantee your papers will be on your professor’s desk on time, so sit back and let the experts do the hefty work.
• Affordability is another reason to choose our services when you write a philosophy paper.
• We also help you write your assignments in any academic style. If you wish to buy MLA paper online or ones written in APA, we are here to help at any time.
• Another reason that keeps us on top is students love we deliver original and unique papers. We have in place, cutting-edge plagiarism checkers that rid your assignments of copy-pasted content. Moreover, when you pay to write my philosophy paper, you are signing up for the best papers.
• We have been in business for many years, which is an added advantage, making us a top destination for students who want to order custom research papers, etc.
• 24/7 Contact center, You can place your order even late at night and still get your philosophy paper in the morning.

Our services cut across a wide range of specialties in philosophical studies such as epistemology, metaphysics, anthropology, ethics, analytical philosophy, existentialism, aesthetics, political science, and axiology. Or you can buy history essay , psichology and any other subject.

Ask Modern Philosophers “Write My Philosophy Paper for Me"

For a student pursuing philosophy, nothing feels better than letting a modern philosopher write your academic assignment. When you choose PapersOwl , it is no longer a question of who can write my philosophy papers but who to choose from a pool of experts. Our writers have exceptional qualifications such as the following:

PapersOwl Writing Service Main Advantages

• Many years of experience handling custom paper orders from thousands of students.
• Highest levels of academic qualifications such as Masters and Ph.D. degrees in various subsets of philosophy.
• Excellent writing skills acquired through rigorous and regular training.
• Effective communication skills giving them an advantage in handling client orders.
• Native English writers/speakers – the best candidates for your assignments. It also means your projects will be free from grammatical, syntax, and spelling errors.

How to Buy a Philosophy Research paper online?

Place your order with us when buy a research proposal paper is easy, and in no time, we can assign or you choose an expert who has what it takes to write a philosophy paper on any other topic you need help. To order, follow this simple procedure:

• On our website, go to the order page.
• Choose ‘philosophy’ from the list of subjects
• Indicate the title or topic of your philosophy paper.
• Indicate the writing style/outline such as MLA, APA, and Turabian, etc.
• State how many pages you need. Take note of our price per page, our on-site calculator auto-calculates the total amount due depending on the number of pages you need.
• Check your order details, confirm, then submit. Wait for a complete paper in your email inbox on time.

You can also order through the phone, email, or via live chat on our website.

It is time to put bad grades behind you and start excelling in philosophy assignments. Our experts can help to do your paper for you . Place your writing order today and get the best paper written by our top writers today. We are here to help you deliver top-quality assignments.

WHY WAIT? PLACE AN ORDER RIGHT NOW!

Just fill out the form, press the button, and have no worries!

1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology

Philosophy, One Thousand Words at a Time

How to Write a Philosophical Essay

Authors: The Editors of 1000-Word Philosophy [1] Category: Student Resources Word Count: 998

If you want to convince someone of a philosophical thesis, such as that God exists , that abortion is morally acceptable , or that we have free will , you can write a philosophy essay. [2]

Philosophy essays are different from essays in many other fields, but with planning and practice, anyone can write a good one. This essay provides some basic instructions. [3]

1. Planning

Typically, your purpose in writing an essay will be to argue for a certain thesis, i.e., to support a conclusion about a philosophical claim, argument, or theory. [4] You may also be asked to carefully explain someone else’s essay or argument. [5]

To begin, select a topic. Most instructors will be happy to discuss your topic with you before you start writing. Sometimes instructors give specific prompts with topics to choose from.

It’s generally best to select a topic that you’re interested in; you’ll put more energy into writing it. Your topic will determine what kind of research or preparation you need to do before writing, although in undergraduate philosophy courses, you usually don’t need to do outside research. [6]

Essays that defend or attack entire theories tend to be longer, and are more difficult to write convincingly, than essays that defend or attack particular arguments or objections: narrower is usually better than broader.

After selecting a topic, complete these steps:

• Ensure that you understand the relevant issues and arguments. Usually, it’s enough to carefully read and take notes on the assigned readings on your essay’s topic.
• Choose an initial thesis. Generally, you should choose a thesis that’s interesting, but not extremely controversial. [7] You don’t have to choose a thesis that you agree with, but it can help. (As you plan and write, you may decide to revise your thesis. This may require revising the rest of your essay, but sometimes that’s necessary, if you realize you want to defend a different thesis than the one you initially chose.)
• Ensure that your thesis is a philosophical thesis. Natural-scientific or social-scientific claims, such as that global warming is occurring or that people like to hang out with their friends , are not philosophical theses. [8] Philosophical theses are typically defended using careful reasoning, and not primarily by citing scientific observations.

Instructors will usually not ask you to come up with some argument that no philosopher has discovered before. But if your essay ignores what the assigned readings say, that suggests that you haven’t learned from those readings.

2. Structure

Develop an outline, rather than immediately launching into writing the whole essay; this helps with organizing the sections of your essay.

Your structure will probably look something like the following, but follow your assignment’s directions carefully. [9]

2.1. Introduction and Thesis

Write a short introductory paragraph that includes your thesis statement (e.g., “I will argue that eating meat is morally wrong”). The thesis statement is not a preview nor a plan; it’s not “I will consider whether eating meat is morally wrong.”

If your thesis statement is difficult to condense into one sentence, then it’s likely that you’re trying to argue for more than one thesis. [10]

2.2. Arguments

Include at least one paragraph that presents and explains an argument. It should be totally clear what reasons or evidence you’re offering to support your thesis.

In most essays for philosophy courses, you only need one central argument for your thesis. It’s better to present one argument and defend it well than present many arguments in superficial and incomplete ways.

2.3. Objection

Unless the essay must be extremely short, raise an objection to your argument. [11] Be clear exactly which part of the other argument (a premise, or the form) is being questioned or denied and why. [12]

It’s usually best to choose either one of the most common or one of the best objections. Imagine what a smart person who disagreed with you would say in response to your arguments, and respond to them.

Offer your own reply to any objections you considered. If you don’t have a convincing reply to the objection, you might want to go back and change your thesis to something more defensible.

2.5. Additional Objections and Replies

If you have space, you might consider and respond to the second-best or second-most-common objection to your argument, and so on.

2.6. Conclusion

To conclude, offer a paragraph summarizing what you did. Don’t include any new or controversial claims here, and don’t claim that you did more than you actually accomplished. There should be no surprises at the end of a philosophy essay.

Make your writing extremely clear and straightforward. Use simple sentences and don’t worry if they seem boring: this improves readability. [13] Every sentence should contribute in an obvious way towards supporting your thesis. If a claim might be confusing, state it in more than one way and then choose the best version.

To check for readability, you might read the essay aloud to an audience. Don’t try to make your writing entertaining: in philosophy, clear arguments are fun in themselves.

Concerning objections, treat those who disagree with you charitably. Make it seem as if you think they’re smart, careful, and nice, which is why you are responding to them.

Your readers, if they’re typical philosophers, will be looking for any possible way to object to what you say. Try to make your arguments “airtight.”

4. Citations

If your instructor tells you to use a certain citation style, use it. No citation style is universally accepted in philosophy. [14]

You usually don’t need to directly quote anyone. [15] You can paraphrase other authors; where you do, cite them.

Don’t plagiarize . [16] Most institutions impose severe penalties for academic dishonesty.

5. Conclusion

A well-written philosophy essay can help people gain a new perspective on some important issue; it might even change their minds. [17] And engaging in the process of writing a philosophical essay is one of the best ways to develop, understand, test, and sometimes change, your own philosophical views. They are well worth the time and effort.

[1] Primary author: Thomas Metcalf. Contributing authors: Chelsea Haramia, Dan Lowe, Nathan Nobis, Kristin Seemuth Whaley.

[2] You can also do some kind of oral presentation, either “live” in person or recorded on video. An effective presentation, however, requires the type of planning and preparation that’s needed to develop an effective philosophy paper: indeed, you may have to first write a paper and then use it as something like a script for your presentation. Some parts of the paper, e.g., section headings, statements of arguments, key quotes, and so on, you may want to use as visual aids in your presentation to help your audience better follow along and understand.

[3] Many of these recommendations are, however, based on the material in Horban (1993), Huemer (n.d.), Pryor (n.d.), and Rippon (2008). There is very little published research to cite about the claims in this essay, because these claims are typically justified by instructors’ experience, not, say, controlled experiments on different approaches to teaching philosophical writing. Therefore, the guidance offered here has been vetted by many professional philosophers with a collective hundreds of hours of undergraduate teaching experience and further collective hundreds of hours of taking philosophy courses. The editors of 1000-Word Philosophy also collectively have thousands of hours of experience in writing philosophy essays.

[4] For more about the areas of philosophy, see What is Philosophy? by Thomas Metcalf.

[5] For an explanation of what is meant by an “argument” in philosophy, see Arguments: Why Do You Believe What You Believe? by Thomas Metcalf.

[6] Outside research is sometimes discouraged, and even prohibited, for philosophy papers in introductory courses because a common goal of a philosophy paper is not to report on a number of views on a philosophical issue—so philosophy papers usually are not “research reports”—but to rather engage a specific argument or claim or theory, in a more narrow and focused way, and show that you understand the issue and have engaged in critically. If a paper engages in too much reporting of outside research, that can get in the way of this critical evaluation task.

[7] There are two reasons to avoid extremely controversial theses. First, such theses are usually more difficult to defend adequately. Second, you might offend your instructor, who might (fairly or not) give you a worse grade. So, for example, you might argue that abortion is usually permissible, or usually wrong, but you probably shouldn’t argue that anyone who has ever said the word ‘abortion’ should be tortured to death, and you probably shouldn’t argue that anyone who’s ever pregnant should immediately be forced to abort the pregnancy, because both of these claims are extremely implausible and so it’s very unlikely that good arguments could be developed for them. But theses that are controversial without being implausible can be interesting for both you and the instructor, depending on how you develop and defend your argument or arguments for that thesis.

[8] Whether a thesis is philosophical mostly depends on whether it is a lot like theses that have been defended in important works of philosophy. That means it would be a thesis about metaphysics, epistemology, value theory, logic, history of philosophy, or something therein. For more information, see Philosophy and Its Contrast with Science and What is Philosophy? both by Thomas Metcalf.

[9] Also, read the grading rubric, if it’s available. If your course uses an online learning environment, such as Canvas, Moodle, or Schoology, then the rubric will often be visible as attached to the assignment itself. The rubric is a breakdown of the different requirements of the essay and how each is weighted and evaluated by the instructor. So, for example, if some requirement has a relatively high weight, you should put more effort into doing a good job. Similarly, some requirement might explicitly mention some step for the assignment that you need to complete in order to get full credit.

[10] In some academic fields, a “thesis” or “thesis statement” is considered both your conclusion and a statement of the basic support you will give for that conclusion. In philosophy, your thesis is usually just that conclusion: e..g, “Eating meat is wrong,” “God exists,” “Nobody has free will,” and so on: the support given for that conclusion is the support for your thesis.

[11] To be especially clear, this should be an objection to the argument given for your thesis or conclusion, not an objection to your thesis or conclusion itself. This is because you don’t want to give an argument and then have an objection that does not engage that argument, but instead engages something else, since that won’t help your reader or audience better understand and evaluate that argument.

[12] For more information about premises, forms, and objections, see Arguments: Why do You Believe What You Believe? by Thomas Metcalf.

[13] For a philosophical argument in favor of clear philosophical writing, and guidance on producing such writing, see Fischer and Nobis (2019).

[14] The most common styles in philosophy are APA (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.a) and Chicago (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.b.).

[15] You might choose to directly quote someone when it’s very important that the reader know that the quoted author actually said what you claim they said. For example, if you’re discussing some author who made some startling claim, you can directly quote them to show that they really said that. You might also directly quote someone when they presented some information or argument in a very concise, well-stated way, such that paraphrasing it would take up more space than simply quoting them would.

[16] Plagiarism, in general, occurs when someone submits written or spoken work that is largely copied, in style, substance, or both, from some other author’s work, and does not attribute it to that author. However, your institution or instructor may define “plagiarism” somewhat differently, so you should check with their definitions. When in doubt, check with your instructor first.

[17] These are instructions for relatively short, introductory-level philosophy essays. For more guidance, there are many useful philosophy-writing guides online to consult, e.g.: Horban (1993); Huemer (n.d.); Pryor (n.d.); Rippon (2008); Weinberg (2019).

Fischer, Bob and Nobis, Nathan. (2019, June 4). Why writing better will make you a better person. The Chronicle of Higher Education . 

Horban, Peter. (1993). Writing a philosophy paper. Simon Fraser University Department of Philosophy . 

Huemer, Michael. (N.d.). A guide to writing. Owl232.net .

Pryor, Jim. (N.d.). Guidelines on writing a philosophy paper. Jimpryor.net .

Purdue Online Writing Lab. (N.d.a.). General format. Purdue Online Writing Lab . 

Purdue Online Writing Lab. (N.d.b.). General format. Purdue Online Writing Lab .

Rippon, Simon. (2008). A brief guide to writing the philosophy paper. Harvard College Writing Center .

Weinberg, Justin. (2019, January 15). How to write a philosophy paper: Online guides. Daily Nous .

Related Essays

Arguments: Why do You Believe What You Believe? by Thomas Metcalf

Philosophy and its Contrast with Science by Thomas Metcalf

What is Philosophy? By Thomas Metcalf

Translation

Pdf download.

Download this essay in PDF . 

Follow 1000-Word Philosophy on  Facebook  and  Twitter  and subscribe to receive email notifications of new essays at  1000WordPhilosophy.com .

Share this:.

How to Write a Philosophy Essay: Ultimate Guide

What Is a Philosophy Essay: Definition

Philosophical writing isn't your typical assignment. Its aim isn't to provide an overview of professional philosophers' works and say whether you agree with them.

Philosophy demands becoming a philosopher for the time of writing, thinking analytically and critically of ideas, pondering the Big Questions, and asking 'Why?'. That's why it requires time and energy, as well as a lot of thinking on your part.

But what is philosophy essay, exactly? If you're tasked with writing one, you'll have to select a thesis in the philosophical domain and argue for or against it. Then, you can support your thesis with other professional philosophers' works. But it has to contain your own philosophical contribution, too. (This is only one definition of philosophy essay, of course.)

What's a Good Philosophy Paper Outline?

Before you start writing your first line, you should make a philosophy essay outline. Think of it as a plan for your philosophy paper that briefly describes each paragraph's point.

As for how to write a philosophy essay outline, here are a few tips for you:

• Start with your thesis. What will you be arguing for or against?
• Read what philosophical theory has to say and note sources for your possible arguments and counterarguments.
• Decide on the definitions of core concepts to include precise philosophical meanings in your essay.
• After careful and extended reflection, organize your ideas following the structure below.

How To Structure a Philosophy Paper?

Like any other essay, a philosophy paper consists of an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. Sticking to this traditional philosophy essay structure will help you avoid unnecessary stress.

Here's your mini-guide on how to structure a philosophy essay:

• Introduction - Clarify the question you will be answering in your philosophy paper. State your thesis – i.e., the answer you'll be arguing for. Explain general philosophical terms if needed.
• Main body - Start with providing arguments for your stance and refute all the objections for each of them. Then, describe other possible answers and their reasoning – and counter the main arguments in their support.
• Conclusion - Sum up all possible answers to the questions and reiterate why yours is the most viable one.

What's an Appropriate Philosophy Essay Length?

In our experience, 2,000 to 2,500 words are enough to cover the topic in-depth without compromising the quality of the writing.

However, see whether you have an assigned word limit before getting started. If it's shorter or longer than we recommend, stick to that word limit in writing your essay on philosophy.

What Format Should You Use for a Philosophy Paper?

As a philosophy and psychology essay writing service , we can attest that most students use the APA guidelines as their philosophy essay format. However, your school has the final say in what format you should stick to.

Sometimes, you can be asked to use a different college philosophy essay format, like MLA or Chicago. But if you're the one to choose the guidelines and don't know which one would be a good philosophy argumentative essay format, let's break down the most popular ones.

APA, MLA, and Chicago share some characteristics:

• Font: Time New Roman, 12 pt
• Line spacing: double
• Margins: 1" (left and right)
• Page number: in the header

But here's how they differ:

• A title page required
• Sources list: 'References' page
• No title page required
• Sources list: 'Works cited' page
• Sources list: 'Bibliography' page
• Footnotes and endnotes are required for citations

Have a Tight Deadline?

Our PRO philosophy essay writers will quickly produce a unique paper for you based on your specifications!

Guideline on How to Write a Philosophy Essay

If you still don't feel that confident about writing a philosophy paper, don't worry. Philosophical questions, by definition, have more than one interpretation. That's what makes them so challenging to write about.

To help you out in your philosophical writing journey, we've prepared this list of seven tips on how to write a philosophy essay.

• Read Your Sources Thoughtfully

Whether your recommended reading includes Dante's Divine Comedy or Jean-Paul Sartre's Existentialism Is a Humanism , approach your sources with curiosity and analytical thinking. Don't just mindlessly consume those texts. Instead, keep asking yourself questions while you're reading them, such as:

• What concepts and questions does the author address?
• What's the meaning behind key ideas and metaphors in the text?
• What does the author use as a convincing argument?
• Are there any strange or obscure distinctions?

As for which sources you should turn to, that all depends on your central question; philosophy topics for essay are diverse and sometimes opposed. So, you'll have to do your fair share of research.

• Brainstorm & Organize Your Ideas

As you're reading those texts, jot down what comes to your mind. It can be a great quote you've stumbled upon, an idea for an argument, or your thoughtful, critical responses to certain opinions.

Then, sort through and organize all of those notes into an outline for your essay in philosophy. Make sure that it holds up in terms of logic. And ensure that your arguments and counterarguments are compelling, sensible, and convincing!

Now, you might be wondering how to write a philosophy essay introduction. Don't worry: there's an explanation right below!

• Craft Your Introductory Paragraph

Think of your introduction as a road map preparing your reader for the journey your essay will take them on. This road map will describe the key 'stops' in your essay on philosophy: your topic, stance, and how you will argue for it – and refute other stances.

Don't hesitate to write it out as a step-by-step guide in the first or third person. For example: 'First, I will examine... Then, I will dispute... Finally, I will present….'

Need an example of an excellent introduction for a philosophy paper? You’ll be thrilled to know that we have one of our philosophy essay examples below!

• Present Your Key Arguments & Reflections

Philosophy papers require a fair share of expository writing. This is where you demonstrate your understanding of the topic. So, make your exposition extensive and in-depth, and don't omit anything crucial.

As for the rest of the main body, we've covered how to structure a philosophy essay above. In short, you'll need to present supporting arguments, anticipate objections, and address them.

Use your own words when writing a philosophy paper; avoid pretentious or verbose language. Yes, some technical philosophical terms may be necessary. But the point of a philosophical paper is to present your stance – and develop your own philosophy – on the topic.

• Don't Shy Away from Critical Ideas

Whenever you examine a philosophical theory or text, treat it with a fair share of criticism. This is what it means in practice – and how to structure a philosophy essay around your critical ideas:

• Pinpoint what the theory's or idea's strengths are and every valid argument in its support;
• See the scope of its application – perhaps, there are exceptions you can use as counterarguments;
• Research someone else's criticism of the theory or idea. Develop your own criticism, as well;
• Check if the philosopher already addressed those criticisms.
• Ponder Possible Answers to Philosophical Questions

Writing an essay in philosophy is, in fact, easier for some students as the topic can always have multiple answers, and you can choose any of them. However, this can represent an even tougher challenge for other students. After all, you must consider those possible answers and address them in the paper.

How do you pinpoint those possible answers? Some of them can come to your mind when you brainstorm, especially if you'll be writing about one of the Big Questions. Others will reveal themselves when you start reading other philosophers' works.

Remember to have arguments for and against each possible answer and address objections.

• Write a Powerful Conclusion

The conclusion is where you sum up your paper in just one paragraph. Reiterate your thesis and what arguments support it. But in philosophical writing, you can rarely have a clear, undebatable answer by the end of the paper. So, it's fine if your conclusion doesn't have a definitive verdict.

Here are a few tips on how to write a conclusion in a philosophy essay:

• Don't introduce new arguments or evidence in conclusion – they belong in the main body;
• Avoid overestimating or embellishing the level or value of your work;
• Best conclusions are obvious and logical for those reading the paper – i.e.; a conclusion shouldn't be surprising at all;
• Stay away from poorly explained claims in conclusion.

Philosophical Essay Example

Sometimes, it's better to see how it's done once than to read a thousand guides. We know that like no one else, so we have prepared this short philosophy essay example to show you what excellent philosophy papers look like:

Like this example? Wondering how to get a custom essay as great as it is? You're in luck: you can buy online essay at EssayPro without breaking the bank! Keep in mind: this example is only a fraction of what our writers are capable of!

30 Philosophy Paper Topic Ideas

Philosophical writing concerns questions that don't have clear-cut yes or no answers. So, coming up with philosophy essay topics yourself can be tough.

Fret not: we've put together this list of 30 topics for philosophy papers on ethics and leadership for you. Feel free to use them as-is or tweak them!

15 Ethics Philosophy Essay Topics

Ethics deals with the question of right and wrong. So, if you're looking for philosophy essay topic ideas, ethics concerns some of the most interesting – and most mind-boggling – questions about human behavior.

Here are 15 compelling philosophy essay topics ethics has to offer you:

• Is starting a war always morally wrong?
• Would it be right to legalize euthanasia?
• What is more important: the right to privacy or national security?
• Is justice always fair?
• Should nuclear weapons be banned?
• Should teenagers be allowed to get plastic surgery?
• Can cheating be justifiable?
• Can AI algorithms behave ethically?
• Should you abide by an unfair law?
• Should voting become mandatory?
• When can the right to freedom of speech be limited?
• Is it the consumers' responsibility to fight climate by changing their buying decisions?
• Is getting an abortion immoral?
• Should we give animals their own rights?
• Would human gene editing be immoral?

15 Leadership Philosophy Essay Topics

You're lucky if you're tasked with writing a leadership philosophy essay! We've compiled this list of 15 fresh, unconventional topics for you:

• Is formal leadership necessary for ensuring the team's productivity?
• Can authoritative leadership be ethical?
• How do informal leaders take on this role?
• Should there be affirmative action for formal leadership roles?
• Is it possible to measure leadership?
• What's the most important trait of a leader?
• Is leadership an innate talent or an acquired skill?
• Should leadership mean holding power over others?
• Can a team function without a leader?
• Should you follow a leader no matter what?
• Is leader succession necessary? Why?
• Are leadership and power the same?
• Can we consider influencers contemporary leaders?
• Why do people follow leaders?
• What leadership style is the most ethical one?

7 Helpful Tips on Crafting a Philosophical Essay

Still, feeling stuck writing a philosophical essay? Here are seven more tips on crafting a good philosophy paper that can help you get unstuck:

• Write the way you would talk about the subject. This will help you avoid overly convoluted, poor writing by using more straightforward prose with familiar words.
• Don't focus on having a definitive answer by the end of your philosophical essay if your conclusion states that the question should be clarified further or that there are multiple answers.
• You don't have to answer every question you raise in the paper. Even professional philosophers sometimes don't have all the answers.
• Get straight to the point at the start of your paper. No need to warm up the reader – and inflate your word count.
• Avoid using quotes. Instead, explain the author's point in your own words. But if you feel it's better to use a direct quote, explicitly state how it ties to your argument after it.
• Write in the first person unless your assignment requires you to use the third person.
• Start working on your philosophical essay well in advance. However much time you think you'll need, double it!

7 Common Mistakes to Avoid in Philosophy Writing

Sometimes, knowing what you shouldn't do in a philosophical essay is also helpful. Here are seven common mistakes that often bring down students' grades – but are easily avoidable:

• Appealing to authority – in philosophy, strive to develop your own stance instead;
• Using convoluted sentences to appear more intelligent – instead, use simpler ways to deliver the same meaning;
• Including interesting or important material without tying it to your point – every piece of evidence and every idea should explicitly support your arguments or counterarguments;
• Inflating your word count without delivering value – in the writing process, it's crucial to 'kill your darlings';
• Making poorly explained claims – explicitly present reasons for or against every claim you include;
• Leaving core concepts undefined – explain what you mean by the words like 'free will' or 'existentialism' in the introduction;
• Worrying about being wrong – no one can be proven wrong in philosophy!

Realize that your draft contains those mistakes, and it's too late to fix them? Then, let us help you out! Whether you ask us, 'Fix my paper' or ' Write my paper from scratch,' our philosophy writers will deliver an excellent paper worth the top grade. And no, it won't cost you a fortune!

Worried About All of the Approaching Assignments?

We provide the top writing services you've been searching for! Our experts can deliver your coursework swiftly!

Related Articles

• Faculty of Arts
• School of Historical and Philosophical Studies
• Current students
• Undergraduate

Philosophy essay writing guide

Introduction.

This guide is intended to give new students of philosophy some preliminary advice about writing philosophy essays at university. For many of you, writing a philosophy essay will be something of a new experience, and no doubt many of you will be a little unsure of what to expect, or of what is expected of you. Most of you will have written essays in school for English, History, etc. A philosophy essay is something a little different again. However, it is not an unfathomable, mysterious affair, nor one where anything goes.

Just what a philosophy essay is will depend a lot, as you'd expect, on just what philosophy is. Defining philosophy is always a more or less controversial business, but one way to think of what is done in university philosophy departments is to think of the difference between having a philosophy and doing philosophy. Virtually everyone "has a philosophy" in the sense that we have many basic beliefs about the world and ourselves and use certain key concepts to articulate those beliefs. Many of us initially come to thus "have a philosophy" (or elements of several philosophies) often only unconsciously, or by following "what's obvious" or "what everybody knows", or by adopting a view because it sounds exciting or is intellectually fashionable.

"Doing philosophy", on the other hand, is a self-conscious unearthing and rigorous examination of these basic beliefs and key concepts. In doing so, we try to clarify the meanings of those beliefs and concepts and to evaluate critically their rational grounds or justification. Thus, rather than having their heads in the clouds, philosophers are really more under the surface of our thinking, examining the structures that support - or fail to support - those who trust that they have their feet on the ground. Such examination may even help to develop new and firmer ground.

Doing philosophy, then, begins with asking questions about the fundamental ideas and concepts that inform our ways of looking at the world and ourselves, and proceeds by developing responses to those questions which seek to gain insight into those ideas and concepts - and part of that development consists in asking further questions, giving further responses, and so on. Human beings across the world have been engaged in this sort of dialogue of question and response for many centuries - even millennia - and a number of great traditions of reflection and inquiry have evolved that have fundamentally influenced the development of religion, art, science and politics in many cultures. The influence of philosophical thinking on Western civilization, in particular, can be traced back more than 2,500 years to the Ancient Greeks.

In philosophy, a good essay is one that, among other things, displays a good sense of this dialectic of question and response by asking insightful, probing questions, and providing reasoned, well-argued responses. This means that you should not rest content with merely an unintegrated collection of assertions, but should instead work at establishing logical relations between your thoughts. You are assessed not on the basis of what you believe, but on how well you argue for the position you adopt in your essay, and on how interesting and insightful your discussion of the issues is. That is to say, you are assessed on how well you do philosophy, not on what philosophy you end up having. Nonetheless, you ought to make sure that your essay's discussion is relevant to the topic. (See Section 5.2 below on relevance.)

It is hoped that you enjoy the activity of essay writing. If you have chosen to study Arts, it is likely that you will have a particular interest in - even a passion for - ideas and the variety of forms and genres in which ideas are expressed and explored. The argumentative or discursive formal academic essay is one such form, and one which can be a pleasure to read and to write. Thus, the assessment that is set in philosophy courses is primarily an invitation to you to pursue what is already (or, hopefully, soon to be) your own interest in writing to explore ideas. However, your immediate goal in writing an academic philosophy essay ought not to be to write a personal testament, confession or polemic. Rather, you should primarily aim at articulating, clearly and relatively dispassionately, your philosophical thinking on the topic at hand. Nevertheless, the kind and degree of personal development one can gain from taking up the challenge to think and to write carefully, clearly and thoroughly is certainly something to be greatly valued.

This guide is intended to help you get started in the business of writing philosophy essays. As you practise your philosophical writing skills, you will develop your own technique, and learn what is appropriate in each particular case. So you may well come to "work around" many of these guidelines. Nonetheless, it is important that you pass through that which you seek to pass beyond.* In addition to your own writing, your reading of other philosophers will help you to develop your sense of what constitutes good philosophical writing. As you read, note the various styles and techniques that philosophical authors employ in their treatment of philosophical issues. Practice and studying good examples, then, are the most valuable ways to develop your essay writing skills.

This guide is, moreover, only one of many publications that introduce philosophy students to essay writing. Some others you may like to consult include:

• A. P. Martinich, Philosophical Writing, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1997)
• J. Feinberg and R. Shafer-Landau, Doing Philosophy: A Guide to the Writing of Philosophy Papers, 2nd ed. (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 2001)
• Z. Seech, Writing Philosophy Papers, 4th ed. (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 2003)
• R. Solomon, "Writing Philosophy", Appendix to his The Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy, 6th ed. (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 2001)
• S. Gorovitz et al., Philosophical Analysis: An Introduction to its Language and Techniques, 3rd ed. (New York: Random House, 1979)

Also, the websites of many philosophy departments in universities around Australia and the world contain downloadable essay writing guides or links to them.

*This phrase is adapted from Jacques Bouveresse, "Why I am so very unFrench", in Alan Montefiore, ed., Philosophy in France Today (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 12.

What do I do in a Philosophy essay?

Philosophy essay topics are not designed to provide an intellectual obstacle course that trips you up so as to delight a malicious marker. They are designed to invite you to "grapple with" with some particular philosophical problem or issue. That is to say, they are designed to offer you an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of a particular philosophical problem or issue, and to exhibit your own philosophical skills of analysis, argumentation, etc. These twin goals are usually best achieved by ensuring that your essay performs two basic functions (your understanding and your skills apply to both):

an exposition of the problem or issue in question (often as it is posed in some particular text); and a critical discussion of the problem or text

These two functions can, but need not always, correspond to physically or structurally distinct sections of your essay. See Section 5.1.

The expository ("setting forth") aspect of your essay is where you should make clear what the issue is and why it is an issue. Where you are dealing with an issue as it is presented in some particular text, your aim should be to make clear what it is that the author in question meant in their text, what they see as the issue and why they see it as an issue. This does not involve merely quoting or paraphrasing a text. Of course, occasional quotation and paraphrase may be appropriate - sometimes necessary - but these ought not to constitute the sole or major content of your exposition. Where you do quote or paraphrase, make sure you attribute your sources in footnotes or endnotes. (See Section 7.)

Exposition is, then, primarily a matter of developing in your own words what you think the issue is or what you think the text means. In all expository work you should always try to give a fair and accurate account of a text or problem, even when the exposition becomes more interpretive rather than simply descriptive. You ought to be patient and sympathetic in your exposition, even if you intend later to criticise heavily the philosopher in question. Indeed, the better the exposition in this regard, usually the more effective the critique.

An important part of exposition is your analysis of the text or issue. Here you should try to "break down" the text, issue or problem into its constitutive elements by distinguishing its different parts. (E.g. "There are two basic kinds of freedom in question when we speak of freedom of the will. First, … . Second, …", or "There are three elements in Plato's conception of the soul, namely... He establishes these three elements by means of the following two arguments... ") This also involves showing the relationships between those elements, relationships which make them "parts of the whole".

As well as laying out these elements within a text or issue, you can also (when appropriate or relevant) show how a text or issue "connects up with" other texts, issues, or philosophical and/or historical developments, which can help to shed further light on the matter by giving it a broader context. (eg "Freedom of the will is importantly connected to the justification of punishment", or "Plato's tripartite theory of the soul bears interesting resemblances to Freud's analysis of the psyche", or "Kant's transcendental idealism can be seen as reconciling the preceding rationalist and empiricist accounts of knowledge".)

An exposition of a text need not always simply follow the author's own view of what it means. You should, of course, demonstrate that you understand how the author themself understands their work, but an exposition can sometimes go beyond this, giving another reading of the text. (eg "Heidegger might deny it, but his Being and Time can be read as developing a pragmatist account of human understanding.") A given text or issue may well be susceptible to a number of plausible or reasonable interpretations. An exposition should aim to be sensitive to such variety. When appropriate, you should defend your interpretations against rivals and objections. Your interpretation ought, though, to be aimed at elucidating the meaning or meanings of the text or issue and not serve merely as a "coat-hanger" for presenting your own favoured views on the matter in question, which should be left to your ...

Critical discussion

This is where your thought gets more of the centre stage. Here you should attempt to develop a response to the issues which your exposition has made clear, and/or, in the case of a discussion of some particular text, attempt to give a critical appraisal of the author's treatment of the issue. In developing a response to a philosophical problem, argumentation is, again, of central importance. Avoid making unsupported assertions; back up your claims with reasons, and connect up your ideas so that they progress logically toward your conclusions. Consider some of the various objections to and questions about your views that others might or have put forward, and try to respond to them in defence of your own line of thinking. Your goal here should be to discuss what you have expounded so as to come to some conclusion or judgement about it. ("Critical" is derived from the Ancient Greek for "to decide, to judge".) Critical discussion is thus not necessarily "destructive" or "negative"; it can be quite constructive and positive.

In the case of a critical appraisal of a particular author's text, you can negatively criticise the author's arguments by pointing out questionable assumptions, invalid reasoning, etc. If, on the other hand, you think that the text is good, then your critical discussion can be positive. This can be done by revealing its "hidden virtues" (that is, by showing that there is more to the author's arguments and views than what lies on the surface) and/or by defending an author against possible and/or actual criticisms. (eg "Norman Malcolm argues that Descartes is mistaken in assuming that dreams and waking episodes have the same content.* However, Malcolm fails to appreciate the subtlety of Descartes' argument in the First Meditation, which allows Descartes to claim . . .") Just to expound an author's arguments and then say "I disagree" or "That seems right" is not really enough - you need to "have something to say" about it. Of course, by all means go on, after finding fault with some philosopher, to answer in your own way the questions tackled or raised by the author. (eg "Simone de Beauvoir's analysis of women's oppression in The Second Sex suffers from serious weaknesses, as I have shown in Section 2 above. A better way to approach the issue, I shall now argue, is to . . .".)

Where you are not primarily concerned with evaluating or responding to a particular text, your critical discussion can be more focused on your own constructive response to the issue. (eg "Having used Dworkin's account to clarify the meanings of the concepts of 'the sanctity of life' and 'voluntariness', I shall now argue that voluntary euthanasia is morally permissible because its voluntariness respects what is of value in the notion of the sanctity of life" - where you now leave Dworkin behind as a source and move on to give your own account.)

* See Norman Malcolm, "Dreaming and Skepticism", in Willis Doney, ed., Descartes: A Collection of Critical Essays (London: Macmillan, 1967), p. 56.

Guide to researching and writing Philosophy essays

5th edition by Steven Tudor , for the Philosophy program, University of Melbourne, 2003.

This fifth edition of How to Write a Philosophy Essay: A Guide for Students (previous editions titled A Guide to Researching and Writing Philosophy Essays ) was prepared in consultation with members of the Philosophy program, the University of Melbourne. For advice and assistance on this and earlier editions, thanks are due to Graham Priest, Barry Taylor, Christopher Cordner, Doug Adeney, Josie Winther, Linda Burns, Marion Tapper, Kimon Lycos, Brendan Long, Jeremy Moss, Tony Coady, Will Barrett, Brian Scarlett, and Megan Laverty. Some use was also made of materials prepared by the Philosophy Departments of La Trobe University, the University of Queensland, and The Australian National University.

Disclaimer: University, Faculty and program rules

Please note: this booklet does not provide authoritative statements of the official policies or rules of the University of Melbourne, the Faculty of Arts, or the Philosophy program with regard to student essays and examinations or any other matters. Students should, therefore, not rely on this booklet for such information, for which they should consult the various appropriate notice boards, handbooks, websites, and/or members of staff.

Essay topics

What do philosophy essay topics look like? There are, very roughly, two basic kinds of philosophy essay topics: "text-focused" topics and "problem-focused" topics. Text-focused topics ask you to consider some particular philosopher's writing on some issue. (eg "Discuss critically David Hume's account of causation in Part III of Book I of his A Treatise of Human Nature " or "Was Wittgenstein right to say that 'the meaning of a word is its use in the language', in his Philosophical Investigations, Sec. 43?"). Problem-focused topics are more directly about a particular philosophical problem or issue, without reference to any particular philosopher's text. (eg "Is voluntary euthanasia morally permissible?" or "What is scientific method?")

There is another sort of topic, one which presents a statement and asks you to discuss it, where that statement is a "made up" or, at least, unattributed quote. (eg. "'Without belief in God, people cannot be moral'. Discuss.") I shall regard these as variations of the problem-focused type of topic. Where you are asked to discuss some such statement "with reference to" some specified text or philosopher, then that topic becomes more text-focused. (eg "'Without belief in God, people cannot be moral'. Discuss with reference to J.L. Mackie's Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong. ") Occasionally, a topic presents an unattributed statement, but the statement is, in fact, a quote from a particular philosopher you've been studying, or, at least, a good paraphrase of their thinking. (An example of the latter: "'All the ideas in our minds originate from either sense perception or our reflection upon sensory information.' Discuss.", in a course devoted to John Locke, whose views are summed up in the quoted statement, though those words are not actually his.) Should you take such topics as problem- or text-focused? Rather unhelpfully, I'll say only that it depends on the case. You might ask your lecturer or tutor about it. Whichever way you do take it, be clear in your essay which way you are taking it.

The difference between text-focused and problem-focused essay topics is, however, not very radical. This is because, on the one hand, any particular philosopher's text is about some philosophical problem or question, while, on the other hand, most philosophical problems (certainly virtually all those you will be given as essay topics at university) will have been written about by previous philosophers.

The basic way to approach text-focused topics, then, is to treat the nominated text as an attempt by one philosopher to deal with a particular philosophical problem or issue. The essay topic will, generally speaking, be inviting you to do philosophy with that philosopher, to engage with them in thinking about the issue, whether that engagement proves to be as an ally or an adversary. The chosen text will usually be one which has been (or deserves to be) influential or significant in the history of philosophy, but the task is not to pay homage to past masters. But, even if homage is your thing, the best way to do that here is to engage with the master philosophically.

With regard to problem-focused topics, you will often find your exploration of the problem aided by taking some text or texts which have dealt with it as reference points or prompts. This is not always strictly necessary, but many of you starting out in philosophy will find it helpful to do so - it can help you give focus to your response to the question. (Thus, you might, in an essay on the topic "Is voluntary euthanasia morally permissible?" take it upon yourself to use, for example, Ronald Dworkin's Life's Dominion and Peter Singer's Practical Ethics as reference points. Or, in an essay on the topic "What is scientific method?", you might set up your answer via a comparison of the two different accounts in Karl Popper's The Logic of Scientific Discovery and Paul Feyerabend's Against Method.*) How will you know which texts to adopt as reference points or prompts, if none is mentioned in the essay topic itself? One way is to consider what texts have already been mentioned with regard to the topic in your course reading guide and in lectures and tutorials. Another way is to do some of your own research. On this see Section 4 below.

* In this guide, in giving examples of how to go about answering an essay question, I am not necessarily giving any concrete or reliable advice for any particular topic. The examples are primarily to do with the form or style or strategy you might find helpful.

Researching your essay

To do research for your philosophy essay you need to do only two things: read and think. Actually, for problem-focused essays, thinking is the only truly necessary bit, but it's highly likely that you will find your thinking much assisted if you do some reading as well. Philosophical research at university is a little different to research in most other disciplines (especially the natural sciences), in that it is not really about "collecting data" to support or refute explanatory theories. Rather, the thinking that's involved in philosophical research (as part of one's preparation for philosophical writing) is more a matter of reflecting critically upon the problems in front of one. Researching the writings of other philosophers should, therefore, be primarily directed towards helping you with that reflection rather than aiming at gathering together and reporting on "the relevant findings" on a particular topic. In many other disciplines, a "literature review" is an important research skill, and sometimes philosophy academics do such reviews - but it is rare that philosophy students are asked to do one.

What, then, to read? It should be clear from your lectures and tutorials what some starting points for your reading might be. (All courses provide reading guides; many also have booklets of reading material.) Your tutor and lecturer are also available for consultation on what readings you might begin with for any particular topic in that subject. Independent research can also uncover useful sources, and evidence of this in your essay can be a pleasing sign of intellectual independence. Make sure, though, that what you come up with is relevant to the topic. (See Section 5.2 below on relevance.) Whichever way you proceed, your reading should be purposive and selective.

In the case of essay questions that refer to a particular text, you should familiarise yourself thoroughly with this text. Usually, such a text will be a primary text, i.e. one in which a philosopher writes directly about a philosophical issue. Texts on or about a primary text are called secondary texts. (Many philosophical works will combine these two tasks, and discuss other philosophical texts while also dealing directly with a philosophical issue.) Some secondary texts can be helpful to students. However, don't think you will only ever understand a primary text if you have a nice friendly secondary text to take you by the hand through the primary text. More often than not, you need to have a good grasp of the primary text in order to make sense of the secondary text.

How much to read? The amount of reading you do should be that which maximises the quality of your thinking - that is, you should not swamp yourself with vast slabs of text that you can't digest, but nor should you starve your mind of ideas to chew over. There is, of course, no simple rule for determining this optimal amount. Be wary, though, of falling into the vice of looking for excuses not to read some philosopher or text, as in "Oh, that's boring old religious stuff" or "She's one of those obscure literary feminist types", or "In X Department they laugh at you if you mention those authors in tutes". If someone wants a reason not to think, they'll soon come up with one.

Philosophical writings

Most philosophical writings come in either of two forms: books or articles. Articles appear either in books that are edited anthologies or in academic journals, such as Philosophical Quarterly or Australasian Journal of Philosophy. Some academic journals are also on the internet. Most articles in the journals are written by professional philosophers for professional philosophers; similarly with many books. But by no means let this put you off. Everyone begins philosophy at the deep end - it's really the only kind there is!

There are, however, many books written for student audiences. Some of these are general introductions to philosophy as a whole; others are introductions to particular areas or issues (eg biomedical ethics or philosophy of science). Among the general introductions are various philosophical dictionaries, encyclopedias and "companions". These reference works collect short articles on a wide range of topics and can be very useful starting points for newcomers to a topic. Among the most useful of the general reference works are:

• Edward Craig, ed., The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (10 vols.) (London: Routledge, 1998)
• Paul Edwards, ed., The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (8 vols.) (New York: Macmillan, 1967)
• Robert Audi, ed., The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)
• Ted Honderich, ed., The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995)
• Simon Blackburn, The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996)
• Thomas Mautner, ed., The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy (London: Penguin, 1998)
• J.O. Urmson and Jonathan Ree, eds., The Concise Encyclopedia of Western Philosophy and Philosophers (London: Routledge, 1993)
• Edward N. Zalta, ed., The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (an internet-based reference work: plato.stanford.edu/ )

Note taking

Note taking, like your reading, should not be random, but ought to be guided by the topic in question and by your particular lines of response to the issues involved. Note taking for philosophy is very much an individual art, which you develop as you progress. By and large it is not of much use to copy out reams of text as part of your researches. Nor is it generally helpful to read a great number of pages without making any note of what they contain for future reference. But between these two extremes it is up to you to find the mean that best helps you in getting your thoughts together.

Libraries and electronic resources

The University's Baillieu Library (including the Institute of Education Resource Centre), which is open to all members of the University, contains more than 2,500 years' worth of philosophical writings. The best way to become acquainted with them is by using them, including using the catalogues (including the Baillieu's on-line catalogues and subject resources web-pages), following up a work's references (and references in the references), intelligent browsing of the shelves, etc.

In the main Baillieu Library, the philosophical books are located (mostly) between 100–199 in the Dewey decimal system, and philosophical journals are located in the basement. The Reference section on the ground floor also has some relevant works. The Education Resource Centre also has a good philosophy collection.

In addition to hard-copy philosophical writings, there is also a variety of electronic resources in philosophy, mostly internet-based. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy was already mentioned above. Links to other useful internet sites (such as the Australasian Association of Philosophy website) can be found through the Baillieu Library's web-page and the Philosophy Department's web-page.

A strong word of warning, however, for the would-be philosophical web-surfer: because anyone can put material on a website, all kinds of stuff, of varying levels of quality, is out there - and new-comers to philosophy are usually not well placed to sort their way through it. Unless you have a very good understanding of what you're looking for - and what you're not looking for - most of you will be much better off simply carefully reading and thinking about a central text for your course, eg Descartes' First Meditation, rather than wandering about the internet clicking on all the hits for "Descartes". Exercise your mind, not your index finger.

Writing your essay

Planning and structuring your essay.

It is very important that you plan your essay, so that you have an idea of what you are going to write before you start to write it. Of course, you will most likely alter things in later drafts, but you should still start off by having a plan. Planning your essay includes laying out a structure. It is very important that your essay has a clearly discernible structure, ie that it is composed of parts and that these parts are logically connected. This helps both you and your reader to be clear about how your discussion develops, stage by stage, as you work through the issues at hand.

Poor essay structure is one of the most common weaknesses in student philosophy essays. Taking the time to work on the structure of your essay is time well spent, especially since skill in structuring your thoughts for presentation to others should be among the more enduring things you learn at university. A common trap that students fall into is to start their essay by writing the first sentence, then writing another one that seems to follow that one, then another one that sort of fits after that one, then another that might or might not have some connection with the previous one, and so on until the requisite 1,500 words are used up. The result is usually a weak, rambling essay.

There are, of course, no hard and fast rules about how to structure a philosophy essay. Again, it is a skill you develop through practice, and much will depend on the particular topic at hand. Nonetheless, it might be helpful to begin by developing an essay structure around the basic distinction between your exposition and your critical discussion (as discussed above). In this it will be important that you make clear who is putting forward which point, that is, make it clear whether you are presenting your own thoughts or are expounding someone else's. (Again, confusion in this regard is a common problem in student essays.) It can often help your structuring if you provide headings for different sections (possibly numbered or lettered). Again, this helps both your reader to follow your discussion and you to develop your thoughts. At each stage, show clearly the logical relations between and the reasons for your points, so that your reader can see clearly why you say what you say and can see clearly the development in your discussion.

Another key to structuring your essay can be found in the old adage "Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em. Tell 'em. Then tell 'em what you've told 'em", which provides you with a ready-made structure: Introduction, Main Body, and Conclusion.

In your Introduction, first introduce the issues the essay is concerned with. In doing so, try to state briefly just what the problem is and (if there is space) why it is a problem. This also applies, of course, to issues covered in text-focused essay topics. Next, tell the reader what it is that you are going to do about those problems in the Main Body. This is usually done by giving a brief sketch or overview of the main points you will present, a "pre-capitulation", so to speak, of your essay's structure. This is one way of showing your reader that you have a grasp (indeed, it helps you get a grasp) of your essay as a structured and integrated whole, and gives them some idea of what to expect by giving them an idea of how you have decided to answer the question. Of course, for reasons of space, your Introduction might not be very long, but something along these lines is likely to be useful.

In your Main Body, do what you've said you'll do. Here is where you should present your exposition(s) and your critical discussion(s). Thus, it is here that the main philosophical substance of your essay is to be found. Of course, what that substance is and how you will present it will depend on the particular topic before you. But, whatever the topic, make clear at each stage just what it is you are doing. You can be quite explicit about this. (eg "I shall now present Descartes' ontological argument for the existence of God, as it is presented in his Fifth Meditation. There will be three stages to this presentation.") Don't think that such explicitness must be a sign of an unsophisticated thinker.

A distinct Conclusion is perhaps not always necessary, if your Main Body has clearly "played out" your argument. So you don't always have to present a grand summation or definitive judgement at the end. Still, often for your own sake, try to state to yourself what it is your essay has achieved and see if it would be appropriate to say so explicitly. Don't feel that you must come up with earth-shattering conclusions. Of course, utter banality or triviality are not good goals, either. Also, your essay doesn't always have to conclude with a "solution" to a problem. Sometimes, simply clarifying an issue or problem is a worthy achievement and can merit first-class honours. A good conclusion to a philosophy essay, then, will usually combine a realistic assessment of the ambit and cogency of its claims with a plausible proposal that those claims have some philosophical substance.

What you write in your essay should always be relevant to the question posed. This is another common problem in student essays, so continually ask yourself "Am I addressing the question here?" First-class answers to a question can vary greatly, but you must make sure that your essay responds to the question asked, even if you go on to argue that the question as posed is itself problematic. (eg "To ask ‘What is scientific method?' presupposes that science follows one basic method. However, I shall argue that there are, in fact, several different scientific methods and that these are neither unified nor consistent.") Be wary, however, of twisting a topic too far out of shape in order to fit your favoured theme. (You would be ill-advised, for example, to proceed thus: "What is scientific method? This is a question asked by many great minds. But what is a mind? In this essay, I shall discuss the views of Thomas Aquinas on the nature of mind.")

This requirement of relevance is not intended as an authoritarian constraint on your intellectual freedom. It is part of the skill of paying sustained and focused attention to something put before you - which is one of the most important skills you can develop at university. If you do have other philosophical interests that you want to pursue (such as Aquinas on mind), then please do pursue them, in addition to writing your essay on the set topic. At no stage does the requirement of relevance prevent you from pursuing your other interests.

Citing Philosophical "Authorities"

There might be occasions when you want to quote other philosophers and writers apart from when you are quoting them because they are the subject of your essay. There are two basic reasons why you might want to do this. First, you might quote someone because their words constitute a good or exemplary expression or articulation of an idea you are dealing with, whether as its proponent, critic, or simply its chronicler. (eg "As Nietzsche succinctly put the point, 'There are no moral phenomena at all, only a moral interpretation of phenomena'.*") You may or may not want to endorse the idea whose good expression you have quoted, but simply want to use the philosopher as a spokesperson for or example of that view. But be clear about what you think the quote means and be careful about what you are doing with the quote. It won't do all the work for you.

The second reason you might want to quote a philosopher is because you think their words constitute an "authoritative statement" of a view. Here you want to use the fact that, eg Bertrand Russell maintained that there are two kinds of knowledge of things (namely, knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description) in support of your claim that there are two such kinds of knowledge of things. However, be very careful in doing this, for the nature of philosophical authority is not so simple here. That is to say, what really matters is not that Bertrand Russell the man held that view; what matters are his reasons for holding that view. So, when quoting philosophers for this second reason, be careful that you appreciate in what exactly the authority lies - which means that you should show that you appreciate why Russell maintained that thesis. Of course, you can't provide long arguments for every claim you make or want to make use of; every essay will have its enabling but unargued assumptions. But at least be clear about these. (eg "For the purposes of this essay, I shall adopt Russell's thesis* that ...").

* Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, trans. R.J. Hollingdale (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973 [first German ed.1886]), Sec. 108.

* See Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967 [first pub. 1912]), Ch. 5.

Philosophy is by its nature a relatively abstract and generalising business. (Note that abstractness and generality are not the same thing. Nor do vagueness and obscurity automatically attend them.) Sometimes a longish series of general ideas and abstract reasonings can become difficult for the reader (and often the writer) to follow. It can often help, therefore, to use some concrete or specific examples in your discussion. (Note that there can be different levels of concreteness and specificity in examples.)

Examples can be taken from history, current events, literature, and so on, or can be entirely your own invention. Exactly what examples you employ and just how and why you use them will, of course, depend on the case. Some uses might be: illustration of a position, problem or idea to help make it clearer; evidence for, perhaps even proof of, a proposition; a counter-example; a case-study to be returned to at various points during the essay; or a problem for a theory or viewpoint to be applied to. Again, be clear about what the example is and how and why you use it. Be careful not to get distracted by, or bogged down in, your examples. Brevity is usually best.

English expression

There's another old saying: "If you can't say what you mean, then you can't mean what you say" - and this very much applies to philosophical writing. Thus, in writing philosophically, you must write clearly and precisely. This means that good philosophical writing requires a good grasp of the language in which it is written, including its grammar and vocabulary. (See Section 9.3 for advice for people from non-English speaking backgrounds.) A high standard of writing skills is to be expected of Arts graduates. Indeed, this sort of skill will last longer than your memory of, for example, the three parts of the Platonic soul (though it is also hoped that some of the content of what you study will also stick). So use your time at university (in all your subjects) to develop these skills further.

Having a mastery of a good range of terms, being sensitive to the subtleties of their meaning, and being able to construct grammatically correct and properly punctuated sentences are essential to the clear articulation and development of your thoughts. Think of grammar, not as some old-fashioned set of rules of linguistic etiquette, but rather as the "internal logic" of a sentence, that is, as the relationships between the words within a sentence which enable them to combine to make sense.

Virtually all sentences in philosophical writing are declarative (ie. make statements), as opposed to interrogative, imperative or exclamatory types of sentences. There is some place, though, for interrogative sentences, ie. questions. (Note that, in contrast, this guide, which is not in the essay genre, contains many imperative sentences, ie. commands.) As you craft each (declarative) sentence in your essay, remember the basics of sentence construction. Make clear what the sentence is about (its subject) and what you are saying about it (the predicate). Make clear what the principal verb is in the predicate, since it is what usually does the main work in saying something about the subject. Where a sentence consists of more than one clause (as many do in philosophical writing), make clear what work each clause is doing. Attend closely, then, to each and every sentence you write so that its sense is clear and is the sense you intend it to have. Think carefully about what it is you want each particular sentence to do (in relation to both those sentences immediately surrounding it and the essay as a whole) and structure your sentence so that it does what you want it to do. To help you with your own sentence construction skills, when reading others' philosophical works (or indeed any writing) attend closely to the construction of each sentence so as to be alive to all the subtleties of the text.

Good punctuation is an essential part of sentence construction. Its role is to help to display the grammar of a sentence so that its meaning is clear. As an example of how punctuation can fundamentally change the grammar and, hence, meaning of a sentence, compare (i) "Philosophers, who argue for the identity of mind and brain, often fail to appreciate the radical consequences of that thesis." and (ii) "Philosophers who argue for the identity of mind and brain often fail to appreciate the radical consequences of that thesis." In the first sentence it is asserted (falsely, as it happens) that all philosophers argue for the identity of mind and brain; in the second, only some philosophers are said to argue for the identity of mind and brain. Only the punctuation differs in the two strings of identical words, and yet the meanings of the sentences are very different. Confusions over this sort of thing are common weaknesses in student essays, and leave readers asking themselves "What exactly is this student trying to say?"

It will be assumed that you can spell - which is not a matter of pressing the "spell-check" key on a word-processor. A good dictionary and a good thesaurus should always be within reach as you write your essay.

Also, try to shorten and simplify sentences where you can do so without sacrificing the subtlety and inherent complexity of the discussion. Where a sentence is becoming too long or complex, it is likely that too many ideas are being bundled up together too closely. Stop and separate your ideas out. If an idea is a good or important one, it will usually deserve its own sentence.

Your "intra-sentential logic" should work very closely with the "inter-sentential logic" of your essay, ie. with the logical relations between your sentences. (This "inter-sentential logic" is what "logic" is usually taken to refer to.) For example, to enable sentences P and Q to work together to yield sentence R as a conclusion, you need to make clear that there are elements within P and Q which connect up to yield R. Consider the following example: "Infanticide is the intentional killing of a human being. However, murder is regarded by all cultures as morally abhorrent. Therefore, people who commit infanticide should be punished." This doesn't work as an argument, because the writer has not constructed sentences which provide the connecting concepts in the various subjects and predicates, even though each sentence is grammatically correct (and possibly even true).

If you are concerned to write not only clearly and precisely, but also with some degree of grace and style (and I hope you are), it's still best to get the clarity and precision right first, in a plain, straightforward way, and then to polish things up afterwards to get the style and grace you want. But don't sacrifice clarity and precision for the sake of style and grace - be prepared to sacrifice that beautiful turn of phrase if its presence is going to send your discussion down an awkward path of reasoning. Aim to hit the nail on the head rather than make a loud bang. What you are likely to find, however, is that a philosophy essay which really is clear and precise will have a large measure of grace and style in its very clarity and precision.

Remember that obscurity is not a sign of profundity. (Some profound thought may well be difficult to follow, but that doesn't mean that one can achieve profundity merely through producing obscure, difficult-to-read writing.) Your marker is interested in what's actually in your essay, not what's possibly inside your head (or indeed what's possibly in some book you happen to have referred to in your essay). So avoid hinting at or alluding suggestively to ideas, especially where they are meant to do some important work in your essay. Instead, lay them out explicitly and directly. Of course, you won't have space to spell out every single idea, so work out which ideas do the most important work and make sure that you at least get those ideas clearly articulated. In expounding a text or problem that ultimately just is vague, muddled, or obscure, try to convey such vagueness, muddle or obscurity clearly, rather than simply reproducing it in your own writing. That is, be clear that and how a text or problem has such features, and then perhaps do your best to make matters clearer.

Despite these stern pronouncements, don't be afraid of sometimes saying things which happen to sound a little odd, if you have tried various formulations and think you have now expressed your ideas just as they should be expressed. Philosophy is often an exploratory business, and new ways of seeing and saying things can sometimes be a part of that exploration.

The need for clarity and precision in philosophical writing sometimes means that you need to stipulate your own meaning for a term. When you want to use a particular word in a particular way for the purposes of your essay - as a "technical term" - be clear about it. (eg "In this essay, I shall intend ‘egoism' to mean ...") Also, be consistent in your technical meanings, or else note when you are not. Be wary, though, of inventing too many neologisms or being too idiosyncratic in your stipulations.

With regard to what "authorial pronoun" to adopt in a philosophy essay, it's standard to write plainly in the first person singular ("I", "me", "my", etc.) rather than use the royal "we" (as in "we shall argue that ..."), or the convoluted quasi-legal indirect form ("It is submitted that ..."), or the scientific objectivity of a physics experimental report. Nonetheless, stick closer to "I argue", "I suggest", "my definition", etc., than to "I wish", "I hate", "my feeling", etc. A philosophy essay is still something more intellectual and formal than a personal reminiscence, polemic, or proclamation. In terms of audience, it's probably best to think of your reader as someone who is intelligent, open to discussion and knows a little about the topic you're writing on, but perhaps is not quite clear or decided about the issues, or needs convincing of the view you want to put forward, or is curious about what you think about the issues.

Try also to use non-discriminatory language, ie. language which does not express or imply inequality of worth between people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and so on. As you write, you will be considering carefully your choice of words to express your thoughts. You will almost always find that it is possible to avoid discriminatory language by rephrasing your sentences.

Other things to avoid:

• waffle and padding
• vagueness and ambiguity
• abbreviations (this guide I'm writing isn't an eg. of what's req'd. in a phil. essay)
• colloquialisms (which can really get up your reader's nose)
• writing whose syntax merely reflects the patterns of informal speech
• unnecessary abstractness or indirectness
• unexplained jargon
• flattery and invective
• overly-rhetorical questions (do you really need me to tell you what they are?) and other flourishes

There are many guides to good writing available. Anyone who writes (whether in the humanities or the sciences, whether beginners or experienced professionals) will do well to have some on hand. Most good bookshops and libraries will have some. Among the most consulted works are (check for the latest editions):

• J. M. Williams and G. C. Colomb, Style: Toward Clarity and Grace (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995)
• W. Strunk and E. B. White, The Elements of Style, 4th ed. (New York: Longman, 2000)
• E. Gowers, The Complete Plain Words, 3rd ed. (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1987)
• R. W. Burchfield, ed., The New Fowler's Modern English Usage (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996)
• Pam Peters, The Cambridge Australian English Style Guide (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1995)
• Australian Government Publishing Service, Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers, 5th ed. (Canberra: AGPS, 1995)

Vocabulary of logical argument

Closely related to the above points about English expression is the importance of having a good grasp of what can rather generally be called "the vocabulary of logical argument". These sorts of terms are crucial in articulating clearly and cogently a logical line of argument. Such argumentation will, of course, be of central importance in whatever discipline you are studying, indeed in any sphere of life that requires effective thinking and communication. I have in mind terms such as these (grouped a little loosely):

all, any, every, most, some, none, a, an, the that, this, it, he, she, they if . . . , then. . . ; if and only if . . . , then . . . ; unless either . . . or . . .; neither . . . nor . . . not, is, are therefore, thus, hence, so, because, since, follows, entails, implies, infer, consequence, conditional upon moreover, furthermore which, that, whose and, but, however, despite, notwithstanding, nevertheless, even, though, still possibly, necessarily, can, must, may, might, ought, should true, false, probable, certain sound, unsound, valid, invalid, fallacious, supported, proved, contradicted, rebutted, refuted, negated logical, illogical, reasonable, unreasonable, rational, irrational assumption, premise, belief, claim, proposition argument, reason, reasoning, evidence, proof

Most of these are quite simple terms, but they are crucial in argumentative or discursive writing of all kinds. (Many are themselves the subject of study in logic, a branch of philosophy). The sloppy use of these sorts of terms is another common weakness in students' philosophy essays. Pay close and careful attention to how you employ them. Moreover, pay close and careful attention to how the authors you read use them. For further discussion of some of these terms and others, see:

• Basic Philosophical Vocabulary, prepared by the staff of the Philosophy Department and available from the programs Office
• Wesley C. Salmon, Logic, 2nd ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1973)
• Antony Flew, Thinking About Thinking (London: Fontana, 1985)
• Graham Priest, Logic: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)
• Joel Rudinow and Vincent E. Barry, Invitation to Critical Thinking, 4th ed. (Fort Worth, Texas: Harcourt Brace, 1999)

Revising your essay

It is virtually essential that you write a first draft of your essay and then work on that draft to work towards your finished essay. Indeed, several drafts may well be necessary in order to produce your best possible work. It is a rare philosopher indeed who can get things perfectly right on the first attempt, so be prepared to revise and re-develop what you write. Don't be too precious about what you have written, if it appears that it should be sacrificed in the revision process. There is usually a very marked difference between essays which are basically first draft rush-jobs done the night before they are due and those which have been revised and polished. Give yourself time to revise by starting writing early on. For most philosophy students, the greater part of the work in essay writing is in the writing, not in the preliminary researches and planning stages. So be wary of thinking "I've done all the research. I only need to write up my notes, which I can do the night before the essay's due". This is likely to lead to a weak, perhaps non-existent, essay (and very likely a sleepless night).

Stick to the word limit given for your essay. Why are word limits imposed? First, to give the markers a fair basis for comparing student essays. Second, to give you the opportunity to practise the discipline of working creatively under constraints. Skill in this discipline will stand you in very good stead in any sphere where circumstances impose limitations. Again, word limits are not constraints on your intellectual freedom. Outside your essay you are free to write without limit. But even there you'll probably find that your creativity is improved by working under a self-imposed discipline.

As a general rule, most student essays that fall well short of the word limit are weak or lazy attempts at the task, and most essays that go well over the limit are not much stronger or the result of much harder work - the extra length is often due to unstructured waffle or padding which the writer hasn't thought enough about so as to edit judiciously. If you structure your essay clearly, you'll find it easier to revise and edit, whether in order to contract or expand it. ("Hmm, let's see: section 2 is much longer than section 4, but is not as important, so I'll cut it down. And I should expand section 3, because that's a crucial step. And I can shift that third paragraph in the Introduction to the Conclusion.")

Plagiarism and originality

Plagiarism is essentially a form of academic dishonesty or cheating. At university level, such dishonesty is not tolerated and is dealt with severely, usually by awarding zero marks for a plagiarised essay or, in some cases, dismissing a student from the university.

When you submit your essay, you are implicitly stating that the essay is your own original and independent work, that you have not submitted the same work for assessment in another subject, and that where you have made use of other people's work, this is properly acknowledged. If you know that this is not in fact the case, you are being dishonest. (In a number of university departments, students are in fact required to sign declarations of academic honesty.)

Plagiarism is the knowing but unacknowledged use of work by someone else (including work by another student, and indeed oneself - see below) and which is being presented as one's own work. It can take a number of forms, including:

• copying : exactly reproducing another's words
• paraphrasing : expressing the meaning of another's words in different words
• summarising : reproducing the main points of another's argument
• cobbling : copying, paraphrasing or summarising the work of a number of different people and piecing them together to produce one body of text
• submitting one's own work when it has already been submitted for assessment in another subject
• collusion : presenting an essay as your own independent work when in fact it has been produced, in whole or part, in collusion with one or more other people

None of the practices of copying, paraphrasing, summarizing or cobbling is wrong in itself, but when one or more is done without proper acknowledgment it constitutes plagiarism. Therefore, all sources must be adequately and accurately acknowledged in footnotes or endnotes. (See Section 7.) Plagiarism from the internet in particular can be a temptation for a certain kind of student. However, be warned: there is a number of very good internet and software tools for identifying plagiarism.

With regard to collusion, it's undoubtedly often very helpful to discuss one's work with others, be it other students, family members, friends or teachers. Indeed, philosophy thrives on dialogue. However, don't kid yourself that you would simply be extending that process if you were to ask your interlocutor to join with you in the writing of your essay, whether by asking them to tell you what you should write or to write down some of their thoughts for you to reproduce in your essay. At the end of the day, you must be the one to decide what goes into your essay.

Originality

Students sometimes worry about whether they will be able to develop "original ideas", especially in light of the fact that nearly every philosophical idea one comes up with seems to have been thought of before by someone else. There is no denying that truly original work in philosophy is well rewarded, but your first aim should be to develop ideas that you think are good and not merely different. If, after arguing for what you believe is right, and arguing in way that you think is good, you then discover that someone else has had the same idea, don't throw your work away - you should feel vindicated to some extent that your thinking has been congruent with that of another (possibly great) philosopher. (If you have not yet handed your essay in when you make this discovery, make an appropriately placed note to that effect.) Don't be fooled, however, into thinking that plagiarism can be easily passed off as congruent thinking. Of course, if that other philosopher's ideas have helped you to develop your ideas, then this is not a matter of congruent ideas but rather of derivative ideas, and this must be adequately acknowledged. If, after developing your ideas, you discover that they are original, then that is an added bonus. But remember that it is more important to be a good philosopher than an original one.

Quotations, footnotes, endnotes and bibliography

Quotations in your essay should be kept to a minimum. The markers know the central texts pretty well already and so don't need to have pages thereof repeated in front of them. Of course, some quotation will usually be important and useful - sometimes essential - in both exposition and critical discussion.

When you quote the words of someone else directly, you must make the quotation clearly distinct from your own text, using quotation marks . (eg "Descartes said that 'it is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once.'* He makes this claim …" - where the words quoted from Descartes are in 'single quotation marks'. Note that it is relatively arbitrary whether one uses 'single' or "double" quotation marks for "first order" quotations, but whichever style you adopt, use it consistently in the one essay.) Alternatively, where the quoted passage is greater than three lines, put the quoted words in a separate indented paragraph , so that your essay would look like this:

In his First Meditation , Descartes argues as follows:

Whatever I have up till now accepted as most true I have acquired either from the senses or through the senses. But from time to time I have found that the senses deceive, and it is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once.* In this essay I shall argue that prudence does not in fact require us to distrust our senses and that Descartes's sceptical method is therefore seriously flawed.

In both cases, the quotations must be given proper referencingin a footnote or endnote.

When you are not quoting another person directly, but are still making use of their work - as in indirect quotations (eg "Descartes says that it is wise not to trust something that has deceived us before"*), paraphrases, summaries, and cobblings - you must still acknowledge your debts, using footnotes or endnotes.

* Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy , trans. John Cottingham (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986 [first French ed., 1641]), p. 12.

Footnotes and endnotes

Footnotes appear at the foot of the same page on which the cited material appears, clearly separated from the main body of the text, each one clearly numbered. Endnotes appear at the end of the essay, again clearly separated from the main body of text, numbered and headed "Endnotes" or "Notes". Either method is acceptable, but you should choose one and stick with it throughout the one essay.

Below are some examples of how to put the relevant referencing information in footnotes and endnotes. This is not intended as an exercise in pedantry, but as a guide to how to provide the information needed for adequate referencing. The reason we provide this information is to enable our readers to find the sources we use in order to verify them and to allow them to pursue the material further if it interests them. In your own researches you will come to value good referencing in the texts you read as a helpful source of further references on a topic. Again, it is this sort of research skill that an Arts graduate will be expected to have mastered.

There are various conventions for writing up footnotes and endnotes. The Philosophy Department does not require that any particular convention be followed, only that you be consistent in your use of the convention that you do choose. For other conventions see the style guides mentioned above, or simply go to some texts published by reputable publishers and see what formats they employ.

Imagine, then, that the following are endnotes at the end of your essay. I will explain them below.

• James Rachels, The Elements of Moral Philosophy , 2nd ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993), p. 25.
• Philippa Foot, "Moral Relativism", in Michael Krausz and Jack W. Meiland, eds., Relativism: Cognitive and Moral (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 155.
• Ibid., p. 160.
• Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, trans. H. J. Paton (New York: Harper and Row, 1964 [first German ed., 1785]), p. 63.
• Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, (London: Dent, 1973 [first pub. 1651]),p. 65.
• Rachels, The Elements, p. 51.
• Peter Winch, "The Universalizability of Moral Judgements", The Monist 49 (1965), p. 212.
• Antony Duff, "Legal Punishment", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2001 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2001/entries/legal-punishment/ at 15 June 2003, sec. 6.

Notes explained

• This is your first reference to a book called The Elements of Moral Philosophy. The title is given in full and in italics. If you are unable to use italics, then you should underline the title. The book's author is James Rachels. It's the 2nd edition of that book, which was published in New York, by the publishers McGraw-Hill, in 1993. The page you have referred to in your main text is page 25
• This is your first reference to Philippa Foot's article, "Moral Relativism", the title of which is put in "quotation marks". This article appeared in a book (title in italics) which is an anthology of different articles, and which was edited by Krausz and Meiland (names in full). The rest is in the same style as note (1)
• "Ibid." is short for "ibidem", which means "in the same place" in Latin. Use it on its own when you want to refer to exactly the same work and page number as in the immediately preceding note. So here the reference is again to Foot's article at page 155
• Ditto, except this time you refer to a different page in Foot's article, namely page 160
• This is reference to a book by Kant. Same book details as per note (1), except that, because this is a translation, you include the translator's name, and the date of the first edition in the original language
• This is a book reference again, so it's the same as note (1), except that, because it's an old book, you include the date of the original edition. (How old does a book have to be before it merits this treatment? There is no settled view. Note, though, that this convention is not usually followed for ancient authors)
• Here you are referring to Rachels' book again, but, because you are not in the very next note after a reference to it, you can't use "ibid.". Simply give the author's surname and a short title of the book, plus page reference. There is also a common alternative to this, whereby you give the surname, and write "op. cit." (which is short for "opere citato", which is Latin for "in the work already cited") and page reference (eg "Rachels, op. cit., p. 51.") Your reader then has to scan back over the notes to see what that "op." was exactly. The first option (author plus short title) is usually easier on the reader
• This is a reference to an article by Peter Winch in a journal called The Monist. The article's title is in "quotes", the journal title is in italics. The volume of the journal is 49, the year of publication is 1965, the page referred to is p. 212
• This is a reference to an article in the internet-based Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The article is titled "Legal Punishment" and was written by Antony Duff. The Encyclopedia was edited by Edward N. Zalta. Note that I have basically followed the mode of citation that the Encyclopedia itself recommends. (This is one sign of the site being a reputable one. Where a site makes such a recommendation, it's best to follow it.) I have, however, also added the date on which the article was retrieved from the site, and put the author's given name first, to be consistent with the other footnotes. I have also added the reference to section 6, in an effort to be more precise as to where in the article the material I used came from. Since web pages aren't numbered in the manner of hard copy works, it will help if you are able to refer to some other feature, such as paragraphs or sections, so as to pin-point your reference. In the absence of a site recommending a mode of citation to its own material, the basic information needed for adequate citation of internet-based material is (where identifiable) the author, the document title, the year the document was created, the website name, the uniform resource locator (URL) in <arrow-brackets>, date of retrieval, and a pin-point reference*

* I am here following the mode of citation of internet materials recommended in Melbourne University Law Review Association Inc, Australian Guide to Legal Citation , 2nd ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Law Review Association Inc, 2002), pp. 70-73. I have, though, added the desirability of a pin-point reference.

Bibliography

At the end of your essay (after your endnotes, if used) you should list in a bibliography all of the works referred to in your notes, as well as any other works you consulted in researching and writing your essay. The list should be in alphabetical order, going by authors' surnames. The format should be the same as for your notes, except that you drop the page references and should put surnames first. So the bibliography of our mock-essay above would look like this:

• Duff, Antony, "Legal Punishment", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2001 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2001/entries/legal-punishment/ at 15 June 2003
• Foot, Philippa, "Moral Relativism", in Michael Krausz and Jack Meiland, eds., Relativism: Cognitive and Moral (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982)
• Hobbes, Thomas, Leviathan (London: Dent, 1973 [first pub.1651])
• Kant, Immanuel, Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals , trans. H.J. Paton (New York: Harper and Row, 1964 [first German ed. 1785])
• Rachels, James, The Elements of Moral Philosophy , 2nd ed., (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993)
• Winch, Peter, "The Universalizability of Moral Judgements", The Monist 49 (1965)

Presentation of essays and seeking advice

Generally, you should present an essay that is legible (hand-writing is OK, but typed or word-processed essays are preferable), in English, on one side of pieces of paper that are somewhere in the vicinity of A4 size and are fixed together . You should attach a completed Cover Sheet provided by the Philosophy program. Plastic document covers, spiral binding and other forms of presentational paraphernalia are not necessary (nor are they usually even desirable, as they mostly just get in the marker's way).

Late essays

Late essays are penalised . (For details of penalties consult the Philosophy program's notice board.)

Essays not handed in

Essays not handed in at all get zero marks. An essay that is handed in but gets a mark below 50 (and so is technically a "failed" essay) still gets some marks. (At least, it will so long as it's not so extremely late that the deducted marks wipe out all the marks it would have received if handed in on time.) All marks received for your essay (whether pass or fail) go toward your final score in the subject. Therefore, even if you think your essay is bound to fail (but please let your marker be the judge of that), or the due date has already passed, or both, it is still in your interests to hand your essay in .

Tutors and lecturers

Philosophy staff are not there just to be listened to by you; they are also there to listen to you. So don't hesitate to contact your tutor or lecturer to discuss questions or problems you have concerning your work.

If you have a legitimate excuse, you may be granted an extension on the due date for your essay by the lecturer in charge. Similarly, special consideration may also be granted when illness or other circumstances adversely affect your work. Applications for special consideration are made online via the Special Consideration web page.

Student counselling

Some personal or non-philosophical academic difficulties you might have you might want to discuss with someone other than your tutor or lecturer. Student Counselling and Psychological Services are there for you to discuss all sorts of problems you might encounter. Please consult your student diary for details on the counselling service.

English language assistance

As noted above, good philosophical writing requires a good grasp of the language in which it is written. If you are from a non-English speaking background and are having difficulties with your English expression in an academic context, you might like to make use of the services provided by Student Services Academic Skills . Many native English speakers, too, can benefit from short "refresher" courses and workshops run by the Centre. Please consult your student diary for details about this service.

A bit on Philosophy exams

Essays of the sort discussed so far in this guide are not the only form of assessment in the Philosophy program - examinations are also set. What is to be said about them?

First, not much that is different from what's been said above about philosophy essays. This is because what you write in a philosophy exam is none other than a philosophy essay . Have a look at past philosophy exam papers, in the Gibson and Baillieu libraries, to get a feel for them. The only basic difference between essays and exams is the matter of what constraints you're working under. Essays have word limits; exams have time limits . Again, stick to them. (Actually, you'll be made to stick to them by the exam invigilators.)

It's best, then, to think about how long to spend writing on an exam essay topic, rather than about how many words to write on it. Simple arithmetic will tell you how much time to spend on each exam question. (eg if you have a 2-hour exam and have to answer 3 questions, each worth one-third of the exam mark, then spend 40 minutes on each question.) Avoid the trap of "borrowing time" from a later question in order to perfect your answer to an earlier question, and then working faster on the later questions to catch up on lost time - this is likely to get you in a tangle. There are no word limits in philosophy exam essays, but don't think that the more you scrawl across the page, the more marks you'll get. Nonetheless, use the time you've got so as to maximise your display of your philosophical understanding and skills in answering the question.

Planning and structuring remain very important in exam essays. With regard to the niceties of footnotes, endnotes and bibliographies, etc., these are not necessary, so don't waste time on these. However, if you quote or refer to a specific passage from a text, do indicate clearly that it is a quotation or reference. (The principle of being clear as to who is saying what remains central.) If you have the reference handy, just put it briefly in the text of your exam essay. (eg "As Descartes says in Meditation I (p. 12), . . ." or "'[I]t is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once' (Descartes, Meditation I, p. 12)".) Generally speaking, you will show your familiarity with any relevant texts by how you handle them in your discussion. This is also true for your non-exam essays.

Your preparation for the exam should have been done well before entering the exam hall. Note that various subjects have restrictions on what texts and other items can be brought into the exam hall. (Consult the Philosophy program's notice board for details.) Many subjects will have "closed book" exams. Even if an exam is "open book", if you are properly prepared, you should not need to spend much time at all consulting texts or notes during the exam itself.

You won't have time for redrafting and revising your exam essay (which makes planning and structuring your answers before you start writing all the more important). If you do want to delete something, just cross it out clearly. Don't waste time with liquid paper or erasers. Write legibly . Don't wr. "point form" sav. time. Diff. kn. mean. use incomp. sent.

Finally, read the instructions at the beginning of the exam paper. They are important. (eg it's not a good strategy to answer two questions from Part A, when the Instructions tell you to answer two questions, one from Part A and one from Part B.) Note the (somewhat quaint) University practice of starting Reading Time some time before the stated time for the exam. Philosophy exams usually have 15 minutes of reading time. (Check for each of your exams.) So, if your exam timetable says the exam is at 2.15 pm, with reading time of 15 minutes, then the reading time starts at 2.00 pm and the writing time starts at 2.15pm - so get to the exam hall well before 2.00 pm. Reading time is very important. Use it to decide which questions you'll answer and to start planning your answers.

Checklist of questions

• Do I understand the essay question ? Do I know when the essay is due ?
• Do I know which texts to consult? Do I know where to find them?
• Have I made useful notes from my reading of the relevant texts?
• Have I made a plan of how I'll approach the question in my essay?
• Have I given myself enough time to draft and redraft my essay?
• Have I written a clearly structured essay? Is it clear what each stageis doing? Do I do what I say I'll do in my Introduction?
• Have I clearly distinguished exposition and critical discussion ? Have I given a fair and accurate account of the author(s) in question?
• Is my response to the topic relevant ? Do I answer the question? Have I kept my essay within the general bounds of the topic?
• Have I displayed a good grasp of the vocabulary of logical argument ? Are my arguments logically valid and sound? Are my claims supported by reasons ? Am I consistent within my essay?
• Is my English expression clear and precise ? Are my grammar, punctuation and spelling correct? Have I said what I meant to say? Is my writing legible?
• Have I fully acknowledged all my sources in footnotes or endnotes? Are my quotations accurate? Have I included a bibliography ?
• Do I need to revise any part of my essay again?
• Have I made a copy or photocopy of my essay for myself?
• Have I kept the receipt for my handed-in essay?

Philosophy Essay Writing Service

Get Expert Help With Your Philosophy Papers!

Trusted by 30k+ Students

Choose Your Ideal Philosophy Essay Writer

Our skilled writers are prepared to tackle any academic writing challenge you give them. Get to know them better with their profiles:

Genevive Harrison

Competences:

Natalie Warren

Exceptional Benefits with Our Essay Service

100% Confidentiality & Security

We value your privacy and security. That’s why we use the latest encryption technologies to protect your personal and payment information.

24/7 Customer Support

We are always here to help you with any questions or issues you may have. You can contact us via phone, email, or live chat at any time of the day or night. 

Complimentary Turnitin Plagiarism Report

We guarantee that all our essays are 100% original and plagiarism-free. To prove it, we provide you with a free Turnitin plagiarism report along with your order. 

Balanced 50/50 Payments

We offer you a flexible and convenient payment system. You only pay 50% of the order price upfront and the rest after you receive and approve your essay.

On-Time Delivery

No matter how urgent or complex your order is, we can handle it. We have a team of expert writers who can work under pressure and meet any deadline.

Starting at Only $11/Page - Our Pricing Includes

Plagiarism Report

Bibliography Section

Unlimited Revisions

Get All These for

Recent Testimonials from Our Clients

Discover what our clients have to say about the custom philosophy essays crafted by our expert writers.

Exceeded My Expectations

It’s a Lifesaver

Covered All Points

Offering a Wide Range of Philosophy Essay Topics

Our writers will provide essays that apply the principles of dialectical reasoning and logic. They can analyze various philosophical systems, such as Hegel, Marx, or Adorno.

We can provide essays that examine the origins and consequences of dogmatic thinking in philosophy. We can include works of dogmatic philosophers, such as Descartes, Kant, or Fichte.

Eclecticism

Our essays can explore the benefits and challenges of combining different philosophical perspectives and traditions, such as Cicero, Montaigne, or Hume.

Metaphysics

Our writers can create well-written essays that discuss the fundamental questions and problems of metaphysical theories and arguments of philosophers, such as Aristotle, Leibniz, or Spinoza.

Hermeneutics

Our writers can help you with essays that analyze the hermeneutical methods and concepts of various philosophical texts and contexts, such as Plato, Gadamer, or Ricoeur.

We can provide essays that discuss the history and influence of sophistry and issues raised by the sophists and their critics, such as Protagoras, Gorgias, or Socrates.

We're available 24/7 for all your essay writing needs.

Order Your Philosophy Essay in 5 Simple Steps

Place Your Order

Secure Payment

Order Confirmation

Team Member Outreach

Access Your Work

With our transparent process, you'll stay informed at each stage.

Answering Common Queries

What if i need revisions to my essay.

We offer free revisions to ensure your satisfaction. If your essay requires adjustments, simply request revisions via your website account or contact our support team.

How can I be certain my essay will be unique and plagiarism-free?

Our team of qualified writers takes pride in their work and ensures that all the papers are written from scratch. We follow rigorous procedures to ensure that none of the papers have plagiarism in them. We also employ plagiarism detection tools like Turnitin to confirm the originality of every essay.

How quickly can you deliver my essay?

We can deliver your essay within a minimum of 6 hours if necessary. However, our average turnaround time is 2-5 days. Our writers excel at meeting tight deadlines while maintaining quality. We prioritize delivering your essay promptly.

Is your service available 24/7?

Yes, we are available 24/7 to accommodate your needs. You can place an order or contact our support team at any time, day or night.

How is the price calculated for my order?

Our prices start at $11/page, but the final cost of your essay depends on your academic level, deadline, and the number of pages required. You can use our price calculator to estimate the cost of your essay before placing your order.

What if I have specific sources or materials to include in my essay?

You can upload relevant sources or materials while placing your order. Our writers will incorporate them to enhance the quality and relevance of your philosophy essay.

Philosophy Essay Writing Service | Get Professional Help at MyPerfectWords.com!

Are you struggling with your philosophy essays? Do you need help with understanding complex philosophical concepts and arguments? Do you want to impress your professors with your critical thinking and writing skills?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you have come to the right place. 

MyPerfectWords.com offers the best philosophy paper writing service that can help you with all your assignments. 

Whether you need an essay, a term paper , a research paper , a dissertation , or any other academic paper, we can provide you with high-quality and original work that meets your requirements and deadlines.

Common Problems of Students About Philosophy Essay Writing

Philosophy essay writing is not easy. It requires a lot of skills, knowledge, and effort to produce a well-written and well-researched paper that demonstrates your understanding and analysis of the topic. Many students face various problems when writing philosophy essays, such as:

Lack of clarity:

Philosophy is a complex and abstract subject that deals with fundamental questions and concepts that are not easy to define or explain. Many students have trouble expressing their ideas clearly and coherently, using appropriate terminology and examples, and avoiding ambiguity and confusion.

Lack of structure:

Philosophy essays require a logical and coherent structure that follows the standard format of introduction, body, and conclusion. Many students have difficulty organizing their thoughts and arguments, creating a clear thesis statement, and developing a consistent and persuasive line of reasoning throughout the paper.

Lack of critical thinking:

Philosophy essays are not just about summarizing or describing what others have said, but about evaluating, analyzing, and criticizing their views and arguments. Many students have difficulty engaging critically with the sources, identifying their strengths and weaknesses, and presenting their perspectives and counterarguments.

Lack of research:

Philosophy essays require a thorough research of the relevant literature and sources, such as books, articles, journals, websites, etc. Many students have difficulty finding and selecting reliable and relevant sources, citing them properly, and avoiding plagiarism.

Lack of time management:

Philosophy essays are usually assigned with tight deadlines and high expectations. Many students have difficulty managing their time and workload, prioritizing their tasks, and completing their papers on time and with quality.

When you buy philosophy essays from us, you can let go of all the worries above!

Order Your Essay Today to Get a Perfect Paper!

Don't waste your time and energy on writing an essay that you are not confident about. Let us take care of your paper and provide you with a perfect essay. 

MyPerfectWords.com is the best essay writing service that you can trust and rely on. Contact us now and get ready to receive a flawless paper!

Start Your Journey to Excellence!

Essay Writing Help for Other Subjects

We want to ensure that you have someone reliable by your side, no matter which subject you are dealing with. This is why we offer:

History Essay Writing Service

Law Essay Writing Service

Sociology Essay Writing Service

Science Essay Writing Service

Business Essay Writing Service

Maths Homework Help

We are the philosophy essay writing service students count on

If you’re looking for a philosophy essay writer to impress professors without breaking the bank, we are your answered prayer.

Our professional philosophy essay writers are the secret to success

Check out the advantages of using our philosophy essay writing service

Get original papers free from plagiarism.

When you use our philosophy essay writing assistance, you pay someone and leverage their expertise. You will undoubtedly receive a paper that’s 100% original while satisfying your institution’s high academic requirements. Our writers research and craft authentic articles from scratch. And these outputs pass the most stringent plagiarism checking software. We provide you with originality reports at no added cost.

Quality content meeting high standards of excellence

Ask us for philosophy essay help to increase your grades and satisfy requirements. Our writing pool creates well-researched papers with excellent analysis and structure. We only provide high quality papers that satisfy high standards of academic excellence. You don’t have to pay us in full until you're completely satisfied. We’ll revise and edit until you're completely happy.

Stay anonymous and secure on our platform

Buy philosophy essay from our site with confidence. Most students worry that others will find out they ordered an assignment online. But our platform guarantees that your information is secure. We invested in a cutting-edge encryption system that keeps our clients and team anonymous. Personal and payment details are safe. We also don’t offer your info to third party marketers.

Get round-the-clock support and assistance

When you ask us to write my philosophy paper for me, you get not only expert writing assistance but unparalleled customer service. Our team is here to help you 24/7 because we know professors assign last minute work and students may also forget their homework. Get in touch with us anytime and get support no matter where you are.

Free features

How does your philosophy essay writing service work, provide our team with explicit instructions.

Complete our order form. Include topic, wordcount, and deadlines. Upload resource list, rubrics, and other guidelines. Specific instructions will help our writers make a good paper that satisfies your needs.

Stay hands-on and get writing updates

You can communicate with your philosophy paper writer directly at any time through our secure messaging system. If you have any comments or suggestions, don’t hesitate to provide feedback.

Download the final essay and transmit payment

Once your essay is done, read it and make editing/revision requests for up to 30 days. If you’re happy, transmit final payment, download the essay, and leave a review.

You can order various papers from Studyfy’s reputable team of experts

Check out client testimonial of our philosophy and psychology essay writing service.

I'm literally writing this review because I just had one of the best customer service experiences ever! Maria was so friendly and quickly helped me with the entire ordering process!

I was falling behind on some of my homework so I reached out to a writer who took on some of my work. I'm really happy I did because it was quality and affordable. I'd be happy to work with him the next time I'm running out of time.

I do not know what I would do without you guys! Your experts helped me, and I was able to graduate early this year. Thank you so much, it means the world to me!

My first contact was with customer service, who answered all of my questions and were able to help me find a writer for my tough chemistry paper. I got a really good feeling and was not disappointed by the final paper.

Me and a couple of my friends have worked with quite a few writers here. Whatever criteria is needed, they stick to it, and make sure that you get the paper you are expecting. It's fantastic!

I have a part-time job while attending university and sometimes there's just too much work to do. I've been using Studyfy for a year now and it's an absolute lifesaver when you need quick help.

Frequently asked questions

Will your philosophy writing assistance beat my deadline requirements, will i remain completely anonymous while using your website, what type of philosophy essay help does your team provide, is there a guarantee that my paper will be completely original, studyfy offers comprehensive help by covering all areas of philosophy.

Request our team to write my philosophy paper to complete your assignments. Our philosophy paper writer covers all areas of philosophy from different theories to various branches like epistemology, metaphysics, logic, and axiology. Our pool of writers is well-versed in various philosophical topics since they have specializations and stellar credentials.

When you work with us and make a custom essay order , you will get an expert writer for your assignment. Our writers are fully vetted before they become a part of our team. We only welcome individuals with higher degrees of education from reputable institutions. Our writers also passed a strict testing process because we verify their skills.

Thus, don’t hesitate to connect with us for your philosophy assignment. We can confidently tackle simple philosophical inquiries to more complex discourse and case materials. Our team is also confident to write simple college admissions essays to more complicated dissertations for doctorate students.

All that we ask of you is to provide detailed instructions when you fill out our order form. Be sure to indicate a specific topic in philosophy that you find most interesting, and provide us with the word count and deadline. Don’t forget to attach screenshots of the rubrics or other writing guidelines from your professor. The more information you provide, the better the outcomes.

Get the most out of our service by constantly communicating with your chosen writer throughout the writing process. Provide feedback and ask for revision requests to lend your voice and make the final paper truly your own work. Our long list of happy clients proves we have what it takes to fulfill your requirements.

Get expert philosophy essay help to boost your grades

When you request us to please write my essay , you can count on a high-quality paper. Getting help from a philosophy essay writer is not a sign of weakness. In fact, this shows you are a strong student because you’re acknowledging you need expert assistance. Philosophy is a complex science so topics can be quite difficult and not easy to write. And all other disciplines must comply with this general education requirement.

You can think of philosophy essay writing services as a personal tutor. Remember, when other students seek tutoring help for subjects like math, no one frowns at them for their efforts. By the same token, you shouldn't feel guilty when you buy philosophy essay or other papers. It’s a fact that not everyone is a strong writer so you could be asking for our assistance to get a sample or model to see how philosophical papers are done.

When you ask us to write my philosophy paper for me, you can rest easy knowing that our team will do everything to create exemplary work that gets a high mark. This can help boost your grades and impress your professors. We confidently and consistently provide amazing essays because our team is composed of native English speakers with advanced degrees in their fields. We commit to deliver excellent papers for our clients. Check out the reviews section on our page to see glowing recommendations. We love it when our loyal clientele speaks up for us.

Philosophy essay writing service

All you have to do is say "write my philosophy paper for me" and our professional writer will get started. Remember, we got your back at all times.

Trust your philosophy tasks to us if you:

Want to work with the market's philosophy essay writer?

No matter which writer you choose, you can keep calm knowing that each expert on our platform has years of experience and a higher degree. Say "write my philosophy paper" and we'll get started.

“Amazing writer! Delivered the work ahead of time. Great communication. If I wanted any changes in the document, I asked her and she immediately worked on it and delivered a great job!”

“This writer communicates well, works fast, and delivers great papers. I definitely will be hiring her in the future.”

“Easy to communicate with, quick responses, finishes days before the deadline you set for him, the essays come out looking better than great. Paul will exceed your expectations and definitely the guy to go to.”

“I received my essay earlier than requested and it was very well written. I will definitely use her again for my next essay.”

“great assignment! thank you so much for your prompt work!”

“Great work and fast ! will hire again”

Reasons to choose our philosophy essay writing service

Strictly original.

Your philosophy paper will be done from scratch and will follow your requirements from A to Z. Knowing just how important originality is, we give you the chance to request a free plagiarism report along with your order.

5-star writers

Have the best writers on the market from the US and Canada do your philosophy tasks. Each expert on our team has had 3+ years of experience and beholds higher education.

Tailored approach

Your order will be done according to your requirements and will be written in your style. How is that possible? Send over your past writing to our writer and see them mimic your writing effortlessly.

Timely delivery

The minimum deadline for our service is 3 hours, yet this depends on a few factors such as the complexity and the size of your assignment. In case you're in a rush, contact our 24/7 support service.

24/7 support

Our result-oriented support team will be by your side 24/7 throughout the process. Whenever you feel confused or simply want to ask a question, reach out to them via text and get an immediate reply.

Easy order process

It only takes 3 clicks of a mouse and 5 minutes of your time to get your order started. Fill-in the order form, choose an expert, get the desired outcome.

All possible subjects

Order all your tasks in one place, not just a philosophy essay. Thanks to our extensive team of highly-educated writers, we are your one-stop shop to success.

Client safety first

We know just how important the safety of your personal details is to you. Therefore, we have full website encryption and safe payment gateways. You can use only an email to sign up.

Reasonable price

We're not here to rip you off; on the other hand, we're here to help you save your hard-earned money by providing you with discounts and promotions. Have your work done by market-leading specialists for just $11.4 per page.

What our clients have to say

It is important to know who to buy papers about philosophy from. Look at our client reviews and see why we are the right choice.

The writer has followed my specific instructions and was able to provide the paper earlier than the deadline. The writer is very communicative and answers all your concerns. Highly recommend.

Goes above and beyond. He completed the assignment ahead of schedule and the work was exceptional.

The best writer here, always on time. Very proactive to read your assigment first for corrections, if they are needed he do that inmediatelly. If you want to have good grades or you are in trouble and need to pass a class this is your writer.

Impressive writer. Paid attention to detail, was very conscientious and timely, and adequately integrated theory and empirical evidence in his writing.

This writer continues to provide quality work, he is thorough, diligent, and communicates timely. Hire him, I have hired him again and will continue to only use him. Best writer on this site in my experience.

Frank has been the MOST helpful writer on this site and you would be making an incredible mistake if you do NOT hire him. His prices have been the MOST reasonable, and he communicates timely and effectively. I appreciate you, Frank. If I could give you 20 stars I would. Folks, Frank is your guy trust me. I tried maybe 5 others and Frank is THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am beyond eager to write this review for this writer. I will shout to the rooftops ENCOURAGING you to hire him. I have used other writers but NONE have delivered such awesome work as this writer and NONE of their prices can compare to his. He does not try to "break the bank" and he works hard. He is simply,THE BEST HERE!!!

There were too many writers to have to sort through, would be nice if I was able to sort by how many medical/health science paper they have written.

SO far everything seems to be professional, this is my first time using this kind of online service to get an assignment done.

This service is very easy and efficient. When you are overloaded with tasks, you're up to your ears in paperwork, this is the best help!

Easy to use the website, have people bid for your paper which is cool, cause you can pick who you want, you get options

Being able to see the finished product prior to making the full payment is what made me choose this site. Great idea!

I'm new to this but so far the communication with the tutors has been awesome.

Super well thought out, I wish there was more information on the delivery of the work/essay when finished, but overall I'm happy.

Even though I wrote a similar paper once last year, I already forgot how to do this analysis and understand that it will take too much time to reread the theory and then write the paper based on it. Thanks for making my life easier!

Yesterday I felt so sick that I was lying in bed doing nothing. I was not able to read, analyze, or say, write something. So I turned on the PC ordered the paper on this website. Thanks a lot!

I am very happy with the services they provide, excellent work. In a timely manner, I received 100 for my essay. Since I am always busy working they come through when I do not have time to finish.

The reaction paper was written, bearing in mind all the necessary structural elements of the essay. I am happy the writer used quite complex vocabulary, so the essays sounds persuasive.

I am very happy with the services they provide, excellent work. Since I am always busy working they come through when I do not have time to finish.

Great company to work with they get the job done one time and correct.

I would like to thank your marketing assignment expert for editing my assignment so well. It’s completely error-free now.

So caring about what I expect, offered revision in case it's not what i needed. Everything was good

It was my first time using such a service. Essay was good and nicely formatted.

Now I received my paper and you know, I’m amazed! I recommend them.

They are really good in services as their name in the market. Superb, outstanding and marvelous

Your experts helped me to better understand the task I couldn't complete for a long time! Thanks!

We cover any type of philosophy paper

EssayService helps students with all types of philosophy papers. From a simple paper to a tough essay, our service can help in many ways.

Students may ask us for philosophy paper help on the topic of dialectics. Dialectics is a method used to draw conclusions, using contradictory statements to determine truth. This portion of philosophy can be tricky for students to understand. On EssayService, we help students who need to write papers about dialectics and feel stuck.

Another difficult topic for philosophy students is the topic of dogmatism. Dogmatism was initially introduced by the Greek philosopher Pyrrho. The concept refers to unfounded positiveness in matters of opinion or a person who avoids other beliefs, ideas, or behaviors. EssayService can help students with this tricky topic.

Choose an expert philosophy essay writer to help you write a paper on Eclectism. This topic, originally introduced in the second century BC, is defined as the construction of a system thought by combining elements of established systems of a previous age. This theory can be applied to many different modern practices.

We also offer philosophy essay writing help in the field of metaphysics. Metaphysics is one of the four main branches of modern philosophy. Understanding metaphysics can be difficult for students. Metaphysics refers to the fundamental nature of reality, our existence, the objects around us, space and time, and probability.

We also help with philosophy papers on the topic of hermeneutics. This branch of philosophy deals with the theory and methodology behind interpretation, such as literature and biblical texts. Students feeling stressed about writing a paper on hermeneutics can get help with EssayService from our knowledgeable team of top writers.

Our expert writers can also provide help with assignments in the field of Sophistry. Sophistry can be defined as “in wisdom only”. This means that the reasoning of an argument may seem to be correct, but may also contain a logical error. Our help can help students understand this topic and create a winning paper to submit.

Our cooperation: the process

Getting your philosophy paper with us requires minimum effort and minimum time. Take a look at the three-step procedure described below to know the exact steps of our cooperation.

1. Share your requirements

When asking for philosophy paper writing service, it is important to identify exactly the type of help you need. Share the word count, the reference style, and the deadline. Attach any useful notes or your previous writing so that the expert mimics your style.

2. Select your expert

Next, choose one writer amongst those bidding on your order to receive high-quality philosophy help. We suggest you look at their bios and text them directly. If you still can't make the choice, contact our 24/7 support team.

3. Get the results

Last but not least, get what you came here for your philosophy paper. See if the expert fulfilled your expectations, rate their work, and release the payment. Want to see changes? Contact your writer they will be done in a heartbeat.

How much time will it take to do my request?

Will my philosophy paper be unique, who will be responsible for writing my work, why should i get my papers from you, is it legal for me to ask for philosophy paper help, are free revisions included in the price, philosophy essay writing service tailored to your requirements.

Have your philosophy paper done from scratch according to your requirements! With our tailored approach, your A is set in stone.

Is your service proficient in philosophy?

Having helped thousands of students from academic institutions around the world, we know how important it is to have a deep pool of vetted professionals from different subject backgrounds. Our team members have had their degrees certified and have then taken tests and completed mock orders to prove their professionalism and consistency. For that reason, you can trust us with even the most complex papers from niche subject areas such as philosophy. Here are some of the things we offer:

‍ The referencing style of your choice - We can provide referencing in the style of your choice, whether that be MLA, APA, Harvard, or a lesser-known style.

All levels of paper complexity - Whether you're a first-year or completing a postgraduate course, any writer working for us has the experience, knowledge, and skills to deliver a piece of work that is unique and of high quality.

So place an order on our philosophy essay writing services today or chat with a customer support representative to see how we can relieve your stress and get you a winning paper!

Professional service coming to your rescue

Being faced with many assignments at once may sometimes be stressful and overwhelming. That is why we offer our services to anyone who needs help with their university work. Our professionals vary in specializations, so you will always find the exact help you need for your work. With EssayService, stressful situations become easy and all deadlines are met.

Our academic professionals are here to help and guide you through your writing as well as completely take over your tasks and do them from scratch, guaranteeing originality. All you need to do is to choose an expert who suits you the best and start the hassle-free journey on our philosophy paper writing service. With the experience we have on the market, we ensure you that your papers will be authentic and top-scoring.

Who can find our service useful?

As a student, you may face various challenges during your academic journey. However, even the most daunting situation can be resolved with professional help from EssayService. Let's explore who could benefit from our support.

Limited time

If you struggle to balance studying with work, family responsibilities, or numerous assignments, we have got you covered. Come to our philosophy paper writing services if you are running out of time to complete it yourself.

Uncertainty in topic

It is not uncommon for students to lack clarity on the assigned topic. At EssayService, we have a team of writers who have an excellent understanding of philosophy.

Writing skills

If you lack the required writing skills, just say "write my philosophy paper" so that our writers can assist you. Our writers possess excellent writing skills.

Complex requirements

If you find that the requirements for your assignment are too complex, place an order. Our writers will adhere to all the instructions specified in your order form.

The Writing Place

Resources – how to write a philosophy paper, introduction to the topic.

The most common introductory level philosophy papers involve making an original argument (“Do you believe that free will exists?”) or thinking critically about another philosopher’s argument (“Do you agree with Hobbes’ argument about free will?”). This short checklist will help you construct a paper for these two types of assignments.

The Basics of a Philosophy Paper

1. introduction and thesis.

There is not a need for a grand or lofty introduction in a philosophy paper. Introductory paragraphs should be short and concise. In the thesis, state what you will be arguing and how you will make your argument.

2. Define Terms

It is important to define words that you use in your argument that may be unclear to your reader. While it may seem like words like “morality” and “free will” have an obvious definition, you need to make clear to your audience what those words mean in the context of your paper. A generally useful rule is to pretend that your reader does not know anything about your course or the subject of philosophy and define any words or concepts that such a reader may find ambiguous.

In a philosophy paper, you need to give reasons to support the argument you made in your thesis. This should constitute the largest portion of your paper. It is also important here to name preexisting conditions (premises) that must exist in order for the argument to be true. You can use real-world examples and the ideas of other philosophers to generate reasons why your argument is true. Remember to use simple and clear language and treat your readers as if they are not experts in philosophy.

4. Objections and Responses to Objections

Unlike other types of persuasive essays, in a many philosophy papers you should anticipate criticisms of your argument and respond to those criticisms. If you can refute objections to your argument, your paper will be stronger. While you do not have to address every potential counterargument, you should try to cover the most salient problems.

5. Conclusion

Like the introduction, you should be simple and concise. In the final paragraph you should review and summarize what your paper has established. The conclusion should tell readers why your argument is relevant. It answers the question, “Why do I care?”

General Tips

• Do not overstate or over generalize your ideas.
• Do not try to argue for both sides of an issue. Be clear about where you stand or your reader will be confused.
• Be specific. Do not try to tackle a huge issue, but rather, aim to discuss something small that can be done justice in just a few pages.
• Be wary of using religious or legal grounds for your argument.

A Quick Practice Exercise...

Practice: what is wrong with this paragraph.

This paragraph contains 5 major errors that you should try to avoid in a philosophy paper. Can you find them all?

“In his argument from design, Paley uses the example of a watch that he finds upon a road that has dozens of pieces that work together to make the clock function.  He asserts that this watch is too perfect of a creation not to have a creator and that it would be obvious to conclude that the timepiece must have a maker. Similarly, the Bible proves that God must exist because he made the world beautiful in seven days.  Paley notes, “There cannot be design without a designer; contrivance, without a contriver; order, without choice; arrangement without anything capable of arranging” (Paley 49). This reasoning is strong because it is apparent that beings found in nature have a complex design.  For example, the iris, retina, lens and ocular muscles of the eye all work together to produce sight in the human eye and without any one of these mechanisms, one would be blind.  For all of these tiny pieces that are required for a functioning eye to have randomly come together seems impossible. Therefore, it is logical that there had to be a designer who created a world in which DNA replicates and dozens of small parts create a functioning human or animal.  By simply viewing the natural world, it is highly plausible to see that Paley’s theory is correct.”

1.  “Similarly, the Bible proves that God must exist because he had the power to make the flood happen in Noah’s Ark.”  Arguments based off religious texts, such as the Bible, are generally frowned upon and only weaken an essay.

2. The writer does not define what he means by “God.” Is God a benevolent overseer of the earth? Or is God a vengeful figure? Although it may seem as though everyone knows who God is, in reality, people have different perspective and the writer needs to define God’s character for the reader.

3.  “For all of these tiny pieces that are required for a functioning eye to have randomly come together seems impossible.”  The phrase “ seems impossible ” is weak and unclear. In a philosophy paper, you should take a strong stance and avoid words that weaken your argument like “probably” or “seem.” Additionally, the phrase “ highly plausible ” appears at the end of the paragraph, which is also a phrase that weakens the argument.

4. The writer gives not premises for Paley’s argument to be true. A stronger paper would name the preexisting conditions that must exist in order for the argument to stand.

5. The “real world” example of the human eye is not the best. The writer neglects strong counterarguments such as evolution and the existence of blindness in humans. A good philosophy paper would be more careful when considering real world examples.

Developed by Ann Bruton

Adapted from:

Harvard University’s Short Guide to Philosophical Writing

Kenneth Seeskin’s “How to Write a Philosophy Paper,” Northwestern University

Click here to return to the “Writing Place Resources” main page.

Study at Cambridge

About the university, research at cambridge.

• Undergraduate courses
• Events and open days
• Fees and finance
• Postgraduate courses
• How to apply
• Postgraduate events
• Fees and funding
• International students
• Continuing education
• Executive and professional education
• Courses in education
• How the University and Colleges work
• Term dates and calendars
• Visiting the University
• Annual reports
• Equality and diversity
• A global university
• Public engagement
• Give to Cambridge
• For Cambridge students
• For our researchers
• Business and enterprise
• Colleges & departments
• Email & phone search
• Museums & collections
• Current Students
• Undergraduate Writing Skills
• Faculty of Philosophy
• About Us overview
• Academic Visitors
• Administration overview
• Accessible Documents Checklist
• Video conferencing accessibility assessment guide
• Cambridge Women Philosophers
• Disability Access Guide
• Health and Safety
• How to find us

Important Dates

• Information Technology overview
• Using Google Meet
• Zoom User Guide
• Skype & PhoneConference Call and Screen Sharing
• Microsoft Teams getting started
• Panopto Recording & Publishing Overview
• Zoom Security Tips for public meetings
• Job Opportunities
• Newsletters
• Philosophy Green Team overview
• Waste & Recyling
• Green Team Events
• Welfare overview
• Welfare for Students
• Welfare for Staff
• People overview
• Teaching & Research Staff
• Director of Studies Area overview
• Director of Studies Part 1B
• Director of Studies Part II
• Postgraduate Advisors Area
• Support Staff
• Current Academic Visitors
• Academic Staff Administrative Roles
• Paper Co-Ordinators
• Research overview
• Research Projects and Networks
• Seminars and Discussion Groups
• Employment destinations of recent Faculty PhD students
• Research Funding Opportunities
• Recent Faculty books
• Open access at Cambridge
• Current Students overview
• Postgraduates overview
• MPhil Course Information (Includes examination protocols)
• PhD Course Information
• Organisational Matters
• Supervision
• Lectures and Seminars
• Faculty Resources
• Advice and Support
• PG Training Guide
• Room Booking Guidance
• Working Away
• Working While Studying
• Financial Support
• Postgraduate Calendar
• Deposit of Electronic PhD Theses
• Postgraduate Forms overview
• Appointment of PhD Examiners Form
• Risk assessment form RA1
• Risk assessment examples
• Conference expenses funding application form
• Postgraduate hardship funding application form
• MPhil Essays and Dissertations (Raven Login)
• MPhil Data Retention
• University Timetable
• Part IA Seminar (Discussion Group) Readings
• Undergraduate Tripos Students Information
• Lecture List
• Course Outlines and Reading Lists (for Philosophy Students and Staff)
• Course Outlines and Reading Lists (for auditors)
• Undergraduate Exams overview
• Sample Answers
• Craig Taylor Prize
• Extended Essays & Dissertations
• Data Retention Policy
• Part IA Past Exam Papers
• Faculty Plagiarism Policy
• Part IB Past Exam Papers
• Part II Past Exam Papers
• Guidelines for Examiners & Assessors (including Marking Criteria)
• Sample paper for Part II paper 9
• IB5 Sample Exam
• Undergraduate Writing Skills overview
• Tackling the Philosophy Essay Guide
• Tackling the Philosophy Essay Guide (mobi version)
• Tackling the Philosophy Essay Guide (epub version)
• Tackling the Philosophy Essay Guide (Word version)
• 09 Plagiarism 2018revJuly18
• Student Feedback & Support overview
• Student Representation & Student-Staff Committee
• Philosophy Student-Staff Committee Meeting Minutes
• SSC minutes 1May18
• Final SSCMinutes 30Oct18
• SSC Unconfirmed minutes 05 Feb 19
• SSC unconfirmedminutes 7May19
• Student Complaints Procedure
• SSC unconfirmed minutes 5Nov19
• SSC minutes 04 Feb 2020 4
• SSC minutes 5May2020 1
• Philosophy Faculty Guidelines for Discussion Sessions
• Prospective Students overview
• Prospective Postgraduates
• Prospective Undergraduates
• Suggested Preliminary Readings
• Prospective Undergraduate students - Frequently asked questions
• Prospective Postgraduate students – Frequently asked questions
• Events overview
• Past Events overview
• Past Events - Conferences, Workshops and Special Lectures
• The Roles of Knowledge
• The Roles of Knowledge Abstracts
• Limits of Duty programme
• The Limits of Duty
• Decision Theory Seminar
• No-platform and Hate Speech
• What is Domination?
• 6th Cambridge Graduate Conference on the Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics
• Universals_v2.pdf
• JohnSearle Lecture
• Immateriality, Thinking and the Self in the Long Middle Ages
• Papers Heal Metaphysical atomism and the attraction of materialism
• Oelze Summary of Talk
• WIP Conference Poster
• GoodmakersandgoodtakersTextsHO2.pdf
• Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) Cambridge Conference 2018
• Shyane Personal Identity handout 6th form conf 2019
• Richard Holton Handout 6th form conf 2019
• Library overview
• Accessibility
• Joining the library
• Borrowing from the library
• Philosophy eresources
• IT, printing and copying facilities
• Resources for undergraduates
• Resources for researchers
• Contact the library
• Intranet overview
• Undergraduate Teaching and Support Arrangements (including exam updates)
• Director of Studies Area
• Academic Teaching Resources and Protocols. 
• Samples for MPhil Examiners overview
• Philosophy File Share overview
• Postgraduates
• Undergraduate Exams
• Student Feedback & Support

Latest news

View all news

Quick links

All News Items

Moral Sciences Club

Philosophy Lecture List

Philosophy Podcasts

Moodle Undergraduate Site

Intranet Teaching and Examining Arrangements

Follow us on Twitter

Tweets by @CambridgePhilos

Information

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use
• Photos by Ben Colburn displayed with his permission
• Philosophy Contact Details
• [email protected]
• Map of Sidgwick Site
• University Map

Other Links

• Email & Phone Search

© 2024 University of Cambridge

• Contact the University
• Freedom of information
• Privacy policy and cookies
• Statement on Modern Slavery
• Terms and conditions
• University A-Z
• Undergraduate
• Postgraduate
• Research news
• About research at Cambridge
• Spotlight on...

What this handout is about

This handout discusses common types of philosophy assignments and strategies and resources that will help you write your philosophy papers.

What is philosophy, and why do we study it?

Philosophy is the practice of making and assessing arguments. An argument is a set of statements (called premises) that work together to support another statement (the conclusion).

Making and assessing arguments can help us get closer to understanding the truth. At the very least, the process helps make us aware of our reasons for believing what we believe, and it enables us to use reason when we discuss our beliefs with other people. Your philosophy teacher wants to help you learn to make strong arguments and to assess the arguments other people make.

Elements of philosophy papers

A philosophy paper may require several kinds of tasks, including:

• Argument reconstruction

Objections and replies

Application.

• Original argument

Thought experiments

Let’s examine these elements one at a time.

Argument Reconstruction

To reconstruct an argument, you’ll need to present it in a way that someone unfamiliar with the material will understand. Often, this requires you to say a lot more than the philosopher whose work you are writing about did!

There are two main ways to reconstruct an argument: in regular prose or as a formal series of numbered steps. Unless your professor or TA has told you otherwise, you should probably use regular prose. In either case, keep these points in mind:

• Keep your ideas separate from the author’s. Your purpose is to make the author’s argument clear, not to tell what you think of it.
• Be charitable. Give the best version of the argument you can, even if you don’t agree with the conclusion.
• Define important terms.
• Organize your ideas so that the reader can proceed logically from premises to conclusion, step by step.
• Explain each premise.

Let’s walk through an argument reconstruction. Here is a passage by 18th-century British philosopher David Hume:

Take any action allowed to be vicious: Willful murder, for instance. Examine it in all lights, and see if you can find that matter of fact, or real existence, which you call vice. In whichever way you take it, you find only certain passions, motives, volitions and thoughts. There is no other matter of fact in the case. The vice entirely escapes you, as long as you consider the object. You never can find it, till you turn your reflection into your own breast, and find a sentiment of disapprobation, which arises in you, towards this action. Here is a matter of fact, but it is the object of feeling, not of reason. It lies in yourself, not in the object. So that when you pronounce any action or character to be vicious, you mean nothing, but that from the constitution of your nature you have a feeling or sentiment of blame from the contemplation of it. (David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature).

Step 1: Reread the passage a few times, stopping to look up any unfamiliar words—”disapprobation,” maybe. Be sure you understand the important terms, like “vicious.” (By “vicious,” Hume seems to mean “wicked, depraved, or immoral,” which probably isn’t the way you use the word in everyday speech.)

Step 2: Identify the conclusion. Sometimes your teacher will identify it for you, but even if they didn’t, you can find it. (Caution: It won’t always be the first or the last sentence in the passage; it may not even be explicitly stated.) In this case, Hume’s conclusion is something like this: The viciousness of an action is a feeling of disapprobation in the person who considers it, not a property of the action itself.

Step 3: Identify the premises. Consider the conclusion and ask yourself what the author needs to do to prove it. Hume’s conclusion here seems to have two parts: When we call an action vicious, we mean that our “nature” causes us to feel blame when we contemplate that action. There is nothing else that we could mean when we call an action “vicious.”

Step 4: Identify the evidence. Hume considers an example, murder, and points out that when we consider why we say that murder is vicious, two things happen:

• We realize that when we contemplate murder, we feel “a sentiment of disapprobation” in ourselves.
• No matter how hard we look, we don’t see any other “matter of fact” that could be called “vice”—all we see “in the object” (the murder) are “certain passions, motives, volitions, and thoughts.”

Step 5: Identify unspoken assumptions. Hume assumes that murder is a representative case of “viciousness.” He also assumes that if there were “viciousness” in the “object” (the murder), we would be able to “see” it—it isn’t somehow hidden from us. Depending on how important you think these assumptions are, you may want to make them explicit in your reconstruction.

Step 6: Sketch out a formal reconstruction of the argument as a series of steps.

• If we examine a vicious action like murder, we see passions, motives, volitions, and thoughts.
• We don’t see anything else.
• So we don’t see any property or “matter of fact” called “viciousness.”
• Assumption: What we don’t see is not there.
• When we examine our feelings about murder, we see a “sentiment of disapprobation.”
• Unstated premise: This feeling of disapprobation is the only thing all the acts we think are vicious have in common, and we feel it whenever we confront a vicious act—that is, all and only vicious acts produce the feeling of disapprobation.
• Conclusion: So the viciousness of a bad action is a feeling of disapprobation in the person who considers it, not a factual property of the action itself.

Step 7: Summarize the argument, explaining the premises and how they work together. Here’s how such a prose reconstruction might go: To understand what we mean when we call an action “vicious,” by which he means “wrong,” Hume examines the case of murder. He finds that whenever we consider a murder itself, all we see are the “passions, motives, volitions, and thoughts” of the people involved. For example, we might see that the murderer feels the passion of anger and is motivated by a desire to make his victim suffer, and that the victim feels the passion of fear and is thinking about how to escape. But no matter how hard we look, we don’t see “viciousness” or wrongness—we see an action taking place, and people with motives and feelings are involved in that action, but none of these things seem to be what we mean by “viciousness” or wrongness. Hume next turns his inquiry inward, and considers what is happening inside a person who calls a murder “vicious.” The person who thinks or says that murder is wrong always seems to be feeling a certain “sentiment of disapprobation.” That is, the person disapproves of the action and blames the murderer. When we say “murder is wrong,” we usually think that we are saying something about murder itself, that we are describing a property (wrongness) that the action of murder has. But Hume thinks what we are in fact describing is a feeling in us, not a property of murder—the “viciousness” of a vicious action is just an emotion in the person who is thinking about or observing that action, rather than a property of the action itself.

Often, after you reconstruct an argument, you’ll be asked to tell whether it is a good or a bad argument and whether you agree or disagree with it.

Thinking of objections and examining their consequences is a way that philosophers check to see if an argument is a good one. When you consider an objection, you test the argument to see if it can overcome the objection. To object to an argument, you must give reasons why it is flawed:

• The premises don’t support the conclusion.
• One or more of the premises is false.
• The argument articulates a principle that makes sense in this case but would have undesirable consequences in other cases.
• The argument slides from one meaning of a term to another.
• The argument makes a comparison that doesn’t really hold.

Here are some questions you can ask to make sure your objections are strong:

• Have I made clear what part of the argument I object to?
• Have I explained why I object to that part of the argument?
• Have I assessed the severity of my objection? (Do I simply point out where the philosopher needs to do more work, or is it something more devastating, something that the philosopher cannot answer?)
• Have I thought about and discussed how the philosopher might respond to my objection?
• Have I focused on the argument itself, rather than just talking about the general issues the conclusion raises?
• Have I discussed at least one objection thoroughly rather than many objections superficially?

Let’s look at our example again. What objections might you make to Hume’s argument about murder? Here are some possible arguments:

• You might object to premises 2 and 3, and argue that wrong actions do have a property that makes us call them wrong. For example, maybe we call actions wrong because of their motives—because the actions are motivated by cruelty, for example. So perhaps Hume is right that we don’t see a property called “viciousness,” but wrong that “viciousness” is thus only a feeling in us. Maybe the viciousness is one of the motives or passions.
• You might also object to premise 5, and say that we sometimes judge actions to be wrong even though we don’t feel any “sentiment” of disapproval for them. For example, if vigilantes killed a serial murderer, we might say that what they did was wrong, even if we shared their anger at the murderer and were pleased that they had killed them.

Often you’ll be asked to consider how a philosopher might reply to objections. After all, not every objection is a good objection; the author might be able to come up with a very convincing reply! Use what you know about the author’s general position to construct a reply that is consistent with other things the author has said, as well as with the author’s original argument.

So how might Hume, or someone defending Hume, reply to the objections above? Here are some possible objections:

• To the first, Hume might reply that there is no one motive that all “vicious” actions have in common. Are all wrong actions motivated by cruelty? No—theft, for example, might be motivated by hunger. So the only thing all “vicious” actions have in common is that we disapprove of them.
• To the second, Hume might reply that when we call the actions of vigilantes wrong, even though we are pleased by them, we must still be feeling at least some disapproval.

Sometimes you will be asked to summarize an author’s argument and apply that position to a new case. Considering how the author would think about a different case helps you understand the author’s reasoning and see how the argument is relevant. Imagine that your instructor has given you this prompt:

“Apply Hume’s views on the nature of vice to the following case: Mr. Smith has an advanced form of cancer. He asks Dr. Jones what she thinks his prognosis is. Dr. Jones is certain Mr. Smith will die within the month, but she tells him he may survive for a year or longer, that his cancer may not be fatal. Dr. Jones wants to give Mr. Smith hope and spare him the painful truth. How should we think about whether what Dr. Jones did is wrong?”

Consider what you know about Hume’s views. Hume has not given a list of actions that are right or wrong, nor has he said how we should judge whether an action is right or wrong. All he has told us is that if an action is wrong, the wrongness is a sentiment in the people considering the action rather than a property of the action itself. So Hume would probably say that what matters is how we feel about Dr. Jones’s action—do we feel disapproval? If we feel disapproval, then we are likely to call the action “wrong.”

This test case probably raises all kinds of questions for you about Hume’s views. You might be thinking, “Who cares whether we call the action wrong—I want to know whether it actually is wrong!” Or you might say to yourself, “Some people will feel disapproval of the doctor’s action, but others will approve, so how should we decide whether the action is wrong or not?” These are exactly the kinds of questions your instructor wants to get you thinking about.

When you go back to read and discuss Hume, you will begin to see how he might answer such questions, and you will have a deeper understanding of his position. In your paper, though, you should probably focus on one or two main points and reserve the rest of your speculation for your conclusion.

Original argument/taking a position

Sometimes an assignment will ask you to stake out a position (i.e., to take sides in a philosophical debate) or to make an original argument. These assignments are basically persuasive essays, a kind of writing you are probably familiar with. If you need help, see our handouts on argument and thesis statements, among others.

Remember: Think about your audience, and use arguments that are likely to convince people who aren’t like you. For example, you might think the death penalty is wrong because your parents taught you so. But other people have no special reason to care what your parents think. Try to give reasons that will be interesting and compelling to most people.

If scientists want to test a theory or principle, they design an experiment.

In philosophy, we often test our ideas by conducting thought experiments. We construct imaginary cases that allow us to focus on the issue or principle we are most interested in. Often the cases aren’t especially realistic, just as the conditions in a scientific laboratory are different from those in the outside world.

When you are asked to write about a thought experiment, don’t worry about whether it is something that is ever likely to happen; instead, focus on the principle being tested. Suppose that your bioethics teacher has given you this thought experiment to consider:

An elderly, unconscious patient needs a heart transplant. It is very unlikely that a donor heart will become available before the patient dies. The doctor’s other option is to try a new and risky procedure that involves transplanting the heart of a genetically engineered chimpanzee into the patient. This will require killing the chimp. What should the doctor recommend?

This scenario may be unrealistic, but your instructor has created it to get you to think about what considerations matter morally (not just medically) when making a life-or-death decision. Who should make such decisions—doctors, families, or patients? Is it acceptable to kill another intelligent primate in order to provide a heart for a human? Does it matter that the patient is elderly? Unconscious? So instead of focusing on whether or not the scenario is likely to happen, you should make an argument about these issues. Again, see our handouts on argument and thesis statements for help in crafting your position.

Other things to keep in mind

• Be consistent. For example, if I begin my paper by arguing that Marquis is right about abortion, I shouldn’t say later that Thomson’s argument (which contradicts Marquis’s) is also correct.
• Avoid overstatement. Watch out for words like “all,” “every,” “always,” “no,” “none,” and “never”; supporting a claim that uses these words could be difficult. For example, it would be much harder to prove that lying is always wrong than to prove that lying is usually or sometimes wrong.
• Avoid the pitfalls of “seeing both sides.” Suppose you think Kant’s argument is pretty strong, but you still disagree with his conclusion. You might be tempted to say “Kant’s argument is a good one. I disagree with it.” This appears contradictory. If an argument really is good and you can’t find any weaknesses in it, it seems rational to think that you should agree with the argument. If you disagree with it, there must be something wrong with it, and your job is to figure out what that is and point it out.
• Avoid personal attacks and excessive praise. Neither “Mill was obviously a bad person who didn’t care about morality at all” nor “Kant is the greatest philosopher of all time” adds to our understanding of Mill’s or Kant’s arguments.
• Avoid grandiose introductions and conclusions. Your instructor is not likely to appreciate introductions that start with sentences like “Since the dawn of time, human beings have wondered about morality.” Your introduction can place your issue in context, explain why it’s philosophically important, and perhaps preview the structure of your paper or argument. Ask your instructor for further guidance about introductions and conclusions.
• Stay focused. You may be asked to concentrate closely on a small piece of text or a very particular question; if so, stick to it, rather than writing a general report on a “topic.”
• Be careful about appealing to faith, authority, or tradition. While you may believe something because it is a part of your religion, because someone you trust told you about it, or because it is the way things have always been done, be careful about basing your arguments or objections on these sorts of foundations. Remember that your reader may not share your assumptions and beliefs, and try to construct your argument so that it will be persuasive even to someone who is quite different from you.
• Be careful about definitions. Rather than breaking out Webster’s Dictionary, concentrate on the definitions the philosophers you are reading have carefully constructed for the terms they are using. Defining terms is an important part of all philosophical work, and part of your job in writing a philosophy paper will often be thinking about how different people have defined a term.
• Consider reading the Writing Center’s handout on fallacies. Fallacies are common errors in arguments; knowing about them may help you critique philosophers’ arguments and make stronger arguments yourself.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Feinberg, Joel. 2008. Doing Philosophy: A Guide to the Writing of Philosophy Papers , 4th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.

Holowchak, Mark. 2011. Critical Reasoning and Philosophy: A Concise Guide to Reading, Evaluating, and Writing Philosophical Works , 2nd ed. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Make a Gift

We use cookies to enhance our website for you. Proceed if you agree to this policy or learn more about it.

Arguably, the Best Place to Ask, “Write My Philosophy Paper for Me!”

Need a custom-written paper? Send instructions and set the deadline – we'll take care of the rest.

• Essay Writing Service

As a student, you have to face many existential issues with your written assignments and make various difficult choices to make things work out. However, when it comes to the question “Can someone help me with my philosophy paper?” there actually is the only correct answer – WowEssays.com. Our company hosts a comprehensive philosophy essay writing service staffed with experienced authors. Their expertise and skillset let us confidently claim that they can complete virtually any written task you might need, be it a short essay, extended research paper, or a full-fledged thesis.

Why the WowEssays Philosophy Essay Writing Service

Socrates, the founder of Western philosophy, said that the way to gain reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear. As WowEssays.com desires to appear a reliable and trustworthy academic assistance provider, we every day endeavor to deliver the best philosophy essay writing services to students from all walks of life. Features and benefits described below recognize the efforts we put into fulfilling this challenging task.

Guaranteed Originality

We control that every essay helper online at WowEssays crafts the ordered paper from scratch and by default check it with anti-plagiarism software to ensure its complete originality.

Fast & Timely Delivery

Putting aside all philosophical ponderings about the nature of time, we guarantee that the ordered piece will be delivered on time, every time. Deadlines start from just 3 hours!

Competent Writers

Only the best philosophy writers make it to our team. Choose among Standard, Advanced, and TOP authors to accomplish your order. The majority of them are degreed ENL experts.

100% Confidentiality

Encrypted communications and the “no sharing customer information” policy ensure your absolute confidentiality. In turn, compliance with PCI DSS requirements guarantees payment safety.

Money-Back Guarantee

We go to great lengths to satisfy every customer. However, if something goes not the way you expected, we will quickly refund up to 100%, depending on the order progress stage.

Free Services

We don’t charge for things other companies usually sell – plagiarism check, revisions, title and reference pages, etc. Also, enjoy free samples and writing assistance tools.

These benefits come as kind of a flavor enhancer to an individual approach, high-quality papers, and helpful support you get when ordering from WowEssays.com. So stop philosophizing about how and when you could get the job done and place an order to get it done right here, right now!

Become your best self with our academic help.

Comprehensive Philosophy Essay Help for Any Occasion

Yet another wowing feature of our service is the entirety of the provided philosophy paper help. You be the judge:

• Staff philosophy essay writers can craft papers of all academic levels , from high school to professional (Master’s or Ph.D.).
• We cover all branches of philosophy . Whether you need a piece in Metaphysics, Epistemology, Logic, Axiology (Ethics and Aesthetics), Political Philosophy – you can get it here!
• Competent experts will create a high-quality paper on any philosophical subject, ancient or modern .
• You can order and receive any type of philosophy paper – essay, research paper, case study, course work, thesis, and others.
• We can provide a wide variety of services – from custom writing from scratch to professional editing and proofreading of the papers you send us.
• Do you want to enhance your paper? Take advantage of helpful Extras – editor’s check, plagiarism report, VIP customer service, sources used, simple language, etc.
• An individual approach comes as a matter of course, along with strictly following your specific writing instructions and direct communication with writers.

Of course, you can try to find someone among your friends, peers, or even Reddit users to help you out for free. But how long will it take, and what will be the quality level? Or you can opt for Wow Essays and get every bit of assistance you need in one place quickly, with due quality, and at an affordable cost!

PLACE AN ORDER

When It’s Justified to Buy Philosophy Papers Online

A German philosopher Georg Hegel once said: “Genuine tragedies in the world are not conflicts between right and wrong. They are conflicts between two rights.” This ontological argument perfectly reflects the situation of getting “outside” help in education. On the one hand, many students strive to accomplish academic tasks on their own, which is right. On the other hand, sometimes, the odds are just against them, leaving them no other choice than to address practical assistance from “outsiders.” Overcoming adversaries to get the job done is also right. So when is it justified to buy a philosophy paper online? Let’s try to break down the most common causes.

You don’t clearly understand the requirements

Dave Tomar , a former academic ghostwriter, stresses that the vast majority of his clients genuinely needed help because they didn’t understand the writing requirements. What to do and where to seek assistance when you couldn’t write the paper even if you tried? We’d say wherever you can.

Philosophizing and theorizing just isn’t your thing

Philosophy could be an exciting subject. So could chemistry. Or computer science. But some students just aren’t built to be good at them. Some could easily solve the Boolean Pythagorean Triples problem but have difficulty putting together a 5-paragraph essay on Plato’s ‘The Republic.’

You don’t have enough time

With ever-increasing college and university costs, many students are torn apart between studying and working to make ends meet. At the same time, the study load in US colleges almost tripled over the last 15 years. Turning to online writing services might be the only way to cope with these challenges.

You lack the skills necessary to fulfill the task on the appropriate level

Imagine that you’re an ESL math student. You’re great in the primary field of study – numbers don’t need translation or near-to-perfect command of English. Crafting philosophy papers is an entirely different matter. Asking a native speaker, “Write my philosophy essay, please” might be an uncontested option to stay afloat.

The Serenity Prayer goes: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference.” Whichever is your reason, carefully consider all the alternatives and solutions. And if you decide to order a paper online, use it to educate yourself so that the next time you can accomplish the task by yourself. With hundreds of degreed writers and thousands of satisfied customers, WowEssays.com is arguably the best website to purchase an entirely original model philosophy essay and learn from it to ensure future accomplishments.

GET PHILOSOPHY ESSAY HELP

Choose Your Philosophy Essay Writer

Improve your academic performance with our philosophy essay writing service. Choose an expert and place an order today!

Approved orders: 2598

Approved orders: 2983

Approved orders: 2163

Approved orders: 1385

Approved orders: 3305

Approved orders: 874

Approved orders: 4451

Approved orders: 1820

Approved orders: 1621

Affordable Flexible Pricing

The WowEssays pricing system is designed to let you pay less and study smarter. Transparent and flexible, it gives ultimate control over how much you pay: order in advance and get the most affordable price. Every order comes with valuable freebies and a rock-solid money-back guarantee.

Please note that our prices are fixed in American Dollars. The figures in the currency converter are given for the information purposes only and may change according to the corresponding exchange rates of the European Central Bank .

• Writing from scratch
• Editing/Proofreading
• Multiple choice questions
• Problem solving
• Admission help

Select currency:

Available through Customer Support in chat

Other Pages

Okay, write my philosophy paper now – place a quick order, and we’ll get to work right away.

Placing an order on WowEssays.com is simple and fast. Yet, initially, you need to register – any valid email or Google/Facebook social media account will do for that. Also, to ensure the best outcome, you should put some effort into preparing detailed writing instructions for your prospective philosophy essay writer. Once you are done with that, ordering a philosophy paper help won’t take more than just several minutes!

Set paper parameters

Meticulously fill out the order form and set the paper’s basic parameters. Paste or attach additional writing requirements.

Pay for the order via the secure PCI DSS compliant platform. Don’t forget to enter the promo code if you have one!

The final step – download the completed paper from the Control Panel or have it sent directly to your email.

The great Confucius said: “When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” If you need to submit a great philosophy essay, but you cannot do that on your own, take action – place an order now and let us help you reach this goal!

You deserve only the best academic assistance.

The WowEssays Philosophy Paper Writing Service Customer Reviews

One of the crucial factors students must consider when choosing a reliable service to provide effective help writing a philosophy paper is the company’s online reputation. WowEssays takes its share of pride in high ratings on customer feedback platforms like Trustpilot and Sitejabber, as well as thousands of positive reviews by grateful clients across the board.

Related services

Password recovery email has been sent to [email protected]

Use your new password to log in

You are not register!

By clicking Register, you agree to our Terms of Service and that you have read our Privacy Policy .

Now you can download documents directly to your device!

Check your email! An email with your password has already been sent to you! Now you can download documents directly to your device.

or Use the QR code to Save this Paper to Your Phone

The sample is NOT original!

Short on a deadline?

Don't waste time. Get help with 11% off using code - GETWOWED

No, thanks! I'm fine with missing my deadline

Department of Philosophy

University | A to Z | Departments

• For current students

Writing Philosophy essays

• Department home
• For schools
• Undergraduate study
• Postgraduate study: Diploma, MA, PhD
• Current undergraduates
• Current research students
• Current taught MA and Graduate Diploma students
• Visiting students
• Elective Modules
• Philosophy Society

Preparation

Referencing & help.

• Good essay writing begins with good course preparation. You should remember that just attending courses is not enough. You will engage with the lectures and seminars only if you do the required primary and secondary reading. By the time you come to write your first essay you should already know enough to approach the subject confidently.
• Make sure you have properly understood the question. If you do not, ask. Review your lecture notes and the course outline in order to put the question into context and to relate it to other aspects of the subject. If you can break down the question into parts, do so. Decide which are the most important and weight each part accordingly.
• Read the suggested texts with your question or questions in mind. If you find the reading hard to understand, try reading a whole article or chapter to get the gist and then re-read slowly, making notes.
• Think for yourself. Don't borrow thought or ideas without giving yourself time to digest them. Discuss them with your fellow students. It can be very helpful to discuss the articles and books you read with others. Also, when you take notes, don't simply excerpt long passages, write them in your own words.
• Always start from a plan, however rudimentary; but you will inevitably find your argument developing a dynamic of its own, so do not be afraid to revise your plan as you go along. As Socrates says in Plato's Republic: 'Where the argument takes us, like a wind, hither we must go.'
• Write a draft, leave it for a while, then come back and revise it. On the first draft concentrate on getting the content and structure right and do not dwell on the style. Do not be held up by the precise formulation of a sentence, jot down a phrase and move on.
• Write the final draft. Check the spelling, grammar and make sure all the bibliographical details are correct. leave a wide margin on the right hand side of your page for the marker's comments. Be kind on your marker: use a font that is easy to read and a line spacing of at least 1.5 or 2. Make a photocopy of your essay as a precaution, since they sometimes can go astray.
• Your essay should contain a clear exposition of the theory you are studying, a detailed discussion and critical assessment of that theory. The criticisms you look at may be your own, or those of other philosophers.
• Make sure you indicate when you are expounding the view of someone else and when you are writing in your own voice. Don't just write a long list of objections to a particular argument. Indicate whether you endorse or reject them and give your reasons.
• Use examples to illustrate your point. Preferably, choose your own examples. Always make the point of your example clear to the reader.
• Don't worry too much about the 'originality' of the content of your essay. Nobody expects you to come up with a new philosophical theory in your first four pages of writing. Your essay will be original enough if you think for yourself, use your own words, give your own examples and always provide reasons for accepting or rejecting a particular view.
• Avoid rambling introductions and conclusions. Some books begin with a portentous opening sentence e.g., 'Philosophy, from the earliest times, has made greater claims, and achieved fewer results, than any other branch of learning.' (B. Russell) You can get away with such a sentence as the opening line of a 400 page book, but not as the opening line of a 4 page essay. State briefly what you think the question involves, if this is not obvious, and get stuck in to your answer. With conclusions, sum up your argument if you want to and leave it at that.
• Think small or be methodical. There is a gap between your brain's ability to grasp something and your ability to express in writing what you have already understood. It is as if your intuition can leap up whole flights of stairs at once, whereas your written explanations climb one step at a time. This means that you can easily get ahead of yourself, producing the illusion that your ideas are far more lofty than they really are. Only by patiently stepping through the details of an argument can you avoid such illusions. So be patient! If you are not sure whether you have made your point, try putting it another way; 'The upshot of this argument is...', 'the point of this example is...'. Do not simply repeat yourself, try instead to look at your subject from different angles. Sometimes it will feel as if your point is trivial and not worth making. But a trivial point can be a solid step in an interesting argument. The ability to tease out the subtleties of a small point will serve you better than a grand philosophy of life, the universe and everything.
• One way to structure your essay is to outline an argument, consider an objection, then reply to the objection and then move on to the next point. Avoid the two extremes of length and unbroken paragraphs on the one hand, and staccato sound bytes on the other. Divide your essay into clearly defined paragraphs and devote a whole paragraph to each point. Make the connections between them explicit, by telling the reader what they are. Write things like, 'There are two major objections to this line of thought...' or 'what this example shows is...' Think of these connections as signposts telling the reader where she is, where she has been or reminding her where she is heading.
• 'Style is the feather in the arrow, not the feather in the cap.' Do not worry about repeating important words or phrases. In philosophy it is more important to be consistent in your terminology than to find new and imaginative ways of saying the same thing. Clear prose has its own elegance, wordiness can sometimes cloud the issue.
• Empathise with your reader. Once you understand something, you forget what it was like not to understand it; but doing just this will help you to get your point across. To write clearly you have to put yourself in the place of your reader. Imagine the reader is someone who knows nothing about the subject. What would you have to do firstly to convince them and secondly to maintain their interest. Generally speaking a concrete example will get you much further than a passage of purple prose or a string of high-falutin' epithets. One useful way to attain clarity and simplicity of style is to write in short sentences. It is easier to waffle in long rambling sentences.
• Use 'signposts' to let the reader know what you are trying to do. You can say things like , 'one objection is...', 'A possible reply to this is...', 'What this example shows...', 'This importance of this point is that...', 'What X is assuming is that...'. Be explicit about what you are arguing and why.
• Stylistically it is vital to use your own words. Quite apart from the dangers of plagiarism, if you borrow chunks of text from another author and then insert them into your essay, you will end up with a patchwork of different styles that reads awkwardly. By all means paraphrase someone else's view, although make it clear that you are paraphrasing. This will help you to understand the position you are adumbrating; and there is a lot of skill involved in a lucid and concise exposition of somebody else's argument.
• Occasionally you will want to cite somebody else's words directly. Be sparing in your use of quotation. There is much less skill to quotation than to paraphrase or précis. When you select a passage for quotation, make sure it is both brief and relevant. There is nothing worse than reading a string of long quotations interspersed with brief and gnomic comments.
• Use a dictionary (or spell check) and a grammar. Good spelling and good grammar are not wholly unrelated to the content of your essay. The thread of an essay is easier to follow if the reader does not have to guess the word which you actually meant to write. Good grammar makes not only for elegant but for precise prose. So do not be ashamed to use a dictionary. I prefer the Chambers to the Collins single volume dictionary, but both are good. (Webster's and M.S. Word dictionaries are American.) Michael Dummet, the philosopher, has written an excellent little English grammar for his students, published by Duckworth.

Use of sources

• All verbatim quotations, whether long or short should be enclosed in inverted commas or indented, and the precise source given. Make sure that you give enough information for the reader to find the passage, i.e. author, work, edition page number or section.
• Passages of close paraphrase should be acknowledged, and the purpose of these paraphrases made clear e.g. as a summary of a view to be discussed disputed or agreed with.
• When a point has been derived directly from an author, even though it mode of expression may be original, this should be acknowledged in a footnote or parenthesis.
• Extensive use of an essay written by another student should be acknowledged. This applies to essays borrowed from the 'Essay Bank' and to essays which are borrowed on a personal basis. Just as the rule that you should acknowledge your dependence on published sources is not supposed to discourage you from reading widely, the rule that you should acknowledge your dependence where it exists, on other students' essays, is not supposed to discourage you from reading each others' essays. In the end however the only thing of value to you and of interest to us is work in which you express and develop your own thoughts.
• At the end of any essay to be submitted for formal assessment (not tutorial essays) write a list in alphabetical order of all the works consulted or read during the preparation and writing of the essay, as well as those from which you quote directly (see Referencing).

Referencing

The Philosophy Department accepts the Harvard or MLA styles of referencing.  Please refer to the specific information below on each permitted style.

Additional help

You may find the extra help below useful when writing Philosohy essays.

This guide to writing Philosophy essays was written by Gordon Finlayson

Department of Philosophy University of York , York , YO10 5DD , UK Tel: work +44 (0)1904 323251 | Fax: fax +44 (0)1904 324023 | [email protected]

Legal statements | Privacy | Cookies | Accessibility © University of York | Modify | Direct Edit

We use cookies to provide our clients with the best possible experience. If You continue to use this site, you agree with our cookie policy. Read more »

Philosophy Paper Writer

Engage with seasoned philosophers to craft thought-provoking papers that resonate with depth and clarity, all within an affordable range.

Our Guarantees

Each customer who comes to use for help is valuable for us. Our services are designed to help people with their writing.

Confidentiality Policy

One of our main tasks is to protect customers' personal data. That is why we have developed confidentiality policy guarantees confidentiality to all our clients.

Round-the-Clock Support

Our agents are available 24/7 for your convenience. It means that you can ask your questions and place your orders any time you need.

Expert Writers

Our writers are specialist in different fields holding high degrees. Your work is in good hands!

High Quality

High quality of writing services we provide is our top priority. Our papers are written by professional English-speaking writers who are experts in writing.

Timely Delivery

If you order from us, you will never miss your deadlines. We deliver orders on time.

AI and Plagiarism-Free Orders

One of the things we are proud of is that we deliver original papers to our clients. They are written according to the attached instructions and they are authentic.

Averange quality score

Writers active

Completed orders

Return clients

Feedback of Our Customers

• Client reviews 4.8
• Reviews.io 5.0
• Sitejabber 5.0
• Top quality custom paper
• Plagiarism report (on request)
• Affiliate program
• Private account

Working Process

Philosophy paper writer – expert writing services for philosophical essays.

Step into the captivating world of philosophy with Writology.com, your guiding light through intricate arguments and deep reflections. Browse our website and realize the full potential of the treasure trove of scholarly excellence and profound thoughts that you can take advantage of while using our philosophy writing service.

But why the intense focus on the philosophical field? The secret to its charm and age-long commitment to the discipline are the complex questions philosophy presents. A brilliantly written philosophy essay can put the reader right in the middle of the discourse, making them a part of the discourse, a participant in the everlasting conversation led by the most insightful minds of humanity.

A skillful philosophy paper writer can create a bridge that connects abstract thoughts to concrete understanding and serves as a guide for the reader to cross it. That is no small feat. At Writology.com, we appreciate this transformative power of philosophy and offer our assistance to all those who seek help in the monumental endeavor of writing philosophy papers.

Choosing Excellence: Explore the Writology’s Commitments

In today’s diverse and competitive academic landscape, the right writing partner can be the difference between success and mediocrity. At Writology.com, we pride ourselves on offering not only the benefits of a top writing service but also the commitment to being at your side every step of the way. Here are some of the benefits you’ll enjoy when opting for us.

• Expertise Across All Borders. No matter which philosophy essay writer works on your assignment, they will surely know all the intricacies of the US/UK English and the educational frameworks of the respective regions. Such a skill set ensures that every essay is perfectly adapted to a specific academic environment.
• Consistent Style. Enjoy a specific expert’s writing and work ethic? You have the freedom to work with the same philosophy paper writer again. That way you can get the consistency of the style and voice in all your assignments you order from us.
• Top Writers. Our philosophy experts are among the leading ones in the field. With a proven excellence streak, their creations are enlightening, persuasive, and masterfully crafted.
• Quality, Assured. We’ve set up a rigorous hiring process and quality control to ensure that you get only the best results out of your experience with us.
• Wallet-Friendly. Quality doesn’t always mean enormous prices. We’ve designed a pricing structure that allows every student to ask for help without a second thought.
• On-time Delivery. Your deadlines are the key to our work ethic. We make sure that every paper is ready to go exactly when you need it.
• Genuine Texts. Authenticity is paramount to our writers’ process. Your essays are crafted from scratch and closely follow your guidelines.
• Data Safety. Choosing us means your personal data remains confidential at all times. No third party has access to it.
• Free revision. Your satisfaction with the final result is our priority. If you need adjustments to be made, let us know within 48 hours of the deadline (even longer with the extra packages).
• Money-back guarantee. While our papers often serve as an example of perfection, we can’t avoid an exception or two that supports the rule. For such rare situations, we offer a money-back guarantee.

Why Choose Our Philosophy Paper Writing Service: An Enlightened Decision

Your academic journey deserves more than a simply decent assignment. Infuse it with the vision, expertise, and skill of our philosophy paper writer, and enjoy your student life to the fullest. Let us be your guiding hand, making sure that you don’t get stuck on your path.

Journey Through Thought: Philosophy Assignments Tailored to Your Needs

The study of philosophy is an invitation to explore life’s greatest questions: Who are we? What is our purpose? How should we live? These questions find new and unique interpretations with different generations, cultures, and individual thinkers. At Writology.com, we offer a variety of philosophical essays that can cater to a vast array of your assignment needs.

Philosophical Argument Essay

A philosophical argument essay is not a mere presentation of facts but rather an art form in its own right. Working on a philosophical argument, you need to string together reason, evidence, and logic to present a solid case for your point of view. At our company, we have writers who are skilled in developing arguments that are both compelling and thought-provoking. Thanks to their mastery and experience, they ensure that every premise presented supports the conclusion, guiding the reader through a journey of intellectual discovery.

Philosophy of Life Essay

Life experiences, mysteries, and intricacies often push people to reflect on their personal beliefs and values. Our philosophy of life essays offer introspection, connecting personal experiences to universal philosophical themes. We help craft narratives that resonate with readers, making them reflect on and understand the myriad ways in which philosophy weaves through with daily life.

Ethical Dilemma Essay

At its core, ethics is the study of what’s right and wrong. There are numerous ethical dilemmas that have become everyday questions for some students and a fleeting thought for others. Yet, all of them still present their thoughts in writing when they have a task to submit an ethical dilemma essay. At Writology.com, Each and every philosophy paper writer dives deep into such scenarios, working out how personal beliefs might go against philosophical principles and presenting arguments that highlight the complexities of moral decision-making.

Comparative Philosophy Essay

The beauty of philosophy lies in its diversity. Different thinkers, schools of thought, and cultural philosophies offer diverse and innumerable insights into life’s essential questions. Our comparative philosophy essays aim to explore these varied perspectives, seeking common points, understanding differences, and presenting an all-encompassing view of philosophical themes.

Beyond these types of assignments, we believe in constant education and enlightenment. As philosophical discourse grows, so does the depth of our knowledge and the mastery of our philosophy paper writers. Whether you need to explore a specific philosophical school, ruminate on contemporary issues, or dive deep into ancient wisdom, our writing team can dive in with you and follow your instructions to the end.

Minds At Work: Meet The Team That Gets You to The Top

Every philosophical paper has a genius behind it. At our company, that genius is our seasoned writing team. But what makes them so valuable to your academic journey?

• Diverse expertise. From the Socratic dialogues of ancient Greece to the mastery of the modern world, our experts are familiar with all.
• Practical theorists. Many of our writers live in the fascinating plain between academia and the real world. This variety of experiences brings fullness to your papers, mixing theory with practical insights.
• Always in the know. As philosophy evolves, so do our experts. Their commitment to continuous learning ensures that your essays are not just informed but also innovative.
• Commitment to ethics. For every philosophy paper writer on our team, ethics isn’t just a subject—it’s a way of life. Every piece they come up with is rooted in authenticity and intellectual honesty.

To put it briefly, our writing team is the solid foundation for our academic pursuits, turning each assignment into an academic masterpiece.

Find the Best Value: The Balance Behind Our Quality/Affordability Ratio

Navigating the academic world can be both exciting and expensive. That’s why at Writology, we’ve thought out our pricing to make sure every cent you invest with us gets reflected in the text. Let’s unpack the features of our pricing approach.

Unpacking the price factors

Your essay’s length, urgency, and academic level shape its cost. Understandably, complex philosophical analysis for a master’s level within a short deadline demands more resources compared to a standard college essay with a longer timeframe.

Choose Your Package:

• Standard. Your task will be assigned to the most suitable philosophy paper writer available at the time. Trust us that the quality standard remains high.
• Premium. For those tight on time, this option puts your paper at the top of our priority list. With a price increase of just 10%, ensure that your urgency is known to all.
• Superior. If you accept nothing less than excellence, this is the option for you. With a slight 15% addition, get our best-of-the-best writers to work on your assignment.

Remember, our prices are competitive, but we never compromise on quality. The extra packages and perks we offer only contribute to the variety of choices you have when opting for our help.

Discounts & Promotions

While specific offers can vary, we always have helpful discounts and promotions in place. We value both our loyal customers and new clients. Therefore, always be on the lookout for the opportunity to save with us.

The Writology.com Way: 4 Easy Steps to Success

When typing in the search bar “who can write my philosophy paper for me?” students are not just looking for a helpful and knowledgeable philosophy paper writer. They’re looking for a smooth and stress-free experience that is user-friendly in its nature. At our company, we’ve made it as easy as it gets. Here’s how:

• Cover the basics first. Begin by filling out our detailed yet user-friendly form. Tell us about your topic (if you have a specific one), deadline, number of pages, and any instructions you have for your expert. The more details, the better for you, the paper, and your philosophy paper writer.
• Start off the writer search. Once the form is completed, make your payment using a suitable option. As soon as that’s done, we’ll start looking for the perfect match writer for you.
• Keep the dialogue going. Don’t hesitate to reach out to your writer! Communication is crucial, and we encourage you to provide feedback, notes, and stay updated on the writing process, so the final assignment captures your vision perfectly.
• Receive your paper. Having completed the first three steps, wait for the end of your deadline and download the final version of your paper. Review the finished text to make sure it perfectly meets your expectations.

Remember, Writology.com can be the perfect solution to your “write my philosophy paper” query. By choosing us, you don’t just get a finished paper, you get a dependable ally for your academic journey.

Facts and Statistics about Philosophy Writing

• Origins of Western Philosophy: Philosophy’s written journey unfurls from ancient Greece, where visionaries like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle laid the bedrock of Western thought. With seminal works such as Plato’s engaging “Republic” and Aristotle’s thought-provoking “Nicomachean Ethics,” these minds set the tone for millennia of intellectual pursuits. – Source: Kenny, A. (2004). A New History of Western Philosophy. Oxford University Press.
• Global Reach: The philosophical pulse isn’t exclusive to the West. From the intricate musings of China’s Confucianism and Daoism to India’s diverse Vedanta and Buddhism, our planet brims with an array of philosophical gems, each etched with unique strokes of wisdom. – Source: Black, B. (2011). Philosophy in the Indian Subcontinent. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• Growth in Academic Publishing: The past century has seen an explosion in the dissemination of philosophical ideas. A glimpse into The Philosopher’s Index shows a robust collection of over half a million philosophical publications between 1902 and 2022, a clear indicator of the discipline’s thriving scholarship. – Source: The Philosopher’s Index statistics (as of 2022).
• Prominent Journals: The storied pages of journals like “Mind,” active since 1876, have become a touchstone in the philosophical world. Others, including “The Journal of Philosophy,” “Philosophical Review,” and “Ethics,” have etched their legacy with in-depth explorations and debates. – Source: The American Philosophical Association journal rankings.
• Digital Impact: Philosophy hasn’t been immune to the digital wave. Platforms such as the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy have made erudite insights accessible at the click of a button. For instance, by early 2022, the Stanford Encyclopedia was home to an impressive cache of over 1,700 expertly curated articles. – Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy website metrics (as of January 2022).

Philosophy writing, both ancient and contemporary, stands as a testament to humanity’s enduring quest for understanding and meaning. Its rich history and continuous evolution underscore its importance in shaping critical thought and societal values.

Dawn to Dusk and Beyond: Our Commitment to Round-the-Clock Support

Just as the realm of philosophy knows no boundaries, our support service transcends regular office hours. Whenever you need us, we are here for you.

Stay Connected

• Email: perfect for thoughtful feedback and those pesky additional files.
• Phone: want to save time on typing and hear our wonderful support team? Give us a call!
• Live Chat: the most suitable option for those too busy not to multitask.

24/7 Availability

Our support team is ever-vigilant. Be it a Sunday morning or a holiday night, our staff remains accessible to clear your path to academic success. Click here to get in touch or drop us a message at [email protected] . Let’s craft a narrative that resonates, captivates, and inspires.

Client Feedback and Reviews

To foster a community of continuous improvement, we value and encourage feedback from our clients. Their reviews help us to refine our services further, aiming to exceed expectations with each new project.

Journey to Enlightenment: Let Us Be Your Philosophical Guide

The pursuit of a degree in philosophy can be a life-long intellectual journey, an exploration of the deepest recesses of human thought. And just as every adventurer needs a guide, every student needs a dependable writing partner to put vague or nascent ideas in perfect words. The team of Writology.com, can be that guiding hand, making sure that your path to the philosophical realm is full of wonder and challenging exploration.

Let us embark together on an odyssey where ancient wisdom meets modern insights. Endeavor to be the captain of your ship, seeking the treasure of knowledge in the depth of the ocean of ideas. Let us be your anchor in its glorious vastness. Your philosophical journey of a lifetime awaits. All you have to do is go on board.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Place an order
• About Writology
• How it Works
• Buy Custom Essays
• Nursing Writing Services
• Do My Assignment
• Buy a Letter of Recommendation
• Buy Research Papers

2.6 Writing Philosophy Papers

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Identify and characterize the format of a philosophy paper.
• Create thesis statements that are manageable and sufficiently specific.
• Collect evidence and formulate arguments.
• Organize ideas into a coherent written presentation.

This section will provide some practical advice on how to write philosophy papers. The format presented here focuses on the use of an argumentative structure in writing. Different philosophy professors may have different approaches to writing. The sections below are only intended to give some general guidelines that apply to most philosophy classes.

Identify Claims

The key element in any argumentative paper is the claim you wish to make or the position you want to defend. Therefore, take your time identifying claims , which is also called the thesis statement. What do you want to say about the topic? What do you want the reader to understand or know after reading your piece? Remember that narrow, modest claims work best. Grand claims are difficult to defend, even for philosophy professors. A good thesis statement should go beyond the mere description of another person’s argument. It should say something about the topic, connect the topic to other issues, or develop an application of some theory or position advocated by someone else. Here are some ideas for creating claims that are perfectly acceptable and easy to develop:

• Compare two philosophical positions. What makes them similar? How are they different? What general lessons can you draw from these positions?
• Identify a piece of evidence or argument that you think is weak or may be subject to criticism. Why is it weak? How is your criticism a problem for the philosopher’s perspective?
• Apply a philosophical perspective to a contemporary case or issue. What makes this philosophical position applicable? How would it help us understand the case?
• Identify another argument or piece of evidence that might strengthen a philosophical position put forward by a philosopher. Why is this a good argument or piece of evidence? How does it fit with the philosopher’s other claims and arguments?
• Consider an implication (either positive or negative) that follows from a philosopher’s argument. How does this implication follow? Is it necessary or contingent? What lessons can you draw from this implication (if positive, it may provide additional reasons for the argument; if negative, it may provide reasons against the argument)?

Think Like a Philosopher

The following multiple-choice exercises will help you identify and write modest, clear philosophical thesis statements. A thesis statement is a declarative statement that puts forward a position or makes a claim about some topic.

• How does Aristotle think virtue is necessary for happiness?
• Is happiness the ultimate goal of human action?
• Whether or not virtue is necessary for happiness.
• Aristotle argues that happiness is the ultimate good of human action and virtue is necessary for happiness.
• René Descartes argues that the soul or mind is the essence of the human person.
• Descartes shows that all beliefs and memories about the external world could be false.
• Some people think that Descartes is a skeptic, but I will show that he goes beyond skepticism.
• In the meditations, Descartes claims that the mind and body are two different substances.
• Descartes says that the mind is a substance that is distinct from the body, but I disagree.
• Contemporary psychology has shown that Descartes is incorrect to think that human beings have free will and that the mind is something different from the brain.
• Thomas Hobbes’s view of the soul is materialistic, whereas Descartes’s view of the soul is nonphysical. In this paper, I will examine the differences between these two views.
• John Stuart Mill reasons that utilitarian judgments can be based on qualitative differences as well as the quantity of pleasure, but ultimately any qualitative difference must result in a difference in the quantity of pleasure.
• Mill’s approach to utilitarianism differs from Bentham’s by introducing qualitative distinctions among pleasures, where Bentham only considers the quantitative aspects of pleasure.
• J. S. Mill’s approach to utilitarianism aligns moral theory with the history of ethics because he allows qualitative differences in moral judgments.
• Rawls’s liberty principle ensures that all people have a basic set of freedoms that are important for living a full life.
• The US Bill of Rights is an example of Rawls’s liberty principle because it lists a set of basic freedoms that are guaranteed for all people.
• While many people may agree that Rawls’s liberty principle applies to all citizens of a particular country, it is much more controversial to extend those same basic freedoms to immigrants, including those classified by the government as permanent residents, legal immigrants, illegal immigrants, and refugees.

[ANS: 1.d 2.c 3.c 4.a 5.c]

Write Like a Philosopher

Use the following templates to write your own thesis statement by inserting a philosopher, claim, or contemporary issue:

• [Name of philosopher] holds that [claim], but [name of another philosopher] holds that [another claim]. In this paper, I will identify reasons for thinking [name of philosopher]’s position is more likely to be true.
• [Name of philosopher] argues that [claim]. In this paper, I will show how this claim provides a helpful addition to [contemporary issue].
• When [name of philosopher] argues in favor of [claim], they rely on [another claim] that is undercut by contemporary science. I will show that if we modify this claim in light of contemporary science, we will strengthen or weaken [name of philosopher]’s argument.

Collect Evidence and Build Your Case

Once you have identified your thesis statement or primary claim, collect evidence (by returning to your readings) to compose the best possible argument. As you assemble the evidence, you can think like a detective or prosecutor building a case. However, you want a case that is true, not just one that supports your position. So you should stay open to modifying your claim if it does not fit the evidence . If you need to do additional research, follow the guidelines presented earlier to locate authoritative information.

If you cannot find evidence to support your claim but still feel strongly about it, you can try to do your own philosophical thinking using any of the methods discussed in this chapter or in Chapter 1. Imagine counterexamples and thought experiments that support your claim. Use your intuitions and common sense, but remember that these can sometimes lead you astray. In general, common sense, intuitions, thought experiments, and counterexamples should support one another and support the sources you have identified from other philosophers. Think of your case as a structure: you do not want too much of the weight to rest on a single intuition or thought experiment.

Consider Counterarguments

Philosophy papers differ from typical argumentative papers in that philosophy students must spend more time and effort anticipating and responding to counterarguments when constructing their own arguments. This has two important effects: first, by developing counterarguments, you demonstrate that you have sufficiently thought through your position to identify possible weaknesses; second, you make your case stronger by taking away a potential line of attack that an opponent might use. By including counterarguments in your paper, you engage in the kind of dialectical process that philosophers use to arrive at the truth.

Accurately Represent Source Material

It is important to represent primary and secondary source material as accurately as possible. This means that you should consider the context and read the arguments using the principle of charity. Make sure that you are not strawmanning an argument you disagree with or misrepresenting a quote or paraphrase just because you need some evidence to support your argument. As always, your goal should be to find the most rationally compelling argument, which is the one most likely to be true.

Organize Your Paper

Academic philosophy papers use the same simple structure as any other paper and one you likely learned in high school or your first-year composition class.

Introduce Your Thesis

The purpose of your introduction is to provide context for your thesis. Simply tell the reader what to expect in the paper. Describe your topic, why it is important, and how it arises within the works you have been reading. You may have to provide some historical context, but avoid both broad generalizations and long-winded historical retellings. Your context or background information should not be overly long and simply needs to provide the reader with the context and motivation for your thesis. Your thesis should appear at the end of the introduction, and the reader should clearly see how the thesis follows from the introductory material you have provided. If you are writing a long paper, you may need several sentences to express your thesis, in which you delineate in broad terms the parts of your argument.

Make a Logical and Compelling Case Using the Evidence

The paragraphs that follow the introduction lay out your argument. One strategy you can use to successfully build paragraphs is to think in terms of good argument structure. You should provide adequate evidence to support the claims you want to make. Your paragraphs will consist of quotations and paraphrases from primary and secondary sources, context and interpretation, novel thoughts and ideas, examples and analogies, counterarguments, and replies to the counterarguments. The evidence should both support the thesis and build toward the conclusion. It may help to think architecturally: lay down the foundation, insert the beams of your strongest support, and then put up the walls to complete the structure. Or you might think in terms of a narrative: tell a story in which the evidence leads to an inevitable conclusion.

Connections

See the chapter on logic and reasoning for a developed account of different types of philosophical arguments.

Summarize Your Argument in the Conclusion

Conclude your paper with a short summary that recapitulates the argument. Remind the reader of your thesis and revisit the evidence that supports your argument. You may feel that the argument as written should stand on its own. But it is helpful to the reader to reinforce the argument in your conclusion with a short summary. Do not introduce any new information in the conclusion; simply summarize what you have already said.

The purpose of this chapter has been to provide you with basic tools to become a successful philosophy student. We started by developing a sophisticated picture of how the brain works, using contemporary neuroscience. The brain represents and projects a picture of the world, full of emotional significance, but this image may contain distortions that amount to a kind of illusion. Cognitive illusions produce errors in reasoning, called cognitive biases. To guard against error, we need to engage in effortful, reflective thinking, where we become aware of our biases and use logical strategies to overcome them. You will do well in your philosophy class if you apply the good habits of mind discussed in this chapter and apply the practical advice that has been provided about how to read and write about philosophy.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's permission.

Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution License and you must attribute OpenStax.

Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/introduction-philosophy/pages/1-introduction

• Authors: Nathan Smith
• Publisher/website: OpenStax
• Book title: Introduction to Philosophy
• Publication date: Jun 15, 2022
• Location: Houston, Texas
• Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/introduction-philosophy/pages/1-introduction
• Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/introduction-philosophy/pages/2-6-writing-philosophy-papers

© Dec 19, 2023 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License . The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.

100+ Philosophy Essay Topics

Table of Contents

What is a Philosophy Essay?

A philosophy essay is an analytical piece of writing where the author critically explores philosophical concepts, theories, and arguments. Unlike typical essays that simply present information, a philosophy essay demands that you present a clear thesis or a specific point of view and then provide arguments or evidence to support or challenge it. The nature of philosophy is often abstract, dealing with questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language, thus requiring a thoughtful approach and careful analysis.

Guide to Choosing a Philosophy Essay Topic

Selecting the right topic for your philosophy essay is essential for laying the foundation for an intriguing and insightful paper. Here’s how:

• Identify Your Interest : Pick topics that genuinely intrigue you. Philosophy is vast; find your niche!
• Consider Your Audience : Who will read the essay? Tailor your topic to match their level of understanding and interest.
• Research and Familiarize : Ensure you have enough resources and knowledge to write extensively on the chosen topic.
• Challenge Yourself : Opt for topics that allow you to analyze and present unique perspectives critically.

Philosophy Essay Topics Lists

Metaphysics.

• Is there a purpose to life, or is existence merely accidental?
• Can the idea of an omnipotent and benevolent God coexist with the presence of evil in the world?
• What is the nature of reality – is it objective or subjective?
• Do human beings have free will, or are our actions predetermined?

Epistemology

• What is the nature and scope of human knowledge?
• Can we ever know something with absolute certainty?
• How do belief, knowledge, and truth interrelate?
• Is skepticism about the external world justified?
• Is morality absolute or relative?
• What makes an action morally right or wrong?
• Is there a universal standard of good, or is it culture-specific?
• How does self-interest play into moral decisions?
• What defines beauty in art or nature?
• Can art be morally wrong and still be considered great art?
• Is the appreciation of beauty purely subjective?
• How does cultural context influence our interpretation of art?

Social and Political Philosophy

• Is democracy the best form of governance?
• How should resources be distributed in a society – equally or based on merit?
• Is there a right to privacy in the digital age?
• Should there be limits to freedom of speech?

Existentialism

• What is the essence of human existence?
• How does one find meaning in a seemingly meaningless world?
• Is authenticity necessary for a fulfilled life?
• How do death and the finite nature of life influence human behavior?

Ancient Philosophy

• How did Socratic irony influence philosophical dialogue?
• Plato’s allegory of the cave: What does it reveal about human perception?
• Aristotle’s conception of virtue ethics.
• Stoicism and its relevance in today’s world.
• Epicureanism: The pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain.

Philosophy of Religion

• The problem of evil: Challenges to religious belief.
• Pascal’s Wager and its criticisms.
• Arguments for and against the existence of God.
• Religion and science: Are they compatible or conflicting?
• The concept of the afterlife in different religious traditions.

Philosophy of Mind

• Mind-body dualism: Arguments and implications.
• Is artificial intelligence capable of consciousness?
• The problem of other minds: How do we know others have consciousness?
• Emergent properties and the nature of consciousness.
• The philosophical implications of neuroscientific discoveries.

Feminist Philosophy

• The role of gender in epistemology.
• Feminist critiques of traditional ethical theories.
• The concept of the “male gaze” in feminist aesthetics.
• How does intersectionality reshape philosophical discussions on identity?
• The influence of Simone de Beauvoir on contemporary feminist thought.

Eastern Philosophy

• The Daoist conception of the “Way” and its significance.
• Buddhist philosophy on suffering and the path to enlightenment.
• Confucian values in modern Asian societies.
• The philosophy of karma and reincarnation.
• Comparing Western and Eastern notions of the self.

Philosophy of Science

• The demarcation problem: What distinguishes science from pseudoscience?
• Philosophical challenges posed by quantum mechanics.
• Scientific realism vs. anti-realism: Is science discovering truth?
• The role of paradigms and revolutions in the history of science, as posited by Thomas Kuhn.
• The ethics of genetic engineering and human enhancement.

Environmental Philosophy

• Deep ecology vs. shallow ecology: Different environmental ethics.
• The intrinsic value of nature: Should we value nature for its own sake?
• Philosophical perspectives on climate change and human responsibility.
• The rights of non-human animals: Ethical considerations.
• The anthropocentrism vs. biocentrism debate.

Postmodern Philosophy

• The nature of truth in a postmodern world.
• Derrida’s concept of deconstruction and its implications.
• The philosophical underpinnings of postmodern art and literature.
• Critiques of grand narratives and meta-narratives.
• Postmodernism and its impact on ethics and morality.

Logic and Argumentation

• The nature and types of logical fallacies.
• Inductive vs. deductive reasoning: Strengths and limitations.
• The paradoxes of Zeno and their resolutions.
• The importance of soundness and validity in argumentation.
• The challenges and limitations of formal logic in philosophical argumentation.

Applied Philosophy

• The ethics of euthanasia and assisted suicide.
• Philosophical arguments for and against capital punishment.
• The moral implications of global economic inequality.
• The philosophical challenges of privacy in the age of digital surveillance.
• The ethics of war: Just War Theory and its criticisms.

Philosophy of Language

• Wittgenstein’s “language games” and their implications for meaning.
• The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Does language shape our reality?
• Deconstructionism: How does language conceal and reveal truth?
• The philosophy of names: What’s in a name?
• Metaphor in language: More than just a linguistic device?

Continental Philosophy

• Heidegger’s notion of “Being” and its significance.
• Sartre and existential freedom: Are we condemned to be free?
• Foucault’s philosophy of power: How is power dispersed in society?
• Husserl’s phenomenology: A fresh approach to consciousness.
• Derrida vs. Foucault: Debating the nature of discourse and power.

African Philosophy

• Ubuntu: The African conception of community and humanity.
• African communitarianism vs. Western individualism.
• Oral traditions in African philosophy: A different way of knowing?
• Colonialism and its effects on African philosophical thought.
• The concept of time in African philosophy.

Philosophy of Education

• The Socratic method: Is questioning the best way to teach?
• Education for liberation: Paulo Freire’s pedagogical approach.
• Philosophy in the classroom: Should ethics be a mandatory subject?
• The hidden curriculum: What are schools really teaching?
• Moral education: Can virtue be taught?

Are you stuck on how to approach your chosen topic? Dive deep into philosophical insights with WriteOnDeadline’s essay writing service. Our expert writers are well-versed in all philosophical realms and can craft an insightful, cogent essay tailored just for you. Let’s make your philosophical journey an enlightening one.

Useful References

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• PhilPapers: Online Research in Philosophy
• MIT’s Free Philosophy Course Materials

How to Write a College Philosophy Essay: An Ultimate Guide 2023

Writing a philosophical essay is not a typical assignment where you summarize the ideas of professional philosophers and indicate whether you agree with them or not. Rather, engaging in philosophy necessitates assuming the role of a philosopher for the duration of the writing process, engaging in analytical and critical thinking, contemplating profound questions, and asking “WHY?”. This requires time and energy, as well as a lot of critical thinking on your part.

But what exactly is a philosophical essay ? If you are assigned to write a philosophy essay, you are required to select a thesis in the philosophical field and argue for or against it, drawing on the works of other professional philosophers to support your argument. However, it must also include your unique philosophical contribution. (But of course, this is only one interpretation of what a philosophical essay entails.)

Writing a Compelling Philosophy Paper Outline?

Before you write a philosophical essay , it is important to understand the questions that you are required to answer. First step, is writing an outline for the paper. Think of it as a blueprint for your philosophical paper that briefly outlines the main idea of each paragraph.

Read some helpful tips on how to write a philosophy paper outline,

• Begin by formulating your thesis statement, what you will be arguing for or against in your essay?
• Read and analyze relevant philosophical theories, and make note of sources that may support or counter your arguments.
• Determine the definitions of fundamental concepts, so that you can use precise philosophical terminology in your essay.
• After thorough and extensive contemplation, structure your ideas according to the format described below.

How to Structure a Philosophy Essay?

Similar to other types of essays, a philosophical essay comprises an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Adhering to this traditional structure for philosophical papers can prevent unnecessary anxiety.

Here is a brief guide on how to structure a philosophical paper:

Introduction: You need to clarify the question being addressed by your philosophy essay. Present your thesis – that is, the answer you are supporting. It is also necessary to explain fundamental philosophical concepts.

Main body: The essay should begin by presenting arguments in support of the thesis and then refuting potential objections to those arguments. Subsequently, other conceivable answers to the question should be presented along with their reasoning, and their principal arguments should be supported.

Conclusion: Summarized all possible answers to the question, and state why argument is the most viable one.

What’s the recommended Philosophy Paper Length?

In our experience, writing a philosophical essay that is 2,000 to 2,500 words in length is reasonable to cover the topic comprehensively while maintaining high-quality writing.

Nonetheless, it is important to check if there is a specific word limit that has been assigned before beginning to write. If the word limit is shorter or longer than our suggested range, it is advisable to adhere to the specified limit when composing your philosophical essay.

Philosophy paper writing format: APA, MLA, and Chicago

As an essay writing service that deals with philosophy and psychology papers, we have observed that the majority of students opt for the APA guidelines as their preferred format for writing philosophical essays. Nonetheless, it is ultimately the decision of the educational institution to determine which format should be followed.

Occasionally, students may be instructed to use a different format for college-level philosophy essays, such as MLA or Chicago. If the choice of format is left to the student and they are unsure about which one would be suitable for an argumentative philosophy essay, we will provide an overview of the most commonly used formats.

The most common citation style for philosophical essays is the APA (American Psychological Association) format. When using APA, the author’s last name is written first, followed by the year of publication, the book title, location, and publisher. For example, a book by Maxwell published in 2011, titled “Philosophical writing made Easy,” would be cited as:

Maxwell (2011). Philosophical writing made Easy. New York: Tender Prints.

The MLA (Modern Language Association) format is also frequently used in philosophical papers, and it involves double-spacing the text and including only the relevant elements of the source. The citation includes the author’s last name, first name, title of the source, title of the container, other contributors, version, publisher, publication date, and location. For example, a book authored by William Kennedy titled “Programmer,” published in 2001 by TWF Press and located in New Jersey, would be cited as:

 William Kennedy. Programmer. Coding basics: Wilford R., Joseph W., v.2, TWF Press, 2001, New Jersey.

Chicago format

The Chicago Manual of Style is commonly used in philosophical and historical works. To cite a book using this style, the author’s last name is written first, followed by the first name, book title, city of publication, publisher name, and year of publication. For example, a book titled “The Elements of Law,” authored by William Catherine, published in 2005 by Twin Than, and located in Los Angeles, would be cited as:

William Catherine. The Elements of Law. Los Angeles: Twin Than, 2005.

In conclusion, writing a philosophy essay requires careful planning, research, and analysis. Start by understanding the question you need to answer and crafting a clear thesis statement . Use credible sources and define key concepts to support your arguments and counterarguments. Follow the traditional structure of an introduction, main body, and conclusion. Pay attention to word count and adhere to the required format. Reading and analyzing texts with curiosity and critical thinking can help you gain a deeper understanding of philosophical concepts. Writing a philosophy essay may be challenging, but with practice and these tips, you can develop your skills and produce thoughtful and engaging essays.

• RESEARCH PAPER FOR SALE
• RESEARCH PAPER WRITER
• RESEARCH PROPOSAL WRITING SERVICES
• SCHOLARSHIP ESSAY HELP
• SPEECH HELP
• STATISTICS HOMEWORK HELP
• TERM PAPER WRITING HELP
• THESIS EDITING SERVICES
• THESIS PROPOSAL WRITING SERVICE
• TRIGONOMETRY HOMEWORK HELP
• ADMISSION ESSAY WRITING HELP
• BIOLOGY PAPER WRITING SERVICE
• BOOK REPORT WRITING HELP
• BUY BOOK REVIEW
• BUY COURSEWORKS
• BUY DISCUSSION POST
• BUY TERM PAPER
• CAPSTONE PROJECT WRITING SERVICE
• COURSEWORK WRITING SERVICE
• CRITIQUE MY ESSAY
• CUSTOM RESEARCH PAPER
• CUSTOMER CONDUCT
• DISSERTATION EDITING SERVICE
• DISSERTATION WRITERS
• DO MY DISSERTATION FOR ME
• DO MY POWERPOINT PRESENTATION
• EDIT MY PAPER
• English Research Paper Writing Service
• ENGLISH RESEARCH PAPER WRITING SERVICE
• ESSAY WRITING HELP
• ESSAYS FOR SALE
• GRADUATE PAPER WRITING SERVICE
• LAW ASSIGNMENT WRITING HELP
• MARKETING ASSIGNMENT WRITING HELP
• NON-PLAGIARIZED ESSAYS
• NURSING ASSIGNMENT HELP
• PAY FOR COURSEWORK
• PAY FOR ESSAYS
• PAY FOR LITERATURE REVIEW
• PAY FOR PAPERS
• PAY FOR RESEARCH PAPERS
• PERSONAL STATEMENT EDITING SERVICE
• PERSONAL STATEMENT WRITER
• PERSUASIVE ESSAY WRITING HELP
• PERSUASIVE ESSAY WRITING SERVICES
• PHD THESIS WRITING SERVICE
• PROOFREAD MY PAPER
• PSYCHOLOGY ESSAY WRITING SERVICES
• THESIS STATEMENT HELP
• WRITE MY ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR ME
• WRITE MY CASE STUDY
• WRITE MY DISCUSSION BOARD POST
• WRITE MY LAB REPORT

25 Best Writing Competitions for High School Students – 2024

April 12, 2024

Over the past several years, the number of college applicants has been steadily rising. [i] As college admissions become more competitive, there are many steps a student can take to achieve high school success and become an outstanding candidate for college admissions: earning high SAT scores, securing strong letters of recommendation , and participating in various competitions will all boost your admissions prospects. [ii] In particular, writing competitions for high school students are a popular way to win scholarships and prize money, receive feedback on writing, build a portfolio of public work, and add to college application credentials!

Below, we’ve selected twenty-five writing competitions for high school students and sorted them by three general topics: 1) language, literature and arts, 2) STEM, environment and sustainability, and 3) politics, history and philosophy. It’s never too soon to begin thinking about your future college prospects, and even if you are a freshman, many of these writing competitions for high schoolers will be open to you! [iii]

Writing Competitions for High School Students in Language, Literature, and Arts

1) adroit prizes for poetry and prose.

This prestigious creative writing award offers high school students the opportunity to showcase their work in Adroit Journal . Judges are acclaimed writers in their respective genres.

• Eligibility: All high school students (including international students) are eligible to apply. Poetry contestants may submit up to five poems. Prose contestants may submit up to three pieces of fiction or nonfiction writing (for a combined total of 3,500 words – excerpts accepted).
• Prize: Winners will receive $200 and their writing will be published in Adroit Journal . All submitted entries will be considered for publication!
• Deadline: May 1st (specific deadline may vary by year).

2)  Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest

This unique essay competition allows writers the chance to explore and respond to Ayn Rand’s fascinating and polemic 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged . Specific essay topics are posted every three months; prizes are granted seasonally with a grand prize winner announced every year.

• Prize: Annual grand prize is $25,000.
• Deadline: Deadlines occur every season, for each seasonal prompt.
• Eligibility: Essays must be written in English and be 800-1,600 words in length.

Writing Competitions for High School Students (Continued)

3)  the bennington young writers awards.

Through Bennington College, this high school writing competition offers three prizes in three different genre categories: poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Winners and finalists who decide to attend Bennington College will ultimately receive a substantial scholarship prize.

• Eligibility: U.S. and international students in grades 9 through 12 may apply.
• Prize: First place winners receive $1,000; second place wins $500; third place winners receive $250. YWA winners who apply, are admitted, and enroll at Bennington receive a $15,000 scholarship per year (for a total of $60,000). YWA finalists who apply, are admitted, and enroll at Bennington will receive a $10,000 scholarship per year (for a total of $40,000).
• Deadline: The competition runs annually from September 1st to November 1st.

4)  Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) Student Essay Contest

Do you love Jane Austen? If so, this is the high school writing competition for you! With the JASNA Student Essay Contest, high school students have the opportunity to write a six to eight-page essay about Jane Austen’s works, focused on a specific, designated topic for the competition year.

• Eligibility: Any high school student (homeschooled students also eligible) enrolled during the contest year may submit an essay.
• Prize: First place winner receives a $1,000 scholarship and two nights’ lodging for the upcoming annual JASNA meeting. Second place wins a $500 scholarship and third place wins a $250 scholarship. All winners will additionally receive a year membership in JASNA, the online publication of their article, and a set of Norton Critical Editions of Jane Austen’s novels.
• Deadline: Submission accepted from February-June 1st (specific dates may vary by year).

5)  The Kennedy Center VSA Playwright Discovery Program

Young aspiring writers with disabilities are encouraged to apply to this unique program. Students are asked to submit a ten-minute play script that explores any topic, including the student’s own disability experience.

• Eligibility: U.S. and international high school students with disabilities ages 14-19 may apply.
• Prize: Multiple winners will receive exclusive access to professional development and networking opportunities at The Kennedy Center.
• Deadline: January (specific deadline date may vary by year).

6)  Leonard M. Milburg ’53 High School Poetry Prize

Through Princeton’s Lewis Center for the Arts, this prestigious writing competition for high school students recognizes outstanding poetry writing and is judged by creative writing faculty at Princeton University.

• Eligibility: U.S. or international students in the eleventh grade may apply. Applicants may submit up to three poems.
• Prize: First place wins $1,500; second place wins $750; third place wins $500.
• Deadline: November (specific deadline date may vary by year).

7)  Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest

Nancy Thorp was a student at Hollins University who showed great promise as a poet. After her death, her family established this scholarship to support budding young poets.

• Eligibility: Female high school sophomores and juniors are eligible to apply. Applicants must be U.S. citizens.
• Prize: First place wins $350 and publication in Cargoes literary magazine, along with a $5,000 renewable scholarship (up to $20,000 over four years) if the student enrolls in Hollins University, and free tuition and housing for Hollins University’s summer creative writing program (grades 9-12). Second place wins publication in Cargoes, along with a $1,000 renewable scholarship ($4,000 over four years) if the student enrolls at Hollins and $500 to apply toward Hollins’ summer creative writing program.
• Deadline: October (specific deadline date may vary by year).

8)  National Council of Teachers of English Achievement Awards in Writing

Students may be nominated by their English teachers to win this prestigious writing award. Winners “exhibit the power to inform and move an audience through language” and prompts and genres may vary by competition year.

• Prize: A certificate will be awarded to students who are judged to have exceptional writing skills. Student names will be displayed on the NCTE website.
• Eligibility: U.S. high school sophomores and juniors are eligible for nomination.
• Deadline: February (specific dates may vary by year). Contest prompts released in August.

9)  National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

At Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, numerous opportunities for scholarships and awards await those who submit writing in various genres: literary criticism, drama, poetry, and fiction. In all, there are 28 generic categories of art and writing to choose from!

• Eligibility: Teens in grades 7-12 (ages 13 and up) may apply.
• Prize: Various types of recognition and scholarships (up to $12,500) are offered for these award winners.
• Deadline: Scholastic Awards opens for entries in September; deadlines range from December to January.

10)  National Society of High School Scholars Creative Writing Scholarship

In this creative writing competition for high schoolers, students have the opportunity to submit a piece poetry or fiction (or both – one in each category!) for the opportunity to be published on the NSHSS website and win a monetary prize.

• Eligibility: Rising high school students graduating in 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027 may apply.
• Prize: There will be three $2,000 awards for the fiction category and three $2,000 awards for the poetry category.
• Deadline: Submissions Accepted from May to October (specific dates may vary by year).

11)  National Writing Award: The Humanities and a Freer Tomorrow

This writing competition allows high school students the chance to be nominated by a teacher for a piece of writing in response to Ruth J. Simmons’ “Facing History to Find a Better Future.” Specific prompt topics may vary by year.

• Eligibility: Nominating teachers can submit work from 11th and 12th graders in one category (fiction, poetry, prose, or essay).
• Prize: One top prize of $1,000. Four additional prizes of $500 each. Winners will have the opportunity to have their work published by NCTE.
• Deadline: Applications are open September to October (specific dates may vary by year).

12)  New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award

Although this prestigious award isn’t exclusively for high schoolers (anyone younger than 35 may submit a work of fiction), if you’ve written a collection of short stories or even a novel, you should certainly consider applying!

• Eligibility: Any writer below the age of 35 may submit a novel or collection of short stories to participate in this competition.
• Prize: $10,000 award.
• Deadline: September (specific date may vary by year).

13)  Princeton University Ten-Minute Play Contest

This writing competition for high school students awards three annual top prizes for the best ten-minute play. Play submissions are judged each year by an acclaimed guest playwright.

• Eligibility: U.S. or international students in the eleventh grade may apply. Students may submit one play entry; entries must be ten pages or less. Plays must be written in English.
• Prize: First place prize is $500; second place is $250; third place is $100.
• Deadline: Varies by year. However, students are recommended to submit before the deadline date – the submission portal will close when a maximum of 250 applicants have applied.

14)  YouthPLAYS New Voices One-Act Competition for Young Playwrights

In this exciting writing competition, students have the chance to submit an original play script for a play of around 10-40 minutes in length. An excellent competition choice for any student considering a future in the theatre!

• Eligibility: Prospective authors ages 19 and under may submit a script for consideration in the competition. See specific writing guidelines here .
• Prize: First prize wins $250 and publication with YouthPLAYS; second prize wins $100.
• Deadline: Submissions run from January 1st to May 1st.

STEM, Environment, and Sustainability High School Writing Competitions

15)  engineergirl essay contest.

This wonderful essay contest invites students to explore topics related to engineering and science. Each year a new, specific prompt will be chosen for young writers who wish to compete.

• Eligibility: High school students are eligible to apply. Previous winners and close family members of employees of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine are not eligible.
• Prize: First place winners receive $1,000; second place receives $750; third place receives $500.
• Deadline: Competition opens in September and submissions are due February 1st of the following year. Winners are announced in the summer.

16)  Ocean Awareness Contest

The Ocean Awareness Contest is an opportunity for students to create written and artistic projects that explore sustainability, environmentalism, and positive change. High school freshmen (up to age 14) may apply to the Junior Division. Students ages 15-18 may enter the Senior Division.

• Eligibility: Students ages 11-18 may apply (international students included).
• Prize: Monetary prizes ranging from $100-$1000 will be awarded each year. Additionally, $500 will be awarded to ten students who identify as Black, Indigenous, or Latino via the We All Rise Prize program.
• Deadline: June 10, 2024 (specific deadline may vary by year).

17)  Rachel Carson Intergenerational Sense of Wonder / Sense of Wild Contest

If you are interested in issues of sustainability, environment, biology and the natural world, this is one of the high school writing competitions that is just for you! Essay prompts explore the natural world and our place within it and may include poetry, essays, and photography.

• Eligibility: Students must pair with an adult from a different generation (e.g. parent, grandparent or teacher – contestants need not be related). Entries must be submitted as a team.
• Prize: Winners will receive a certificate from RCLA; their first names, ages, and entry titles will be posted on the RCLA website.
• Deadline: November 16th, 2024 (specific deadline may vary by year).

18)  River of Words Competition

This writing competition for high school students is another top choice for those thinking of pursuing majors or careers in biology, environment, and sustainability; this specific contest hopes to promote positive education in sustainability by “promoting environmental literacy through the arts and cultural exchange.”

• Eligibility: Any U.S. or international student from kindergarten through 12th grade may apply.
• Prize: Winners will be published in the River of Words
• Deadline: January (specific deadline may vary by year).

Writing Competitions for High School Students in Politics, History and Philosophy

19)  american foreign service association essay contest.

With this writing competition for high school students, entrants may submit essays ranging from 1,000-1,500 words about diplomacy, history, and international politics (specific prompts vary by year).

• Eligibility: Students in grades nine through twelve may apply. Students whose parents are in the Foreign Service Association are not eligible.
• Prize: The first-place winner will receive $2,500, an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. for the winner and the winner’s parents, and an all-expense paid voyage via Semester at Sea. The second-place winner receives $1,250 and full tuition for a summer session at the National Student Leadership Conference’s International Diplomacy program.
• Deadline: Early spring (specific deadline may vary by year).

20)  Bill of Rights Institute We the Students Essay Contest

In this writing competition for high school students, civic-minded U.S. high schoolers may explore the principles and virtues of the Bill of Rights Institute. Interested applicants should review the specific submission guidelines .

• Eligibility: Any high school student aged 13 to 19 may apply.
• Prize: Prizes range from $1,500 to $10,000.
• Deadline: Submissions for 2024 due May 19th (specific deadline may vary by year).

21)  JFK Presidential Library and Museum Profile in Courage Essay Contest

For students interested in history and political science, this competition offers the chance to write about U.S. elected officials who have demonstrated political courage.

• Eligibility: U.S. high school students from grades 9-12 may apply.
• Prize: First prize is $10,000; second prize receives $3,000; five finalists receive $1,000 each; ten semifinalists receive $100 each; eight students receive honorable mention.
• Deadline: Submissions accepted from September to January (specific deadline may vary by year).
• Sample Essays: 2000-2023 Contest Winner Essays

22)  John Locke Institute Essay Competition

This essay competition is for students who would like to write about and cultivate “independent thought, depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis and persuasive style” from one of seven intellectual categories: philosophy, politics, economics, history, psychology, theology or law.

• Eligibility: Students from any country may submit an essay.
• Prize: $2,000 for each subject category winner toward a John Locke Institute program; winning essays will be published on the Institute’s website.
• Deadline: Registration must be completed by May 31st, 2024; essay submission due June 30th, 2024 (specific deadline may vary by year).

23)  Society of Professional Journalists and the Journalism Education Association Essay Contest

This exciting writing competition for high schoolers allows students to explore topics related to journalism, democracy and media literacy. Specific prompts will be provided for contestants each year.

• Eligibility: All U.S. students from grades 9-12 may submit original writing to participate in this contest.
• Prize: First-place winners will receive $1,000; second place is awarded $500; third place receives $300.
• Deadline: February (specific deadline may vary by year).

24)  Veterans of Foreign Wars Voice of Democracy Youth Scholarship Essay

This audio essay allows high school students the opportunity to “express themselves in regards to a democratic and patriot-themed recorded essay.” One winner will be granted a $35,000 scholarship to be paid toward their university, college, or vocational school of choice. Smaller prizes range from $1,000-$21,000, and the first-place winner in each VFW state wins $1,000.

• Prize: College scholarships range from $1,000-$35,000
• Eligibility: U.S. students in grades 9-12 may submit a 3-5-minute audio essay.
• Deadline: October 31st
• Sample Written Essay: 2023-2024 Prize-winning essay by Sophia Lin

25)  World Historian Student Essay Competition

The World Historian Student Essay Competition recognizes young scholars who explore world historical events and how they relate to the student scholar personally. Ultimately the student writer must describe “the experience of being changed by a better understanding of world history.”

• Eligibility: Internationally, students ages K-12 may submit an entry. See specific prompt and submission guidelines for writing instructions.
• Prize: $500

Writing Competitions for High School Students – Sources

[i] Institute for Education Sciences: National Center for Education Statistics. “Number of applications for admission from first-time, degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students were received by postsecondary institutions in the fall.” https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/TrendGenerator/app/answer/10/101

[ii] Jaschik, Scott. “Record Applications, Record Rejections.” Inside Higher Ed . 3 April 2022. https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2022/04/04/most-competitive-colleges-get-more-competitive

[iii] Wood, Sarah. “College Applications are on the Rise: What to Know.” U.S. News & World Report. 21 June 2022. https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/college-applications-are-on-the-rise-what-to-know

• Extracurricular Activities

Jamie Smith

For the past decade, Jamie has taught writing and English literature at several universities, including Boston College, the University of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University. She earned a Ph.D. in English from Carnegie Mellon, where she currently teaches courses and conducts research on composition, public writing, and British literature.

• 2-Year Colleges
• Application Strategies
• Best Colleges by Major
• Best Colleges by State
• Big Picture
• Career & Personality Assessment
• College Essay
• College Search/Knowledge
• College Success
• Costs & Financial Aid
• Dental School Admissions
• Graduate School Admissions
• High School Success
• High Schools
• Law School Admissions
• Medical School Admissions
• Navigating the Admissions Process
• Online Learning
• Private High School Spotlight
• Summer Program Spotlight
• Summer Programs
• Test Prep Provider Spotlight

“Innovative and invaluable…use this book as your college lifeline.”

— Lynn O'Shaughnessy

Nationally Recognized College Expert

College Planning in Your Inbox

Join our information-packed monthly newsletter.

I am a... Student Student Parent Counselor Educator Other First Name Last Name Email Address Zip Code Area of Interest Business Computer Science Engineering Fine/Performing Arts Humanities Mathematics STEM Pre-Med Psychology Social Studies/Sciences Submit