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Guides For Term Paper Writing

8 Steps to Creating a Great Term Paper in Philosophy

If you are given a term paper in philosophy, you should keep in mind that you must present an argument. It isn’t enough to describe your opinion or list a set of ideas of other authors. Therefore, developing a clear thesis statement is important. The following eight steps will help you create a great term paper in philosophy:

  1. Learn something about the subject matter.

    2. You should become familiar with the material, develop your own position, and consider supporting points before your start to work on your paper. Sometimes, students decide to correct or change their topics after they do some background study. A good idea is to select a subject that you are knowledgeable about.

  2. Create a mind map.

    3. You will save your time by creating a mind map. Write your ideas and connect them to your thesis statement. If they’re unrelated or don’t seem logical, you should come up with other ideas. Some students write key words and connect them with arrows. You can use your search engine to look for good examples of mind maps for philosophy term papers.

  3. Criticize your ideas.

    4. You’ll produce a good term paper if you play the role of a self-critic. For example, if you claim that there is a free will, you should develop the arguments for a person who doubts that. You can argue that since all people are governed by the laws of physics, there is no free will. So, you’ll check whether your position is well-supported.

  4. Present arguments against potential objections.

    5. After you come up with potential counterarguments, you can strengthen your paper by providing answers to possible questions.

  5. Stay within the scope of the assignment.

    6. Bear in mind that you can’t mention all the arguments and counterarguments and you don’t have to. Your task is to choose the key arguments and strong points of criticism against them. Keep in mind that if you miss something important, your professor will notice that.

  6. Prepare an outline.

    7. When you come up with your ideas, you should prepare an outline to organize information in a proper way. Add the quotations of philosophers to support your argument.

  7. Write your first draft quickly.

    8. Many students are carried away writing on philosophy topics, so you should stay focused and stick to a chosen topic.

  8. Use analogies to explain your point.

    9. Your text should clearly present your point. In philosophy term papers, it’s a good idea to use analogies to explain your thoughts. For instance, you can compare human behavior to a computer program.

Tips for Term Paper Format

After writing and rewriting your content and polishing your final draft, your work is not quite finished just yet. This is where you add any final touches you had yet to complete that your paper may require. These elements may include a title page, works cited page, and setting margins and page spacing. Your content may need to follow a specific order and this is the best time to ensure your work displays it. For instance, your format may include an abstract, introduction, methods, results, and discussion in this order. Some students may find it easier to incorporate these requirements into their paper as they are writing it instead of waiting until the end.

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