Guidelines for Writing Exercises
Nate Charlow
January 19, 2021
Grading. 100 points are possible for each writing exercise. Here is how those points are assigned.
• Mastery of the text/issue (40). Excellent writing demonstrates a solid and sophisticated understanding of the relevant philosophical text/issue, the evidence of careful reading and study.
• Clarity, rigor, and care of presentation (40). Excellent writing clearly articulates central philosophical claims (and clearly explains how the arguments for these claims work); extraneous detail is omitted; a simple and compelling presentation of a philosophical point- of-view is achieved.
• Writing and organization (20 points). Excellent writing uses transparent and easy-to- read prose; it is concise, precise, and pleasant/straightfoward to read.
Grading Table
Mastery of the text (40 possible) 40 36 32 28 24 20 16
Clarity, rigor, compellingness (40 possible) 40 36 32 28 24 20 16
Writing and organization (20 possible) 20 18 16 14 12 10 8
More information. Here is a useful general resource on writing philosophy papers, written by Jim Pryor. Note that some of Pryor’s advice is only appropriate for longer-form philosophical writing. But a good deal of this advice—for example: use simple prose, make the structure of your writing obvious, explains key claims and terms concisely but also fully—is useful for even short-form philosophical writing (like the kind you’ll be doing in the Writing Exercises).
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http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/writing.html