Philosophy Writing Workshop Assignment 6: Analyzing a Paragraph in Philosophy Papers, Assignments of Philosophy of Law

Download Philosophy Writing Workshop Assignment 6: Analyzing a Paragraph in Philosophy Papers and more Assignments Philosophy of Law in PDF only on Docsity! PHIL 3900: PHILOSOPHY WRITING WORKSHOP FALL, 2003 Assignment 6 – Analyzing a paragraph For this assignment you will choose a well written paragraph in a paper, and then analyze what makes it good. First, choose a philosophy paper to work with. This may be the paper you found for Assignment 3, or you may find another paper relevant to your work in your target course if you prefer. Then, choose a paragraph that you think is particularly well written. This should be a paragraph that you think is clear, pleasant to read, and which you would like to use as a model for your own writing. The paragraph you choose should make a substantive contribution to the paper’s argument: it should not be a short transitional or “navigation” paragraph. To facilitate your analysis and the work of the grader and your respondent, please copy the paragraph, numbering the sentences, and include it at the end of your assignment. Now, answer the following questions about the paragraph. 1. What idea is the paragraph trying to establish? Give the number of the sentence in the paragraph that supports your answer, and then re-state the idea in your own words. 2. Why is the paragraph trying to support this idea? Copy a sentence from elsewhere in the paper that supports your answer, and paraphrase it. 3. How does the paragraph support this idea? Show the structure of the argument by listing the key ideas in your own words, providing the sentence numbers where these ideas are presented. Describe the logical relations between these ideas. If the paragraph itself describes the logical relations between ideas, use the sentence numbers to say where. Please submit your work as an e-mail attachment to Prof. Trachtenberg (ztrachtenberg@ou.edu) by noon on Tuesday, Oct. 7. BE SURE YOUR NAME APPEARS IN THE FILE. After 5:00 PM on Oct. 7, check the Assignments page on the course website for the guidelines for your response to another student’s work, which will be due at the beginning of class on Thursday, Oct. 9.