Paper grading standards
Part 1
Part 1 will be read and graded independently from part 2 and 3. Ideas and arguments in part 2 or 3 will not contribute to your grade for part 1.
Audience: The audience for Part 1 is a reasonable person who has taken this class, understood everything we have covered, and starts off disagreeing with your thesis.
Part 1 gets an A if it could convince the audience that your thesis is true. This means that Part 1 must do all of the following:
Part 1 must explain what your thesis means. Any unclear or ambiguous terms should be explained. Given this explanation, a person should be able to think of example situations and determine if they fit the antecedent(s) of the conditional(s) in your thesis. If not, then no one can tell whether or not Part 1 could convince your audience, since we don't know what it is trying to convince the audience.
Part 1 must contain an argument for your thesis. The argument must give evidence that your thesis is true, evidence which could convince the audience. The argument should address every aspect of your thesis: if your thesis has multiple conditionals, or multiple conditions in the antecedent(s), you must argue for all of these.
Part 1 must address all obvious objections. Your thesis, and/or your arguments, will seemingly disagree with arguments we covered in class, or ideas in the readings. Or, there may be problems with your arguments, or counterexamples to your thesis, that your audience would very easily think of. These are "obvious" objections - objections that your audience will know of, which must be addressed in order to convince your audience.
Your paper must state all the obvious objections. For each, it must explain why this objection would seem relevant to your thesis or arguments.
Your paper must respond to each objection (showing that your thesis is still true) in a way that could satisfy your audience. This will require giving evidence that your audience would find compelling.
Your overall grade for Part 1 will be determined by the quality of your argument for your thesis and your responses to each obvious objection. So, for example, you could give a B quality argument for your thesis, an B quality response to one obvious objection, and forget to respond to the other possible obvious objection. This would be about a C-level Part 1, since part is A quality, part B quality, and part F quality.
Part 2
In Part 2, you must give a reasonable counterexample to your thesis.
This must be a specific example, which is significantly different from any we have covered in class, or anything that was in the reading. You must clearly explain the specific situation that is your counterexample. And you must clearly explain why someone would think that this is a strong counterexample to your thesis.
To get an A, you must both give a counterexample to your thesis that could convince a reasonable person that your thesis is false, and also clearly explain why a reasonable person could be convinced by it, in a way that shows that you understand (some of) those who disagree with you.
Part 3
In Part 3, you must respond to the counterexample given in Part 2. You may not change your thesis, nor change any part of the objection from Part 2.
Your response should be able to convince a person who was originally compelled by the example in Part 2.
If your response shows that there is a better counterexample to your thesis than the one in Part 2 (e.g. it focuses on a detail of Part 2 that could easily be changed to make Part 2 a better counterexample), that is bad for your grade.
If Part 2 is a weak or bad counterexample to your thesis, then you cannot get a good grade for Part 3; this is because Part 3 does not demonstrate your ability to really engage with people who disagree with you.
Detailed breakdown of grading standards
Paper Part 1:
60% of your grade.
Thesis:
These criteria on the thesis are a minimum bar for a passing paper. If you far exceed them, it's not going to push your grade up. But if you fail to meet them, it will be very hard to get even a decent grade. This is because your thesis is what makes sense of everything else you say in the paper.
1. Your thesis is either pre-approved or Brian has approved it in writing. Theses that contain are different in any meaningful way from what has been approved can potentially result in an F.
* Your thesis must be the first sentence of the paper, and explained immediately after.
2. Your thesis is not trivial (a thesis is trivial when the antecedent and consequent mean the same thing). Trivial theses can potentially result in an F. A thesis can be graded down for being somewhat trivial.
3. Any terms that are vague, ambiguous, or unclear are defined or explained early in your paper. A reader should be able to think of example situations and determine exactly what your thesis says about them.
Argument for your thesis:
4. The argument gives evidence which could be compelling to a reasonable person who has understood the course material and started out not agreeing with your thesis. (You may have to explain why this evidence would be compelling)
5. The evidence is sufficient to establish that your thesis is true (rather than partly true, or close to the truth).
6. It is clear and well explained how the evidence supports your thesis, and why the evidence is sufficient to establish that your thesis is true.
Response to "obvious" objections.
7. You identify and explain all of the obvious objections to your thesis or to the points you made in making your arguments.
* An obvious objection is anything discussed in class or in the reading that seems to go against your thesis or the points you make in arguing for your thesis. Obvious objections also include any objections that would come to mind to a reasonable and attentive reader who had taken this class, given a modicum of reflection about your claims.
8. For each objection, you correctly characterize what the disagreement is and why it exists.
9. You respond to each obvious objections. This involves either explaining why the apparent disagreement is not a real disagreement, or why the objection is mistaken or irrelevant.
10. The response to the objection must be clear, and must be able to able to convince a reasonable person who had made that objection.
(Note: we will apply 8-10 separately to each obvious objection you discuss; in essence, we will grade each obvious objection separately. If you leave out an obvious objection, this is like getting an F for that objection)
Part 2. Non-obvious objection
20% of your grade
11. Gives one counterexample your thesis. This must be significantly different from anything discussed in class or in the readings. (If your thesis has two conditionals in it, you should only discuss a counterexample to one of them)
12. The counterexample is plausible, relevant to the thesis, and not ruled out by what is said in Part 1. A reasonable person who had read Part 1 and taken this class could think that this counterexample disproves your thesis.
* It must not be the case that small changes to the counterexample would clearly make it a better counterexample.
13. It is explained why the counterexample is relevant to the thesis, why it shows that the thesis is false, and why a reasonable person would believe it is a strong counterexample.
Part 3. Response to the non-obvious objection
20% of your grade
Note: If part 2 is very weak, then part 3 cannot get a high grade. An response to a bad objection does not demonstrate philosophical understanding.
14. Gives an argument that the objection does not show your thesis is false.
* This must not misinterpret the objection.
* This does not change the thesis.
* The response does not rely on details of the counterexample that could easily be changed.
15. The response gives evidence which could be compelling to a reasonable person who was initially convinced by the example from Part 2.
16. The evidence is sufficient to show that the counterexample does not disprove your thesis.
17. It is clear and well explained how the evidence responds to the counterexample.
18. The response does not change or misuse the meanings of any terms discussed in class or in the reading.
19. The response does not rely on any misunderstandings of concepts or arguments from class or the reading.
General standards:
These apply to the entire paper.
20. Any discussion of ideas, terms, or arguments from class or the readings is correct and accurate (This is extremely important; mistakes about class material can bring down your grade significantly).
21. The meaning of every sentence is clear.
22. No significant grammar/spelling/word choice errors.
23. No use of quotations unless absolutely necessary.
Formatting
Your grade will be reduced 1/3 of a grade (e.g. from a B+ to B) for each of these rules you break.
* ID page: after the last body page, add a new page with nothing on it but your name; put your name at the bottom of this page. This allows us to grade all papers anonymously.
* Do not put your name, or any other identifying marks, anywhere on the paper except for your ID page.
* Single spaced, 1" margins, 12 point font (Times New Roman or something very similar).
* No introduction or conclusion. Your first sentence is your thesis.
* Must be in .doc or .docx format.
* The file name must be "[your student id number] [course number] PAPER 1.doc" or ".docx".
* Please label "Part 1," "Part 2," and "Part 3" of your paper (see above for what goes in each part).
* If you are writing on a thesis that was not pre-approved, you must have gotten approval by email from Brian. If you did, please put a footnote after your thesis saying "This thesis was approved by Brian on [date]."
Length
* The paper can be as long as you want. However, if it goes over 3 pages (excluding bibliography and ID pages), you will be marked down for any unnecessary material ("unnecessary" meaning "not needed to fulfill the above grading standards"). Going over 3 pages is fine as long as it is done to satisfy the above grading standards.