Help with Writing & Citing Sources

Writing papers in philosophy

Christina's advice

Here are guidelines for writing essays for this course (same document, two different formats):

Essay guidelines (MS Word) Download Essay guidelines (MS Word)

Essay guidelines (PDF) Download Essay guidelines (PDF)

Here is a marking rubric we use when marking your essays. It is useful to look at this beforeyou write essays, so you can see the sorts of things you should be sure to do in your essays.

Essay marking rubric (MS Word) Download Essay marking rubric (MS Word)

Essay marking rubric (PDF) Download Essay marking rubric (PDF)

Advice from others that Christina also agrees with

A shortish article on writing philosophy papers Links to an external site., by Peter Horban from SFU.

Suggestions for thesis statements & topic sentences for paragraphs

This page from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Links to an external site.has some good tips for writing effective thesis statements.

This short PDF from University of Manitoba Links to an external site.is also useful, including some sample thesis statements that are not very good and comparing them to stronger ones.

The drop-down for topic sentences on this page from the Writing Centre at the University of Ottawa Links to an external site.provides a short and useful guide to topic sentences.

Help with writing generally, outside of talking to Christina or your T.A.

UBC does have a place where you can go to talk to others about your writing, called the Centre for Writing and Scholarly Communication. They have drop-in hours, as well as information on their website about writing more generally.

Citing sources

• The UBC Library has a site that gives information about various citation styles. You can use any citation style in this course you want; just be sure to be consistent (go to "style guides" in the tabs on this page).
• This page from the library has links to a few citation tools that you could try to put your citations into MLA format. See "citation management tools" on that page.
  • Note that if you use one of these tools, you are still responsible for making sure the citations are correct. Not all of the tools are entirely reliable for making the citations correct. And a problem with EasyBib and perhaps other tools: if you copy/paste from EasyBib, the text or film titles are no longer italicized, when they should be!

Academic Integrity / avoiding plagiarism

Here are some resources about what academic integrity is and how to avoid problems like plagiarism. It’s actually fairly easy to engaging in plagiarism in essays, even if you don’t mean to. Usually it’s a matter of learning how to paraphrase and cite sources correctly. The links below should help with such things.

UBC policies on academic integrity & academic misconduct

• UBC Policy 85, on Scholarly Integrity
• UBC Calendar, information on Academic misconduct and discipline (all of the sections on this page are useful) 

What is academic integrity?

The International Center for Academic Integrity Links to an external site. explains integrity this way:

The International Center for Academic Integrity defines

academic integrity as a commitment to five fundamental

values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and

responsibility. We believe that these five values, plus the

courage to act on them even in the face of adversity, are

truly foundational to the academy.

Avoiding plagiarism, how to paraphrase correctly

It's actually fairly easy to engaging in plagiarism in essays, even if you don't mean to. Usually it's a matter of learning how to cite sources correctly. See the following links for help in learning about plagiarism and how to avoid it.

Here is how the UBC Calendar defines plagiarism:

"Plagiarism, which is intellectual theft, occurs where an individual submits or presents the oral or written work of another person as his or her own. Scholarship quite properly rests upon examining and referring to the thoughts and writings of others. However, when another person's words (i.e. phrases, sentences, or paragraphs), ideas, or entire works are used, the author must be acknowledged in the text, in footnotes, in endnotes, or in another accepted form of academic citation. Where direct quotations are made, they must be clearly delineated (for example, within quotation marks or separately indented). Failure to provide proper attribution is plagiarism because it represents someone else's work as one's own. Plagiarism should not occur in submitted drafts or final works. A student who seeks assistance from a tutor or other scholastic aids must ensure that the work submitted is the student's own. Students are responsible for ensuring that any work submitted does not constitute plagiarism. Students who are in any doubt as to what constitutes plagiarism should consult their instructor before handing in any assignments." 

Plagiarism is a serious offense; see here for the possible disciplinary measures, as given in the UBC Calendar.

Links to help you understand and avoid plagiarism, including help for citing sources

• UBC Learning Commons on avoiding plagiarism

• Here's a document  Links to an external site.that explains some common problems with paraphrasing incorrectly in a way sometimes referred to as "patchwriting." It's a common way to unintentionally end up plagiarizing.

• This page from the University of Wisconsin on how to avoid plagiarism Links to an external site. has a good general overview. Also see the pages on the menu on the right, especially the ones about how to paraphrase and unsuccessful paraphrases.
• This University of Ashford page explains quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing Links to an external site. nicely.