Syllabus Supplement

Guide for Short Papers

The Short Papers must meet the following requirements. 

  Minimum length is 150 words for each lesson though you can certainly write as much more as you like. Some students write quite a lot when it is a topic that interests them! There are 26 lessons. I will typically treat them in sets. So there are 13 sets. Send the papers in by email by the due date as sets indicating by essay which lesson is which. Some of the topics merge into one another and if you do not title the lesson -- such as "101) What Is Philosophy?" -- I can be confused which one you are responding to. So a complete set for week one, for example, will consist of Set 1: 101 (150 words) 102 (150 words).

  You should spend part of the paper describing some aspects of the readings to show what you have gotten out of the material but you can also be critical or voice your own thoughts. In fact, over the years I have learned a great deal from the thoughts of students doing these and it is the most interesting part for me, but I do have to have some mechanism to see that you are actually reading the materials. If you are concerned that you do not understand the readings -- please feel at home! Most philosophical issues are the perfect example of just how everyone can have a different opinion on what a person meant! Certainly the more you work on a reading the more ideas you can get from it but no one interpretation will win over all others when what we seem most to enjoy doing is disagreeing with one another over what something means!

  If web sites are used as references they can be included as links in the paper. Avoid plagiarism! Plagiarized papers will receive an F.

  The paper must be turned in via e-mail. This is necessary since I check each paper for plagiarism.

  The paper can be emailed in the text of the email message itself or if you prefer you can use an attachment. If you choose to use attachments please save the files as Web Page instead of a doc or wpd, or other formats since these may not open properly for me. I am using Microsoft Office Word. If you are not sure how to do this please ask someone who can show you on your computer how to select file type when you save a file.

  You should use your UAA email account for this. You are certainly welcome to use other email accounts if you prefer but if you do, you should update your email address on Blackboard.  Also note that If you are using an email system such as hotmail the entire paper might not be sent in the text of an email message if there is a limit on the size of the message that can be sent. There is no requirement concerning the mechanics of the paper. Use your imagination! If you are interested in suggested ways to reference materials on line you can look at this MLA guide. However, I prefer to have a "live" link myself. If you are not familiar with how this is done, please do not worry. It will not effect your grade -- but you are missing out on a lot of fun. Using the web for research is still so new that conventions do not seem adequately established. They may never be!