General Feedback on Shorties

Tips

  • Instead of writing “up” to me as the professor, try addressing your shorties to your classmates (yes, you can—and should—respond to each other and reference class discussions!).
  • If you are relatively new to philosophy, the best way to think of your task is “I’m going to tell the class about this one thing the reading is so wrong about.”
  • Try a three-part structure: Exposition ⇒ Objection ⇒ Reply.
  • Focus—and focus—on an idea or an argument you feel strongly about, that gets you going, that fascinates you, upsets you, confuses you, …

Tweaks

  • We will institute a soft limit of 6 shorties: If you are interested in materials, come talk to us in office hours please! If you’d like to improve, you must still come to office hours for feedback first.
  • The shorties are now graded out of “0”—Canvas requires us to put in a number, unfortunately.
  • We expect students to “own up to” what they write in shorties. If you say something we find really interesting or puzzling, we will invite you to discuss and defend (not merely talk about) it in class.
  • We are giving detailed written feedback early on; we’d still be very happy to discuss your shorties with you in office hours even if you don’t receive as extensive comments after the first month of class.

Common problems

  1. Speak in your own voice—don’t let another philosopher speak for you. The shorty is not a book report, nor does it require forced neutrality; we are interested in your critical discussion.
  2. Don’t just ask questions—we want to see you work out your own answer, even if it’s not fully satisfying to you.
  3. Please show your work—where are you getting this from? Interpretations are not free; you have to pay with textual evidence.
  4. Don’t attack a strawman—pick a real fight and let the poor strawman live.
  5. Pick your battles—go deep, not broad. “Contain philosophical problems one at a time.”
  6. Get to the point—we are ultimately so much more interested in what you think!
  7. Respect the word limit—we will stop reading if it’s too long.
  8. We’ve heard this already—if other students are discussing an idea already, don’t reinvent the wheel. Be part of the conversation.