Philosophy:  Break It Down

 

Essay #5 is an interpretive analysis of any one of the essays in the philosophy unit from Blackboard, except for the one by Marcus Aurelius, which I demonstrated in class.  The assignment is unlike the last three essays in that it does not require library research.  In fact, you should NOT use any outside sources at all.  Instead, you will be working with only one source, the essay you choose to analyze.  The paper will still need parenthetical documentation and a list of works cited, but the documentation will come entirely from one source, and the list of works cited will have only one entry, the work you are analyzing.

 

What you will document are your references to specific pages as you quote directly and indirectly and as you summarize and paraphrase.  If your reader wanted to go to the text to check the original, these documentations would get the reader to the right place.  Use the section A Work in an Anthology, Reference, or Collection in the Purdue University OWL website to help you list the source correctly.  (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/06/)

 

An analysis is a very close look at something to see what it is.  Analysis usually entails an examination of parts to grasp their place within the whole of which they are segments.  Your task will be to choose an essay from the philosophy readings posted in Blackboard (look in the Essay #5 content tab) and produce a paper which examines that essay closely enough to help another reader—and you—toward the most full understanding of the work possible.   You are simply taking the time and energy to observe, study, and explain what might not be clear on a less careful reading.  Obviously, you have a responsibility to represent the original with integrity; you are interpreting only as you are trying to make the thesis and main ideas perfectly clear.

 

Your process will be like the procedure which I will practice and demonstrate in class, although everyone will work differently.  You might want to follow these steps:

 

1. Read the essay once carefully to get the whole of it firmly in mind.
2. Annotate the essay by:
   1. Writing down the thesis of the essay in your own words.
   2. Isolating the main ideas, the main chunks of thought.
   3. Watching what the argument is and how it is being presented. Its organization may be significant to its content.  Write out the main ideas in your own words so that you can see them for yourselves and as parts of the total thesis.
   4. Circling and defining unknown vocabulary for clarification.
3. As you begin to write, think of your audience as classmates, who have either not read the essay at all or have read it without studying it. Don’t talk down to your audience; assume the audience capable of understanding when things are made accessible.
4. Your introduction will establish the author and the title of the essay being analyzed, as well as the topic, the thesis, and your attempt to give some significance to or arouse interest in the topic and thesis. In other words, after presenting the “what,” give your reader a “so what?”  Although it is not a terribly original sentence, a sentence like this might get you started:  In her essay, “Against Interpretation,” Susan Sontag argues that the contemporary habit of searching for what art means has robbed art of what it is and robbed us of much needed sensory experience.  Sontag traces the history of our growing preoccupation with interpretation and content and explains …”
5. Discuss each major idea or block of material, opening it up through looking at it closely, summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting in order to keep your interpretive remarks firmly grounded in the original. You may or may not wish to work in the same chronology of sequence as the original did.  Whatever will make the original most understandable for your reader is what you will want to do.  Inform your reader about the general organizational structure of the essay.
6. Of course, write a conclusion either by emphasizing the conclusiveness of the final or most significant point in the original or by writing your own formal conclusion. As well, include your response to and evaluation of the article, making the logic of your response clear.  You might also include your assessment of the audience most likely addressed by the article and its potential success with that audience, explaining your reasoning.  It is equally appropriate to end your analysis with your evaluation of the essay’s significance historically and/or for your own time.

 

Length:  6-8 pages

 

Cautions:  AVOID Spark Note and Cliff Note types of websites.  These essays are not exactly “new,” so I will be easily able to determine if plagiarism is involved.  It’s not worth it!!!