This article highlights the top 10 cheat tricks to write an outstanding philosophy paper. Continue reading till the end to crack the code of an impressive philosophy dissertation.

By: Hannah Williams

Philosophical papers are not like the normal papers students write in colleges or universities As per Jim Pryor, a philosophy paper has a reasoned defence of a given thesis or claim. By reasoned defence, we mean that students must establish a certain point together with a sound ground and all the valid justifications for its acceptance.

According to Claremont McKenna College, many students struggle with philosophy papers because their expectations differ significantly from those in other academic disciplines. Unlike other assignments, philosophy papers do not allow for literary self-expression or the presentation of new experiments and findings. Instead, they demand clear, logical arguments to defend a claim explicitly.

For these reasons, writing a philosophy paper can be more challenging than it seems. To help you ease this process, we’ve created a cheat sheet outlining key strategies for crafting a strong, well-argued philosophy paper.

Let’s break it down step by step!

Ultimate Cheat Sheet: 10 Tips for Writing a Philosophy Paper Like a Pro

When working on a philosophy paper, students must keep their minds free of all positive and negative assumptions. You should not assume that whatever arguments you present, your opponents will surely reject those. Similarly, don’t assume that your audience knows everything about your dissertation topic. You have to start from scratch and, as mentioned by SFU, follow the rational persuasion techniques to convince the readers of your point of view.

Students often feel that since they believe a certain claim to be true, it does not need much argument. But know that your claim is clear to you only while your statement makes perfect sense to you, your audience does not know anything about your position. To create convincing arguments, students prefer to seek assistance from an expert dissertation writing service.

Here, we have gathered the top 10 tips for writing a philosophy paper like a pro. Let’s dive deeper into the details.

1. Know What Your Paper Is About

Before you even start working on your philosophy paper, you should know the main objectives of your philosophy paper. Be aware of all the requirements. You can schedule a meeting with your supervisor to learn about all the specifications of the work you are supposed to craft. As per Inside Higher Ed, you must know what kind of writing your committee expects from you. You can follow these guidelines to know what your paper is all about:

1. Read the philosophy papers completed by the students before you.
2. Directly ask the committee members about what their expectations are for your chapters.
3. Know what kind of sources and footnotes you must use in your work.
4. You must also be aware of the word count you are asked to complete
5. The deadline for the philosophy paper should also be known to you

Communication is a key to avoiding potential pitfalls when writing your philosophy papers. You should be aware of all the theoretical frameworks and models for mentioning your arguments. The methodology for collecting and analysing the data and knowing the potential impact of the contributions of your work to the field of study is also important.

2. State the Research Questions Precisely

If you have been assigned some philosophy research questions, pick your pen/laptop up and start researching the topic. Students must have enough experience and inventive skills to craft and amend research questions per the dissertation title. It may be useful to explain the difference between a hypothesis and a research question. According to the University of Hull, the difference between both these terms is mentioned here:

1. Research Question(s): It is simply a question(s) that your philosophy research will address and answer in complete detail. Even if you cannot successfully answer the questions, you should explain why you could not answer them.
2. Hypothesis: This is a statement that suggests how a student expects something to behave or function. It is more like a test to see if a given assumption works properly or not.

The best form of questions are open questions, which cannot be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. As per the University of Southampton, the explicit research questions amply reflect the purpose of a given dissertation. These questions can shape the breadth and focus of your reading,g and they suggest all the data that you will need to access or underpin the dissertation research.

3. Specify the Claim

A claim for a philosophy paper should be stated as a fact, but it must be arguable. For a philosophy dissertation, students must ensure that the research questions are debatable with evidence and inquiry. They should not state their personal opinions or feelings as arguments for supporting the claim. Also known as a thesis statement, as per Fordham University, a claim sets up your argument and situates it within a broader discussion.

Some top strategies to craft a good claim or thesis statement for our philosophy papers are the following:

1. Note all the issues or texts that intrigue you and make a list of them
2. Do some general browsing to see what is the general opinion of people about the things that bother or intrigue you
3. Once you have come up with a specific topic and have drafted the initial claim, refine it thoroughly
4. Ask yourself if anyone can argue against your claim or the thesis statement that you have drafted.

Brandeis University states that a strong thesis must consist of a claim. It also should not be true or false. However, it must also not be overly general or abstract. One important thing that philosophy students must consider is that their thesis statement must be original. Make it clear and arguable & easy to understand for the readers.

4. Make an Outline

Before you start writing your philosophy paper, think about all the research questions and the thesis statement. After that, you can make a structured outline for your paper. According to Jim Pryor, some questions that you can ask yourself for outlining are the following:

1. How would you explain the various positions and terms of philosophy you will discuss in the paper?
2. At what point will you present the arguments and positions of your opponents?
3. How will you present the criticisms of the viewpoints of your opponents?
4. Have you presupposed that you already have some of the points you have stated in the paper?

All these questions can help you make a strong outline for your philosophy paper and organise all the arguments you have against the claim. As per Valdosta State University, the most general outline for structured papers is the following:

• Chapter 1 – Introduction (research overview)
• Chapter 2 – Conceptual framework and literature review
• Chapter 3 – Methodology
• Chapter 4 – Findings or results
• Chapter 5 – Conclusions, interpretations and recommendations

When writing the philosophy paper, students can also include references and appendices at the end of their dissertation. When the proposal for the paper is written, it usually involves the first three chapters and the dissertation references. An outline can give a direction to the overall work that you are planning to write.

5. Anticipate the Objections on Your Claim

When you present your claim in the philosophy paper, you can anticipate different objections to your main thesis statement. In your paper, you should think about the possible objections and respond to them in your work. According to CMC, when you are writing, you should think about the intended audience. Imagine that your audience is quite intelligent and knows different concepts of philosophy well.

If you are objecting to the viewpoint of a certain philosopher, do not assume that they will admit defeat immediately. Imagine what the comeback of that philosopher will be and think about how they will respond. You should be afraid of stating the objections to your claim in the philosophy paper.

Keep in mind that it is better to bring up the objections yourself than hoping that your audience will not think of those. As per Listenable.io, you should use your observations to make a list of all the objections and encounter them in the best possible way. Having an organised list before you will reduce the burden on you.

6. Conduct Enough Research

To write a paper which is convincing enough for the readers, they must conduct enough research to dig out the existing literature. As we discussed in the introduction, there will be a rational defence of a given claim in a philosophy paper. The most common kind of complaint that is commonly used in the philosophy papers is listed here:

“Philosopher X assumes A and argues from there to B. B. seems unattractive to me. Philosopher X just assumes A and doesn’t give any argument for it. I don’t think A is true. So I can just reject A and thereby avoid B.”

Now, the student may be very much right about the positions of the philosopher B or A, and whatever he is claiming about their work is true, but the argument is quite weak. He has not supported the claim he made with sound references. In an ideal situation, the student should have provided the readers with enough arguments so that they can be convinced of the claim.

For making convincing arguments, conducting enough research is beyond important for students. As per University College London, different research methods can help you find, collect and analyse the given information. Students can use this information to answer the research questions.

7. Use A Lot of Examples

It is very important to support your key arguments with sound examples in a philosophy paper. You must know that several claims made by philosophers are either very abstract or hard to understand. The examples provided by students can make the claims clearer for the readers. As per the University of York, you should use neutral language and avoid using too many colloquial expressions to explain your point of view in a better way. The literature review section you make should show that you have conducted deep research and conducted relevant exams.

The examples, when quoted appropriately, bring clarity to a philosophy paper because they clear out the ambiguity in the minds of readers. Some tips for using relevant examples in one’s philosophy dissertation are the following:

1. You should avoid using jargon and examples that promote ambiguity in your papers.
2. The examples should be such that they help you maintain clarity and coherence throughout the written papers.
3. You should pick such philosophical examples that amply support your key arguments.
4. Ensure that there is clarity between your quoted examples and the purpose of your work.

To get access to relevant examples in philosophy, you can consult several institutional resources such as journals and other books in the college’s library. You can talk one-on-one with your supervisor so that he can help you find the relevant material for your work.

8. Keep the Paper Concise and Original

As per Haverford College, you should keep your exposition in the philosophy paper quite concise and direct. There must be no tangential commentary in your work as it may deviate you from the main purpose of your work. Once you have stated some lines about the broad theme of the work of the author, move directly towards the exposition of the relevant argument that you have presented.

As per LSE, you can follow these steps to write your philosophy paper in a better and more concise manner:

1. Take notes as you read and focus on the research question.
2. Do not try to cover too much in a single topic.
3. Keep the readers informed of your main arguments,
4. Do not say anything that you cannot support with facts.
5. Use only scholarly references.
6. Always cite the sources; however, you can also quote and paraphrase, but that shall be kept to a minimum.

Another of the key qualities of a well-written paper on philosophy is that it presents an original perspective on the given topic. Such papers aim to show the audience that you are well familiar with the requirements of a philosophy paper and that you have the skills to cover any given topic in depth. That does not mean that you have to come up with your theory, but whatever scientific contribution you make, it should be new to human thought.

9. Read Your Paper Loud to a Friend

According to the guidelines by the University of Michigan, when you are done writing your philosophy paper, read it out loud to a friend. It will help you identify different grammatical mistakes or awkward sentences. If something does not sound good, you can always change it. Reading the paper to a friend can also let you identify the areas where you have not provided a clear enough explanation.

Furthermore, at the University College Cork, you should not include such things in your paper that are not needed. Avoid making sweeping claims if you do not have enough evidence to support them. Also, you must not leave important concepts undefined. The final important thing is that you must not delay the revision session.

Also, your friends may chip in some suggestions or provide you with feedback that is helpful for you to improve the quality of your work. Either way, reading the work out loud to your friends shall be quite helpful.

10. Edit and Proofread

Before finally submitting the philosophy paper, you must get your papers fully revised by an expert or proofread them yourself. Often, when writing papers, students make mistakes that are not easy to catch. A second pair of eyes can quickly identify and point out all the flaws in a given paper, often better than a person who wrote such papers.

As per Philosophy Factory, while working on the editing session, you should print out the paper if you can because it helps a lot. Take it away from the computer screen and then look at it. Take a pen and a paper and highlight all the changes that you want to make in your work. Some key things to consider when editing and proofreading your philosophy papers are the following:

1. Check all the references and see if they have been taken from reliable sources.
2. Spell-check the entire paper and pay attention to all the corrections suggested by MS Word or tools like Grammarly.
3. If there are punctuation issues in your work, you should work on addressing all of them.
4. There must be no usage of informal language in your philosophy paper.
5. You should also ensure that there are no contextual issues in the papers you have worked on.

Once you have made all the changes, you should give another read to your papers and look carefully at every paragraph. Then, take a break. After that, you should read the papers for a third time. It will help you make your papers free from all kinds of errors and mistakes.

Things to Avoid In Your Philosophy Paper

We have discussed the tips for writing a good philosophy dissertation in detail in the above section. Now, we shall explore the factors that students should avoid when working on their papers, as they can weaken the overall authenticity of work. The Simon Fraser University advises students to avoid the following four elements when working on a philosophy paper:

1. Lengthy Quotations

To meet the word count requirements of a philosophy paper, students often resort to quoting long paragraphs. The inexperienced writers rely too heavily on paraphrases and quotations. You should use direct quotations only when it is essential to establish the selection of words from another writer. Even you should keep the paraphrasing to a minimum because it is your paper. The instructor and the readers are concerned with reading your thoughts and claims, not someone else’s.

2. Lengthy Introductions

You must keep in mind that lengthy introductions to a philosophy paper are unnecessary, and an informed reader is not interested in reading them. You do not have to talk about the importance of your topic and do not have to say that it has been the favourite topic of philosophers for decades. Instead, keep your introduction as brief as you can. Even if you want to go directly to your topic and not have an introduction at all, you can do that.

3. Circular Reasoning

You will be considered guilty of circular reasoning in your philosophy paper on a particular problem if you manage to presuppose the correctness of your claim when building arguments for it. As per Oxford Academic, circular arguments are bad when a given premise in a claim is doubted or questioned. It is usually considered quite a pragmatic defect in an argument and is generally understood to be fallacious. Hence, you should avoid resorting to circular reasoning when writing your philosophy paper.

4. Pre-Suppositions

When writing your philosophy paper and arguing against other claims, you must realise that it is impossible to establish that your opponents are wrong just by saying that their arguments are false. You cannot even simply claim that one of their premises is false if you do not have a strong backup. Therefore, you must convincingly demonstrate your arguments and not use pre-suppositions. According to the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, the presuppositions are ubiquitous. Avoid pre-supposing that your claim is automatically correct – it will just not do.

Conclusion

Now, we have explored the top 10 best tips to write a philosophy paper in 2025. Note that the conclusion of the philosophy paper will not introduce anything new because that’s what the rule is. Just make sure that the entire content of your paper is relevant to the primary argument that you have made.

If you are struggling to organise your thoughts and construct solid arguments, you can seek help fromthebest dissertation writing agencies in the UK. These platforms have experienced writers who offer tailored academic support, helping students develop well-structured and logically sound philosophy papers. Their expertise in the subject can provide valuable guidance, ensuring your arguments are clear, well-reasoned, and effectively presented.

These tips are like a cheat code to write an outstanding philosophy paper in 2025. The bottom line is that the claims you make must be supported by enough arguments and must be fully coherent. Edit and proofread your papers fully before the final submission.

Author Bio

Hannah Williams is a dedicated dissertation writer, providing services to both national and international clients for the past 10 years. She has done her bachelor’s and master’s in philosophy from the University of Edinburgh and has 5 years of teaching experience at UCL. Being an experienced writer and teacher, she offers personalised help to students to fulfil their academic responsibilities on time.