First Draft for essay (O’Connor Misinformation)
In the first draft, you’ll analyze and explain an argument of your choice (the Introduction paper and article are attached. the first draft should:
Explain the argument of a text (identify premises and conclusion)
This is similar to summarizing the article, but you aren’t just describing or paraphrasing every piece of the article step by step.
Instead, you should identify the main ideas or claims in the article (the premises) and why they are reasons to believe the conclusion or thesis (the main claim the article is trying to convince the reader is true). Then explain these things in your own words, as if to someone thinking about these ideas for the first time.
There are multiple good ways to explain an argument. Students may focus their explanations on different parts of the same argument and both have good papers.
In Philosophical writing, we discuss what a claim means, whether it is true, and what reasons/evidence we have to think it is true or false. We typically do not evaluate or explain an argument based on its style, tone, or rhetoric.
Discuss what you think about the text’s argument (explain whether you agree or disagree and why)
This should be just 1-2 paragraphs of the first draft. Most of the draft should be dedicated to explaining the argument of the article.