Module Directory

This module provides intensive training in postgraduate-level writing and research.

The Workshop is primarily designed for MA philosophy students. First-year PhD students can request permission from the Course Instructor to attend classes.

The aims of this module are:

• To help students toward detailed knowledge and understanding of a selection of texts pertaining to the topic of the MA Writing Workshop.


• To develop students’ ability to articulate and discuss particular philosophical problems regarding this topic.


• To develop students’ ability to explain, consider and assess each author’s contribution to our understanding of this topic in particular respects.


• To provide students with the tools to write a series of short papers on various questions afferent to this topic.

Skills for your Professional Life (Transferable Skills)

By the end of this module, students will be expected to have acquired or developed a set of transferable skills, and in particular be able to:

1. Define the task in which they are engaged and exclude what is irrelevant.


2. Seek and organise the most relevant discussions and sources of information.


3. Process a large volume of diverse and sometimes conflicting arguments.


4. Compare and evaluate different arguments and assess the limitations of their own position or procedure.


5. Write and present verbally a succinct and precise account of positions, arguments, and their presuppositions and implications.


6. Be sensitive to the positions of others and communicate their own views in ways that are accessible to them.


7. Think 'laterally' and creatively - see interesting connections and possibilities and present these clearly rather than as vague hunches.


8. Maintain intellectual flexibility and revise their own position if shown wrong.


9. Think critically and constructively.

The module is only available to students (including first year PhD students) with the permission of the Module Supervisor, who must be contacted beforehand by email.

Please note that, while this module delivers very effective training, it is also very demanding, both in time and effort. The module is non-credit bearing so that students have the freedom to experiment and learn from their mistakes without penalty: marks are for formative purposes only.

For each of the first six weeks, students write a circa 1500 words essay based on a reading assignment and present their work in class. They are also required each week to read and provide peer feedback on the work of the students in their tutorial group.

Students and instructor meet weekly to discuss both the philosophical issues and the micro-skills of writing. In addition, participants meet with their instructor every week for small group tutorial sessions to get peer-feedback on their submissions and discuss the instructor's feedback.

During the last three weeks there is no essay writing nor tutorials: participants work on grant application writing, in particular CHASE applications for those who want to be considered for a CHASE scholarship. If time allows, the instructor presents a piece of work in progress. Each year a different topic is chosen for the workshop.

This module will be delivered via:

• One 2-hour seminar per week.
• Weekly tutorials.