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Resources for designing undergraduate paper topics?

In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I teach several undergraduate courses which require me to assign short papers. I have been struggling to come up with good topics for my students to write on, especially in areas of philosophy that I am less familiar with, but I am still required to teach. I don't want to make the assignments too easy nor too hard. And I want to make sure that AI will not do well on them and that students somehow go beyond what we discussed in class/lectures. Do you have advice/ know of resources that would be helpful in regard to designing paper topics?

Do any readers have any helpful tips?

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6 responses to “Resources for designing undergraduate paper topics?”

  1. Nolan W

    I’ve had some success assigning an essay based on ‘dueling papers’, i.e. one paper will argue for P, and the other paper will argue for ~P. The essay has three sections: (i) what is the argument for P?, (ii) what is the argument for ~P?, and (iii) who do you think has the better argument? Why?
    This format has several virtues: it implicitly avoids the issue of relativism, as it assumes that the authors disagree about whether P; you don’t have to know a lot about the background literature for the given philosophical discipline, you only need to find two papers that disagree about some important issue; it’s easy to justify point deductions, as most of the essay consists in accurately representing another philosopher’s argument; the essay format works for shorter and longer papers (I’ve assigned as few as three pages). I also think this is a reasonable assignment to complete in class, so as to avoid AI use.

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  2. I’m with Nolan

    I agree with Nolan. There are great benefits to that sort of writing assignment. Students learn to analyze and evaluate arguments (look at me … I sound like I know what a learning outcome is!?). They also train students to articulate a view, because it is usually hard for students to say both are right (as they sometimes like to do). And it ensures that students write on a philosophical topic (which is not always the case when they pick their own topics).

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  3. hw

    I often try to tie prompts back into people’s experiences–like why does the topic matter to them, how has their life influenced the understanding of the topic, etc. AI doesn’t have personal experience, and people usually like talking about themselves, so I find it’s a helpful way to navigate assignments. The papers are also much more interesting for me to read.

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  4. Daniel Weltman

    I discuss one kind of assignment I use in this article: https://www.pdcnet.org/aaptstudies/content/aaptstudies_2024_0999_7_23_90?file_type=pdf
    Although I am not sure ANY assignment that meets your other criteria can be something that AI does not do “well,” if by “well” you mean about a B- or maybe a bit better depending on how exacting your standards are. AI is now good enough to do lots of things to at least a mediocre level of competence.

    Reply
  5. DRL

    If you search “the diversity reading list” you may find some helpful resources.
    “The DRL collects high quality texts in philosophy written by authors from under-represented groups. Our aim is to make it easier for you to find such texts and use them in your teaching. Browse, search, include, and help make philosophy a discipline of equal opportunity!”

    Reply
  6. Charles Pigden

    Here is a general strategy for devising essay or exam questions.
    1) Choose or manufacture a challenging quote, eg ‘Morality is the political offspring that flattery begot upon pride’(Mandeville) ‘We can never know that a scientific theory is true but we can know that it is false’ (Popper’s view summarised), ‘The Meaning of a proposition is its method of verification’ (Wittgenstein)
    2) Then tack on an addendum of more or less the following form: ‘What does this mean? What are X’s argument in favour of this thesis? And is it true?’
    Once upon a time I would simply have said ‘Discuss’ but that opens the way to blather and to AI assisted fence-sitting flummery. So nowadays I prefer the lengthier formulation. It demands an understanding of the view summarised, an analysis of the supporting arguments and at least a modicum personalised critical thinking. I hope – and that’s about all I can say – that the implicit demand for understanding and logical thought would make it harder for an AI to formulate a plausible reply
    There are of course variations on the basic structure. Examples: ‘In the first two volumes of his Collected Papers Putnam develops a version of scientific realism. Explain what he meant by this, outline his arguments, and assess the validity.’ ‘In Socialism, Utopian and Scientific Engels suggests that Capitalism will collapse because of an over-production crisis. Explain and assess his arguments. Do they rely on the Labour Theory of Value?’ ‘Does Hume’s No-Ought-From-is thesis imply or suggest non-cognitivism? Give reasons for your view’. ‘Could Hobbes’s remedy (an absolutist state) be worse than the disease (an interpersonal state of nature). Give reasons for your answer.’ But running the right through, what you are basically asking them to do is explain some view, state the key arguments and then assess them. So even if you are not very familiar with some area, what you can usually do is pull out some interesting (but manageable) thesis, find or invent an illustrative quotation and then set them to work. Students do well if they can meet the first two demands (enlarging on the quote and stating the underlying arguments) and start racking up the A-s if they have something of their own to say when it comes to critique.

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