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Philosophy IA word count and page limit
Are you starting to write your Philosophy IA? We know this process can be tricky therefore we prepared a short guide to help you get started. Continue reading this post to make sure your investigation follows the formal requirements.
This internal assessment is a philosophical analysis of a chosen stimulus. As a philosophy student, you should identify and analyse a philosophical issue raised by the stimulus. When it comes to the formal requirements, your IA can be at most 2000 words, there is no page limit.
Stimulus description
You have to provide a copy of the analysed stimulus with your IA. If it exceeds 200 words or is in a form different than text (movie extract, radio recording etc.), you have to describe it in a maximum of 200 words. This part is not included in the word count, same as the bibliography and references.
Introduction
Begin your essay with around 300 words of introduction. Present the subject of your exploration, clearly identify the issue raised by the stimulus, and provide a sufficient justification of the connection between them. Utilize this section to offer background information regarding the stimuli, introducing the examiners to the context of your exploration. Also, define the key concepts or theories relating to the topic of your analysis.
Check out this exemplar for inspiration.
Analysis and evaluation
Your response should contain a developed analysis of the chosen philosophical issue. You should apply a well-structured argumentative framework consisting of supportive arguments but also convincing counterarguments. Support each of them with an example or a suitable reference. In this section, you can demonstrate your extensive knowledge of different areas of philosophy and deep understanding of the issue. Don’t forget about the appropriate use of the specific terminology and to properly justify each point of view. This should be the longest part of your exploration and take up around 1,500 words.
You can read a perfectly structured analysis here.
Conclusion
After having demonstrated the different perspectives on the philosophical issue raised by the stimulus, synthesize and evaluate them. State which argument you find most persuasive and why. Inform about the strengths and weaknesses of the chosen approaches in the analysis. Remember, not to add any new arguments here to make sure that the conclusion stays consistent with the previous parts of the exploration (and that enough justification is provided for every point of view). Devote the remaining 200 words for this final section.
Take a look at this conclusion.
The above word allocation between the different sections of the internal assessment is based on the received marked exemplars. We recommend to stick to this structure because it also reflects the assessment criteria and how many points are awarded for specific aspects of the essay.
Are you in need of more philosophy exemplars to support your writing process? Don’t hesitate to check out the Clastify website, where you can find numerous IAs from different subjects. For other available guides head to our blog!
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