When you are blogging (and writing philosophically in general), you need to
(1) pay special attention to the language and structure of the text you are writing about and be able reproduce that language in the sense of the author. For example, what does Descartes mean by "intellect"? Why does Descartes use the meditation format?
You also need to
(2) reconstruct arguments and articulate premises. Some premises are implicit and others are explicit. You need to be able to differentiate between them. Is there a certain order to the premises? Are all of the premises consistent with one another?
You should also
(3) ask questions. In doing this, focus on the premises that help lead to the central conclusion. Are these premises sound? What do these premises presuppose? Are they justified in so doing?
One technical recommendation:
if you write your blog posts in Microsoft Word before you post them online, make sure that you copy it into the window only after you have clicked the "Edit HTML" button, not the "Compose" button. After you have pasted your post in the window, click the "Compose" button and arrange it as you would prefer for it to appear.This will require you to do a little formatting before you are finished, but it will avoid conflicts between the formatting of the MS Word document and the HTML formatting of the blog.Also, spell and grammar check your work! Blog posts are formal pieces of writing, and will be graded accordingly.
