Tutor profile: Scott W.

If you are planning a short research paper, what is the single most important aspect of it to get clear on at the outset?

The thesis. It is absolutely imperative that you develop a thesis: an argument or statement of purpose for the paper as a whole. Your thesis will guide you in the writing of the entire paper because you will be compelled to bend every word, every sentence, and every paragraph of your paper to the task of supporting or proving the thesis you set out to support or prove.

What is the Extended Mind Hypothesis?

The Extended Mind Hypothesis refers to the idea that various objects, systems, and aggregates of information in the world beyond one's physical brain/mind can in some way form significant parts of one's mind by dint of the various important, mind-supporting interactions that take place between one's physically circumscribed mind and the outside world. For example, a computer system can store personal photographs and writings that all figure prominently in one's personal or professional life. A calculator can extend one's natural abilities to perform mathematical calculations. In some sense, these examples might deserve to be called extensions of one's mind -- e.g., expansions of one's own internal memory or one's mathematical fluency. The idea of "extended minds" was given its seminal treatment in Clark and Chalmers (1998).

What is one purpose of a semi-colon?

The semi-colon is used primarily to provide separation within a long sentence between independent clauses, that is, between clauses that could stand on their own as sentences in their own right; for example, see what just happened within this sentence with the clause beginning with "for example"; the foregoing clause could easily be a separate sentence in its own right, as could this clause. Whether to use a semi-colon in this way will depend largely upon a writer's style and the degree of closeness the writer wishes to suggest between all these various clauses. Clauses that are very close or complementary in their content might benefit from the semi-colon in a way that more distinct sentences would not.