Much of the philosophy you are being introduced to is argumentcases for and against philosophical positions, theories, points of view. You are required, in writing philosophy, to take part in that argumentnot merely to recount the arguments you find in texts and hear in lectures. Of course, you will use some of the arguments you find there (with acknowledgement), but you must critically examine themrejecting them or making them your own, and giving your reasons. Your essay, then, has to be not a piece of history of ideas, but a piece of reasoned, argued discourse.
The really vital thing here is that your essay must have some structure, not be a series of unrelated thoughts. For example: "I shall first state the problem of the essay, and outline the main alternative theories that attempt to deal with it. I shall go into some detail with theory Awhich is initially plausible: then consider certain counter-arguments, X, Y and Z. In the light of these, a modified version of A is proposed. This is tested against likely criticisms."
You can helpfully start your essay with a very brief advance-summary on those lines (or at least include brief sub-headings to indicate where your argument is going).
Short answer, "Yes". In what ways?
Needless (I hope) to say, there are no special marks awarded for agreeing in your essay with the position supported by the lecturer on the topic; but neither are there special marks for daringly disagreeing with him. What counts is the quality of your argument.
You are free to quote or paraphrase points you want to discuss from recommended reading, but acknowledge your sources scrupulously. If you list works referred to, or consulted, at the end of your essay, together with their dates of publication, you can add a very brief bracketed reference to your source immediately after you have quoted from it: e.g., (McNaughton, 1988, p.100). Take care, in a short essay, not to allow quotation and paraphrase to constitute an excessively large part of your permitted wordage! However you manage your endnotes or footnotes, please always include a list of the works you have in fact consulted.
From the above, you can work that out for yourself.
Text by Prof. R. W. Hepburn
HTML editing by Darren Brierton