You have an obligation to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, by always attributing any argument or idea that you have borrowed, even if you have modified it, to its source. The source may be written or oral. For example, if an argument was suggested by a fellow student, include that information in a footnote. In your paper, you may wish to distinguish and compare various different answers to a particular question, or various different theses on a particular issue. If so, formulate each position carefully, and then give it a descriptive name or abbreviation or acronym or other device to facilitate referring to it in your discussion.
Some people can sit down and write an outline of a paper before they write it.
Others have to write the paper first. But everyone should be able to make an outline of the paper after writing it. This is a useful way to discover logical gaps or other gaps in the discussion. Some people believe that really good philosophy must be very deep, and thus hard to understand. You will not be rewarded for such writing in this course.