Assignment Basics
Pick one of the substantive articles listed below that we’ve read thus far and argue that it’s incorrect
Pick one of these options:
Kreider, “Prayers for Assistance as Unsporting Behavior”
Savulescu, “A Doping Manifesto”
Norcross, “Puppies, Pigs, and People: Eating Meat and Marginal Cases”
Singer, “Famine, Affluence and Morality”
Plato, Crito (49a-59e)
Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
Your paper will include the following four parts: introduction, argument, objection, and response
See the detailed instructions below about how to do each part
Part 1: Introduction
Tell your reader briefly and clearly what you’re going to try to convince them of
Give them a brief description of why the issue matters
This should take 50-100 words
Part 2: Argument
In this section, you will tell your reader what they should think and why
First, explain very briefly the conclusion the author argued for and the argument they made for it
That is, explain what they meant to show and how they tried to show it
You should give the best version of their argument you can manage
Do not use direct quotations; paraphrase, cite, and explain
Then, explain to your reader why you think they are incorrect
Articulate an argument for your reader that that author is incorrect
Explain where their reasoning is flawed or their claims incorrect
You must argue that they are wrong, and you need to explain what went wrong in their argument for that conclusion
You should focus on one major problem/structural feature of their argument, rather than making a big list
This should take 300-400 words
Part 3: Objection
Tell your reader how someone would try to convince you that your argument was malformed, that is how someone would reject the reasons you’ve offered for your conclusion
That is, point toward some reason people might have to think that you, in arguing for the conclusion above, were mistaken
Do not merely register that some people will agree or disagree with your conclusion or that some people will endorse the opposite conclusion
Explain why they would reject your reasoning
This should take 100-200 words
Part 4: Response
Rebut the objection by explaining why the objector is wrong
That is, tell me why your initial argument is right, even in the face of this objection
Do not merely repeat your initial argument.
Do not provide entirely new reasons in favor of your conclusion.
Instead, explain why the concerns the objection raised were misguided or inapt, i.e., object to the objection
This should take 50-100 words
Tips
Explain it like you would to a friend or roommate—but don’t oversimplify
It can help to make a numbered outline with several levels of detail
When writing the paper, focus on converting the outline’s bullets to sentences
Have someone else read it when you’re done. They should be able to broadly describe the overall argument without referring back to the paper
Details
Papers should be single-spaced
Paper should be between about 600 and 800 words, approximately 1 to 2 single-spaced pages
Write about only what has been asked for in the assignment
Use plenty of paragraph breaks, especially in the the argument section
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