Assignment Instructions
Paper Overview
Your task is to write a philosophical prescriptive essay in which you develop clear, concise, and well-reasoned premises to support and defend an original, narrow, substantive philosophical argument on the prescriptive argument you have chosen and I have approved for this assignment.
The point of this paper is for you to do substantial critical thinking yourself, not for you to just write a report on other’s research or opinions. Yet, your argument needs to engage significantly with scholarly literature. So, it is important to provide your reader with a sufficient amount of information to understand your argument and to demonstrate why it is reasonable for them to believe your Conclusion. This involves careful, clear, and concise summaries of views where needed and clear analysis of key aspects of research Include information/explication only as it is necessary for understanding, motivating, supporting, or defending your argument. If the information does not directly support your argument, unless it is part of your counterargument, it does not belong in your paper.
Critical Thinking. You need to be able to explain clearly and concisely why the reader should believe your argument. This is your purpose throughout the paper. So, when you present research information, why should I believe that information makes your premise stronger? And when you present research analysis, why should I believe that analysis makes your premise stronger? Just providing research and doing an analysis does not necessarily make your premise stronger. It is how you present and explain this information to the reader that defines your critical thinking ability.
Counterarguments and Refutations. In terms of considering counterarguments to your view, try to tackle just one of the strongest objections to your position that an opponent might raise. Any objection you consider should bear upon your argument. That is, it shouldn’t be a flat rejection of your argument. Also, this portion should be no longer than 1 page of your paper maximum.
MLA (Modern Language Association) Format. I am going to focus on MLA 9th edition format
Philosophy Structure. To be clear, this includes:
- A consistent, visible and logical structure between your argument, your abstract (the second paragraph in the introduction), and your actual paper.
- A formal argument structure presented as the page AFTER your title page and BEFORE your actual paper begins.
- Use of subtitles that reflect each of the premises/reasons used to support your argument.
- Clear subtitles used to represent your counterarguments and related refutations.
- Using first-person (instead of third-person which is often taught in English classes).
Research Resource Requirements
Six written primary sources (excluding the textbook) which includes:
1. At least three of your research resources must be peer-reviewed journals!
https://mtsac.libguides.com/az.php?q=ProQuest
https://web-p-ebscohost-com.mtsac.idm.oclc.org/ehost/search/basic?vid=0&sid=6e185c74-da3e-48ad-9b84-4477d4b16510%40redis
https://www-jstor-org.mtsac.idm.oclc.org/
2. The other three (or more if you so choose) can be peer-reviewed journals, academic books, or .edu or .gov websites.
3. Please note that these six sources do NOT include the sources for your terms defined! These are additional.
Body of the Essay
Premise #1/#2/#3 Introduction
Evidence A
Step #1 – Explain how the study/research supports your premise.
Step #2 – Explain why the reader should believe in the strength of the study/research.
Evidence B
Step #1 – Explain how the study/research supports your premise.
Step #2 – Explain why the reader should believe in the strength of the study/research.
Evidence C
Step #1 – Explain how the study/research supports your premise.
Step #2 – Explain why the reader should believe in the strength of the study/research.
Premise #1/#2/#3 Conclusion
Each of your premises should, in the following order:
Step #1 – Explain how the study/research supports your premise. Please note that this information is found in the Results section of a Journal Article. This is not where the article talks about the sample population, demographics, and the like. This is at the end of the article where they talk about what the results of the research actually means. Here, you need to make a connection for the reader between the results of the research and how it supports and gives strength to your premise. Do not just summarize the results of the research here! The results must be directly tied to your premise as that is the point of your midterm paper.
Step #2 – Explain why the reader should believe in the strength of the study/research. This is where you talk about the strengths of the evidence as you understand them from what you have learned in class and in our class textbook. To be clear, you are not summarizing everything you know about the evidence here. Instead, you are choosing what you believe to be the strongest factors of the research. If there are weaknesses in the research, this is where you recognize those weaknesses and explain why you believe the research is strong and believable, again applying what you have learned from the course concepts.
Important Note:
- For each premise, Step #1 should be ~75% of the discussion, while Step #2 should be ~25% of the discussion.
- Do not include anything in the body of your paper that is unrelated to Step #1 or Step #2.