INSTRUCTIONS FOR FIRST PAPER FOR PHILOSOPHY 470
For the first paper for our course on Environmental Ethics, I would like you to write a rationally persuasive paper choosing one of the authors of the two debates contained in our readings on: “Breakthrough Essays and Their Critics” under the “Respect for Nonhuman Nature” Section IV. Specifically, that includes the essay by Peter Singer and his critic, Mark Sagoff, and Paul Taylor, and his critic, David Schmidtz. Therefore, you will choose and defend either Singer vs. Sagoff for one of the pairs, or Taylor vs. Schmidtz. You are explain the views of the author’s position you choose, either describing Singer’s or Tayor’s argument, or their respective critics’ argument: Sagoff’s comments on Singer, or Schmidtz’s comments on Taylor. Then, as I have emphasized in our discussion of writing rationally persuasive papers, you must offer evidence, or defend your choice, or answer the “why” question, or “show me the evidence for your view” challenge.
Please follow the Guidelines that we have discussed in class for writing rationally persuasive papers and the document provided on iLearn. There is right or wrong answer, but the assessment of your paper will be centered on how well you defend your choice, and how well your argument is presented: no presentation errors, an informative title, relevant epigraphs, new paragraphs when needed, etc.
If you have questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to consult your Group Leader or me. We all will be pleased to assist you in writing the best paper you can.
Good luck!
Joel Kassiola 10/17
Proposed Rubric for Assessing Rationally Persuasive Papers for Philosophy 470
1. fully informative and substantive title to paper
2. pertinent epigraph(s)
3. opening paragraph(s) describe general area or problem or issue of paper
4. if necessary, significance of chosen problem or issue is defended
5. by the third paragraph, statement of main thesis, claim or position of paper:
“it is the goal of this paper. . . “ “it is the purpose of this paper. . .” etc.
6. body of paper and most important element of successful paper: full expression and explanation of the meaning of the position or thesis
7. ***most important aspect of paper: adequate evidence to make claim rationally persuasive; examples, analogies, data, indirect support through critique of opponent. Evidence provided should depend on strength of the claim; the stronger the claim, the more evidence needed. EVIDENCE FOR ONE’S CLAIM OR POSITION IS THE KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL PAPER AND SHOULD BE THE MAIN FOCUS OF ANY WRITER OF RATIONALLY PERSUASIVE PAPERS.
8. Consideration of possible objection or criticism of writer’s view and rebuttal or reply as a way of defending one’s position. Good to use real person for critic rather than oneself which increases likelihood of straw man objection.
9. Presentation errors should be avoided, discovered and corrected, by careful proofreading of final draft; computer spell-check programs should be relied upon exclusively since computer will not catch wrong word use, such as:
“there” for “their,” etc. “cannot” is one word. Possessive case for “its” is
without the apostrophe, while “it’s” is a contraction; all contractions should be avoided in academic papers. “affect” means “influence” and “effect” means “result.”
10. BE CAREFUL TO PROVIDE PAGE CITATIONS FOR ALL REFERENCES TO A TEXT, WHEN YOU BORROW IDEAS FROM A TEXT OR YOU BORROW WORDS IN A QUOTATION. ALL BORROWED IDEAS OR DATA MUST BE PROPERLY CITED TO THEIR SOURCE. NO BORROWED IDEA OR FACT SHOULD GO UNCITED.
11. Watch need for new paragraphs whenever ideas change in your discussion, even if the resulting paragraph is very short. No whole page should be one paragraph. Transitions should exist between paragraphs or use Section headings by spacing new Section avoiding the need for transitional sentences.
12. Explain “every move you make” by “talking” to the reader; take reader by the hand and guide her/him through your paper like describing downtown San Francisco to a blind person while you walking together. Refer to your main point throughout the discussion explaining the role of the point being discussed and how it advances your main point or thesis.
13. End papers with only a summary of your main ideas, no show business “big finishes.” You can use the same language as the expression of your main thesis or point, only in the past tense, “it has been the goal, aim, purpose, etc. of this paper to . . . “ “I defended this claim” or “I tried to show” or “I tried to
demonstrate this point by providing the following pieces of evidence: . . .”
You might consider numbering the pieces of evidence provided if there are several and they are complicated.
