Assignment
Write a paper about Animal Rights (What rights do animals have if any?).
MLA Format.
Essay should include:
- Animal ethics
-Animal experimentation
-Hunting
-Vegetarianism
-endangered species protection
Guidelines for the Paper
Mechanics. The length should be 5 (minimum) to 6 pages (maximum)-not counting the required ‘Works Cited' page. It should be typewritten, double spaced, in Times New Roman, size 12 font, ‘normal' margins. The formatting and style should follow MLA conventions. All quotations and paraphrased materials should be cited properly following these conventions. The paper is spellchecked and proofread for grammatical and punctuation errors.*
Content. The paper must either be a position paper or a comparative evaluation paper. A position paper must make a claim/take a position on the chosen moral issue. A comparative evaluation paper makes a claim based on a more neutral assessment of strengths and weaknesses of arguments on opposite sides of the issue. In either case, the paper is not simply a summary report on the existing debates. The moral issue debate should be any one of the following: Animal Rights (What rights do animals have if any?)
Structure. The general structure of the paper should be clear. Any reader must be able to recognize the beginning (introduction), middle (body), conclusion (end) of the paper.
The introduction must first get attention and then end with a thesis statement. In other words, it must, first, ‘take readers,' so to speak, from ‘their place' -their daily lives or the society/world in which they act and make choices-to the ‘place' where the student's paper invites them to go. One way of doing this is to answer the question ‘why is this issue/debate worth any reader's time and attention?
You must not include biographical details, strings of praises about any thinker or philosopher, statements about how divided people are or how people have different opinions on the matter, and boring dictionary definitions. Often, these are unnecessary space-fillers even if true and/or interesting. (Exclude anything that does not contribute to the thesis!)
There should be a logical progression of ideas in the body of the paper.The bodyshould ‘unpack' / explain and support the thesis with argument.
Also, if it is a position paper, it should address the concerns of the strongest objection to the position. If it is a more neutral comparative evaluation, it should include what would tip the scales towards one or the other and why.
The conclusion must be a synthesis that pulls together the main points of the paper and argument for the central claim/thesis. It is good practice to return to the facts in the ‘introduction,' thus, taking the readers back to the ‘place' where they began--their daily lives and/or society/world. The hope is that they return to this ‘place' enriched by the findings and/or insights in the paper.
Text Book: Applying Ethics- A Text with Readings by Jeffrey Olen, Vincent Barry and Julie C. Van Camp.