My topic is Medical EuthanasiaI have attached example of previous grading, and papers topics.the first paper have already wrtten and teacher gave back a comment Now is the third one, .....Please read
PHIL 2210: Morals and Medicine
Paper guide
Table of Contents
1 Paper 1 ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .................. 2
1.1 Directions ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................ 2
1.2 Selecting a topic ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................... 3
1.3 Guidelines ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................ 4
1.4 Grading rubric ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ..................... 5
2 Paper 2 ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .................. 5
2.1 Partnering ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................ 5
2.2 Directions ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................ 6
2.3 Guidelines ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................ 6
2.4 Grading rubric ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ..................... 7
3 Paper 3 ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .................. 7
3.1 Directions ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................ 7
3.2 Guidelines ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................ 8
3.3 Grading rubric ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ..................... 8
4 General paper guidelines and information ................................ ................................ ........................ 9
4.1 Submitting your papers ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 9
4.2 Late submissions ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................. 9
4.3 File formatting ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................... 10
4.4 Length ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ 10
4.5 Form atting ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ......................... 10
4.6 Drafts, comments, and other help ................................ ................................ ................................ ................... 10
4.7 Outside texts, citations, and academic honesty ................................ ................................ .............................. 11
5 Advice on writing course papers ................................ ................................ ................................ ....... 11
5.1 Constructing sound arguments ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................ 11
5.2 Presenting empirical premises ................................ ................................ ................................ .......................... 12
5.3 Presenting normative premises ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................ 13
5.4 State all premises and important background information ................................ ................................ ........... 13
5.5 Further advice on writing philosophy and ethics papers ................................ ................................ .............. 14
6 Some useful sources ................................ ................................ ................................ .......................... 14
6.1 Journalistic sources ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ........... 15
6.2 Scholarly and professional resources ................................ ................................ ................................ .............. 16
6.3 Governmental and other public resources ................................ ................................ ................................ ..... 17
PHI L 2210 | Spring 2019 | Paper guide | Page 2 of 17
This is the guide for the three course papers. Sections 1 -3 contain descriptions of the three paper
assignments, including specific directions and grading rubrics. Carefully read the section that pertains to a paper
assignment before you begin work on that paper , and consult it again before submitting work for a grade .
Section 4 includes general information and guidelines that apply to all of the papers. You should read that
fourth section carefully before submitting each of the papers. Section 5 provide s some advice on writing papers
as well as some links to online resources on writing philosophy papers . S ection 6 contains lists of sources that
may be used for the papers.
1 Paper 1
The three papers form a cumulative pr oject, so that the second paper builds off the first, and the third
paper draws from Papers 1 and 2. That means that Paper 1 acts as the foundation for the other two assignments.
The overarching aim of the project is for you to select a topic in bioethics and then defend a position on that
topic against a troubling objection raised by another student in the class. You will also review the topic that
classmate selected and evaluate the argument they give in response to the issue they chose to write about .
1.1 Directions
Your first paper should accomplish three tasks. One is to select and describe a topic in medic ine
that raises a significant moral problem . S econd , you should present an argument in support of a position
on the problem you identified . Finally, you will prepare an annotated bibliography of sources you used in
completing the first two tasks. The rest of this section describes those three directions .
In the first part of the paper, you will introduce the topic you sel ected and explain why that topic raises
an important moral problem . You are welcome to select any topic you wish to , so long as the topic raises a
significant ethical problem relating to medicine. Section 1.2 below gives some advice on selecting a topic for
the paper. Once you have selected a topic and done some initial research on it , b egin your paper by explaining
what that topic is. Include any information you think is relevant to the moral problem the topic raises or that
plays some role in what you think about the issue . Aim to present enough information about the topic so that
someone without any background in medicine will understand why the topic is worth discussing. Much of that
work will involve presenting factual, empirical material you find in the sources you refe rence .
After you have given a thorough description of your paper’s topic, go on to identify the moral problem
you think the topic raises. It is usually best to summarize the problem the topic raise s in one or two sentences,
and to then spend a few paragraphs expla ining how the topic raises the problem and why the problem is
troubling. I strongly suggest that you focus your paper on a single moral problem , and to be as precise as you
can in stating what the problem is. Many students are tempted to tackle several pro blems in this sort of paper.
Since part of this paper is to provide your thoughts about any moral problems you identify, selecting several
problems multiplies the work you have to do. By narrowing the focus of the paper to a single ethical worry,
you can d evote more space in the paper to explaining the significance of the problem.
In the second part of the paper, you will present an argument in response the moral problem you
discussed in the first part . You are welcome to take any position you like on the problem so long as you can
provide plausible, reasoned support for it. Remember that moral arguments like those that we have been dealing
with include both empirical premises and a normative principle (or principles) . The empirical premises in your
argumen t will likely come from information you presented in the first part of the paper when describing the
paper’s topic. Some of the factual information you present earlier in the paper will form part of your reasoning
in response to the problem. PHI L 2210 | Spring 2019 | Paper guide | Page 3 of 17
Take care to explicitly state any normative principle(s) that are part of your response to the moral
problem. Be sure to also include some discussion of how the normative premise (s) in your argument match up
with the empirical premises to support your conclusion. To use one example, suppose that you favor a response
to a moral problem because you think that response would do best in prevent ing harm to patient(s) . In terms
we will use several times in the course, that is a variet y of consequentialist re asoning; it is a line of argument
that uses a consequentialist principle as a premise . Whether your own response takes a consequentialist
approach or it uses some other moral standard to determine what’s right or wrong, be clear in saying so.
You will als o want to spend time in the seco nd part of the paper identifying the empirical parts of your
response to the moral problem. You will probably present most of that information in the first part of the essay
when outlining the topic and the problem the topic raises. Any empirical matters that you did not include earlier
should show up when you are presenting your argument. It can also be good to reiterate important empirical
points when giving your response. Make it clear how those factual, empirical matters work along with the
normative parts of the argument to support the conclusion you draw.
The final part of your paper will consist of an annotated bibliography that includes any work you
reference in preparing the essay . You should use at least three sourc es r elating to your paper’s topic, the moral
problem it raises , or the response you give to the problem . Each source should appear in a bibliography at the
end of the paper . All of the sources you use should be from the lists in Section 6 of this guide or should be
accessible through one of the databases Northland’s library subscribes to. You can access the databases at
http://www.northlandcollege.edu/library/databases/ . If you wish to use other sources , send me an email with
a link or some other reference to the work. You may use those other sources so long as I approve them.
Please include full bibliographical information in the list of sources at the end of your paper , preferably
using a standard citation method (i.e., MLA, APA, Chicago). You should also include a short (i.e., 1 -3 sentence)
statement following each entry that gives an overview of the information the source presents. Entries in your
bibliography should look something like the following example:
Binik, Ariella. ‘Does benefit justify research with children?’ Bioethics 32, vol. 1 (January
2018) : 27 -35. [This essay presents several arguments for using children as part of
medical research. The arguments justify using children because of the benefits the
research would cause. Binik presents objections to all of those arguments.]
Because this essay is a foundation you will build on in the other two papers, you can treat Paper 1 as
something of a draft. The version of the paper you submit by the deadline on Monday, April 1 does not need
to be as polished as a final draft typically should be. You should be as complete as you are able to in responding
to the directions, but recognize that you are go ing to do further work on the topic and the argument you present
later in the semester. I suggest comparing your paper to the directions as well as the rubric in Section 1.4 before
submitting it for a grade to make sure you are completing the tasks I will grade you on.
1.2 Selecting a topic
Most of the unit assignments in this course ask you to deal with topics that I select. In this first paper,
you are responsible for finding a topic that raises a significant ethical concern rela ting to medicine. You are fre e
to select any topic you wish to. If you find one of the topics we will cover in class interesting, you are welcome
to use that for this paper. You might find, however, that selecting a topic that we will not cover in this course
will be more worthwhile . If there is a topic you have learned about outside of this course that you think would
fit with this assignment, you are welcome to select that. PHI L 2210 | Spring 2019 | Paper guide | Page 4 of 17
Students who have had to find their own topics for course papers in the past know that it can be
difficult to select and refine topics for use in graded essays. You will want to find a topic that is simple enough
to handle in a relatively short paper , but that is complex enough to raise a meaningful ethical problem. Striking
that balance can be tricky. But because this paper assignment is part of a larger process, you have time to
develop and refine the topic after you have completed this assignment.
I strongly encourage you to devote some effort to thinking a potential topic through before using it
for a paper. I t can be tempting to run a search online for topics, which typically produce generic papers on hot
button social discussions like abortion, euthanasia, or the legalization of recreational drugs. Papers like those
often rely on poor sources of information a s well. The effect of that is often a poor grade on this sort of paper.
If you would like to write on a hot button topic, spend time researching the topic in credible sources like the
ones in Section 6 before writing your paper . Doing so will provide you w ith more nuanced , better informed
material to base your essay on, and will likely help you weed out topics that are too broad.
Many students find it easiest to select a particular case as the topic of their paper , for instance a case
of medical care that garnered wide attention . Having a case in mind gives a concrete example that illustrates an
ethical problem and can make forming an argument in response to that problem more straightforward. The
case can be one that affects just a single patient, caregiver , or facility, or it can be one that affects many people.
Most discussions of medical practice or of bioethical issues give examples – some real, some hypothetical –
that could work for this sort of assignment. If you have settled on a topic but cannot fin d a case that illustrates
it, you are free to construct a plausible hypothetical case that does so. You do not need to use a case in your
paper, however. It is fine to describe a topic and the moral problem it raises without giving examples.
Section 6 bel ow includes lists of sources you may use when selecting a topic. Those sources can also
be helpful if you are having trouble narrowing down a topic that you are considering or if you need more
information about a topic . Many of those sources, in particular the journalistic ones in Section 6.1 , are likely to
provide specific cases to deal with as well as important empirical information. You may use sources other than
those I have listed. But like I stated at the end of Section 1.1, any sources that are not l isted at the end of this
guide or that are not accessible through library databases may not be used for this paper unless you have cleared
them with me .
Please contact me if you have any questions a bout topics.
1.3 Guidelines
The body of your paper should be about 1000 -1300 words in length, which is around 3 -4 pages. The
annotated bibliography should appear on a separat e page at the end of the essay.
Upload your final draft of the paper to the folder labeled ‘Paper 1’ in the Assignments section of D 2L
before 10:00 pm on Monday, April 1 . I will accept papers after 10:00 pm on the 1st, though a five -point penalty
will apply to papers submitted after that time. The folder on D2L will close down on April 1, so all late papers
will need to be sent to me a s email attachments. The final deadline for this paper is 12:00 pm on Monday , April
8. I will not accept drafts after that time.
Be sure to read through the general guidelines in Section 4 below before submitting the final draft of
your paper. Because thi s paper requires you to do research outside of the course material, you will need to be
careful in the way you incorporate and cite th at outside material. Section 4.7 below provides some information
on using outside sources. Please contact me as well if yo u have questions about source s. PHI L 2210 | Spring 2019 | Paper guide | Page 5 of 17
1.4 Grading rubric
The grading rubric for Paper 1 appears below. The rubric breaks the paper grade up by the parts of
the assignment I described in the paper directions. I will return a completed rubric and comments on your
pap er within two weeks of the deadline .
Part 1: topic presentation
The essay provides a thorough, concise summary of the topic
The essay clearly identifies a moral problem raised by the topic
The essay thoroughly explains how the topic raises the moral probl em
The essay thoroughly explains the significance of the moral problem
/4
/2
/3
/4
Part 2: argument presentation
The essay explicitly states important normative and empirical premises
The essay explains each premise adequately
The essay clearly describes the support the premises provide for the conclusion
/4
/4
/3
Part 3: annotated bibliography
The essay includes at least three sources from approved lists/databases in a bibliography
The essay provides a brief synopsis of each entry in the bibliography
/3
/3
Total /30
2 Paper 2
Paper 2 builds on the work another member o f the class did in their first paper . You will do two things
in Paper 2. First, you will assess the topic another student presented in their first paper . After that , you
will reconstruct and evaluate the argument your partner presented on that topic .
2.1 Partnering
I will assign you a partner by looking at the time you submitted your first paper to the Assignments
section of D2L, so that the first person who submits thei r paper will be partnered with the second person, the
third person with the fourth, and so on. I will post partner assignments to t he Announcements section near the
due date for Paper 1 and will update that announcement as further papers are submitted. Get in contact with
your partner and arran ge to exchange drafts of your first paper s as soon as you can . I anticipate that you will
forward your partner the same draft of Paper 1 that you submitted to me for a grade, but you are welcome to
exchange some other draft with them if you would like to.
The easiest way to get in touch with your partner will be to email them. You can do that by clicking on
the Communications tab at the top of the main course page, and then opening the Classlist option that appears.
Find your partner’s name on that list, click the box to the left of their name, and then click the Email button
near the top of the Classlist page. You can type out an email and attach your paper in the browser window that
pops up. The email will be sent to your partner’s college email address. Be sure to check your own email account
in case your partner contacts you before you contact them. PHI L 2210 | Spring 2019 | Paper guide | Page 6 of 17
Please let me know if you have trouble getting in contact with your partner , especially if you have not
heard from th em within a week of Paper 2’s deadline . I can forward a copy of their first paper to you if you
cannot exchange drafts direct ly with them and can work out arrangements for an alternative second paper
assignment if serious problems occur. Please contact me as well if you are not going to submit a draft of Paper
1 to me by the final deadline so that we can discuss an alternative to the second paper.
2.2 Directions
Your second paper will come in two parts, both of which draw on your partner’s first paper. In the
first part of Paper 2, you should provide a sketch of the topic your partner selected and the moral problem they
identified. You should also do some evaluation of their presentation of the topic and the problem . That
evaluation can take whatever form you w ould like it to, but you should aim to provide your partner with some
comments they can use to refine or improve the work they did in the first part of their Paper 1 . You could, for
instance, point out troubles with the way they summarize the topic or the way they explain the moral issue the
topic raises. If you think the topic needs to be narrowed down, expanded upon, or supplemented by an example
or additional empirical information , say so in the first part of your paper. But again, give your partner comm ents
they can use when they work on their third paper.
The second part of Paper 2 requires more work. You should begin that section of the essay by
reconstructing the argument your partner gave in response to the moral issue they take on in Paper 1. Like you
have done on unit assignments, identify the conclusion and premises of their argument, then list and number
those individual claims.
Once you have reconstructed your partner’s argument, move on to evaluate the individual premises.
For each premise you identify, explain why you partner thinks those premises are true. You should also explain
why some of th ose premises might be questioned. After reconstructing the argument, in other words, I would
like you to test the argument for soundness. Lik e with the first part of this essay , in the second part you should
try to give your partner some feedback they can use when preparing their third paper. Aim to present at least
one substantial objection or problem they can deal with in Paper 3. If some premise their position relies on
seem s dubious, explain why that is. The same goes if the premises do not appear to give strong support for the
conclusion, or if the conclusion itself seems troubling.
Like Paper 1, you can treat Paper 2 as something of a draft. Do the best you can to accurately present
material from your partner’s paper and to give them feedback that will be useful to them in drafting Paper 3,
but if the paper you submit to me for a grade isn’t as polished as a final draft typically would be, don’t worry.
No part of the grade for Paper 2 comes from structural or grammatical matters.
The quality of the work you do on Paper 2 will rely to some extent on the quality of the work your
partner did on their first essay. If parts of your partner’s essay are incomplete or unclear, that will affect what
you say in your paper. I will have your partner’s paper in front of me as I grade your second paper, and will
take the work they did into account when grading your essay. You won’t be penalized if your partner did a poor
job on Paper 1.
2.3 Guidelines
Paper 2 is due in the folder labeled ‘Paper 2’ in D2L’s Assignments section before 10:00 pm on
Monday, April 15 . You should also email your paper to your partner before that deadline. Please email me if
you have not r eceived a paper or any other communication from your partner by the evening of the 15 th.
I am a bit flexible on the deadline for Paper 2, but only if your partner is willing to be as well. If you
need a few da ys beyond the deadline on the 15 th to complete the assignment, contact your partner. You are PHI L 2210 | Spring 2019 | Paper guide | Page 7 of 17
welcome to an extension so long as your partner approves. You will need to submit your paper to me as an
email attachment if you are doing so after the 15 th. All drafts must be submitted by 1 2:00 pm on Monday, April
29 to receive credit.
Your final draft of Paper 2 should be 700 -1000 words in length, or around 2 -3 pages. The general
guidelines in Section 4 below apply to this paper, so please review those before submitting your final draft.
2.4 Grading rubric
The rubric I will use to grade Paper 2 is below.
Part 1: topic and issue representation
The essay accurately represents the topic of their partner’s paper
The essay provides meaningful evaluation of the topic
/1
/3
Part 2: argument representation
The essay provides a faithful reconstruction of the partner’s argument
The essay evaluates the partner’s argument, including an objection/problem
/2
/4
Total /10
3 Paper 3
The third paper is a capstone assignment that incorporates the work you did in Paper 1 and the work
your partner did in Paper 2. A significant portion of the work for Paper 3 will be complete by the time you
begin working on it.
3.1 Directions
There are four goals you should set out to achieve in the third paper. Two of those goals mirror what
you did in Paper 1: you should select and describe a topic in medic ine that raises a significant moral
problem , and you should present an argument in support of a positi on on the problem . The other two
tasks build on your partner’s second paper. In the third part of Paper 3, you should explain any problems or
objections your partner raised against your argument . You will respond to your partner’s evaluation of
your argume nt in the final portion of the essay.
The first part of your paper will be made up of a more complete presentation of your topic and the
moral problem it raises than the one you presented in Paper 1. The same goes for the second part of Paper 3,
where you will present your response to the moral problem in a more final form than you did in the first essay.
The best way of completing those two parts of the paper is to take the draft of Paper 1 that you sent to your
partner and to edit and expand on what you wrote there, using their second paper as a guide in doing that.
Take whatever objections or problems your partner raised against your position and incorporate those
into the third part of Paper 3. Do the best you can to make the comments they ga ve in resp onse to their
reconstruction of your argument sound as worrisome as possible. Since you will be defending your position in
the last part of Paper 3, you want to show that some ser ious challenges to it exist . You are welcome to
communicate with your partner if you have questions or need some clarification about the comments they gave
you. You may also contact me if you have trouble working your partner’s comments into your own essay. PHI L 2210 | Spring 2019 | Paper guide | Page 8 of 17
The final part of your third paper will give your response to the problems or objections your partner
raised . Their objection (s) likely focused on questionable premise s in your argument. If that is so, you should
say why each objection is misplaced and why your premise is correct. Or if you think their objection is well -
placed, you can replace the premise with another that preserves your argument while escaping the problem the
objection poses. If your partner did not direct th eir objection at a particular premise in your argument, but
raised a more general problem for your position instead, you should do your best to defend your position in
light of that problem.
3.2 Guidelines
The final draft of this paper must be uploaded to the folder labeled ‘Paper 3’ in the Assignments section
of D2L before 10:00 pm on Monday , May 1 3. Since this paper is due at the end of the term, I cannot accept
papers after that deadline. Please contact me as soon as possible if you think you will not be ab le to get a paper
to me by the 1 3th. Your paper should be about 1500 -2000 words in length, or around 5 -7 pages.
Like with Paper 1, y ou need to incorporate research from outside of the course material into this paper.
You will likely have done most of the research already in preparing Paper 1 , though may remove sources you
used in that essay if they are no longer useful . You may also add in sources that you did not use in that earlier
assignment. Be sure to cite any source you reference . Your paper should include a bibliography , though unlike
Paper 1 you do not need to include notations as part of those bibliographical entries .
Also like the earlier papers, please read through the grading rubric in Section 3.3 as well as the guidelines
in Section 4 before s ubmitting this assignment.
3.3 Grading rubric
The rubric for Paper 3 is more complex than the rubrics for the first two papers, though there are
several individual items in common with those other assignments. Like with the rubrics for the other papers,
this rubric breaks down the paper grade according to the parts of the paper I described above.
Part 1: topic presentation
The essay provides a thorough, concise summary of the topic
The essay clearly identifies a moral problem raised by the topic
The essay thoroughly explains how the topic raises the moral problem
The essay thoroughly explains the significance of the moral problem
/5
/3
/4
/5
Part 2: argument presentation
The essay explicitly states important normative and empirical premises
The essa y explains each premise adequately
The essay clearly describes the support the premises provide for the conclusion
/5
/5
/4
Part 3: objection representation
The essay clearly states important objection s/problem s their partner identified
The essay explains why their partner finds the objection s/problem s troubling
/4
/3
Part 4: argument defense
The essay provides a meaningful defense of the argument against the objection s/problem s
The defense is clearly directed at the objection/problem their partner presented
/4
/4 PHI L 2210 | Spring 2019 | Paper guide | Page 9 of 17
General matters
The essay applies terms and concepts from course material appropriately
The essay has a clear structure
The essay is free of spelling and grammatical problems
The essay prope rly cites material from outside sources and course material
The essay uses reliable, trustworthy sources in assembling the paper
/2
/4
/3
/3
/3
Total /6 0
Because this paper is due at the end of the term, I will return completed rubrics and comments only if you
specifically request them. Please email me if you would like to see a completed rubric or if you would like
comments on the final draft of your third paper. I will return completed rubrics and comments to those who
request them by the end of May .
4 General paper guidelines and information
This s ection outlines some formatting, style , and other general guidelines that apply to all three papers.
Please carefully read through this section before you submit final drafts of each assignment .
4.1 Submitting your papers
You will submit final drafts of the papers to folder s in the Assignments section of D2L, which is
available via a link under the Assessments tab near the top of the mai n course page. Those folders are open
until each paper’s due date. Due dates appear in Section 2.1 of the course syllabus , on D2L’s course calendar,
and in Sections 1.3, 2.3, and 3.2 of this guide.
The folders in D2L’s Assignments section are set up so that you can upload an unlimited number of
files, and so that every upload remains in the folder. I will grade the draft of the paper that you upload last. I f
you upload a draft of a paper and then mak e changes after you upload, you are able to upload the later draft of
the paper, which is the one I will grade. D2L will automatically send you an email each time you upload a file
to confirm that the file uploaded successfully.
I prefer that you submit y our papers to me through the folders on D2L. If you are unable to upload a
paper to D2L or if you are submitting after a deadline, you should submit your paper to me as an email
attachment. You should also send your papers to me as email attachments if you attempted to upload them to
D2L but do not receive an email confirmation that the files transmitted successfully.
4.2 Late submissions
Please contact me as soon as possible if you will be submitting a paper after its due date. Since the first
two papers affe ct other students’ work, it is helpful to know when a late paper will be submitted, especially if
the paper will be more than a day or two late. Late papers may b e subject to point deduction s, including
complete loss of credit on the assignment. I am far l ess likely to deduct points from students who are in contact
with me prior to due date s. PHI L 2210 | Spring 2019 | Paper guide | Page 10 of 17
4.3 File formatting
You will need to save the drafts of your papers that you upload to D2L in either a Microsoft Word or
a Rich Text format. Most word processing programs are capable of saving files in at least one, and usually both ,
of those formats. Microsoft Word files have a ‘.doc’ or ‘.do cx’ suffix after the file name; Rich Text files have
an ‘.rtf’ suffix. P apers not submitted in Word or Rich Text formats before the ir deadline s will be counted late.
Like I mentioned in Section 4.4 of the course syllabus, you have free access to Microsoft Word on
college -owned computers and on your own computer because you are a Northland student. If you do not have
Word installed on your computer but would like to do so, contact Northland’s IT department or access their
technology reference guide, which includes instructions for installing the software. The guide is available at
http://www.northlandcollege.edu/about -northland/offices/technology/_docs/NCTC -Student -Technology -
Reference -Guide.pdf .
4.4 Length
I listed word and page length suggestion s for the pap ers in Sections 1.3, 2.3, and 3.2 above. Please
understand that these are suggestions , not formal requirements. Use those suggestions as a way of estimating
how complete your papers are. If you need more space than I suggest to say everything you think nee d to be
said in a paper, do not feel obligated to cut material if you think everything you have included is necessary.
Likewise, if a paper is shorter than my suggestion , do not include unnecessary material to fill space, but
recognize that you may not be filling out each part of the assignment as fully as you ought to.
The grading rubrics for each paper give a n indication of the type and amount of work that should go
into each part of each paper. You may find it helpful to review those rubrics as you work through each paper,
part icularly as you are completing draft s for submission. If you have said very little i n a draft about some item
on a rubric, especially an item that is worth several points, you should probably do more to address that item.
4.5 Formatting
Use a standard 11 -12 point font (e.g., Times New Roman, Garamond) throughout the body of your
papers. Doub le-space the body of your papers with 1” margins on all sides. Put a page number somewhere on
each page. Title pages are optional , though you should give each essay a title .
4.6 Drafts , comments , and other help
I am happy to read through drafts of papers befo re you submit final versions for a grade . If you would
like me to look at a draft of a paper you are working on, forward it to me via email or make arrangements to
speak with me in person, over the phone, or through Skype . It may take two or three days aft er I receive a draft
before I have an opportunity to read it and give comments, so the earlier you can send one to me, the better.
Feel free to contact me if you have other questions about the paper assignment s as well . It can be
helpful to speak with me if you aren’t sure what the directions for a paper are asking, are stuck and can’t see a
way forward with a paper, or have other difficulties. You may also post questions to the Instructor Assistance
discussion forum on D2L .
Remember too that Northland of fers a writing lab to all students through the Academic Success
Center. Information about the services the ASC provides is available at
http://www.northlandcollege.ed u/support -services/academic -success -center/ . PHI L 2210 | Spring 2019 | Paper guide | Page 11 of 17
4.7 Outside texts , citation s, and academic honesty
You must use sources other than the course material when writing P apers 1 and 3. As I stated in
describing those assignments, you must cite all material drawn from outside sources if you include that material
in your written work. That applies whether you directly quote the material or restate it in your own words.
Please use a standard citation method when you incorporate material from outside sources into your
written work . Most students learn how to use American Psychological Association (APA), Modern Language
Association (MLA), or Chicago/Turabian citation styles in high school and college compositi on courses. You
may use these or other standard citation methods in your papers. My general rule for citations is that I should
be able to easily identify and locate the sources of information you reference given the citations you provide.
If you are comp letely unfamiliar with citing texts or are out of practice in doing so , check with a
librarian. Librarians are familiar with citation methods and can provide guidance if you are having trouble.
Libraries also carry style guides that will explain how to pro perly format citations. Purdue University’s Online
Writing Lab (OWL) is also a reliable source for information on APA and MLA citation methods. You can find
OWL online at https://owl.purdue.edu/owl /purdue_owl.html .
As I st ated in the syllabus, I expect all material you submit for this course to be work produced entirely
by you exclusively for this course . You will receive less than full credit, most likely no credit at all, if I have
reason to susp ect that a paper you submit violates the college’s standards of academic honesty. Please contact
me if you have questions about academic honesty issues.
5 Advice on writing course papers
Much of what you will do in the course papers will be to present , analyze, and evaluate arguments in
suppor t of positions on bio ethical issues. You will have practice doing all of those things in unit assignments.
As I have stressed in those assignments, i t is important that you make any argument you deal with appear as
strong as you possibly can, no matter if you accept the argument or not. This section of the guide includes
some general advice on writing your papers, in particular on presenting plausible arguments . The first four parts
of this secti on deal with presenting arguments, and the final part provides a few links to further advice on
writing papers in philosophy and ethics.
5.1 Constructing sound arguments
We will spend some time in Unit 1 of the course looking at two criteria that the stronges t, most
plausible arguments meet: that the arguments are logically valid and that all of their premises are true. Like I
say in the course text for Unit 1, determining if an argument is valid can be a difficult matter and is beyond the
scope of this course . In spite of that difficulty, you should aim whenever you present an argument to word the
premises in a way that together they support the conclusion, but recognize that you may not be presenting
those arguments in ways that meets a technical standard for logical validity. Don’t worry too much about that.
No part of the grade for any of the papers comes from matters relating to validity.
In addition to carefully wording the premises of the arguments you present, you should also work to
explain what makes each individual premise true or plausible. Sections 5.2 and 5.3 below focus on those matters.
You should also devote some space to showing how the premises of an argument work together to provide
strong support for the conclusion. A few sentences of explan ation that link the premises to the conclusion they
support is typically enough to do that work. PHI L 2210 | Spring 2019 | Paper guide | Page 12 of 17
5.2 Presenting empirical premises
Like I also discuss in the course text for Unit 1, the arguments we are concerned with in this course
contain two types of premi se: statements of empirical fact and normative principles. This section of the guide
gives a bit of guidance regarding the empirical premises that appear in arguments you present in your course
papers.
Each of the papers you will write will deal with medi cal practices that raise troubling moral problems.
The papers will also offer up proposed solutions to those problems by way of reasoned argument. Since you
are dealing with matters of medical practice, at least one premise in each argument you present mus t state some
empirical fact related to that practice. Empirical facts, again, are those whose truth can only be determined
through observation. The data that scientists, medical researchers, and medical practitioners gather through
studies and professional exp erience are the most common kinds of empirical premise that we will deal with in
this course. It is not uncommon for arguments in bioethics to include several empirical premises.
Since empirical facts are the ones that we can determine to be true or false by making observations or
conducting formal experiments, it is relatively easy to present true empirical premises. If someone who has
professional training and experience in medic ine makes correct observations – if they are careful in gathering
evidence about patients, diseases, treatments, or whatever else they set out to discover through their research –
the information they relay to us is likely to be true. It is always possible , of course, that their observations might
be incorrect. But trained professionals are correct far more often than not. So if a case study, journal article,
book chapter, or report tells us what some researchers or medical professionals observe, premises t hat
incorporate that empirical information are likely to be true.
One difficulty with empirical premises lies in the fact that the sources from which we draw information
can be unreliable. If we are directly communicating with the person who gathered the empirical information,
we will probably understand their message without much trouble. But if we are learning about that information
through another source – say a newspaper report or a chapter in a book – there is some chance that the
information will be misreported. People who report others’ discoveries can misunderstand the information,
may leave important details out or fail to give context to the information, or misconstrue information because
of an agenda they favor. When someone relays information fr om one person to another, there is always a
chance the information will be garbled, intentionally or not.
The best defense against that garbling is to be careful in the sources you trust when gathering empirical
information. Section 6 below contains lists of reliable, trustworthy sources of information; if you use empirical
information from those sources, there is a high likelihood that the information is correct. That means in addition
that when you incorporate that information into your arguments, that y our empirical premises are highly likely
to be true. It is also helpful if you gather information from several sources, even if much of the information
those sources present is similar. When multiple sources report on the same issue, they will very likely agree on
many important details. That is a good indication that the details they present are correct. Using multiple sources
also makes it less likely that you will miss out on important information. It isn’t uncommon for some sources
to include material t hat other sources omit. Some of that material may be relevant to the kind of work you will
be doing in the papers for this course, which again means that finding several sources of information can be
worthwhile.
All of the sources you use for Papers 1 and 3 should come either from the lists in Section 6 or from
the Northland library’s databases. The lists in Section 6 are not exhaustive , and the library databases are limited .
There are many other reliable, trustworthy resources available. Books, journals, and other materials produced
by university presses and large publishing houses typically have editors and subject experts who review empirical
information they publish. Major newspapers and broadcasters with large news bureaus also take care to report
info rmation they take to be trustworthy. The same applies to research groups, especially those from PHI L 2210 | Spring 2019 | Paper guide | Page 13 of 17
governmental, professional, and other organizations working in the general public interest. You are welcome
to use other sources in your papers so long as you c lear those sources with me before submitting your work
for a grade.
We all recognize, though, that there are many bad sources of information. That is especially true of
online sources. There are many places we can go to access news and other information t hat are not especially
likely to be presenting us with true empirical information. Social media, as well as viral media and sites that
cater to individuals with specific agendas, often lack the expert editors, reviewers, and reporters who help
prevent flaw ed information from being published. Information from those sources is thus not reliable and so
incorporating that information into empirical premises severely weakens the arguments those premises appear
in. Please be careful with the sources from which yo u draw information in your papers. If possible, try to find
more than one source that independently report the same information.
5.3 Presenting normative premises
Dealing with normative premises is trickier than empirical ones. Part of the reason for that is that we
cannot discover if normative premises are true or false just by conducting experiments or making observations ;
true moral principles are true in what philosophers call an a priori , rather than an empirical, sense . As part of
the course text for Uni t 1 discusses, we have to use reasoning to determine if normative ethical claims are true
or false.
We look at normative principles in every unit of the course, most often when we look at arguments
for positions on particular moral issues. Most of those n ormative principles seem acceptable to us at first glance,
and often remain so even when we recognize the problems they might raise. When people largely agree that
the principle is reasonable after some careful investigation, we can take that as a sign tha t the principle is
plausible. Some normative principles, on the other hand, are unappealing on their face. Think, for instance,
about a moral rule that is obviously unfair or would lead to many people being harmed. It is best to avoid such
obviously troubl ing – and hence implausible and very likely false – ethical norms in papers, and to rely on moral
standards that are more broadly appealing in their place.
It takes some work to explain why normative principles are plausible or not. Some normative princip les
are too strong, like in the case of absolutist principles that do not take the circumstances in which actions are
performed into account. Other principles are too weak, in that they do not give clear, definitive guidance about
case s or practice s they a re supposed to apply to. It is often best to state normative principles in a way that is as
strong as possible without being too strong. That is a difficult task even for experienced moral philosophers,
so do not worry too mu ch if you have trouble doing so .
Remember that a rguments are in part meant to convince others to accept a particular conclusion. An
argument that relies on a questionable premise – whether that is an empirical premise or a normative principle
– will be unlikely to convince many other p eople. Use empirical information and moral principles that many
people are likely to think are plausible , but recognize that someone may yet disagree with the premises of the
arguments you present.
5.4 State all premises and important background information
It is important that you clearly state all the premises and the conclusion of any argument you present.
In other words, don’t leave important support for your conclusion, or the conclusion itself, hidden or unstated.
You should also aim to give clear and co ncise, though complete, supporting explanation for each premise in an
argument and for the conclusion as well. The more support you can give for arguments, the stronger those
arguments will end up being. PHI L 2210 | Spring 2019 | Paper guide | Page 14 of 17
You should also explain any relevant background inf ormation or assumptions that arguments you
present rely on. You want anyone who encounters your arguments to understand why they should accept the
conclusions you draw based on what you write. If a reader does not understand why they should care about
your conclusion or they do not see any reason to accept your premises, they will not be likely to accept your
conclusion. This means that you should take care to completely explain everything that is relevant to your
arguments, even if some of what you say see ms obvious to you .
If you have difficulty determin ing whether you have provided clear, complete , plausible arguments , a
good guide is to ask yourself whether someone who is unfamiliar with the subject matter of your paper would
understand each portion of your argument. Many people find it helpful to work on a draft of a paper, then set
the draft aside for a few days. By coming back to the draft after some time away, you will probably notice parts
of your essay that need to be added to, reworded, or changed in some other way. It can help as well if you have
someone else read through a draft of your work. If that other person has questions or sees problems with your
paper, that can be a good indication that you need to rework parts of it. And as I stated in S ection 4.6 above, I
am happy to read through drafts of your written work and provide comments.
5.5 Further a dvice on writing philosophy and ethics paper s
My aim in this section of the guide has been to provide some advice on writing papers for this course.
Bu t since the papers for this course the first philosophical essays many of you have written, you might still have
trouble working on these assignments. Again, you are free to speak with me or to post to the Instructor
Assistance forum on D2L if you have questions about the paper assignments or if you would like me to look
over drafts. I have also listed three links below to good online guides for writing philosophy papers. Though
none of those guides talks specifically about papers in ethics, they do give good advice for how to structure and
compose the papers you will write for this course.
http://www.public.asu.edu/~dportmor/tips.pdf
http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/writing.html
http://philosophy.fas.harvard.edu/files/phildept/files/guide_to_philosophical_writ
ing.pd f
6 Some useful sources
This final section of the paper guide contains list s of some resources that you may wish to access if
you are looking for information to use in y our papers, especially the first and third essays. Section 6.1 is list of
reliable journalistic sources, mostly newspapers and broadcasters, that frequently publish articles on medicine
that raise interesting ethical problems. Section 6.2 is made up of a l ist of scholarly and professional resources
that have interest in bioethical issues. Section 6.3 lists some governmental resources. None of those lists are
exhaustive. There are many excellent resources not listed below that you are welcome to use when com posing
your papers so long as they appear on Northland library databases or you receive approval from me.
Like I stated in Section 5.2 above, I expect you to draw information from reliable, trustworthy sources .
Many sources of infor mation, particularly th ose that only appear online, are unreliable. The same applies to
some journalistic sources, particularly cable news. Those types of source typically have social or political agendas PHI L 2210 | Spring 2019 | Paper guide | Page 15 of 17
or do not adequately verify the information they publish. The result is th at those sources frequently publish
information that is misleading or outright false .
You will only be able to access s ome of the resources below, especially the scholarly journals listed in
Section 6.2, with a paid subscription. Some of the fees you pay as a student go toward purchasing subscriptions
to databases that give access to many of those resources. Northland’s library database catalog is available at
http://www.northlandcollege.ed u/library/databases/ . If there is material you would like to access but cannot
do so through a database that Northland subscribes to , you can request the material through the interlibrary
loan service. The webpage for that is http://www.northlandcollege.edu/library/ILL/ . If you have trouble
accessing material, the library’s student help page at
http://www.northlandcollege.edu/library/resources/students/ is a good place to go for help. You can also
contact a librarian or me if you have difficulty finding material for the papers.
6.1 Journalistic sources
New York Times – http://www.nytimes.com/ – The Times is one of the world’s premier newspapers. Their
Health section ( http://www.nytimes.com/page s/health/index.html ) routinely publishes articles that bring out
moral issues in medicine that could be useful in course papers .
Washington Post – http://www.washingtonpost.com/ – The Post is another highly -regarded newspaper. Like the
Times , the Post also has a section devoted to reports on health
(https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/ ).
Wall Street Journal – http://www.wsj.com/ - The WSJ is another well -respected newspaper. Their health section
is available at https://www.wsj.com/news/life -arts/health -wellness .
The Economist – http://www.economist.com/ – The Economist is a weekly newspaper based in the United
Kingdom. They frequently publish articles in their Science an d Technology section
(http://www.economist.com/sections/science -technology ) that could be useful for course papers .
NPR – http://www.npr.org/ – NPR is one of the primary sources for news reporting on public radio stations.
Like many of the sources listed here, their website includes a section dedicated to health reporting
(http://www.npr.org/sections/h ealth/ ).
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) – http://www.bbc.com/ – The BBC is another excellent news source.
Their health section is at http://www.bbc.com/news/health .
Associated Press (AP) – http://www.ap.org/ – The AP is a newswire service. Their reports are often published
by other news organizations. Their health section is available at
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/fronts/HEALTH?SITE=AP .
Reuters – http://www.reuters.com/ – Reuters is another newswire service. You can find their health section
at http://www.reuters.com/news/health .
United Press International (UPI) – http://www.upi.com/ – UPI is also a newswire service. Their health section
is at http://www.upi.com/Health_News/ .
PHI L 2210 | Spring 2019 | Paper guide | Page 16 of 17
Frontline – http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ – Frontline is an investigative journalism series that airs
on public television stations. They produce a few episodes per year on medicine , often focusing on le gal and
moral issues . Frontline makes all episodes of the series available to stream online for free, and publish additional
information related to those episodes online.
ProPublica – http://www.propublica.org/ – ProPublica is a nonprofit news organization that regularly publishes
in-depth investigative articles on m edical issues. They frequently collaborate with other news organizations.
Kaiser Health News – http://khn.org/ – Kaiser is another nonprofit investigative journalism organization. If you
are interested in keeping up to date with health news, they offer a useful daily email service.
6.2 Scholarly and professional resources
The Hastings Center – http://www.thehastingscenter.org/ – The Hastings Center is an organization devoted
to e xploring bioethical matters . The journal they publish, The Hastings Center Report , is an important resource for
medical ethicists .
Bioethics – http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1467 -8519 – Bioethics is an other academic
journal that specializes in medical moral issues.
American Journal of Bioethics – http://www.bioethics.net – The link here is to the website for the publisher of
AJB . You can get information about that journal, as well as about two related journals, at that site. The site also
includes blogs and o ther shorter articles that could be useful for the papers.
American Medical Association (AMA) – http://www.ama -assn.org/ama – The AMA is the largest professional
organization for caregivers in the US. The target audience for much of the information on their site is caregivers
and researchers, but there are many articles available there that could be useful for this project. The Journal of the
American Medical Association (JAMA ), which you can access at http://jama.jamanetwork.com/journal.aspx , is
the official publication of the AMA, and is regarded as one of the best medical journals available.
American Nurses Association (ANA) – http://www.nursingworld.org/ – The ANA is one of the largest
professional organizations for nurses in the US. A comprehensive list of other, often more specialized, nursing
associations can be found at http://nurse.org/orgs.shtml . Entries on t hat list and the ANA website may be
useful in finding information about some topics , especially specialized ones .
The Lancet – http://www.thelancet.com/ – Like JAMA , The Lancet is another highly -regarded medical journal.
New England Journal of Medicine – http://www.nejm.org/ – Another well -respected medical journal.
Public Library of Science – https://www.plos.org – PLOS is an organization that publishes several well -
respected scientific journals. All of PLOS’s journals are freely accessible without a subscription, unlike most
other scientific and medical publi cations. PHI L 2210 | Spring 2019 | Paper guide | Page 17 of 17
6.3 Governmental and other public resources
There are many sources of information that come from publicly -funded sources, for instance from governmental departments
or public research institutions. The few items below are some prominent examples of t hose. You are welcome to use publicly -funded
sources of information that do not appear on this list so long as the information comes from an internet source with ‘.gov’. Many
sources from ‘.edu’ addresses are also reliable, though you should forward those sources to me if you have any worries about the
quality of information they present.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) – http://www.nih.gov/ – The NIH is a federal agency that sponsors a
significant amount of medical research. Quite a bit of the information on their site is aimed at professional
researchers and caregivers, but there is some information available there that could be useful for course papers .
The NIH’s Office of Clinical Research and Bioethics Policy ( http://osp.od.nih.gov/office -clinical -research -
and -bioethics -policy ) is likely to provide good information on some topics.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – http://www.cdc.gov/ – The CDC is a federal agency
devoted to promoting public health. Many of their initiatives relate to significant ethical issues.
US Department of H ealth and Human Services (HHS) – http://www.hhs.gov/ – HHS is Cabinet -level
governmental agency. Their purpose is far broader than the NIH’s or the CDC’s, but their site may be helpful
in researching some topics.
Presid ential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues – http://www.bioethics.gov/ – Another
governmental body. Unlike the three agencies listed just above, this one focuses solely on issues in medical
ethics.
