Assignment Basics

• Pick one of the substantive articles listed below that weve read thus far and argue that its 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 youre 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 youve 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 roommatebut dont oversimplify
• It can help to make a numbered outline with several levels of detail
• When writing the paper, focus on converting the outlines bullets to sentences
• Have someone else read it when youre done. They should be able to broadly describe the overall argument without referring back to the paper

Details

1. Papers should be single-spaced
2. Paper should be between about 600 and 800 words, approximately 1 to 2 single-spaced pages
3. Write about only what has been asked for in the assignment
4. Use plenty of paragraph breaks, especially in the the argument section