2 History and 1 Philosophy paper
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philosophy.docxShort Critical Essay
Short Critical Essay Project
This project is worth 10% of your final grade, due March 27, 2015. It is an individual assignment. Late assignments are penalized 5% per day including weekends to a maximum of 50%. Senate regulations require all term work to be submitted by the last day of classes April 8, 2015, after which work cannot be accepted and a grade of 0 will be given.
Write a 750-1200 word argumentative essay related to the topic of the responsibility of affluent nations and their citizens to people without even basic sustenance, discussed in Peter Singer’s paper “Famine, Affluence, and Morality.”
In your essay, you must make reference to Singer’s paper “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” and the paper you read in producing the annotated bibliography in Assignment #17. Both papers must be listed in your bibliography. Other sources may also be referenced but this is not required, though all sources used must be listed in the bibliography. Your project must begin with a standard form representation of your argument followed by a diagram of the argument, using between 10-15 premises. Your argument must include at least one deductive inference and one inductive inference and these must be identified (by type) and indicated on your diagram (i.e. on the arrow connecting the premises note “disjunctive syllogism” or “analogy”).
Quotations should be referenced in the text as follows:
“text” (author year, page number(s)). Note the final punctuation comes after the reference. If a text has to be altered slightly for grammatical reasons put the changes in square brackets.
E.g. Here we have some text I have written followed by a quote to verify my interpretation. If you wish to emphasize part of the quote use italics and note “my emphasis”, otherwise you might commit the fallacy of accent. In the passage I quote below, the emphasis was in the original, as noted. Where some text irrelevant to my purposes was left out I use ellipsis (…).
Fodor’s account of early language learning is an account of predicate acquisition and it remains the cornerstone for his thesis that we possess an innate representational system as rich as any natural language we can learn. “What, then is being denied?... that one can learn a language whose predicates express extensions not expressible by predicates of the representational system whose employment mediates the learning” (Fodor 1975, p.86, emphasis in original).
Include a bibliography, citing all sources used to write the essay as instructed for Assignment #17.
Include a word count.
Grading Rubric for Short Critical Essay
The essays is graded out of 10, with points assigned as follows:
Thesis statement: the essay is an argumentative essay with a thesis statement, i.e. conclusion.
1 point
Standard form and Diagram: standard form and diagram are included and match each other and the structure of the written essay.
2 points
Deductive inference: a deductive inference is included in the essay and correctly identified on the diagram.
1 point
Inductive inference: an inductive inference is included in the essay and correctly identified on the diagram.
1 point
Sources referenced: Singer’s paper and the article from assignment #17 are both discussed in the essay.
1 point
Bibliography: all sources referenced in the essay are listed in the bibliography. This means that at least two entries must appear in the bibliography: Singer’s paper and the article summarized in assignment #17.
1 point
Note: the points above are awarded for meeting the requirements specified. Thus it is possible for everyone to obtain a grade of 7/10. The remaining 3 points are awarded on a comparative basis for how compelling the argument is.
Essay strength: these points are awarded by comparing all of the essays based on how strong the reasoning is, clarity of writing, choice of words, effectiveness of style. The maximum 3 points will be awarded to the top 1-2 essays (2-4% of the class); top 10% receive 2 points; top 20% receive 1 point.
0-3 points
Deductions: a deduction of 1 point will be assessed for each of the following: reasoning commits a fallacy; word count falls outside of 750-1200 word limit; premise count falls outside of the 10-15 limit.
