Applying an Argument
TUT 100.32 - Virtue in Animal and Machine - Professor Weinman
- Summary:
- You will complete the stages of writing a paper by engaging
an author's argument in your own way.
- Purposes:
- Our goals will be to
- engage in creative thought
- work through the major stages of writing
- practice revising and giving/receiving feedback
- Due:
- There are several milestones for this assignment with various
due dates
- Writing Lab Appointment:
- 5 pm, Wednesday 6 October
- Sentence Outline:
- 8 am, Tuesday 12 October
- Smooth Draft:
- 8 am, Tuesday 26 October (first Tuesday after
Fall Break)
- Final Paper:
- 4 pm, Thursday 4 November
- Turn In:
- For each milestone, please e-mail one copy to me. For
the outline and smooth draft, bring 4 copies to class with you.
For the final paper, bring one hard copy to my office by the deadline.
Assignment
Bekoff and Pierce have established a context for an exploration of
virtue in animals, clustering their analysis around three categories
of behavior (cooperation, empathy, and justice). Wallach and Allen
have simply set up the motivation for and possibility of machine morality.
Topic
Wild Justice describes several examples of how various flavors
of cooperation are demonstrated in animals as a means for establishing
their moral behavior. One particularly important arch is given in
Chapter 3, "Cooperation." Can the same argument from cooperation
be (potentially) applied to machines? Find and use examples of (ro)bot
successes, failures, or the lack of either to demonstrate either
- how their argument extends (or could extend) to "silicon animals",
or
- why and how their argument fails in this case.
Audience
The audience for your work should be your peers. That is, someone
who has been exposed to the theories and arguments we have discussed
in class and who has a similar level of scientific understanding.
You must still connect the topics of our readings to your analysis
by showing how they apply.
Length and Format
The length of your paper should be 600-800 words (not including references
or headers and footers). References should be included in a list of
works cited at the end in APA format. Please use a twelve point font
and one inch margins. Your name, the course, and paper title should
be on the first page, while your last name and a page number should
be on all other pages.
Revisions
In addition to the peer review we will do, you are required
to make an appointment with the Writing Lab for some stage of this
assignment. That may be your planning/drafting of your sentence outline,
revising your sentence outline, or in manuscript revisions before
or after your smooth draft. The purpose is to help you become familiar
with this extremely valuable campus resource and help you learn even
more about the process of revising.
Make your appointment right away! Go to PioneerWeb, click
on the "Course Areas & Acad Info" tab. Click on the link "Writing
Lab Appointments" in the left-hand column titled "Resources."
You must make an appointment (for any time) by Wednesday 6 October.
Any staff member will be able to help you with this assignment.
Milestones
Sentence Outline
Write an outline of your paper that shows the logical organization
and flow of your argument. All headings (and sub-headings) must be
a complete sentence. These may or may not end up in your paper, but
each entry in your outline needs to show a completely formulated statement.
Furthermore, no division (or sub-division) may consist of only one
part. That is, an "A" must have a "B" and a "1"
must have at least an accompanying "2." This format will help
you bring clarity to your paragraph sequence and internal cohesion.
Once you have organized the paper, you should find the task of writing
and developing paragraphs easier. Your outline should adhere to the
same formatting guidelines as your other written assignments: double-spaced
twelve point font with one inch margins and names/titles in appropriate
places.
Update 8 Oct 2010: Please note that your outline is likely
to be malleable and subject to many alterations as you craft your
overall argument. It is a learning process! Working to construct and
re-arrange the skeleton in this way is much easier than with an entire
paper, which can often be unwieldy. Here are some suggestions for
crafting an outline that will help you to write your paper effectively:
- Clearly identify your thesis statement at the beginning of your outline.
- Make the top-level of the outline the major points/topic sentences.
- The major points should have a logical ordering.
- Each major point should be supported by evidence.
- Each piece of evidence should be explained, interpreted, or contextualized.
- More complex points should have a synthesis that describes how
the sub-points (e.g., evidence and interpretation) logically entail
your major point.
- The importance of your argument should be reflected in your thesis,
introduction, and/or conclusion.
Because the purpose is to architect your argument's skeleton, paragraph
transition language is not explicitly necessary at this point.
Smooth Draft
As in your first essay assignment, you will bring a smooth draft to
class that will be reviewed and workshopped with your peers. Remember
that this is not to be fresh from your fingers. In addition to the
tips given in the first
assignment you should also run your draft through Professor Simpson's
30 point inspection. That process will likely take you an hour or
more, but it is very much worth it. So that the results are
fresh to you, I recommend giving yourself at least a half day between
when you complete the rough draft and begin your polishing.
Final Draft
Your final draft should exhibit incorporation of the comments from
your peers and the Writing Lab.