Important Reminders: Ethical Argument Essay

Key Points to NOTE for

the Ethical Argument Essay

Argue…Do NOT Ask Questions

Argument essays should not use questions due to the nature of the writing. You are arguing a point that you want the audience to believe.  You do not want them answering questions for themselves.  Each question asked in the paper slows down the logical progression of your argument and the defense of that argument which might result in not convincing the audience to believe your CLAIM.

Important Reminders for Cause/Effect Essays

Key Points to NOTE for the Cause/Effect Argument Essay

Argue…Do NOT Ask Questions

Argument essays should not use questions due to the nature of the writing. You are arguing a point that you want the audience to believe.  You do not want them answering questions for themselves.  Each question asked in the paper slows down the logical progression of your argument and the defense of that argument which might result in not convincing the audience to believe your CLAIM. Always remember the purpose of an argument essay is to persuade the audience to agree to your CLAIM. Questions do not assert a CLAIM. Breakdown: 1.      argue a point (THESIS/CLAIM) 2.     prove it to the audience (assert ideas through rhetorical strategies, reasoning, and support) 3.     leave the audience with no other choice but to agree with your (THESIS/CLAIM) Eliminate questions: https://learnessaystrategies.blogspot.com/2019/10/eliminate-questions.html

Consider Christian Worldview Shifts Since Social Media

Be sure to consider researching academic journals or databases through the library that deal with the Christian worldview changes from social media to understand the worldview shift occurring in America. While you might not piece these effects together immediately, after a little deductive reasoning and biblical relationship evaluations, you should be able to not only identify effects from social media on the American culture but how these effects are changing the Christian worldview of the culture as a whole.

Focus on Cultural Changes

Overview and Description of CULTURE: “Culture is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities and habits of the individuals in these groups” (Wikipedia). Therefore, when constructing the argument about how social media has impacted the American culture, you must keep in mind the behavior, norms, beliefs, laws, customs, and habits of Americans prior to social media becoming part of everyday lives.

Be sure to assess the culture before social media, now that social media has a stronghold, and how the culture will be changed in the future due to these effects long term.

SAMPLES of cultural impacts now and in future generations... 1.      Darkness of Social Media: Social media alters the culture of America from an extroverted, Christian society to one that lives in illusion, feels inferior to others, and dwells in darkness of sin and depravity. 2.     Electronic Addiction to Social Media: Online addictions will cause health issues resulting in mortality problems, impacting the culture by lowering life expectancy.  3.     Culture of Maliciousness: Health issues caused by social media will impact the culture by perpetuating malcontent, jealousy, and covetousness within families and between friends. 4.    Believing the Illusion: Influential teens and young adults insecure in their own value will believe the images portrayed through social media and never feel as if they amount to enough. 5.     Seeking Perfection: False ideas of excellence and importance through social media will be passed on to future generations resulting in an unobtainable goal of an ever-elusive sense of perfection. 6.     Increased Dysfunction in the Culture: Stress levels will rise in the next generation due to social media use and abuse, thus creating discontent, depression, and for some, suicide. 7.     Rise and Fall of Status: Teens and young adults raised by social media will go on to live lives of success or failure based on how they are perceived through social media status and ‘likes’. 8.    Poor Self-Image Promotion by Future Parents: Future generations will be inadvertently altered by adults promoting poor cultural lessons by looking to social media to create happiness instead of peace from within and through the Holy Spirit. 9.    Christian Worldview Blocked by Social Media Worldview: Future generations will train their children to value the images portrayed on social media instead of finding   contentment and joy in the Lord. 10.                        New Social Skills (or lack thereof) in the Culture: With new modes of interaction between families, friends, and co-workers through social media, social skills will be altered in future generations based on the current lack of personal social development and value of face-to-face interaction. 11.  Sexual Immorality Impacted by Social Media: With more access to impure pictures, movies, writings, comments, and foul language, the American culture has been impacted negatively as the Christian worldview has been covered over by unethical social media norms. 12. Lack of Self-Control:  While Americans were already perceived as a spontaneous and excessive culture, social media has increased online binging and decreased limit setting for oneself and children. 13. Jealousy and Covetousness: Americans have been stereotyped as exhibiting superiority over those around them and those in other countries, yet with social media promoting feelings of inadequacy, the American culture has turned into one that secretly hides feelings of jealousy and covetousness.

Some of the impacts noted by social media might not be as strong as others in your paper, but as long as you have multiple areas to argue how social media has impacted the American culture (whether positively or negatively), then you are following the prompt correctly.  

Jeanette Dick

2019

For Educational Purposes Only 

Biblical Worldview

Understanding a Biblical Worldview and integrating it into your essays:

https://fgc-enc1101.blogspot.com/2019/10/biblical-worldview.html

Biblical Worldview Image

Your first essay is a Proposal Argument, and you need to propose a solution to a specific problem—the opioid crisis in America.  Your textbook will teach you how to make a clear CLAIM to argue specific changes to stop the deaths, but as you will learn in Chapter 9: Christian Worldview, “when you propose a solution after providing a context to your problem,” you will need to “ask yourself if the solution is in line with biblical principles” (9-2a). Depending on your proposed solutions to the opioid crisis in America, you may or may not find yourself incorporating a defined Christian Worldview, but please remember that you are encouraged to do so.

Worldview Shapes Culture Image

For the Ethical Argument essay, you are required to choose a specific ‘standard’ from which you would argue how far scientists should go using pre-set ethics from that ‘standard’.  Therefore, if you are writing from the Christian ‘standard’ of ethics, you must be sure to write your argument in a way where the ethics are argued and defended on the basis of a Christian Worldview. When you begin to set up your ethical argument in the introduction paragraph of your ethical essay, you can list “the biblical principles as the standard for your judgment of the issue to be argued,” while you will want to use “the Bible as evidence for your principles and claims” when you are working in the body paragraphs of the essay (Chapter 9-2B). While you are required to use a ‘standard’ for the ethical argument, you do not have to choose the Christian World view as that 'standard' for your argument.  You can choose the American standard of ethics or the Medical Association standard of ethics to argue your viewpoint on how far scientists should go in genetic modification. No matter which ‘standard’ of ethics you choose to argue with, you must be certain that the 'standard' is clearly stated and explained through each step of the argument.

Definition Image

For the Cause/Effect essay, you are encouraged to integrate a Christian Worldview to help argue your viewpoint of the cultural effects caused by social media.  Chapter 9 of the textbook wraps up the idea of writing from a Christian perspective by stating:

This type of [cause/effect] argument essay can apply a Christian worldview much like the Ethical Argument. Be sure to address your stance in the introduction paragraph, use the Bible as evidence in at least one of your points to support your thesis or claim, and include the Christian perspective when rejecting the other side of the issue. With all of these formats and others indicated throughout this textbook, the conclusion paragraph is a natural location to finalize your thoughts through a Christian worldview perspective as you close your argument to best satisfy and reach your intended audience. (9-2c)

If you have not recently reviewed Chapter 9 from your online textbook, be sure to do so before constructing your essay outline and drafting assignment.

Chapter 9 Christian Worldview ·         Chapter Introduction ·         9-1 What is a Christian Worldview? ·         9-1a Doctrinal Statement ·         9-2 Example Argument Formats ·         9-2a The Proposal Argument ·         9-2b The Ethical Argument ·         9-2c The Cause-and-Effect Argument ·         9-3 How Do I Cite the Bible? ·         9-3a MLA ·         9-3b APA ·         9-3c Turabian ·         9-4 Conclusion ·         9-4a Bibliography Chapter 9: Christian Worldview Chapter Contents Book Title: The Well-Crafted Argument: A Guide and Reader Posted By: Jeanette Dick (jdick13@liberty.edu) as a reminder to ENGL101 students © 2018 Cengage Learning, Cengage Learning © 2019 Cengage Learning Inc. All rights reserved.

Explanation and Chapter Listing Posted By Jeanette Dick  (jdick13@liberty.edu) © 2019

Academic Writing

Understanding Rules for Academic Writing

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Are you a dual-enrolled student? 

Have you been out of school for awhile? 

Did you struggle with writing in highschool? 

Sample Argument Breakdown (including both positives and negatives)

Cause/Effect (positives and negatives)

Example Causal Argument THESIS: Social media has impacted career opportunities, family togetherness, and personal privacy in American culture through positive and negative outcomes.

Sample Audience Analysis Handout (Ethical Argument)

Students in my ENGL101 course can go into the Discussion Board forum to find this sample enlarged as well as the empty document for you to fill in as a brainstorming activity.

Analyzing Your Audience

As you get started on your writing assignment...consider filling in this document for clarity on your essay:

https://learnessaystrategies.blogspot.com/2019/10/analyzing-your-audience.html

Analyzing Your Audience As a first step toward analyzing your audience for argument, you should review the Analyzing Your Audience worksheet from the Writing Proc... learnessaystrategies.blogspot.com

Argument & Audience

Content is from 

https://owl.excelsior.edu/argument-and-critical-thinking/argument-and-audience/

Argument & Audience

In The Writing Process area of the Excelsior OWL, you can learn about the importance of audience awareness to your writing in general. But, when it comes to making a convincing argument, audience awareness is going to be more important than ever before.

Citing Without Quoting

Citing Without Quoting

Modes of Persuasion: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

Content is from 

https://owl.excelsior.edu/argument-and-critical-thinking/modes-of-persuasion/

As described in the Rhetorical Styles, the modes of persuasion you are about to learn about on the following pages go back thousands of years to Aristotle, a Greek rhetorician. In his teachings, we learn about three basic modes of persuasion—or ways to persuade people. These modes appeal to human nature and continue to be used today in writing of all kinds, politics, and advertisements.

Causal Argument: how something has caused an effect

The content below comes from

Sometimes, reading a different perspective on a writing style can help drive home the requirements.  Please feel free to review the content below for additional insights into Cause/Effect Argument.  The content below is not from our classroom nor is it my personal guidance.  It is simply supplemental content to help you grasp this type of writing style.

Proposal Argument: a structure of argument

The content below comes from

Sometimes, reading a different perspective on a writing style can help drive home the requirements.  Please feel free to review the content below for additional insights into Proposal Writing.  The content below is not from our classroom nor is it my personal guidance.  It is simply supplemental content to help you grasp this type of writing style.

Outline and Essay Helper Links

Use these links for outline help: 

Outline Guidance, Introduction Structure / Outline, Body-Paragraph Structure / Outline, and Conclusion Structure / Outline.

Use these links for essay help: 

[INTRODUCTION] Everything You Need to Know about Introductions, 

[BODY] Body-paragraph Tutorial: 3-minute Video, Hamburger Method--Drafting Your Essay, and Signs of Trouble--Letting Sources Lead Instead of Follow Your Writing 

[COUNTERARGUMENT] Counter-Argument: The Turn Against and Back 

[CONCLUSION] Concluding Your Paper, Three Parts to a Conclusion, and Conclusions (Drafting Your Essay) 

[CREATE A TITLE] Creating a Correct Title for Your Writing and Creating a Great Essay Title

Structuring an Argument in a Body Paragraph

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When creating an argument, you must first establish your view on the issue before moving on to source material that defends your argument.

Let’s say you want to argue in one of your body paragraphs that Millennial Americans are showing more effects from social media interaction than those of earlier generations.

Understanding Body Paragraphs

Understanding Body Paragraphs

In most freshmen composition courses, the major projects for the course are ARGUMENT essays.  Every academic writing must be written in three sections (called the 3-part-layout).  The three parts are the Introduction paragraph, the Body paragraph(s), and the Conclusion.

This handout will discuss some of the specifics about Body Paragraphs.

Abstracts (for APA only)

If you are enrolled at Liberty University, you have declared a degree that you are seeking while in our program.  Based on this declared degree, you will locate the documentation/formatting style of that given field to use throughout your time here.  This information is found in our classroom textbook.

Discussion Board 2: Guidance

Discussion Board 2: Guidance Week / Module 8 Often, students request help with the expectations for the discussion board 2 submission. For additional clarification, you can use the ideas, guidance, and outline below if desired.

Discussion Board 1: Guidance

Discussion Board 1: Guidance

Often, students request help with the expectations for the discussion board 1 submission. For additional clarification and help on the discussion board's initial post, you can use the ideas, guidance, and the outline found HERE if desired.