Final paper

For the final paper for this course, you'll take one of the debate topics other than your own, and analyse it further. Your paper should:

• Give summaries of each side of the debate as presented. (You can refer to presenters by name or as "the affirmative position", "the negative position" or the equivalent.) Be clear about identifying specific points that they raised (whether rebutted or not).
• Make a clear ethical analysis of the policy/issue being debated (whether the presenters did or not).
• Add some important new thing, either a fact or a substantially new insight, that did not come up during the debate.
• Draw a clear conclusion as to which position you are arguing for (whether or not this is the position of whoever was the stronger debater).

You may, but don't have to, critique the debate performance of the presenters.

The paper should be around six to eight pages long (~2000 words). This may seem like a lot (well, it kind of is), but remember that you should be fully presenting both sides of the question and adding to it. (As before, the page count doesn't include references, figures, or diagrams.) Use standard formatting conventions: 12pt, serif font, 1" margins, double-spaced.

(The preceding paragraph originally said "eight pages long (~2000 words)" but has been clarified to match the syllabus.)

See my page on Writing rubric and notes for notes on scoring and grading this assignment.

Links and references

After your debate, post your links and references to the relevant discussion thread on Canvas. When writing your paper, feel free to use the debaters' links as a starting point, but also add your own independent research into the topic.