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ESSAY CRITERIA
PHIL-2306, Fall 2024

The essay is 100 points and is 25% of your final grade. This assignment is meant to test your ability to

explain ethics more in-depth and to show your own critical thinking on different approaches to ethics.

This must be a new essay written specifically for this class by you individually. You need approval from

your instructor before using part or all of an essay that was submitted for another class.

Topic: Pick any two out of the following ethical theories: Ethical egoism, utilitarianism, Kant’s

deontology, Aristotle’s virtue ethics, and Held’s care ethics. First, give you own cohesive summary of

each of the two theories you chose to focus on. Second, discuss what you see as the comparative

strengths and weaknesses of each theory and give your own argument for which is a better approach to

ethics and why (or why both are equally good or bad, etc.).

Summary: You must summarize each of the two theories you are discussing, in about a paragraph each

(or two each, if necessary). For this assignment, your summary should not give any judgment of each

theory, but simply present a neutral explanation of its main points (any evaluation should be in your

analysis). Your summary must be mostly in your own words; you can and should use key terms, and

limited use of direct quotes is helpful, but you cannot just copy the text, notes or other sources.

Analysis: You must discuss and explain what you see as the strengths and weaknesses of each theory and

give your own argument for which theory is better and why. This portion should not just repeat the

strengths and weaknesses given in the text and notes or outside sources; you must focus mainly on your

own clearly given analysis and your own rationally supported argument. You do not have to argue that

one theory is better than the other, as long as you have a clear conclusion that you argue for.

Example Topic: Compare utilitarianism and deontology. First, summarize the main points of each theory.

Then, give the strengths and weaknesses of each theory, and end with your own clear argument for which

is a better approach to morality and why.

Setup: Your essay will have two main parts: first, a relevant summary of course material. Secondly, your

own critical analysis or argument regarding the theories you are addressing. You must have both parts,

and they should be roughly equal in length. In addition to those two main parts, your paper should further

begin with a one-paragraph introduction (including a thesis statement) and end with a one-paragraph

conclusion. Again, this must be a new paper written specifically for this course by you individually; you

cannot reuse any work from other courses (including taking Ethics previously) without approval.

Due Date and Submission:

Your essay must be submitted on ecampus by 11:59 PM on Thursday, October 3. You will upload

the essay as a Word document (.doc or .docx) to ecampus; it must be a Word document specifically. Your

essay will be run through Turnitin, software to help identify potential cases of plagiarism and check for

potential cases of uncited AI use in your writing (see below concerning AI use in your essay).

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PHIL 2306 – Essay Criteria (continued)

Length and Format: Your essay must be no less than 1000 words and should not be more than 1500

words. It should be 12” Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with 1” margins on all sides. Any essay

written below the minimum length will receive a lower grade (you may go beyond the upper word limit,

if necessary, but not too much). Headings, direct quotes, footnotes, your works cited list, etc. do not count

towards the 1000-1500 words.

Sources and Citation: All sources of information, including course materials, must be properly cited

according to either MLA, APA, or Chicago style citation, resources for which can be easily found online.

• You are required to cite the course materials relevant to the two theories you are writing on. You

may use the assigned reading, your notes from lecture, or the online course notes for this, or any

combination of the above.

• You may use outside sources if you want to, but it is not required; if you use any outside sources,

then you are required to properly cite them in your essay. Citing outside sources does not replace

the requirement to cite the relevant course material.

• Use of artificial intelligence or AI tools (for example, Chat GPT or similar) is strongly discouraged

on this assignment, as this assignment is meant to test your own writing, understanding, and critical

thinking. Very limited use of AI may be allowed but counts as an outside source and must be

properly cited; this includes a works cited entry, indicating all places in your writing where you

took information from AI, and using quotation marks when copying text directly.

Remember, anything that is not your own thinking or idea must be properly referenced! Proper citation

always includes two things: in-text citation (parenthetical references or footnotes) and full information for

each source at the end of the essay (a works cited list). Any use of a source that is not cited constitutes

plagiarism. Direct word-for-word copying from a source without use of both quotation marks and source

citation is also plagiarism. Plagiarism may result in a 0 on this assignment.

Grading: The essay as a whole is worth 100 points and is 25% of your final course grade. Your grade on

the assignment consists of the following criteria:

Summary (25 points): Give a clear and cohesive summary of two ethical theories, clearly covering the

most important aspects and overall main idea of each one.

Analysis (25 points): Compare what you see as the strengths and weakness of each ethical theory, and

give your own argument for which is better (or why both are equally good, etc.)

Critical Thinking (25 points): Be sure to show careful and consistent reasoning throughout your essay,

clearly explain your ideas, and give your own reasoning behind your judgments and conclusion.

Writing (25 points): Be sure to write clearly, properly cite all your sources, and make sure that your

essay is mostly free of spelling and grammar errors; submit essay in proper format.

Essays that are late and/or below the required word count will have points deducted

outside of this grading criteria.

Contact your instructor if you have any questions over the essay assignment!