I have to make an outline in a separate page just explaining these steps briefly and in the paper i have to go in more details about those steps. I have TO MAKE THE ESSAY AS CLEAR AS I POSSIBLY CAN. I don’t have to put advanced and academic words that will make the paper hard to understand.

Week 10: Population Considerations

Assignment 8: John Arthur “Famine Relief and the Ideal Moral Code”

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_K83lEe9Xj5ampNS1VzdllhMWc/edit?usp=sharing

Arthur argues that we ought to be entitled to at least some of what we earn. Explain this argument and give only one argument against it. Foresee a possible objection to your argument. All the usual stuff. Two full pages minimum, three pages maximum (double-spaced with 1″ margins and 12 point font).

Don’t forget your outline!

Building Your Argument Outline

Here’s a recap of the argument outline stuff we discussed in class (with an example).

The steps:

1) Explain their argument.

2) Explain your argument.

3) Foresee a possible objection to your argument and explain how your argument overcomes this objection.

And here are the steps mixed with some explanation:

Start with a blank sheet of paper (of course, that all depends on how well you handle distractions…). Write these steps down giving yourself a short paragraph’s amount of space between each one. Now, as you read, imagine each of these steps as goals that you must achieve (this, hopefully, gives your reading purpose), starting with the first.

1) Explain their argument.

Remember that each of the articles you read may have multiple arguments throughout so, at this early stage, you’ll need to account for each one until you know which argument you’ll counter (step 2).

2) Explain your argument (also known as the thesis stage).

Once you’ve worked out the second step, you can discard everything that is now irrelevant from your first step and move on to the objection stage of your outline (step 3). For more on formulating your thesis take a look at the first web lecture.

3) Foresee a possible objection to your argument and explain how your argument overcomes this objection.

No author will sit back and let you ride roughshod over their argument. The bad news? You have no direct access to the author. The good news? You do, however, have enough information in the article to formulate a possible response. Imagine how the author would respond to your thesis. Consider all of the information you gleaned from the article then put yourself in their shoes. How would they respond? Normally students think of several possible objections but since you only need one, choose the strongest. If your thesis can withstand the force of the objection, you more than likely have a strong argument. If your thesis withers, modify it, throw it out, or possibly revisit some of your other potential thesis ideas you took note of earlier.

Here’s an outline example using information from an article that you won’t be reading this semester.

1) Explain their argument. Lewis Moncrief argues that our social institutions are ineffective and inefficient in helping us overcome current environmental problems. Our inability to change our behaviors plays a major role in just how ineffective these institutions have become.

2) Explain your argument. I argue that the effectiveness of public transportation demonstrates that our government institutions are helping to overcome the air pollution problem.

3) Foresee a possible objection to your argument and show how your thesis overcomes this objection. Moncrief would object by saying that public transportation won’t help because we can’t change our behaviors enough to actually use it. We like our cars and big houses and our large families, etc. While all of that might be true to some extent, it certainly seems as though people are changing behaviors since ridership has been increasing for the past few years. The facts don’t lie.

Once you’ve outlined your argument in the above manner, you are free to write your longer assignment based on this outline. Fill your paragraphs with abundant explanation of the three steps and be sure that your assignment matches your outline since properly mapping out an argument before you write it is an important part of the learning process. Also note that the two page min/three page max doesn’t include the simple outline (insert a sad face emoji of your choosing here).