Short Exegetical Essay
You will be uploading your work to Blackboard so that your instructor can have it checked against web pages and databases of existing papers using SafeAssign. Your paper will then automatically become part of the local Trent database for future use.
Instructions
Read Susan Sherwin’s “A Relational Approach to Autonomy in Healthcare” in 2.2. (chapter 2, section 2) of the Biomedical Ethics textbook.
Write an essay that explains the argument Sherwin makes in the “Problems with the Autonomy Ideal” and “Focus on the Individual” sections of her piece. Note this means you do not have to summarize all of her paper, just the arguments from those sections. A good paper would clearly identify her thesis or her point of those sections, and fully describe her argument.
Be sure to include a brief introductory paragraph at the beginning of your paper that tells the reader what you will be doing. The essay should have complete body paragraphs and full sentences. Because this paper is exegetical–meaning it is a summary or descriiption of an author’s arguments–you are not expected to take a position in this paper. You should still tell the reader what you are doing: e.g., “I will explain Sherwin’s argument”, but you did not develop your original thoughts, you are merely summarizing her views.
Your essay will be graded using a rubric. It’s a good idea to review the rubric before writing your essay. The rubric should be visible if you try to submit through the link above. The categories of evaluation include structure (whether the essay is well organized), clarity of writing (whether grammar, spelling, etc. is correct, and whether you use/explain key terms); understanding (accuracy and completeness of your explanation of the text); and citations/references (whether you use a proper citation style, in-text citations, whether you have a works cited/bibliography). Note these are weighed differently: the category of understanding is worth the most because that is what this essay is primarily evaluating.
