ETHICAL ISSUE RESEARCH PAPER INSTRUCTIONS
OVERVIEW
This assignment is an essay that brings all of the knowledge and skills developed in this course
to bear on a single ethical issue. Each student will write a 2100-2400 word essay (not including
the title page, table of contents, and bibliography) that applies your chosen ethical system argued
in Discussion: Choosing an Ethical System to one specific ethical issue presented in your
Topic and Bibliography Assignment. Format should be 12pt, Times New Roman font and
using full Turabian format.
INSTRUCTIONS
Content
Begin your paper with a brief introductory paragraph that clearly states your goals, thesis,
and method. This introduction should state 1. what metaethical theory you are using, 2. the
ethical theory you are contrasting it against, 3. the issue in applied ethics you are addressing, and
4. the conclusion(s) on that issue that you want to defend. Either your chosen ethical system or
your contrasting ethical system must be a Christian ethical system, in order to show that you
have at least understood applied ethics from a Christian perspective.
Next, provide a lengthy and detailed comparative analysis of the two metaethical
theories—Christian ethics and another theory—showing which theory is stronger. This will
likely reflect what you argued for in your Discussion: Choosing an Ethical System and the
feedback that you received from the professor and/or classmates who responded to your thread.
Here you can go into much more detail than you could in the Discussion Thread.
Next, proceed to the applied ethics issue that you proposed in your Topic and
Bibliography Assignment. Here you should greatly expand upon your argument. Add detail,
nuance, and argumentation, providing a fairly complete and comprehensive argument for how a
Christian ethic would approach this issue based on Rae’s 7-Step Moral Decision Making Process
in Chapt. 2 of Magnuson. Or, if you defended a non-Christian ethical system in Discussion:
Choosing an Ethical System, formulate an application based on that theory using a decision
making system consistent with your chosen ethical system. You may illustrate the issue with
minimal real-life examples, but please do not fill your paper with anecdotes. You should
anticipate possible objections to your approach to the issue and respond to them in an objective
and informed manner. (For ideas on how others might object to your approach, a good place to
begin would be your classmate’s replies to your Discussion Threads. You are encouraged to use
quotes from sources as a way to support your arguments, but quotes should not make up more
than one and a half pages of your essay.
Your final paragraph should reflect what you have argued in your thesis. It should recap
what you have accomplished and how you have accomplished it.
Research
Your essay must include at least 1 scholarly source in addition to both course textbooks and
the Bible. Acceptable sources include peer-reviewed journal articles and scholarly books from
the library. If you’re unsure, then ask. All resources used must be listed in the bibliography and
any resources quoted, paraphrased, or alluded to must be documented via footnotes formatted
according to Turabian. Please understand that it is not enough to simply cite word for word
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material with a footnote, you must put word for word text from a source in quotation marks or it
is considered plagiarism.
While your footnotes did not count toward the word count for your discussion boards, for
this capstone essay the footnotes count. In other words, the 2400 word limit includes both text
and footnotes, but not Title Page, Table of Contents, and Bibliography. You will be penalized if
you exceed the limit, so please do not.
Format
Your paper must begin with a title page that includes a paper title, your name, the date, and the
course name and number. The second page of your paper must be a table of contents. The last
page of your paper must be devoted to your bibliography. The paper must utilize 12 point Times
New Roman font, double-spaced, with one inch margins. It must be double-spaced rather than
triple-spaced between paragraphs and there should be only one space after the end of each
sentence.
Any documentation in the body of your paper must be done via footnotes formatted
according to Turabian, unless you are citing or quoting the Bible. If you are not familiar with
how to do this, simply look it up online. There are many websites that explain Turabian
formatting. Footnotes should be single-spaced 10 point Times New Roman font.
Your paper must be submitted as a Microsoft Word document. If you submit it as a .pdf
or anything other than a Microsoft Word document it will not be graded. Please use the paper
template supplied in this Module if you need help.
Format Example
Title Page
Table of Contents
Body of Paper:
Introduction
Ethical System Presentation and Defense
Application of Ethical System on Ethical Issue
Conclusion
Bibliography
Miscellany
Proofread your work before handing it in! Errors of spelling, grammar, syntax, and punctuation
will affect your grade. This is a university-level writing assignment. Please write accordingly.
Plagiarism is immoral, unchristian, and will not be tolerated. The consequences for
plagiarism are significant. If you are not sure what plagiarism is, it is your responsibility to find
out. Ignorance is no excuse. Do not plagiarize!
This assignment contributes to achieving and assessing the achievement of all four of the
Course Learning Outcomes.
