Start Here – Paper Assignment – “Another Shot”
In my opinion, the paper assignment is one of the most important parts of this course. The paper subject is called “Another Shot”, where you will be asked to evaluate and re-evaluate an ethical situation that has happened to you in your past.
Learning ethical theories are all fine and good – but if you do not know how to apply these theories to your life – you have learned very little indeed. Ethics is a practice – not just a study.
Every person has some decision in their past that they regret. They made a decision that did not turn out for the best or was based on poor ethical reasoning (or more honest – NO ethical reasoning). This assignment will give you a chance (in a way) to do it over. You will be asked to evaluate this decision and to apply a system that you will learn in this class to see if you would make the same decision again. In a way, you will get ‘another shot’.
Here is the general outline of the paper I wish you to follow:
Part One: Introduction to the Ethical Dilemma:
In this section I expect you to introduce what ethical dilemma or situation that you are covering. Students often struggle before the paper starts because they do not know what to talk about. Do not overthink this portion – every person has a few actions in their past that they are not necessarily proud of or would like to do over. These can be as ‘simple’ as getting out to your car, realizing that one of the items left in your cart was not rung up, and not going back into the store to pay for it. They can also be more complex, a time when you were asked to do something unethical at work and for fear of losing your job did so.
The point of these stories is not to bare your soul or be forced to ‘overshare’ – but to simply have a platform of an ethical decision to analyze and work on. I think this sort of reflection can help the person the next time they find themselves in a similar situation.
Part Two: Analysis of Ethical Dilemma in the attempt to discern relevant facts.
In this part, now that you have introduced the topic, you will do an in depth investigation of your previous actions, to see what ethical system you chose when you committed to the previous action.
For example, I have not paid for an item left in my cart before at a local store. What I find, when I look back at my motivations is that I made excuses because ‘I didn’t have time’ or ‘Didn’t feel like it.’ or even blamed others by saying ‘The cashier should have seen it in my cart.’ This, upon analysis are likely motivated by simple Ethical Egoism. I didn’t want to be bothered, and because it would have taken effort on my part, did not do what I would later deem to be the correct action.
Part Three: Application of an Ethical System to dilemma – showing an understanding of not only the systems mechanics but application.
In this section you need to apply a different ethical system (other than what was used initially) to your situation. Briefly explain the ethical system chosen (such as Utilitarianism) and how the ethical system would view your ethical dillemma.
In the example of the item left in the cart mentioned above, one would have to show how Utilitarianism would view keeping the item or returning to the store to pay for it. In this example much talk of ‘the greatest good for the greatest amount’ must be in the forefront of your discussion.
You must stay on task and relevent to the ethical system being analyzed.
Part Four: What your course of action was.
In this short section simply tell what action you took in the original dilemma.
Part Five: Whether the ethical system you have chose would have deemed your actions moral .
In this section you should analyze what action you took in your original dilemma and see if the ethical system chosen in Part Three of your paper would feel if your action was ethical.
In the example given above, it could be argued that Rule Utilitarianism would not deem keeping the item ethical. My pleasure, of not going back inside, does not outweigh the pain caused to the business. If every person decided to do the same, businesses would go out of business and cause thousands to be unemployed.
Part Six: What you would do differently given another shot.
This is the most personal section of the paper where you would decide if you would do anything different. This does not require you to conclude that you would indeed do anything different, but simply to complete your analysis and deem if you would indeed do something different if given ‘another shot’.
Be thinking about this assignment and a decision you can evaluate. Also, download the paper assignment sheet and read it over, print it off for your binder, and work on it a little at a time. Don’t let this assignment get away from you and try to do it in the last week. It will be obvious to me and you will not get as much out of this assignment as you could.
each part should be on 1 page. Please use the paper below as a reference
