Contemporary Moral Issues

Fall 2023 UTSA

Argumentative Essay
The goal of this assignment is for you to write an argumentative essay, which involves critically
think about an argument/view discussed in class or the readings. The essay should be 3 to 4 pages;
it is worth 100 points; and in conjunction with the second essay, it will count as 40% of your
total grade.

You may submit your essay as many times as you like prior to Monday, November 20th, which is
the last day you can submit your essay and receive feedback. But the final essay is due via Canvas
no later than Friday, December 1st by 11:59 pm.

What does this mean? Suppose that you submit your essay on, say, Saturday September 23rd and
receive a B-, you can rework your essay based on the feedback that you receive in order to possibly
get a better grade. Indeed, you can do this as many times as you want for first 14 weeks. But after
week 14, I will not be able to give you feedback. Hence, you will not have time to make corrections.

However, three conditions must be meet for this to apply: (1) you must notify me by email each
time you submit a new attempt; (2) you must take into consideration the feedback that you
received; and (3) you must state which attempt it is at the top of your essay.

Instructions
You may consider any view or argument from the readings and/or discussed in class. You will
need to clearly state and explain the view/argument and then offer reasons in support of the
view/write. Additionally, you need to take a position regarding the view/argument that you have
chosen to write about. For instance, you if accept the view/argument, then you need to support
your position. And if you reject the view/argument, then you need to offer objections to it.

Academic Integrity
While the goal of this assignment is to write an argumentative essay, your work must also meet
the standards of Academic Integrity as outlined in the student code of conduct for UTSA.

Here is the link:

https://catalog.utsa.edu/policies/administrativepoliciesandprocedures/studentcodeofconduct/
You are not required to do any outside work but I do have two special requirements here. First, so
that I know that you know how to properly cite the required sources, you must have (a) at least
one properly-cited quote from the relevant readings and (b) at least one properly-cited paraphrase.
Second, you must always cite specific page numbers from the relevant readings. If the text does
not have page numbers—e.g., because it’s a webpage—find another way to direct your reader to
the specific location in the text you are referring to (e.g., ‘paragraph 7’).
Please note: Academic writing follows all the specific instructions for the assignment—including
being submitted on time, to the proper location, etc.—and uses appropriate formatting and
citations. You may follow any standard academic style guide. If you’re not familiar with any, you
can follow the APA style guide.

Finally, you are not allowed to use any AI (e.g., ChatGPT) for any of your work. You should also
know that it is very easy to tell when students do use AI to help write their essay. So just don’t do
it. You will be caught.

Contact Me
Students are free to email me with any questions or concerns; if you want to meet with me via
Zoom, please email me to schedule a time to meet. Indeed, I highly recommend that you come talk
to me about your work at any stage during the development of your essay. The best way to contact
me is via my email: christopher.stratman2@utsa.edu