Final Honors Project for Honors Ethics Spring 2010

For your final project, you will divide into groups of about three to four students each.  Each group will prepare a presentation for class.  Each group will have one class period for their presentation. Each member of the group will be responsible for one aspect of the research necessary to prepare the group presentation and write a brief. We will talk about possible topics in class.    Instructions for the briefs and the group presentation grade sheet are found below.  Read over all of the material below before meeting with your group.

Some Questions and Suggestions for Each Group:

1.   How will you narrow your topic?  (You may want to read an article(s) or chapter(s) first to get an idea of the terrain.)

2. What article(s) or chapter(s) or excerpt(s) will all of you read so that you have a common frame of reference?  

3. How will you divide the research tasks?  Who will do what?  By what date will you have rough drafts of your briefs to share with one another? 

4.  After you share your research with one another: 

What are the most effective ways to present your findings? 

How will you engage the class?   

Who will be responsible for what parts of the presentation? 

Will you need any computer or audio-visual equipment?   Will you have any handouts?  Props?  Overheads? (Note:   Overheads work best in a 17 point font in our classroom.)  Who will be in charge of bringing these?

Do you have any materials such as cases, key quotes, or questions you wish the class to read or think about before your presentation?  If so,  who will send themd them to Prof.  Anderson at least one class period prior to your presentation, so she can post them OR pass them out before class starts at the beginning of the class period before you present.

5.   Several days before you present, you should schedule a practice run-through.  Presentations almost always take longer when you actually do them than you think they will, so be sure to have someone keep time.  Keep in mind you only have about 30 minutes.  If you need to use the computer projection equipment in our classroom, plan to practice with it ahead of time and plan to come to your presentation at least 15 minutes ahead of time.

Briefs - Each student is responsible for one aspect of the research for their group.  Each brief should be 3 to 5 pages long.  60 points

Requirements: 

1. Your brief should be word-processed, double-spaced, one-inch to one and one-half inch margins. It should be spell-checked. Pages Numbered.

2. You should have a cover page with title, date, and your name. 

3. Each paragraph should be numbered.  After the end of the brief, attach an outline of the brief with at minimum a line for each paragraph.

4. Each brief should be approximately  3 to 5  pages long (not including the cover page or annotated bibliography).

5. You must include an annotated bibliography.  You should turn in photocopies of all three sources with your brief OR e-mail me a scanned pdf.  If you used a section of a book, just photocopy or scan that section. If the section is available on googlebooks, you can give me the URL.  If it is available as full text in one of the library's databases, just give me the Url.  Click the following for directions on annotated bibliography.

6.  Careful and correct citation is required. I will assume that you have read and understood Turabian or Harvey, Writing with Sources on when and how to cite sources. CAREFUL AND CORRECT CITATION IS REQUIRED. WHEN IN DOUBT, CITE. Remember that simply paraphrasing or changing every third word is not OK. Quote and cite or radically summarize and cite. Use quotation marks when quoting or indent if quote is five lines or longer. Guessing at where your information comes from is not OK. Use page numbers in your in-text citations, footnotes or endnotes. Book or journal titles are italicized or underlined.  You must cite the sources of images, tables, and diagrams as well as textual sources.

Briefs will be graded for both form and content as indicated in  Points to Consider in Evaluting Essays.

Content of Brief and Research Process

1.  Your brief will contribute important information and/or analysis on the topic that your group has chosen.  The members of each group will have to divide up the research tasks and each contribute to the final group presentation.

2.  One of the most important skills in any field is to learn how to do research and evaluate the sources you find.  You must use at least three "good" sources.  Only one may be from the Internet unless you receive my approval for more. Articles in peer-reviewed journals available in UI Library databases do not count as internet sources. Likely sources include the following:

chapter in a good ethics casebook, anthology or monograph

article in a peer-reviewed journal

essay by key theoretician or chapter in a monograph by a key theoretician

primary source - writing by a philosopher

descriptive sources about an ethical issue, case law, scientific studies, etc.

code of professional ethics, articles about the application of a code of professional ethics

technical reports that shed light on ethical issue or case study

articles in reputable philosophical encyclopedias or companions

book reviews at least five pages long

(Note:  Any research involving human subjects needs to be approved by the UI Human Subjects Committee; see me for help with this.)

Unacceptable sources - Wikipedia, unattributed sources from the Internet

For help in locating and evaluating information sources, please see 

The Research Process 

"Critically Analyzing Information Sources" at http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill26.htm

Evaluating Web Pages at  http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html

Search Engines to locate articles that will likely be useful: 

Philosopher’s Index, Religion and Philosophy, Blackwell Online, Academic Premier - To find these, go to the UI library’s main page at http://www.lib.uidaho.edu/  Click on Find Articles.  Then click on beginning letter of index to find it.

Academic Honesty - As with all assignments, plagiarism is totally unacceptable.  You will receive at minimum a zero on the assignment. For the Dean of Students' Academic Integrity site which includes UI Policies, and Student Academic Dishonesty Resources see http://www.students.uidaho.edu/default.aspx?pid=45708

Group Presentation Grade Sheet 

Form - 10 points possible

1. Clarity for intended multi-disciplinary audience. Can students from a variety of disciplines understand your points or are you presupposing knowledge of jargon or terms that not all will have?

2. Good organization.

3. Capturing audience attention, engaging the audience, responding to questions or comments deftly.

4. Effective use of audio and/or visuals. (Talk loud enough and slowly enough for everyone to hear and understand. If used, make sure any other sort of audio can be heard clearly. Make sure people will be able to see and understand any visuals).

6. Helpful handouts, visual aids, or other materials provided. (If desired some questions for thought, an ethical case, key quotes, etc. may be provided by e-mail or during the previous class period, to prepare your audience).

7. Attention to time limits. At least 10 minutes reserved for student interaction/questions.

Content - 30 points possible

1. What is at issue? Clear exposition of the ethical dilemma(s), area of ethical concern, or key ideas of the philosopher. Key Points Made Obvious and Important Terms or concepts defined. Context identified.

2. What speaks to the issue/topic? Support/Evidence/Examples/Illustration.

3. Why should we care? Relating your work to thinkers or issues that we have discussed in this class and the interests of your audience.

4. More than one way to skin a cat? Multiple perspectives, counter-examples or counter-arguments as appropriate.

5. Creativity.

Evaluation of Group Members Form