TOPIC: SHOULD THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT PASS A LAW MANDATING THE LABELLING OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS?

GeneralFeatures
An essay is basically a written argument for a position. That position should be the conclusion of the argument. It is also described as the thesis of the essay.The body of the essay contains the premises (along with supporting argumentation — sub-arguments). The purpose of an essay is to prove the thesis. An essay has three main parts
•An introduction
•A body
•A conclusion
Introduction•The introduction to an essay should state three things (these things are sometimes referred to as the three P’s)
•Problem
•Position
•Procedure
•In the first paragraph of your essay lay out the problem or issue which your essay will address
•Show that the problem is genuine (i.e. there are different views on the issue)
•Explain why this issue is important and/or interesting
•In the second paragraph or so of your essay, state your position or thesis
•This is the most important part of the essay and shouldn’t be omitted or left until the end
•A good test method to make sure that you have a genuine thesis is to state it in a sentence which starts with “Although it could be argued the…”
•Although it could be argued that torturing terrorism suspects isnot morally permissible, in fact it is.
•In longer essays it is often a good idea to outline the procedure you will use to prove your thesis
•“This essay will have three parts. In the first part. ..”•Divide the body of your essay in to different sections with distinct sub-headings
•A nice way to set up the introduction is to actually make it seem like the position which you will be arguing against is stronger than the position you will be arguing for
•Suppose you are dealing with the issue of whether it is morally permissible torture terrorism suspects and your position is that it is
•“It seems like it is not morally permissible to torture terrorism suspects.For… [give a reason why it would not be permissible to do this]. And…[giveanother reason]. Moreover… [give a third reason]. On the other hand…[give a reasonfor why it is morally permissible to torture a terrorismsuspect]In this paper I will examine the issue of whether it is morallypermissible to torture a terrorism suspect. I will show that it is.This essay has three parts. In the first part I show that…Then, in the second part, I show that… Finally, I show that…”Body
•Your essay will have a dialectical structure
•A dialectical essay is an essay
•The difference is that, in addition to giving a ‘positive’ argument for your thesis, you must also deal with a counter-argument
•Your essay will have two main parts
•A ‘positive’ part in which you argue for your thesis
•A ‘negative’ or dialectical part in which you show that the argument for the opposing position is non-cogent (show that it fails one or more of the ARG conditions)
•So, suppose you were writing an essay on whether it is morally permissible torture terror suspects and your position is that it is
•In the positive part of your essay you would lay out an argument that shows that it is permissible to torture terror suspects
•In the negative part of your essay you would lay out the argument for why it is not permissible to torture terror suspects, and then show why this argument is not cogent
•It is important to note that the dialectical part of the essay is not where you argue against the opposite conclusion•You have already argued against the opposite conclusion in the positive part of your essay
•If you prove that it is permissible to torture terrorism suspects, you will have indirectly proved that the opposite position — it is not permissible torture terrorism suspects — is wrong
•Instead, you are arguing against an argument for the opposite conclusion
Conclusion•
The conclusion should re-state the thesis and sum up the argument for that thesis General Points
•Your counter-argument must come from a secondary source
•You must write out the counter-argument before you attack it. If the passage which contains the counterargument is short, quote it directly. If the passage is long,summarize the text which contains the argument and then attack it. In both cases you must include a reference so that the person marking the essay can find the original.Your reference must contain page numbers (if it is a book/article) or detailed information about where the passage is located (if it is an online source)
•The stronger your counter-argument, the stronger your essay will be when you expose its flaws. Do not choose an obviously flawedargument.•If the counter-argument is complex, you may standardize it before attacking it. Do not standardize the positive argument.
Properly written introduction, main body and conclusion. The main body of the essay should have clear and separate positive and dialectical parts. Don’t go back and forth in a pros and cons format.