2nd Paper Assignment
Due in Class on Tuesday, March 27th
Remember to be clear, concise, and to the point. Keep your paper on target. The paper
should be 2-3 pages in length. Double space the paper and use 12 pt., times new roman font.
AND STAPLE YOUR PAPER.
Aristotle talked about moral virtue. We can use our reason to regulate our feelings so
as to develop good habits of emotional response. We can direct our emotions in a habitual
way: over time, we can change from being an angry person to being a calmer person; over time,
we can change from being a cowardly person to being a courageous person. We can change from
being someone who gets upset in traffic to being someone who stays focused in traffic. We can
change from being someone who is very afraid of spiders or snakes to someone who can handle
those animals. In short, we can develop a habitual skill for feeling in the proper way.
In this assignment, you will talk about a skill you have, the role reason plays in that
skill, and if that skill makes you a better person. That is, think about some sort of skill that
you use—driving a car, brushing your teeth, speaking a language, (or a second language),
playing a sport, exercising a virtue you have, etc. seeing how reason relates to it and how it may
improve your soul. This assignment has two parts. In the first part of the paper, you will
talk about what role, if any, reason plays in acquiring and using this skill. For example, did
you have to learn rules and if so, what rules and how did you learn them? Did you have to stop
and think deliberately about what you were doing? Do you still pause and have to think about
this skill? Do you still have to listen to other people’s advice concerning these skills? Do you
have to learn more about this skill? You will show me how reason operates, if at all, in your
getting and using this skill. Then, in part two, you will discuss if having this skill helps you
perfect your soul. That is, does having and using this skill make your soul better? Are you a
better person because of this skill? If so, why? If not, why not? Give solid reasons for your
position.
This paper is both a descriptive paper and an argumentative paper. In part one, I am
asking you to describe well a skill you have and how that may or may not relate to reason.
If the skill does require reason, explain to me, in some detail, what that is like. If the skill does
not require reason, explain why reason is not needed for the skill and what other parts of you,
besides reason, help with acquiring and using the skill. In part two, I am asking you to make
an argument: you will demonstrate why this skill helps your soul or you will demonstrate
why it does not help your soul. You will argue either that this skill is important for you having
a good soul or you will argue that it is not important for having a good soul. You will give good,
solid reasons for your position.
Everything in your paper relates to your thesis statement. You set up the thesis
statement, you state the thesis, you defend the thesis, and you recap the thesis. Avoid
unnecessary words, sentences, or paragraphs that do not so relate to the thesis. Keep your
paper on target.
The paper can be structured in the following way.
I.
II.
III.
Intro. Introduce the sort of skill you are going to talk about. You also present a
thesis statement in your introduction.
Body of the paper
A. Have one paragraph about what role, if any, reason played in acquiring this
skill
B. Have a paragraph about what role, if any, reason plays in how you use that
skill today
C. Have a paragraph about whether or not this skill helps your soul
D. Have a second paragraph about whether or not this skill helps your soul
Closing Paragraph. Wrap up and conclude your paper.
Finally, please remember that, as the syllabus says, “any and all forms of plagiarism
are strictly prohibited.” Please recall, too, that “for undergraduate students the presumed
sanction for academic dishonesty will be failure for the course.” Now, just as a reminder:
“plagiarism is presenting the work of another as if it were your own. (This work must be
entirely yours) It can include quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, or utilizing the
published or unpublished work of others without proper acknowledgment. Most
frequently, it involves the unacknowledged use of books or articles in periodicals,
magazines, newspapers, and on the Internet. IN SHORT: CITE ANY SOURCES YOU
USE, EVEN IF YOU ARE PARAPHRASING THEM. YOU CITE EVEN FROM THE
TEXTBOOK AND CLASS NOTES. FAILURE TO DO SO EQUALS PLAGIARISM AND
CAN RESULT IN FAILURE FOR THE COURSE.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions on this
assignment or you would like me to look over a draft of the
paper for you. Also, contact me by email for help with the
paper.
AND REMEMBER: “Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no
unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing
should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the
writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in
outline, but that every word tell.”
William Strunk, Jr. (1918). The Elements of Style. Ithaca, New York.
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