Moral Dilemma Project

Introduction

Your task is to respond to moral dilemma with a thoughtful, well-argued and balanced response. Your response will be a written paper and a short, time limited oral presentation.

Rationale 

Responding to a moral dilemma provides students with an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to write a well-reasoned argument supported by a warrant. 

Both of these writing and thinking skills are essential for students who wish to write academic papers and a dissertation because they are, in essence, the building blocks of a thesis statement. Without a solid thesis, it’s hard to imagine how a student can be successful in any academic writing project.

The moral dilemma context is appropriate for this class because it builds these skills inside an exercise that meets the time constraints of the class.  

Format

The project has two parts: a written paper and an oral presentation.
  • written paper (10%)
  • oral presentation (10%)

The paper should be 2 to 4 pages (12 point font, typed, double spaced, clean presentation). The paper should present your best work by reflecting the 6+1 writing traits.

 The paper is due on the day when you present your oral presentation.

The oral presentation will be 8 to 10 minutes; certainly not more than 10 minutes and not less than 5. 

 The challenge is to condense your paper and turn it into a powerful presentation which gets to the heart of the matter: why one set of values is more important than others.

Schedule

The scheduling is based on one key assumption: each presentation will be 8 to 10 minutes. There will be 5 minutes for discussion. That means each presentation will require 15 minutes. 

Respecting these time factors is essential: 


  • it ensures everyone can complete the assignment 
  • it forces you to focus on the main points 
  • it is a sign of your professionalism

Structure

The organisational structure of the written paper is flexible, but I suspect it may include these parts:
  • A summary of the problem.
  • A description of the options.
  • An argument that describes your decision/choice.
  • A warrant to support your argument.
  • A review and critique of the other option and value system and a description of why they are less desirable (i.e. the counterargument)
  • A detailed description of the moral correctness of your choice.




The schedule for the presentations is as follows:

Other Information


What is a moral dilemma?

A moral dilemma has several characteristics.
  • There are two or more choices that involve some action.
  • You (or the person in the situation) are able to do each of the actions.
  • You must choose one action.
  • You cannot do both at the same time.
  • Choosing one option means you cannot do the other at a later time.
  • One value system may conflict with another; finding a way to argue why one is better than the other with a thoughtful argument is the challenge.

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