Based on grading many, many Ethical Issue Papers, I can tell you that failing to carefully read the instructions set forth in this document can be a HUGE mistake. I have seen students fail miserably on the Paper simply because they did not do what the assignment called for.
Please notice this paper is meant to be a serious piece of student research — one which showcases your ability to think critically about a complicated issue. If you are not used to writing research papers at that level, I suggest consulting the NAU Online Writing Center, which is based in Yuma. In the past I have had to make arrangements for this to happen, and I imagine such might be the case again this semester. If you want to work with the Writing Center, please tell me early in the course and plan on contacting them right away after you are accepted by them.
1. Length. Excluding the references for it, the Ethical Issues Paper is to be 15 typed (e.g. done with a wordprocessor) pages long, plus or minus three pages.
I actually check that papers meet the minimum length requirement. If your paper, were, for example, 25 percent too short, you would lose 25 percent of the content points available. That likely would mean failing the assignment. Please do not resort to tricks for artificially adding length. Do not, for example, insert on each page three blank lines of header and three blank lines of footer. Likewise, do not insert unnecessary blank lines and do not rely on oversized margins.
2. References. You should have at least twelve references. The quality of the references you use is important (e.g. garbage in, garbage out) and will affect your grade. Therefore I offer some guidance:
a. Do not expect to do well if your references are the sort of search engine sludge that Google coughs up. I start grading with the assumption that anything you found with Google is trash. You might convince me otherwise, but expect that to be difficult. Google’s algorithms are not intended to substitute for a researcher’s good judgement or for help from an NAU reference librarian.
Please notice this paper is meant to be a serious piece of student research — one which showcases your ability to think critically about a complicated issue. If you are not used to writing research papers at that level, I suggest consulting the NAU Online Writing Center, which is based in Yuma. In the past I have had to make arrangements for this to happen, and I imagine such might be the case again this semester. If you want to work with the Writing Center, please tell me early in the course and plan on contacting them right away after you are accepted by them.
1. Length. Excluding the references for it, the Ethical Issues Paper is to be 15 typed (e.g. done with a wordprocessor) pages long, plus or minus three pages.
I actually check that papers meet the minimum length requirement. If your paper, were, for example, 25 percent too short, you would lose 25 percent of the content points available. That likely would mean failing the assignment. Please do not resort to tricks for artificially adding length. Do not, for example, insert on each page three blank lines of header and three blank lines of footer. Likewise, do not insert unnecessary blank lines and do not rely on oversized margins.
2. References. You should have at least twelve references. The quality of the references you use is important (e.g. garbage in, garbage out) and will affect your grade. Therefore I offer some guidance:
a. Do not expect to do well if your references are the sort of search engine sludge that Google coughs up. I start grading with the assumption that anything you found with Google is trash. You might convince me otherwise, but expect that to be difficult. Google’s algorithms are not intended to substitute for a researcher’s good judgement or for help from an NAU reference librarian.
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b. Good references for present purposes should mostly come from the Business Source Compete database available online through NAU’s Library. This database is vast. It is about as easy to use as Google, but contains peer-reviewed journals. You will tend to see the word "Journal" in the name of a publication that is peer-reviewed. Peer-reviewed journals are safer choices for this assignment since experts have approved the quality of the research before it gets published. Some peer-reviewed journals are better than others, and even dramatically better than others. The Journal of Business Ethics is perhaps the main source of ethics-related papers from academic business researchers. An NAU reference librarian can help you find equally good peer-reviewed journals.
As a general rule, each scholarly article in a scholarly journal is very narrowly focused. The article, in other words, will provide an in-depth explanation of only one, very narrow aspect of your topic. It is like seeing only a sliver of what you need to see. This means you need to read multiple such articles — to look at multiple slivers, if you will — in order to get a full picture of your topic.
There is an easier way to wade through scholarly articles on your topic. Scholars not infrequently write literature reviews in which the entire article just talks about what many slivers of the literature, when taken together, have to say about a topic. Literature reviews are also sometimes called meta-analyses, which means some rudimentary statistical analysis gets applied. For present purposes, you can ignore the statistical analysis done if you happen upon a meta-analysis. Expect that the terms "meta-analysis" and "literature review" and "review of literature" will be used interchangeably.
The Academy of Management Review is a highly respected journal comprised of nothing but literature reviews. In most journals, however, you might find one literature review for every ten or so ordinary journal articles. An NAU reference librarian can explain literature reviews further if you need help.
Finally, literature reviews can save you time, but do not feel you are restricted to them alone when it comes to scholarly journals. You could read, if you wanted to, about individual slivers of your topic. Sometimes, one supposes, that might actuallly be the best approach.
c. Peer-reviewed journals do not provide the most current information because peer review takes time. You may also need to use newspapers. If you use a newspaper, use one that is well recognized. That probably means a total circulation in excess of 500,000 subscribers. The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Financial Times are among the better choices. An NAU reference librarian can help you find other newspapers that might be as good or better for purposes of your research.
d. Government reports are usually (not always!) good resources for this paper if you can find them. An NAU reference librarian can help you find the good such reports.
e. There are all sorts of private research institutions that put out relevant reports. Some of the reports are very good. Some are about as bad as Google search engine trash. For a respected presentation of liberal views, consider the Brookings Institution. For a respected presentation of conservative views, consider the Heritage Foundation. The Libertarian Cato Institute arguably falls somewhere between the other two, and for me it seems hard to say exactly where in between. It might vary. An NAU reference librarian can help you find other respected institutions of comparable reputation.
f. Court cases are sometimes useful, but can be tedious reading. You might find that instead of being presented one court case, you get three of them. The first would be the initial case in which, say, Party A lost and Party B won. The next would be Party A’s appeal, in which Party A might win. The next could be Party B’s appeal. Sometimes it goes back and forth like this all the way to the Supreme Court.
The best way to deal with court cases, I suggest, is to look for law review articles. A law review article is rather like a review of literature, except that it reviews only the cases falling under a particular area of the law. Law reviews are published by law schools. Usually the authors of law school articles are las students approaching graduation. For them, a really good law review article conceivably could lead to a job with a really good law firm. The students presumably try very hard to compile a good article.
Sometimes such a student succeeds. Sometimes the student fails, and you will not necessarily know which outcome exists as you read the student’s work. Thus, if you use law review articles, try to use reviews published by the better law schools. You still might end up with a poor article and not know it, though. You protect yourself from that outcome in large part by using many references (in this case, twelve of them), by choosing different types of references, and by getting both sides of the story. Then — after all that! — you might be able to better evaluate a law review article.
As a general rule, each scholarly article in a scholarly journal is very narrowly focused. The article, in other words, will provide an in-depth explanation of only one, very narrow aspect of your topic. It is like seeing only a sliver of what you need to see. This means you need to read multiple such articles — to look at multiple slivers, if you will — in order to get a full picture of your topic.
There is an easier way to wade through scholarly articles on your topic. Scholars not infrequently write literature reviews in which the entire article just talks about what many slivers of the literature, when taken together, have to say about a topic. Literature reviews are also sometimes called meta-analyses, which means some rudimentary statistical analysis gets applied. For present purposes, you can ignore the statistical analysis done if you happen upon a meta-analysis. Expect that the terms "meta-analysis" and "literature review" and "review of literature" will be used interchangeably.
The Academy of Management Review is a highly respected journal comprised of nothing but literature reviews. In most journals, however, you might find one literature review for every ten or so ordinary journal articles. An NAU reference librarian can explain literature reviews further if you need help.
Finally, literature reviews can save you time, but do not feel you are restricted to them alone when it comes to scholarly journals. You could read, if you wanted to, about individual slivers of your topic. Sometimes, one supposes, that might actuallly be the best approach.
c. Peer-reviewed journals do not provide the most current information because peer review takes time. You may also need to use newspapers. If you use a newspaper, use one that is well recognized. That probably means a total circulation in excess of 500,000 subscribers. The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Financial Times are among the better choices. An NAU reference librarian can help you find other newspapers that might be as good or better for purposes of your research.
d. Government reports are usually (not always!) good resources for this paper if you can find them. An NAU reference librarian can help you find the good such reports.
e. There are all sorts of private research institutions that put out relevant reports. Some of the reports are very good. Some are about as bad as Google search engine trash. For a respected presentation of liberal views, consider the Brookings Institution. For a respected presentation of conservative views, consider the Heritage Foundation. The Libertarian Cato Institute arguably falls somewhere between the other two, and for me it seems hard to say exactly where in between. It might vary. An NAU reference librarian can help you find other respected institutions of comparable reputation.
f. Court cases are sometimes useful, but can be tedious reading. You might find that instead of being presented one court case, you get three of them. The first would be the initial case in which, say, Party A lost and Party B won. The next would be Party A’s appeal, in which Party A might win. The next could be Party B’s appeal. Sometimes it goes back and forth like this all the way to the Supreme Court.
The best way to deal with court cases, I suggest, is to look for law review articles. A law review article is rather like a review of literature, except that it reviews only the cases falling under a particular area of the law. Law reviews are published by law schools. Usually the authors of law school articles are las students approaching graduation. For them, a really good law review article conceivably could lead to a job with a really good law firm. The students presumably try very hard to compile a good article.
Sometimes such a student succeeds. Sometimes the student fails, and you will not necessarily know which outcome exists as you read the student’s work. Thus, if you use law review articles, try to use reviews published by the better law schools. You still might end up with a poor article and not know it, though. You protect yourself from that outcome in large part by using many references (in this case, twelve of them), by choosing different types of references, and by getting both sides of the story. Then — after all that! — you might be able to better evaluate a law review article.
g. There should be balanced use of your references. If you have twelve references and only use one, then I consider that equivalent to having only one reference. You should use each reference at least once in your paper.
h. You want to have references that take both sides of the issue. This matters. For example, suppose you do your paper on Wal-Mart and then rely only on what a search engine retrieves from the Web. Then you are likely to get only one side of the issue — and to be seriously misled as a result. Two or three labor unions have invested heavily in salting the Web with their anti-Walmart point of view. You certainly should consider their point of view, but you will not find comparable pages on the Web giving Wal-Mart’s point of view, which should also be considered. To get Wal-Mart’s side of the story, you have to look for it. One good place to look is Business Source Complete.
3. Support Every Single Major Assertion. You do not have to provide support (usually as a citation) for a common-knowledge statement like, "The sun probably will rise tomorrow." You do not have to cite ideas that are 100% unique to you. Support everything else that your paper sets forth as a fact or idea. The most common way students end up with a really bad paper is by offering unsupported assertion.
Every statement you make should be based on facts or logic, and logic alone will not be enough. Really bad papers are a succession of outlandish statements founded on nothing substantive. You can take just about any imaginable position in your Ethical Issues Paper and get an "A," but you have to credibly support the position you take.
4. The Basic Structure. You write about ONE ethical issue, which is to say you write about a topic (a) for which reasonable persons currently seriously disagree about what is the ethical thing to do, (b) for which the outcome is important to some sizable portion of society, and for which (c) you can show the outcome has clear, strong business implications. Choosing the right issue is your first step, and it is a big one. If you are not sure what issue to pick, thumb through the chapters in your textbook for some potentially useful examples.
Notice that an issue involves controversy. If you wrote about the life of baby seals in the Canadian Arctic and how they are endangered, you would NOT have an issue. There is no disagreement between at least two important viewpoints. If you wrote about whether controlled commercial hunting of baby seals by Canadians and tourists from the US, then you would have controversy and an ethical issue.
Notice as well that the controversy must be a current controversy. An issue that was controversial two generations ago, but that has long been settled in a way suitable to nearly everyone, would not be acceptable for purposes of this paper.
Approximately ten students got an "F" on the Ethical Issue Paper in a previous semester because they did not write about an issue. They might, for example, have discussed ten aspects of some topic with ethical overtones — and even disucssed those aspects well — but such discussion is different from writing about an issue. In effect, the assignment asked for an apple and those ten students turned in an orange.
Further, you should realize all those ten or so stuents likely worked harder than they had to. It much easier to structure a paper around an issue — using the format I describe in this section — than to write about random aspects on some broad topic you have chosen. In other words, choosing an issue and following the structure required should become a good deal for student writers.
Back to the structure of the paper: Your introduction should be short. No more than half a page is permitted. If you are having trouble getting down to half a page, it might help to know that your reader will not care why you picked the issue you did.
Present fully and fairly the facts and arguments set forth by each side of the issue. You have made a full and fair presentation of a side’s viewpoint if a reasonable person on that side would agree your description of the side’s viewpoint is (a) even-handed and (b) based on what that side sees as sound facts. If you want to be confident you have provided a full and fair presentation, it helps to make sure you have used at least three, good references supporting each side of the issue.
Once you have stated both sides, reach any conclusions you need to reach. From those conclusions, state clearly (a) which side of the issue you think has the best case, and (b) why you feel that way. You can take either side. Just be sure that you have developed a compelling, logical explanation of why you took the side you took.
You might want to recommend how the issue should be resolved. Consider that part optional.
Close with a summary of no more than half a page. Be very careful that you do not introduce new material in the summary. The summary should honestly and concisely reflect only what you said in the paper up to the start of the summary.
5. Use headings and subheadings. If I am not able to understand your organization of ideas, I may read the paper a second time. If I still do not understand what you are saying, or if the your message is convoluted, I will likely take off all of the writing points you might have earned. Not organizing ideas well is a very serious matter when you write to an executive in real-life. If the ideas are sloppily organized, the executive might think the writer a sloppy thinker. That is usually a bad thing for the writer’s career.
I suggest making an outline before you write. Then, once you start writing, use headings and subheadings so that the structure in your outline becomes more apparent to your reader.
Again, organizing your thoughts in a clear, orderly fashion is a big deal. Be sure to get this part right.
6. Citations and the bibliograhpy. NAU Yuma requires that your citations and bibliography follow APA formatting. Either a librarian or the Writing Center can help you understand what APA format requires.
7. Grammar and style. Someday you almost surely will need to write to executives. This paper should be written with the same tone, style, and grammar you would use to write an executive. If the paper sounds like lunchroom conversation among students, you can be sure the tone is wrong. Your writing should be businesslike. It should be concise. Wordiness is a major mistake students make, sometimes inserting entire pages that have nothing whatsoever useful to say. The File Cabinet document entitled "How to Write an Effective Business Memorandum for an Executive Reader" further discusses what good business writing should look like.
3. Support Every Single Major Assertion. You do not have to provide support (usually as a citation) for a common-knowledge statement like, "The sun probably will rise tomorrow." You do not have to cite ideas that are 100% unique to you. Support everything else that your paper sets forth as a fact or idea. The most common way students end up with a really bad paper is by offering unsupported assertion.
Every statement you make should be based on facts or logic, and logic alone will not be enough. Really bad papers are a succession of outlandish statements founded on nothing substantive. You can take just about any imaginable position in your Ethical Issues Paper and get an "A," but you have to credibly support the position you take.
4. The Basic Structure. You write about ONE ethical issue, which is to say you write about a topic (a) for which reasonable persons currently seriously disagree about what is the ethical thing to do, (b) for which the outcome is important to some sizable portion of society, and for which (c) you can show the outcome has clear, strong business implications. Choosing the right issue is your first step, and it is a big one. If you are not sure what issue to pick, thumb through the chapters in your textbook for some potentially useful examples.
Notice that an issue involves controversy. If you wrote about the life of baby seals in the Canadian Arctic and how they are endangered, you would NOT have an issue. There is no disagreement between at least two important viewpoints. If you wrote about whether controlled commercial hunting of baby seals by Canadians and tourists from the US, then you would have controversy and an ethical issue.
Notice as well that the controversy must be a current controversy. An issue that was controversial two generations ago, but that has long been settled in a way suitable to nearly everyone, would not be acceptable for purposes of this paper.
Approximately ten students got an "F" on the Ethical Issue Paper in a previous semester because they did not write about an issue. They might, for example, have discussed ten aspects of some topic with ethical overtones — and even disucssed those aspects well — but such discussion is different from writing about an issue. In effect, the assignment asked for an apple and those ten students turned in an orange.
Further, you should realize all those ten or so stuents likely worked harder than they had to. It much easier to structure a paper around an issue — using the format I describe in this section — than to write about random aspects on some broad topic you have chosen. In other words, choosing an issue and following the structure required should become a good deal for student writers.
Back to the structure of the paper: Your introduction should be short. No more than half a page is permitted. If you are having trouble getting down to half a page, it might help to know that your reader will not care why you picked the issue you did.
Present fully and fairly the facts and arguments set forth by each side of the issue. You have made a full and fair presentation of a side’s viewpoint if a reasonable person on that side would agree your description of the side’s viewpoint is (a) even-handed and (b) based on what that side sees as sound facts. If you want to be confident you have provided a full and fair presentation, it helps to make sure you have used at least three, good references supporting each side of the issue.
Once you have stated both sides, reach any conclusions you need to reach. From those conclusions, state clearly (a) which side of the issue you think has the best case, and (b) why you feel that way. You can take either side. Just be sure that you have developed a compelling, logical explanation of why you took the side you took.
You might want to recommend how the issue should be resolved. Consider that part optional.
Close with a summary of no more than half a page. Be very careful that you do not introduce new material in the summary. The summary should honestly and concisely reflect only what you said in the paper up to the start of the summary.
5. Use headings and subheadings. If I am not able to understand your organization of ideas, I may read the paper a second time. If I still do not understand what you are saying, or if the your message is convoluted, I will likely take off all of the writing points you might have earned. Not organizing ideas well is a very serious matter when you write to an executive in real-life. If the ideas are sloppily organized, the executive might think the writer a sloppy thinker. That is usually a bad thing for the writer’s career.
I suggest making an outline before you write. Then, once you start writing, use headings and subheadings so that the structure in your outline becomes more apparent to your reader.
Again, organizing your thoughts in a clear, orderly fashion is a big deal. Be sure to get this part right.
6. Citations and the bibliograhpy. NAU Yuma requires that your citations and bibliography follow APA formatting. Either a librarian or the Writing Center can help you understand what APA format requires.
7. Grammar and style. Someday you almost surely will need to write to executives. This paper should be written with the same tone, style, and grammar you would use to write an executive. If the paper sounds like lunchroom conversation among students, you can be sure the tone is wrong. Your writing should be businesslike. It should be concise. Wordiness is a major mistake students make, sometimes inserting entire pages that have nothing whatsoever useful to say. The File Cabinet document entitled "How to Write an Effective Business Memorandum for an Executive Reader" further discusses what good business writing should look like.
8. Due Date. The Ethical Issues Paper is due no later than 11:59 p.m. Tucson Time on Sunday, 4/27/14.
9. Formatting. Doublespace the paper. Use a standard font such as Arial, Courier, or Times New Roman. The letters on the pages you send me should be essentially the same size as 12-point Times New Roman letters. You might need to experiment a little to be sure the font you use is this size. You can use either one-inch margins or 1.25-inch margins, as you see fit. Indent paragraphs.
9. Formatting. Doublespace the paper. Use a standard font such as Arial, Courier, or Times New Roman. The letters on the pages you send me should be essentially the same size as 12-point Times New Roman letters. You might need to experiment a little to be sure the font you use is this size. You can use either one-inch margins or 1.25-inch margins, as you see fit. Indent paragraphs.
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Do NOT use block formatting. Block formatting works well for memoranda and many other documents. In it each paragraph appears single-spaced as a block of words with no indentation. To show where one paragraph ends and the next begins, the writer skips a line between paragraphs. When block formatting is applied to a research paper like this one, about two or three pages get lost to the space left between paragraphs.
10. Late Penalty. Please assume there will be a substantial penalty for being late. It is always hard for me to figure out what a fair penalty should be. If you have a superb excuse, the penalty might be a light one. Serious health issues might be a superb excuse. Being kidnapped by aliens, alas, probably will not work. I imagine that those who are late are routinely less than thrilled with the penalties I arrive at. It is best to avoid being late.
11. Planning Your Time. This is meant to be a serious student research paper, and it will be graded accordingly. If you are not used to work at that level, I suggest doubling the time you think you will need. Regardless, I recommend blocking out time on your calendar so you have a plan for how you will finish the Ethical Issues Paper. You will find, I think, that a big part of being successful in this course is managing your time well. It looks as though you have 14 weeks, but in reality many things will compete for your time during those weeks. What you really have is pieces of 14 weeks to spend on the Paper.
Bluntly stated: The Ethical Issues Paper is a big project, and you do not have all that long to get it done.
12. Do your own critical thinking. You may consult freely with the Writing Center or an NAU reference librarian. You may contact me if need be. (I will not, however, be able to proofread your paper for you before you turn it in.) Otherwise the work is to be your own work — except that you may use the ideas from your references if you cite them.
Please notice that if your paper were 100% quotations from others, there would be no critical thinking from you. Since your own critical thinking is part of what you get points for, you want to be sure such thinking is present. You presumably should have enough critical thinking if, after explaining both sides of the issue, you pick one side or the other as better, and then explain why you picked that side. Provide support for your explanation.
I also suggest using SafeAssign to check for your own original content. SafeAssign checks what you write against an enormous amount of material to see if what you wrote was copied, or maybe just almost copied, from others. If SafeAssign showed, for example, that 99% of the material in the paper came from other sources, you would not have enough of your own critical thinking in the paper –even if you had cited all the other sources properly.
Finally, do not try to construct a paper by searching the Web for snippets of text on the subject, and then pasting those snippets into a single whole. Genuinely terrible student papers can result this way. More importantly, this approach does not work reliably in real-life since the content needed may not exist on the Web. Finally, the snippet approach will not help you learn. Think of aspiring painters. Learning to be a painter is different than learning to be an art collector who merely assembles someone else’s work. Art collectors would not likely ever learn how to paint.
13. Read the Assignment Twice or More. Do not turn in a good solution to a problem that was not assigned. You will not do well that way. Make sure you know what is required and make sure your paper meets those requirements.
14. A final thought. I close with a piece of good news: Research can be fascinating. It helps equip you to teach yourself about something of particular interest to you. That, of course, is a valuable capability to have in a world where spin doctors abound.
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