Should fast food companies donate money to obesity research

Step 1: Preliminary Research

• Start reading some online articles relating to your topic. Try entering your topic as a search and see what comes up.
• Write down some of the issues that seem relevant to you. For example, if your topic is, “Should workers with families receive more sick leave than single workers?”, you might see that maternity and paternity leave come up a lot, so write that down.
• Look through your notes for the course and identify general moral issues that seem related to your topic. Is sick leave a scarce resource? If so, might your topic be related to distributive justice? Write these down along with notes about why you think they might be relevant.

Step 2: Build an Argument For and an Argument Against

• After doing your preliminary research, try to develop/present the strongest argument you can for and against an affirmative answer to your question.
• This can be in bullet points; it doesn’t have to be longhand.
• Note that because the topic is a question of morality, among the supporting claims will have to be at least one general claim about morality.

Step 3: Evaluate the Arguments

• Evaluate the arguments. Which of them is stronger and why?
• How can the weaker argument be rejected?
• This will help you to form your thesis, a yes or no answer to your topic question.

Step 4: Put it All Together

• Write up an argument outline that looks like this example:

Thesis: Workers with families (should/should not) be allowed more sick and leave days than single workers

Because: (claim 1)

(claim 2)

…

(claim n)

Counterpoint: Some might argue that (strongest argument against your thesis).

Response: This argument should be rejected because (reason you reject the counterpoint).