• Write a 2-paper essay on a question or topic of your choice.
• You must dialogue explicitly with the course’s topics and references (citing,
quoting, explaining the discussions/problems and concepts we covered, referring to
them when presenting and describing your topic/object). Read all the comments and
suggestions I’ve made in your draft and reflect on how you can use them in writing.
• Questions that might help you connect the course with your interests.
o What is the course’s topic/concept/idea related to your essay?
o How can it help you analyze your issue/object?
o What are the moral values and theories that support your inquiry?
o What are the moral values and theories that are the foundations of your object?
(The moral values of your inquiry and your object can match if you want to
strengthen something, or be the opposite if you are studying, for instance,
something you want to change).
• You must use at least one of the concepts, quotations, instructor presentations’ bullet
points, references presented in the course, etc.
o Employing those references will make your argumentation stronger and
expand what you can think about it (even if it’s to question the statement’s
authors made).
• Focus on shorter, feasible problems.
o Start local (a current event, even a historical one).
o Go global/historical for problem background/context.
o Address your problem with one theoretical reference.
o In the end, focus the analysis of a specific object, delimitating it in spatial and
time aspects, describing its elements in detail, using your theory to frame what
you are highlighting.
o Show what you have seen on those “trips” towards different topics, times, and
places. You can inspire yourself as if you were going to tell a story about what
captured your attention during these past weeks.
2
• Always try to answer these five questions regarding a topic/inquiry/issue: what, why,
how, when, and where.
A REASONABLE WRITING-RESEARCH FRAMEWORK
WHAT WHY HOW WHERE/WHEN
Theme and
background of a topic
(question, problem,
inquiry, issue, object,
etc.).
Justification
Hypothesis
Objective(s)
Approaches and
procedures toward
object(s)
An object of analysis
(Empirical part)
Introduction Theory Methodology Focused analysis
What is the historical
or general context of
this theme/object?
Maybe start with a
current or historical
event that illustrates
and helps you
formulate better a
question/problem that
will begin your search
for answers (research).
Why you should
address this topic in the
way you want to
address it.
Relevance for public
debate and researches.
Define the way you
want to address it: a
perspective, concepts,
and ideas you employ
to frame the
theme/object.
Outline the conclusion
with a hypothesis.
Which materials you
used to construct the
whole argumentation
and which analytical
practices (reading,
mapping, reviewing,
comparing, texts,
movies, images, news,
etc.).
Describe your object in
all aspects that you
want (and stated before
in the objectives in
accordance with the
theoretical approach.)
Get local and specific
in time and in the
description of the
object.
• What a theory can do:
o It’s a mode of viewing or worldview that names perspectives, structure your
way of analyzing reality, and how we see things through thought’s lens and
ideas.
o That’s why philosophical thinking (creative, analytic, critical thinking) is
everywhere and deals with everything.
o A theory involves abstraction and experience, sentiments and sensations,
reasoning, and intuition. The more ideal, the more universal is a theory but also
dislocated from the transformations of time and space. That’s why we also need
a critical approach to theories, which are the framework of our understanding,
to stimulate autonomy and the natural capacity of reasoning.
• Why are we doing this assignment?
o For training critical thinking and moral reasoning.
o To use in further education/professional processes (publish an article, spread in
professional social media, prove of writing in job interviews, etc.).
• All of you are halfway or more to finish this. So don’t let it be the last thing. Make
the writing simple, enjoyable, and straightforward.
• Thank you so much for the fellowship on this journey