Instruction
I need your help to do two different Commentary.
FORMAL STRUCTURE :! !
1. Briefly summarize the NEWS article. Identify who are the persons, groups, and/or
organizations that are involved. CLEARLY STATE THE MORAL ISSUE; for example, is
there some kind harm being caused to an individual, or group, or business? Is this about
fairness? Is someone's, or some group's, or some business's moral rights being violated? Is
there more than one issue? Is there some kind of conflict between one value and another value? ! !
2. PROVIDE ME WITH AT LEAST ONE REASON to have a belief, one way or the other,
about the issue that you are explaining. In other words, to receive full credit for any
commentary, you MUST state WHY IS IT A MORAL ISSUE? WHY IS IT WRONG OR
WHY IS IT NOT WRONG? If you make the statement, `Wal-Mart was morally wrong to
bribe Mexican officials,` you MUST TRY TO EXPLAIN, `WHY IS WAL-MART WRONG?`
For example, what is wrong with bribery? It is best to assume that I do not have any beliefs
about ethical behavior at all. Your job is to convince me with REASON(S).! !
3. Finally, briefly suggest what YOU BELIEVE should be done about this situation, AND
WHY. Explain how your suggestion is an appropriate response to the reason(s) you
provided in section 2. You MUST provide reasons for whatever you believe. If you find that
you cannot provide any reasons for what you believe, they I highly suggest you pick a different
article. ! !
If you expect to receive full credit for a commentary there are a few additional things that
you MUST do. Only meeting one requirement is NOT sufficient,! !!
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:! !
A. You MUST identify a MORAL issue (this should happen in Section 1).! !
B. AND the moral issue MUST directly and/or indirectly CORRELATE WITH the nature of
BUSINESS ITSELF; for example, profit margin, corporate culture, competition between
companies, competition within companies, legislative manipulation, the nature of the fiduciary
relationship between employers and employees and customers, shareholders, stakeholders, losing
site of the big picture, etc. If the correlation is indirect, you MUST make the connection to
business as clear as possible (this can happen in Section 2). If this seems overly difficult for
you to do, then this is a good sign that it might not be a business issue. If you cannot do so, you
should pick a different article because failure to do so will result in no credit. ! !
C. AND you MUST locate the moral issue within a CURRENT BUSINESS PRACTICE in a
local, national, or international news source published within 4 weeks of turning in the
assignment. Appropriate online sources include, but are not limited to NPR.org, The Wall Street
Journal, The New York Times, Reuters, etc.! !
D. THE USE OF BLOGS AND/OR OPINION PIECES IS UNACCEPTABLE. If your
citation has `blog` or `opinion` in the URL you will receive a 0. YOUR COMMENTARY
WILL NOT EVEN BE READ. Why? Bloggers and editorials (opinions) are held to a
completely different standard of reporting. That is, that they are held to no standard of reporting
at all. You will not receive credit for questionable sources. No exceptions.! !
E. You MUST cite the article by including the URL at THE BEGINNING, i.e., prior to section
one, of the assignment. ! !!F. YOU MUST NUMBER EACH SECTION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FORMAL
STRUCTURE. FAILURE TO DO SO WILL RESULT IN 0 POINTS AWARDED FOR
THE ASSIGNMENT. ! !
G. If none of this makes sense to you, or it's too much reading, then at least THOROUGHLY
discuss your article. The most common mistakes include multiple claims of wrongness with no
discussion as to why. Ultimately, the idea is for you to recognize moral issues in business, and
then examine those issues against your own beliefs. You should be able to justify your thinking
in more than platitudes, but with the underlying logic as to why `wrong` is in fact wrong and
`right` is in fact right.! !!
The purpose of these short writing assignments is to get you to think about the issues we will be
discussing in class and for you to get used to providing reasons for your views. This will
facilitate informed discussion. If you thoughtfully engage the article, you will receive full credit
(2) for the assignment. Those that do not thoughtfully engage the article, for example, those that
do not provide a clear sense of understanding the reasons that are relevant to their view, but
attempt the assignment, will receive half credit (1). Commentaries that do not engage the article
at all will not receive credit (0). ! !!
ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS: ! !
If you are looking for the highest score possible, this can be done in at least two ways: ! !
1. You can piggy back on the 2000 years of philosophical dialogue you will learn in class, and
relate your reasons to a philosophical argument, e.g., `According to the categorical imperative,
utility, etc..` PLEASE DO NOT WASTE YOUR OR MY TIME by randomly throwing in
names or even arguments. Unless you are certain that you can express an adequate
understanding of the concepts that you believe are at play, we are both better off if you do not do
so. Students that consistently display an understanding that goes beyond the adequate, and into
the complex will receive full credit+1, (3).! !
2. The second way to justify your statements would be to try and build a logical argument as to
why what you claim to be the case is what I should believe. Those that succeed in building
arguments that clearly express the depth and complexity of the issues will receive full credit+1,
(3). Your arguments do not have to satisfy the validity condition, they merely need to display a
serious attempt to do so.! !
Here is a link to improve (you are not required to do so) your commentaries:! !
Here is a link to a list and explanation of logical fallacies: http://www.iep.utm.edu/fallacy/. !
At least glance them over. ! !!!!!
Thank you