Let's Put All Your 1A Options for Essay #1 on One Page!

1A Essay One Options (choose ONLY ONE): 

First Option: Refute or support Catherine Newman’s position on marriage in her essay “I Do Not.” 

Second Option: Refute or defend Peter Singer’s philosophical position on euthanasia and infanticide as it is presented in “Unspeakable Conversations” and other research sources. 

Third Option: Refute or defend the use of torture as an effective form of intelligence. See “Watching Torture in Prime Time” and other sources. 

Fourth Option: Refute or defend this thesis that addresses “Mate de Coca”:

Taras Grescoe’s essay convincingly shows that the “War on Drugs” is an absurdity wrought with contradictions, hypocrisy, cultural insensitivity, scientific humbug, and arbitrary notions of what constitutes health and pestilence to society. 

The mapping components would pertain to “contradictions,” “hypocrisy,” “cultural insensitivity,” scientific humbug,” and “arbitrary notions of what constitutes good health to society” on one hand and “pestilence to society” on the other. 

Refutation of Peter Singer:

While Singer’s argument for infanticide is consistent with his utilitarian worldview, his position collapses under the close eye of scrutiny in which detect huge holes or flaws in his reasoning. These flaws include __________________________, ___________________________, ____________________________, and __________________________.

Another Refutation of Peter Singer

If we accept Peter Singer's utilitarian argument as a just rationale for infanticide, then we are paving the way for genetic re-engineering as a tool to create a Super Baby that all parents will be forced to breed. This forced breeding of the Super Baby will result from ______________________, __________________________, ______________________, and ____________________________________. 

 

Defense of Peter Singer

McMahon has treated Peter Singer’s infanticide argument with gross unfairness. While McMahon is correct that Singer needs to tidy up some of his vague definitions, Singer’s general argument can be ethically defended as actually helping the human race when we consider _________________________, _______________________, ___________________________, and _______________________________.

Defend or refute one of the following thesis statements regarding Newman’s essay.

 

Thesis That Refutes Newman:

Newman’s position to not marry is a self-justifying hack job wrought with paranoia, over simplifications, Straw Man arguments, faulty comparisons, red herrings, and other lapses of logic so egregious that she comes off as an immature, selfish crank trying, feebly, to gloss over her irrational fear of marriage with pseudo intellectual arguments. 

 

Another Thesis That Refutes Newman

In spite of some half-baked logic and familiar claims about the rarity of monogamy, Newman’s decision not to marry has little foundation in reason and logic. Instead, her wobbly arguments against marriage are merely pathetic rationalizations for her failed existence, which becomes more and more transparent as we read her unconvincing polemic. Instead of a convincing argument against marriage, what we are served is the failed life of the author, which consists of a woman imprisoned by sexual confusion, a control freak who finds a spineless man who will put up with her fear of love and commitment, a pseudo intellectual who hides behind specious academic arguments in order to justify her cowardly existence.

 

Thesis That Defends Newman:

 

Whoa. Let’s not be so hard on Newman as the writers above. While her argument contains some of the logical errors mentioned above and while she betrays certain insecurities, she makes some legitimate criticisms against marriage, most importantly the myth of monogamy. If we’re honest and look at the research on marriage and monogamy, we must conclude that marriage is a very precarious institution since the monogamy it rests upon is compromised by ____________________, ________________________, ____________________________, and __________________________________. 

 

Thesis That Refutes Defense of Newman:

Don’t try to distract us by focusing exclusively on the monogamy argument. Yes, Newman uses the rarity of monogamy as one of her anti-marriage claims, but that is only one-tenth of her argument. When you look at her arguments as a whole, you will have to agree that her exposition is an amateurish affair replete with _____________________, _____________________________, ______________________________, ___________________________________.

 

Another Thesis That Refutes Newman:

I’m sure there are some good, solid, convincing arguments against marriage. But Newman’s isn’t one of them. What purports to be a legitimate defense against her decision to not marry really becomes the irrational defense mechanisms of a frightened child. These defense mechanisms include __________________________, _______________________________, __________________________, and ______________________________________. 

Write a defense or refutation of US policy of torturing terrorist suspects as a way of improving national security. Be sure to show the arguments for both sides, in a about a page or 2, before proceeding with your argument and mapping components. Also be sure to include a minimum of 3 research sources.

A pro-torture thesis with concession clause might look like this:

 

While torture entails many abuses, torture is justified in certain situations, including _________________________, _____________________, ________________________, and _________________________.

An anti-torture thesis might look like this:

While the pro-torture debaters are good at drumming up all sorts of scary scenarios, their arguments for torture collapse under the weight of several fallacies, myths, and misconceptions, which include _____________________, ________________________, ________________________________, ________________________, and _____________________________. 

 

 

A thesis that “rides the middle” might look like this:

 

To embrace a “pro-torture” or “anti-torture” is over simplistic nonsense. The potential for abuse in the realm of torture is huge, to be sure. But sometimes there are in fact extreme conditions that warrant torture. Therefore, torture should be allowed in the most narrow of circumstances and stringent conditions, which include ____________________, ____________________________, _________________________, _____________________________, and __________________________________.

Taras Grescoe’s essay convincingly shows that the “War on Drugs” is doomed to futility because _____________________________, _____________________________, _________________________________, ________________________________, and ___________________________________.

 

McMahon’s Thesis (which you can defend or refute):

 

Taras Grescoe’s essay convincingly shows that the “War on Drugs” is an absurdity wrought with contradictions, hypocrisy, cultural insensitivity, scientific humbug, and arbitrary notions of what constitutes health and pestilence to society.