Prescription drug costs should be regulated

Debate Research Paper

1. State your three main arguments. For example, if I wanted to argue that pizza is superior to all other foods, I would need to be able to consolidate my main points down to three thesis statements, which could be:
a. Pizza is a nutritionally balanced meal consisting of carbs, vegetables, protein, etc.
b. Pizza is versatile and can be catered to suit most anyone’s taste.
c. Pizza is affordable and accessible to everyone (including college students).
2. Support your three statements with research, facts, and data. Show that you know your stuff and that you have legitimate reasons for arguing your points. I want to see that you’ve conducted your research beyond just the top three articles from one Google search. You can reference articles, interviews, surveys, government websites, etc. In other words, be an expert on your topic. Also, be sure to include in-text citations to show where your data originated from.
3. Be persuasive. Obviously, you will want to include factual data that you’ve found through your research, but the most convincing arguments are not limited to facts alone. They also include emotional appeals that persuade the audience to CARE about the issue at hand. Given that you all are writing papers and not giving presentations, I understand that your ability to invoke an emotional response is more limited, but we have all read stories and articles online that have either brought us to tears, made us angry, or made us excited about things to come. Therefore, be sure to incorporate stories, anecdotes, and other poignant examples that might connect with your audience.
4. Anticipate what your critics would say. Again, those that are best at debating and presenting their argument are typically effective at playing devil’s advocate. Therefore, I want you to identify two arguments that the opposing viewpoint might have to say about your issue and explain what your response to their critiques would be. For example, with my pizza argument:
a. Someone might say that recent trends and nutritionists have pointed us in the direction of low-carb options as opposed to high-carbs foods like pizza. I could respond a couple of ways…
i. I could provide counter data that shows “balanced eating” that includes carbs are considered healthier by experts (would want to give citations and facts to back this up).
ii. I could also agree with their point, but call attention to the fact that there are many low-carb pizza options on the market, including cauliflower-based crusts, cheese-based crusts, and/or pizza bowls that do not have a crust at all.
5. Incorporate course concepts. Be sure to show your course knowledge by applying at least 3 concepts from class and defining how they apply to the situation. This could be ethical theories, biases, fallacies, CSR concepts, general business ethics, or any other topic that we have covered throughout the course. Do not make me read between the lines guessing about what you have applied, be direct.
6. Summarize it for us. After you’ve walked us through all of your research and provided answers to the critics, make sure we know what the main takeaways are. Write a paragraph or two that concludes and summarizes your argument.
7. Provide an annotated bibliography. Create a reference list for all of your sources, but for each source, be sure to also include an original abstract for each. Be sure to have a balanced list of sources, meaning that you should have almost as many sources that show the counter side as compared to your side of the argument.
a. An abstract consists of a synopsis of the article, or if a book- the relevant portion of the book that was used. The abstract for each source should be one or two paragraphs. In-text citations and references can be done so in any style (APA, Chicago, MLA) as long as they are consistent and professional in appearance.
8. Please be aware that we will be using a plagiarism detection tool when the paper is submitted.