Purpose: The purpose of the research paper is to engage and challenge the your critical thinking
skills by arguing for your own application of a theory (or theories) of ethics to a practical issue in
business ethics. Your goal is to show me you are developing a more sophisticated understanding of
an ethical issue.
Description: Write a 2000-3000 word paper on your choice of (a) an ethical theory examined in
the course readings (e.g. deontology, utilitarianism, egoism, teleology, moral foundations, etc.) in
conjunction with (b) an issue in business ethics of your choosing. Paper will include: (1) an
introduction with a thesis statement which declares the position for which you are arguing, (2) a
body including topic description and your argument, (3) a conclusion, and (4) a bibliography (any
formatting style is fine) including at least 4 academic sources used in the paper. While you must
include references to our course readings, you are free to cover a topic in ethics which we do not
directly cover in class.
Thesis statement: A thesis statement should be clearly identifiable in your introduction. Think of
a thesis as the conclusion of your argument (while you will describe a conflict/situation, you
must take a position and argue for your position in addition to describing the situation). A thesis will
not be worded as a question but instead will tell me your position. In order to make clear what your
thesis is, the thesis statement will begin with: The thesis of this paper is
Sources: Since this is a research paper, your paper must use at least 4 academic sources. You must
use at least 1 source from any of our readings/audio/video, which count as academic. Dictionary,
news articles, scriptures, and blogs do not count as academic sources (you may use these, in
addition to 4 academic sources). Cite all sources.
Citation: In the papers body, you may cite by any citation method (in-text [author, page(s)],
Chicago, MLA, APA, etc.), but any direct quotes must be cited directly after quote. You must also
cite general locations of ideas they derived from a reading text. Also, list all sources in a
bibliography page at the end of the paper.
