CSC 300 Termpaper Proposal Specification
Turner
15 April, 2009

Bare minimum outline -

1. Cover page including title, name, date, "CSC 300."
2. An abstract: one or two paragraphs to describe in very general terms the motivating facts, the question asked, one or two arguments and your ultimate answer and the basic principles upon which it rests.  This would be the 30 second summary you might give your mother or friend. 
3. Known facts that are not disputed that lead to your question.  Do not judge these facts or make anything like an argument for an answer in here.  Just note the facts that give us the general background and end them with the facts leading to the controversy you are interested in.  The reader should naturally be asking the question you'll be asking by that point in your paper.  In general, attach your facts to a specific case, the more specific and detailed the facts, the better for your analysis.  Cite all facts to their sources.
4. Your research question - this is the ethical question you are interested in answering.  It should be one simple sentence and lead to a yes/no answer.  Open ended questions are very hard to answer.  
5. Extant arguments - this is where you gather the arguments made by others interested in the same question.  No judgments, just repeat their arguments for the answer in the best possible light from the arguer's perspective.  Cover both sides of your question (the "yes" side and the "no" side) to get a complete picture of how others are thinking about it.  Do not include any general ethical principles in here unless they are explicitly written up in the arguments.  Cite all arguments to their sources.
6. Applicable analytic principles - give a list of the basic ethical (and other) principles you'll rely on to come up with your analysis, include several explicit principles from the SE Code of Ethics, dontological principles, utilitarianism (rule-utilarianism) as well as others that will aid you.  Indicate generally how they apply to your specific case.  Cite any additional facts or principles you'll need.  Cite to sources for the principles you list.
7. Abstract your expected analysis - Give a short abstract of the basics you expect to analyze and present in your paper.  Divide it into sections that make sense for your work.   One way would be to: a) start with deontological perspectives as a section where you analyze those arguments based on the inherent ethics of the act itself rather than the results or tradeoffs; then, b) use a utilitarian perspective and list the appropriate analyses of the tradeoffs and stakeholders to define the most desired results and how to get them.  Be explicit about the tradeoffs (what value is balanced against what other value, which stakeholders win, which stakeholders lose...) What is the "utility" in "utilitarian" in your case - what value do you want to advance the most (derived from the general utilitarian "happiness")?  How do you maximize (or optimize) it?  Estimate where you'll end up for your answer (you can change your mind in the final paper!)  Note that the SE Code can be used as a source for principles in either category, and it is the very best source for the things it covers (for purposes of this paper.)  Keep referencing sources for any additional facts, quotes, or other information you might use here.
8. Annotated bibliography - show the sources you've relied upon, give a full reference and give at least a sentence or two summary about why the source is (or is not) relevant or helpful to your analysis.  You must have at least 5 primary sources referenced here and wikipedia is not acceptable.  General web sources are OK, but are secondary.  Primary sources are newspapers, journals, edited and reviewed print journals - peer reviewed sources are best.