Practical Tips and Prompts on How to Write Ethics Essay

Ethics in every society is significant as it helps shape people’s behaviors. The ethics concept has been in use since the beginning of human civilization and has been used as a mechanism for preserving peace and promoting positive cohabitation among the members of society. Unlike the written law that governs people’s conduct on the basis of stipulated do’s and don’ts, ethics is a self-governing concept that keeps the society at equilibrium. In this case, ethics governs areas where laws are unavailable. Professors assign ethics essays to students to evaluate their ability to describe, illustrate, apply, and criticize concepts relating to ethics as a branch of philosophy. Ethics studies entail defending, systematizing, and recommending concepts regarding right and wrong conduct. Moreover, the ethics essay writing assignments help students not only to understand the factors that influence right and wrong decisions but also improve writing skills and analytical abilities. When your ethics professor asks you to write an ethics essay, they are simply asking you to consider:

• Your understanding of the ethics philosophy field of study;
• Your ability to choose and explore appropriate and current ethics topics;
• Your ability to explore theoretical concepts in ethics and relate them to issues in real life;
• Your ability to draw conclusions on issues relating to ethics and morality.

When drafting and compiling your essay on ethics, consider the above factors as they will help you write high-quality essays that not only help you refine your writing skills but also meet your professor and course requirements. The ethics essay writing guide below provides practical tips that will help with your writing process.

Pre-Writing Tips

Writing an ethics essay is a process that involves more than just drafting and compiling a write-up. Most students have a tendency to hold off essay assignments until the last minute. Understanding that essay writing is a process should guide you in altering your perceptions and expectations regarding the research and writing process. Writing a stellar ethics essay involves numerous steps ranging from topic selection to researching, and creating an outline. Prewriting tips refer to the processes you should engage in before compiling the first draft of the essay.

The pre-writing steps are listed below.

• Topic selection. Topic selection is one of the most important aspects of essay writing regardless of the area of study. If your professor does not provide you with an ethics essay topic, you can write on, conduct preliminary research on various ethics topics, whether on philosophy or sociology before settling on one topic. Moreover, select a variety of topics you are familiar with and those with readily available information.
• Brainstorming. Brainstorming involves thinking about the items you are going to write about. You should seek answers to the following questions as a way of brainstorming:
  • What questions will I answer in the ethics essay and each paragraph?
  • How best can I respond to the questions?
  • What facts and supporting arguments can I use to support my claims?
  • Do I need more facts about the chosen ethics topic?
• At this point, note down any ideas that cross your mind to help you structure concepts concerning issues pertaining to topics in ethics.
• Gather facts. Gathering facts entails conducting research immediately after brainstorming. During this phase, search and write down facts that will help you answer the questions listed above. Ensure the facts you gather and those you intend to use are related to the questions you are going to answer in each paragraph. Information gathering should be purposeful and should focus on the theme of your chosen ethics field of study.
• Note taking. Once you have gathered enough content on the subject matter, you should take notes. The note-taking process should accompany the researching process to lay down the essential elements of your topic. It also helps you save time when you’re writing your essay.
• Make an outline. Now that you are equipped with an overall idea of your essay topic, the content you will incorporate in the essay, and the idea of what information to write each paragraph on, make an outline of what content should be written in the introduction section, the body, and the conclusion. The outline should provide a platform for developing the essay theme. Moreover, outlining the points structures your ideas into concrete pieces of information that can be written for informative purposes.

Working On Your Ethics Essay Topic: A Few Ideas from Our Top Writers

Often, professors assign students a common topic in the respective ethics area of study. Consequently, the chances are that your professor has selected and assigned you the topic for your ethics essay. If this is the case, you can skip this part and go to other sections of the guide. However, the articulated ethics essay writing tips may help you with other essays that you will encounter in the course of your studies. Additionally, the lecturer may present several topics from which you are required to select a topic for your ethics essay. If this is the case, choose a topic you are conversant with and the one with adequate and readily available information. Regardless of whether you are selecting a topic from a list or whether you are required to identify an issue, you will study, you need to analyze the general outline of the chosen subject matter to understand whether the topic requires you to analyze, apply, or evaluate a certain aspect of ethics.

Topic selection provides you with skills and necessary flexibility to choose topics that interest and challenge your abilities. Follow the next steps to help you with the topic selection process.

• Define your essay objective. The purpose of your intended essay is the first guide that provides you with a direction for drafting an essay. Therefore, think and analyze the purpose of your essay before settling on a particular type. In other words, explore whether your essay should be informative, persuasive, evaluative, or based on the application of concepts.
• Brainstorm topics of interest. After defining the objective of your essay, write down several topics in the field of ethics. In case you face problems coming up with suitable topics, seek advice from your professor or your peers on suitable ethics topics. However, the chosen topic should interest you and be in line with the lecturer’s expectations.
• Evaluate the potential topics. Evaluate each potential topic individually and assess which fits your intended purpose, intended scope, availability of resources, and your ability to tackle it. The examples below provide you with an overview of ethics essay topics:
  • Should Violent Criminals Be Executed or Incarcerated when the Likelihood of Rehabilitation Is Low?
  • Should Prostitution Be Legalized as a Form of Trade?
  • Should the Right to Die Be Protected by Law?
  • Is It Immoral to Consume the Flesh of Other Creatures?
  • Is It Ethical to Limit Population Growth to a Level that the Planet Can Maintain Sustainably?

The Main Terms that Define Urban Studies Essays

Your professor can ask you to write essays in ethics for analysis, application, or evaluation of ethical practices that guide human behavior and conduct in a society, as well as the judgment of certain behaviors, either right or wrong.

• Analysis. The analysis in ethic denotes the act of defining concepts into smaller entities to promote understanding of the way different elements constitute an idea. In the ethics analysis essays, think about each element of the chosen topic and how it contributes to the success of the entire piece. For instance, when analyzing the concept of abortion among teenagers, think about the factors that influence thoughts about abortion, issues that predispose teenagers to early pregnancies, the impacts of abortion on the teenagers and significant kin. In addition, ensure the essay provides statements that can be explained step-by-step. An appropriate ethics essay should answer why and how questions rather than what questions.
• Application. The lecturer may not ask you to apply concepts directly. However, it is important that you apply concepts in the ethics field of study into practical day occurrences somewhere in your essay. Consequently, you need to understand important terms in ethics, as well as concepts and theories that can be applied in context.
• Evaluation. When writing evaluation forms of essays, ensure you participate in the research and writing process. You should provide the overall context of your ethics essay and assess the application of specific concepts into different contexts. An evaluative ethics case should provide arguments and counter-arguments, as well as evidence that supports your claim. On the other occasions, the professor may ask you to critique or evaluate case studies of research articles on ethics topics. In such a case, be objective and assess every aspect of the case study or research article.
• Persuasion. Persuasive essays are written to persuade the target audience to accept a certain point of view or adopt certain practices. In persuasive essays, the write up should be structured in a way that provides supportive evidence that convinces the audience to accept your perspectives. You need to respond to the following questions when writing a persuasive essay on the ethics topics:
  • Do I have the right type of information needed to convince the readers about my position and claims in ethics?
  • What type of statistics, evidence, and facts do I need to present to the target readers?
• The well-thought answers to the above questions will help you determine the keywords you need to use in the ethics essay.

Appropriate Structure for an Ethics Essay Writing

An appropriate outline of the ethics essay should have at least the introduction, the main body, and the conclusion. The outline should appear as indicated below:

• Introduction. The introduction should occupy approximately 10% of the entire essay and explain the way your essay interprets the title, the issues it explores, and the conclusion that you draw from the essay discussion. Moreover, it is important to provide an outline of the essay. In this regard, explain the parts of the essay and the issues it discusses. Both the purpose statement and the thesis statement should form the last element of the introduction and provide accurate information concerning the essay’s content and arguments.
• Body. The body of the essay should take up to 80% of the essay content because it is the main part of the paper. Depending on the ideas and themes you intend to explore in your essay, the number of paragraphs may vary from three to four. However, the length of the essay helps in determining the number of paragraphs that constitute the body section. For instance, a one-page essay may only accommodate one body paragraph. Regardless of the number of the body paragraphs each should develop and explore the major essay arguments. Each should have a topic sentence and evidence that supports claims made in each topic sentence. Focus on the following elements when writing each essay paragraph.
  • The main discussion point in each paragraph;
  • The arguments that need to be provided within each paragraph;
  • The type of evidence required to support the claims made and its implication;
  • The paragraph’s ability to link the essay topic and essay title.
• Conclusion. Similar to the introduction, the last part of the ethics essay should comprise approximately 10% of the essay. At this point, you should restate your thesis statement, summarize the essay, describe why your essay is significant, and make recommendations where necessary. Do not introduce new points and arguments in the conclusion section. However, you can provide an action plan where possible. The recommendations can be a stand-alone text or form part of the conclusion.

Post-Writing Tips

Proofreading and referencing constitute the most important tips in ensuring your essay is appropriate and suitable to attain a high grade. Proofreading is equivalent to reviewing your essay to ensure it is free of grammar, sentence structure, and tense mistakes among other errors that occur during the writing process. The content should be coherent. This implies that proofreading should involve reading through the text to ensure the sentences and ideas make sense and are clear. The proofreading should not begin immediately after writing the final draft of the essay; rather, take a break to enhance your objectivity.