All of your papers should be about five to seven pages in length and should be written on one of  the suggested topics.  Your papers should  present  a  reasoned defense of your own opinion. State your conclusion and then defend it in a  series  of  logically interrelated arguments.  Be sure to  take  into account possible criticisms or objections to your conclusion and  defend your  own  view  against them.  No reading beyond what  is  assigned  is necessary or desirable. 

With  the  permission of the instructor you may write  on  another topic relevant to the issues discussed in the reading.