Engels 1 FMS FMS 2/27/14 7:49 AM Comment [1]: Header-needs to be your last name and page number Nichelle Engels Ms. Engels English 10 Honors 3 or 4 7 March 2014 The Justification for Crime: To Commit One or To Not Commit One Comment [2]: FONT: Times New Roman; size 12; double spaced Title Page: What goes on it Name Teacher s Name Class Name and Hour Date of Submission Title of the Paper This information should be about 10 ENTERS down from the top of the page DOUBLE SPACE!
Engels 2 Criminal activity is often viewed as a black or white subject. For many people who wish to argue the construct of crime, they fail to see that there is no set moral Comment [3]: HOOK standard by which to evaluate it. Crime is a governmental construct designed to maintain a perceived social order. This construct is developed based upon the collective conscious of the humans who are the foundation of the society. Therefore, the moral ambiguity of whether something is a crime or not is merely based upon the perception of the social community who is evaluating its relevance. Cannibalism is not allowed because it exists beyond the social norms. Murder is unacceptable for the same reason. However, there are times and places where both can be justifiable because they help to prevent the ruin of the greater majority. In the larger drama, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, the antagonist is constantly battling between the moral obligations thrust upon him. Brutus sits within his garden and bemoans the fact that it must be by his [Caesar s] death because if he would be crowned it is not known how it might change Caesar (Shakespeare, 917). Therefore, his end conclusion is that the conspirators must think him as a serpent s egg which hatched, would as his kind grow mischievous, and kill him in the shell (Shakespeare, 917). Brutus was conflicted but realized that, for the health of the nation, one man must be sacrificed. Therefore, the morality of his actions in killing a man were justifiable. By killing Caesar, he viewed it as a means of saving everyone from the poison of what Caesar could become if he lived. The character of Brutus was able to justify his actions by claiming the crime as one done for the greater good. Comment [4]: LOGIC Argument leading up to and flowing into my thesis Comment [5]: Thesis FMS FMS 2/26/14 9:01 PM Comment [6]: Topic Sentence FMS FMS 2/26/14 9:01 PM Comment [7]: Fact #1 Comment [8]: Correct Cite Cites=Author s last name, page number Periods ALWAYS go OUTSIDE the parentheses. Do NOT have them at the end of the quote. FMS FMS 2/26/14 9:02 PM Comment [9]: The rest of my fact Comment [10]: ALWAYS PUT A CITE AFTER A DIRECT QUOTE FMS FMS 2/26/14 9:02 PM Comment [11]: My ANALYSIS of my argument Comment [12]: Concluding sentence
Engels 3 Another literary character who felt conflicted about breaking the law in order to prevent an even greater crime was Antigone. Her conflict was more in dealing with the realization that by committing her crime, she would be condemned. She argued for her crime by declaring It was not God s proclamation. That final Justice that rules the world Comment [13]: Topic Sentence Comment [14]: Lead in from the topic sentence to the Fact below makes no such laws. Your edict, King, was strong but all your strength is weakness itself against the immortal unrecorded laws of God I knew I must die, even without your decree can anyone living, as I live, with evil all about me, think Death less than a friend? (Sophocles, 827). For her, the crime of burying her brother was worth the penalty for several reasons. Not only was it justifiable because she was following God s law but also because she had no fear of death. This lack of fear allowed her to understand that the evil of this world practically compelled her to action. Therefore, external motivators such as society itself can drive a criminal s actions. As well as the need for personal moral justification, the crimes committed often serve as a means of survival for the greater majority. For example, in the book Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read is about a group of Uruguayan rugby players whose plane crashed in the Andes Mountains. Out of the forty-three people on the plane, only sixteen survived. Eventually, the searchers stopped looking for them. For ten weeks, they were stranded in the mountains. In order to survive, they resorted to cannibalism (Read). These young men committed Comment [15]: Period goes OUTSIDE the cite Comment [16]: CITE: Author s Last NAME then PAGE NUMBER FMS FMS 2/26/14 9:04 PM Comment [17]: BLOCK QUOTE- 1. Indent 1 inch 2. NO quotation marks 3. Cite your source at the end Comment [18]: DO NOT indent the next line after a block quote-it is still a continuation of the same body paragraph Comment [19]: Analysis Comment [20]: Concluding Sentence Comment [21]: TOPIC SENTENCE FMS FMS 2/26/14 9:07 PM Comment [22]: Fact USING A Paraphrase STILL needs to be cited Comment [23]: CITE: Author s LAST NAME ONLY if you have the page numbers, it will follow AFTER THE AUTHOR S LAST NAME
Engels 4 a crime by society s standards, but their actions allowed them to survive. They only ate those who were already dead from the crash. By sacrificing their morals, they were able to survive. This is similar to the idea that motivated Harry Truman to allow for the atomic bombs to be dropped on the Japanese people. He rationalized in his press release to the public that FMS FMS 2/26/14 9:07 PM Comment [24]: Analysis for first point this action was taken to completely destroy Japan s power to make war as well as the fact that it will help us become a powerful and forceful influence towards the maintenance of world peace ( Atomic Bomb, 1945). His action was motivated by his desire to preserve the American people and to end a war. Despite the differences in these two situations, both the rugby team and President Truman defended their actions through a wish for the greater majority to survive. NOW CONTINUE ON UNTIL YOU HAVE A MINIMUM OF 4 PAGES OF WRITING! FMS FMS 2/26/14 9:08 PM Comment [25]: Fact Comment [26]: CITE: If you have NO AUTHOR, USE THE FIRST PART OF THE TITLE Comment [27]: Analysis of Fact Comment [28]: Synthesize & Connect the two points together FMS FMS 2/26/14 9:10 PM Comment [29]: THIS PARAGRAPH shows 1.How to use two sources together (synthesis) to prove 1 point 2.Shows how to use a paraphrase rather than a quote as a fact
Engels 5 Works Cited Atomic Bomb-Truman Press Release-August 6, 1945. Atomic Bomb-Truman Press Release-August 6, 1945. Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, 3 Feb. 2014. FMS FMS 2/26/14 9:11 PM Comment [30]: TITLE: Normal font, centered, NO BOLD, NO UNDERLINED Web. 12 Feb. 2014. <http://www.trumanlibrary.org/teacher/abomb.htm>. Read, Piers Paul. Alive; the Story of the Andes Survivors. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1974. Print. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Prentice Hall Literature 10 th Grade. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2010. 892-1000. Sophocles. Antigone. Prentice Hall Literature 10 th Grade. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2010. 814-858. YOU SHOULD HAVE A MINIMUM OF TWO MORE SOURCES! FMS FMS 2/26/14 9:11 PM Comment [31]: SOURCES: 1.Alphabetical ORDER by 1 st word in each cite 2.First line-left aligned. EVERY LINE after is indented ½ inch (use the ruler tool to do this by dragging the bottom arrow in) 3.Cites are DOUBLE SPACED