Here’s a breakdown of a student’s answer for the question on Natural Law from the new spec exams 2016 (first years).

To what extent does natural law provide a helpful method of moral decision making? (30)

OCR marks given for student’s answer:
A01 14/15
A02 13/15

The structure of the answer is very clear and simple with an introduction, four main paragraphs and a conclusion.

Four paragraph themes:

1. Links to Aristotle and telos
2. Four tiers of Moral Law hierarchy
3. Primary Precepts
4. Synderesis and apparent and real goods

Each of these paragraphs follows the same structure: theme raised, briefly outlined, link to euthanasia (moral decision making), layered evaluation (helpful or not?). Each paragraph has roughly a 30/70 split between A01 and A02.

There are four reasons (in my view) this answer did well:

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Writing application essays can be very difficult. You not only are juggling your topic with evaluation but applying it to an ethical issue. In this case, the question is even harder  because you also have two compare two topics together. Now you could just talk about ethical dilemmas in general and whether Utilitarianism or Kant is more useful. However I think you run the risk of producing a vague and bland answer. I would stick with the dilemmas surrounding Business Ethics (this is what your examiners are really looking for.) So before you start writing decide which 2-3 dilemmas or issues you are going to talk about (e.g. sweatshops, treatment of employees, whistleblowers, globalization etc.)

This is an example of what I would class as a good introduction.  This is because it displays to an examiner all the necessary elements in a simple and clear way, yet remaining informative (not descriptive) and is effective in the way it handles the question. From reading this introduction it is obvious what the question is. Always a sign of a good start!

When answering a question that specifies two theories (Util and Kant in this case) then you need to decide your four paragraph rule for each – this is your structure. It is only four paragraphs (not the usual five: The Five Paragraph Rule) because you are required to compare two theories rather than one (e.g. unlike the Natural Law and Euthanasia question I blogged about previously)- therefore you need time to explain and evaluate  both.

Four paragraph rule=

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Writing application essays can be very difficult. You not only are juggling your topic with evaluation but applying it to an ethical issue. Here are some examples of introductions and main paragraphs to show the structure:

This is an example of what I would class as a good introduction.  This is because it displays to an examiner all the necessary elements in a simple and clear way, yet remaining informative (not descriptive) and is effective in the way it handles the question. From reading this introduction it is obvious what the question is. Always a sign of a good start!

This is another introduction example. This demonstrates a different style of writing, yet the core structure (as above) is present. See how this student focuses on developing their evaluative tone with rhetorical questions (red) and demonstrates wider understanding through added details (green)

When writing your paragraphs within an application essay, keep the structure simple: theme, link, evaluate – so in this question it might be: reason, sanctity of life and helpfulness.

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How is your juggling technique? Well that is exactly what you need to do in application essays. You not only have to consider the topic but evaluate how well it applies to an ethical issue, whilst at the same time taking into consideration the specific wording of the question. Hence why application topics are so challenging!

The application topics work as follows:

• Natural Law and Situation Ethics as applied to euthanasia
• Kant and Utilitarianism as applied to business ethics

My understanding is that there are three possible types of questions you might be asked in ethics:

1. Specific topic and issue (e.g. Natural law provides a helpful approach when dealing with issues surrounding euthanasia)
2. Two topic comparison with issue (e.g. Utilitarianism is more helpful than Kantian ethics when dealing with ethical dilemmas)
3. Just issue (e.g. Evaluate the view that the religious concept of sanctity of life is outdated)

Note:

• A question might say ‘ethical dilemmas’ or ‘ethical issues’ which means you still need to talk about the related application topic, even if it is not specified (like Q2.)
• If the question is just on the issue, you still need to draw in arguments from one or both topics, not just a general discussion of the issue (like Q3.)

So here are my tips to help you handle an application question. These four steps will work with any type of application question.

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