ESSAY PLANNER - Print This Section and Fill out When Beginning an Essay

ESSAY PLANNER - Print This Section and Fill out When Beginning an Essay

ESSAY PLANNER – Worked Example

Timeline for writing essay

Analyse stage complete – 1hr / Wk 4 - Analyse question before wk4 lecture/tut. so can ask lecturer any necessary questions.
Research stage complete – 6 hrs / Wk 5 – Start early before all library resources are gone. Do before wk 5 lecture/tut. so can ask questions.
Structuring stage complete – 11/2 hrs / Wk 5 – Structure before tut. so can check with tutor
Writing stage – draft 1 complete – 6 hrs / Wk 6 – Aim to finish writing early in week, so have time to do more research if necessary.
Edit 1 complete – 2 hrs / Wk 7 – 1 week to complete all editing processes
Edit 2 complete – 2 hrs / Wk 7 – Get student/peer to review
Edit 3 complete – 1 hr / Wk 7 – Have 2 days to reflect and consider argument and writing.
Edit 4 complete – 1 hr / Wk 8 – Complete by Tuesday. Have 1-2 days for last minute changes and avoid anxiety and stress of struggling to meet deadline.
Essay due date – Thurs, Wk 8 / Wk 8

Preparation

Question Analysis

Essay topic:

The issue of capital punishment is frequently debated in the media. Do you support or not support the reintroduction of capital punishment in Australia? (1,000 word limit)

Key words:

Capital Punishment; Media Debate

Limiting words:

Australia; Reintroduction = present, not past or future.

Instructional words (refer to glossary of essay question terms to discover exact meanings):

Argue ‘for’ or ‘against’ (support or not support capital punishment)

Brainstorm what you already know and relevant areas to research.

Why would/should people be interested in this topic? Why is this topic important?

See “Example Mind-map – Capital Punishment”

Identify appropriate research sources [eg. Encyclopaedias (E); Texts (T); Review Articles (RA); Handbooks (H); Journals (J)] for each identified research area. Do this by putting an E or T or RA or H or J next to each research area that you have identified

See “Example Mind-map – Capital Punishment”

Research

Identify research terms for searching articles in databases and internet for each identified research area. Again you can put these next to the area where you have brainstormed. You might like to use a different colour so they stand out when you are doing the searching.

See “Example Mind-map – Capital Punishment”

Note-taking

Essay topic: The issue of capital punishment is frequently debated in the media. Do you support or not support the reintroduction of capital punishment in Australia?

Essay subtopic: Wrongly convicted and sentenced to death.

Source: Costanzo, M. & White, L.T. (1994). An overview of the death penalty and capital trials: History, current status, legal procedures and cost. Journal of Social Issues, 50(2), 1-18.

Main point: The criminal justice system is not infallible. Innocent people have been convicted and executed.

Sub points:

  • Radelet, Bedau, and Putnam (1992) - study of wrongful convictions, identified 416 wrongful convictions in US since 1900.
  • More than 24 cases - condemned person was within days or minutes of being executed.
  • In 23 cases the innocent person was executed.
  • These figures probably underestimate incidence.
  • “Three most common means discovering wrongful convictions - confession by the actual perpetrator, perseverance of a dedicated defense counsel, and publicity generated by concerned members of the media.”
  • “Four main sources of error were police error (coerced or false confession, sloppy or corrupt investigation), prosecutor error (suppression of exculpatory evidence, overzealousness), witness error (mistaken identification, perjured testimony, erroneous testimony), and other errors misleading circumstantial evidence, incompetent defense counsel, exculpatory evidence ruled inadmissible, inadequate attention to alibis, and conviction demanded by community outrage” (Radelet & Bedau, 1988).

Essay Plan

Introduction:

The topic is: The issue of capital punishment is frequently debated in the media. Do you support or not support the reintroduction of capital punishment in Australia?

My argument is: Reintroducing CP would be a brutal and a backward step for Australian society.

The limits set out in the question are: CP – ‘for’ or ‘against’ (I am arguing against); in Australia..

My order of subtopics is:

  • CP is not an effective deterrent to serious crime.
  • Innocent people have and will be wrongfully executed.
  • CP can be discriminatory against racial minorities and people from lower socio-economic groups.
  • State sanctioned execution is an outdated and barbaric punishment that should on moral grounds be abandoned.
Body

Paragraph 1

The main idea: CP does not have any appreciable impact on crime rates.

Sub points:

  • People in favour of CP assume that threat of execution will reduce incidence of murder and other serious crimes (Ellsworth and Gross, 1997).
  • Research evidence challenges this assumption
  • US - murder rates did not rise after the abolition of capital punishment in 1972, nor did they fall when it was reintroduced in 1976
  • Adjoining states tend to have similar murder rates irrespective of whether they have different penalties for murder (Bedau, 1997).
  • Murder rates unaffected by highly publicised cases involving capital punishment (Bedau, 1997).
  • Similar results found in Australia (Potas and Walker, 1987).
  • Bedau (p. 155) concludes there is ‘clear and abundant’ evidence that capital punishment is not more effective than imprisonment as a deterrent.

The link to topic/or next paragraph is:

I will show linkages to the topic and to each paragraph by writing in the introduction that 4 main arguments are presented against the reintroduction of CP and then briefly outline each one. I will then use this structure to link the paragraphs by writing at the beginning of each paragraph – “The first argument is….”; “The second argument is….”; etc.

Paragraph 2

The main idea: Mistakes can be made in sentencing and innocent people may be executed.

Sub points:

  • Radelet, Bedau, and Putnam (1992) A study of wrongful convictions, identified 416 wrongful convictions in US since 1900. (Costanzo and White, 1994).
  • At least 23 innocent people have been wrongly executed.
  • DNA testing has provided the technology to test the convictions of many offenders and there are increasing instances of miscarriages of justice (Connors, Lundregan and Miller, 1996).
  • Execution is irreversible, whilst people sentenced to life imprisonment can at least be released.

The link to topic/or next paragraph is:

Refer to plan for paragraph 1.

Paragraph 3

The main idea: The death penalty has been applied in a discriminatory fashion.

Sub points:

  • US – blacks are over-represented on death row at a rate of three-and-a-half times (Dieter, 1997).
  • The race of the victim has been found to be a significant influence on receiving the death penalty.
  • Those who murdered whites were more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks or other racial minorities.
  • 75 of the 86 prisoners executed in Texas since 1976 were convicted of killing a white person, even though almost half of all homicide victims are black (Platt, 1987).
  • Inability to afford decent legal representation can also lead to discrimination.
  • Bright (1997) found that it is not those murderers who commit the worst crimes who are likely to be sentenced to death, but rather those who are assigned the worst lawyers.

The link to topic/or next paragraph is:

Refer to plan for paragraph 1.

Paragraph 4

The main idea: CP is a brutal and outdated form of punishment.

Sub points:

  • This argument introduces a moral dimension.
  • Many people who support capital punishment do so irrespective of its effect on crime rates or the potential for bias and error Ellsworth and Gross (1997).
  • They simply believe that capital punishment was justified retribution for those who took the lives of others - eye for an eye is morally appropriate.
  • Internationally – (except US) the death penalty is typically associated with totalitarian and repressive regimes, including China, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Saudi Arabia.
  • Whilst difficult to prove empirically, the death penalty may have a brutalisation effect and actually encourage violence within a society (Bedau, 1997).
  • It is morally inconsistent to respond to murder by carrying out another, state-sanctioned murder.

The link to topic/or next paragraph is:

Refer to plan for paragraph 1.

Conclusion

The topic is: The issue of capital punishment is frequently debated in the media. Do you support or not support the reintroduction of capital punishment in Australia?

The points in my argument are:

  • The death penalty is an ineffective punishment with clear evidence showing that the death penalty does not reduce the incidence of serious crime.
  • There are unacceptable risks of executing innocent people.
  • There is error and bias in the application of the death penalty, with black and poor offenders disproportionately sentenced to death.
  • The death penalty is objectionable ethically and if reintroduced could increase the level of brutalisation in Australian society.

I have succeeded in showing: That Australia should not reintroduce capital punishment.