Assignment

Topic: Felon Voting

Presentation Issue/Question: Should felons who have completed their sentence (Incarceration, Probation, and Parole) be allowed to vote?

BRAINSTORMING

A patchwork of state felony disfranchisement laws, varying in severity from state to state, prevent approximately 5.85 million Americans with felony (and in several states misdemeanor) convictions from voting. Confusion about and misapplication of these laws de facto disenfranchise countless other Americans.

Supporters of felon disenfranchisement laws defend their constitutionality and argue that it's ultimately for individual states to determine. Some insist that committing a serious crime indicates a strong lack of moral character and trustworthiness, which they say is ample justification for denying the right to vote.

Within five years of release, 82 percent of property offenders were arrested for a new crime, compared to 77 percent of drug offenders, 74 percent of public order offenders and 71 percent of violent offenders, the report found.

PowerPoint Slides Instructions

1. Decide what your position is on the topic and prepare to explain why. Pick one or more ethical theories to justify your beliefs about the topic.

2. Conduct quality research on the topic and present that research. A good topic of choice will feature at least five professional sources from the ERAU Hunt Library database. Unbiased articles and academic studies are best. Examples are scholarly periodicals, journals, books, research forums and Internet periodicals by reputable organizations. You may also use reputable news media (Newsweek, Time, government publications, and web sites), but these do not count toward your total references requirement (five required). Do not use encyclopedias, dictionaries, Wikipedia, and popular forums or Internet web sites.

3. Create a 7 to 10-minute slide style presentation using PowerPoint® with accompanying audio. PowerPoint is available to you for free through your Office 365 account in ERNIE. Present both sides of the issue fairly, then justify your viewpoint. End with at least three ethical discussion questions about the topic for the class to discuss. Include a slide that lists your references in APA format (see the presentation outline section). Make sure your PowerPoint features an appropriate number of slides and presents the information as clearly as possible. Avoid including slides with too many words, lack of clarity, and poor grammar. Use illustrations where appropriate. Utilize the notes section of the slide for large chunks of text or supporting information.

Your presentation must follow this outline:

I. Title Slide - This first slide must include the presentation title, your full name, and the date.

II. Body - The next slides will contain an explanation and summary of both sides of the issue. Use your research to objectively (your opinion will come later) present the facts and opinions of bother sides fairly. In your slides, cite (current APA format) the research you use, including citations. Your explanation and summaries should be in depth, thus taking up several slides (should be 3+ slides). Use the notes section of the slide if you feel the slides are becoming crowded with too much text. Relate any principles, concepts, or information from your textbook into your presentation.

III. Reference Slide - This next slide must list all sources in current APA format.

IV. Opinion Slide - This next slide is your opinion. Present your own opinion about the controversy. You must explain why you believe what you do. Also, tie your opinion to one or more of the ethical approaches discussed in the textbook. State this ethical approach on the slide and explain why the approach is the right. Ex. "Utilitarian approach focuses on consequences of abortion, more infant deaths vs. reduced back-alley deaths; deontology approach, does a fetus have rights vs. rights of mother; etc. Use the text or another professional source to support your stance. Be sure to properly cite your sources accordingly.

V. Conclusion and Discussion Questions - Provide a summary of your presentation and close your presentation with three discussion questions for the class about the topic. Think about these questions. Your questions must be ethically challenging and tough. You want your questions to really make your peers think about the topic and invoke a great deal of discussion. These questions will serve as the basis for our class discussion in Module 7.