March 28, 2005
topic proposal
1. What will be the topic of your definition argument? Explain.
When to force a mentally ill person to take their medication or be involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital. When a person is determined to be too mentally disabled or violent to decide for himself whether or not to take their medication.
2. Write a first-pass definition thesis that your paper will support. The claim must identify a choice of a specific case, a category and at least two or three preliminary criteria.
My paper will support the authorities right to force a mentally ill person to take their medication or be committed for 72 hrs. and be evaluated. The specific case is the New York legislation that many are trying to get passed that would bring about the forced medication taking for mentally ill people and the evaluation if they don't take it. I guess the category is the care of the mentally ill, and the criteria would be how mentally ill or violent does a person have to be to be forced to take their medication.
3. Describe an audience that would find your claim interesting or controversial. Why would they care about your claim?
I think people that had mentally ill relatives, and doctors, psychologists , and those involved in the care of the mentally ill. They would care about the claim because it directly affects their lives, and the lives of relatives and patients.
4. List some items that are obvious members of the category, some that are non-members, and some borderline cases.
I guess obvious members of the category of mentally ill people forced to take medication would be seriously violent offenders, and people unable to take care of themselves while non-members would be those with mental illness but would could still function in society, and borderline cases would be people with mild behavioral or understanding issues.
Charles,
Your topic proposal presents an interesting issue, but does not make it clear what your definitional claim will be. If the category is "care for the mentally ill" and the case term is "forced medication," then your claim is "Forced medication is care for the mentally ill." This sounds like a reasonable claim, but I get confused when you answer the last question saying that members of the "care" category are mentally ill people, when one would expect that the members will be different examples of "care." Based on your answer to the last question, I think you are trying to argue that "people with mild behavioral or understanding issues" (case term) are "mentally ill" (category term). At the end, I can't tell which of the two claims you will be writing about.