Academic Writing: Informative Outline (2021)

Introduction: Death isn't bad...

Attention Getter: Death is a taboo subject, and we rarely have a healthy mindset about it. We are never prepared for a death, but we should be. Think about someone you care about, or someone who has died that you were close to. It’s an unthinkable thing, but shouldn’t we have a respectable mindset about it?

Relevance: Death is the antithesis of life, and everyone dies. We are taught young that death is to be avoided or denied.  There is a distinct lack of educational resources about death, especially for children. Thankfully, a rise in death advocates has been acknowledged, and many people are slowly becoming more tolerant.

Credibility: I have always been afraid of dying, and I’m positive everyone else has been before. Personally, I have no idea how to comfort the mourning. My inspiration for joining death positive groups is a lovely mortician named Caitlin Doughty, who runs a large death advocate community called “The Order of the Good Death”, she is also my reason for joining the funeral industry as a whole.

Thesis (preview of main points): The thought of dying should be prepared for in life by receiving death education. With this in mind, we must address the benefits to learning about death, why it’s harmful otherwise, and how society has addimently avoided these subjects.

Body

I.  An excerpt from The New Leam (2016), The necessity of death education “is immense as it helps us understand its true nature and acknowledge that dying is as natural as being born”.

1.    When going through life we will lose many. An innumerable amount of people will lose loved ones and have no idea how to cope with it. Life and death are two sides of the same coin, so you can only appreciate life fully by respecting death.

1.  Life is fleeting, but we shouldn’t fear it. The fear of death leads to a fear of life.

2. With resources, we can embrace death and those who will die. By learning about death in an open-minded way, we should be able to reconnect with the dying without becoming unfeeling.

2.    As humans, we must relearn our attitudes toward death. An education of this theme would benefit those who have lost and those who must comfort them. This would have lasting effects of understanding towards death related experiences.

1.  Would increase quality of life; if we are more educated in death we may enjoy life to the fullest.

2. Cause an Empathetic view of others in regards to dying; Being able to hear the stories of the dying and the deceased without superstitions or prejudice

Transition:  Unfortunately, now that we’ve talked about the benefits, we must now address the harmful effects of a lack of death education.

B.  Growing up, we were conditioned to believe that death was unnatural or unclean. Turn your mind to main horror movies tropes, zombies, maggots, possession, etc., all born of a fear of dying or decaying. With lack of understanding, humans will fear anything.

1. Our society dramatizes death, as if we lived in a Shakespearean play. On the news, you may see an over exaggeration of death rates to persuade fear in our minds

a.  The threat of dying is often used as a deterrent. Keeping us from trying new things or learning a certain way. Dying is scary, but not every scary thing leads to death.

b.  Many  of us may have a lower quality of life due to fear of death. H. feifel (1959) challenges us to understand our mortality and says that to do so will lead to a meaningful life

2.  Studies show that fear of death can be an underlying cause of psychological disorders.

a.  Disorders that are caused by death, either by loved one or fear of death.(Depression, anxiety, ptsd, etc.) Ptsd is often caused by a close death, either in the person’s family, or friends, even strangers.

b. Unhealthy attitudes about death,and indifference towards the dying. Robin Williams quote from Patch Adams (1998) “Death is not the enemy gentlemen. If we're going to fight a disease, let's fight one of the most terrible diseases of all, indifference.”

Transition:  With these hurdles in mind, we should review the history of death and education about dying so far.

C.  Death is ingrained in all of life, so our history with it is long and personal. Although, death is far from the center of our society’s perception and is often hidden.

1. One of the greatest sources of modern death education is the start of the Death awareness movement, where many death advocates rose up to educate people about death. This was a precursor to a better mindset about death.

1. It unofficially began with Herman Feifel's book, The Meaning of Death (1959); the movement is centered by a large amount of research and professional clinical work.

2. The movement is a great catalyst for modern funeral work, the thought of dying may still be unthinkable, but death advocates gained substantially from the death awareness movement.

2.   Death education is also vital in regard to clinical care and the studies related to it. You cannot, in good faith, be a medical professional without at least a basic understanding of death.

1. Several death awareness advocates, according to Wass, H. Encyclopedia, “focused on dying patients and the effects of institutional environments, the process of dying, and pain management, and they articulated the need for change in the care of dying people.”

2. Many colleges of nursing developed courses or modules in death education; Giving death education in regard to psychology, sociology, and philosophy, etc.

Conclusion

A.  In conclusion

                                       B.  Death is a fact of life, not an unnatural phenomenon, and learning about it is vital for a meaningful life. Without a good mindset about death we will only fall into societal attitudes and superstitions about death.

C.  As a death student, I believe many people would benefit from learning about dying and remembering that it is a natural thing we all must face some day. Memento Mori, or ‘Remember, you will die” is a good statement to mull over. Any person who believes in helping others should learn how to care for the dying and the mourning.

Bibliography

Bregman, L. (2017, May 23). The Routledge companion to death and dying. Routledge Handbooks Online. https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315723747.ch38

Feifel, H. (1959). The meaning of death. (Herman Feifel,) Ed.. McGraw-Hill Education.

Leam, T. N. (2016, March 13). The meaning and need of death education for our times. The New Leam. https://www.thenewleam.com/2016/03/the-meaning-and-need-of-death-education-for-our-times/

Samuel, L. R. (2019, March 8). The psychology of death. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychology-yesterday/201903/the-psychology-death

Wass, H. (n.d.). Death education | Encyclopedia.com. Encyclopedia.Com. Retrieved September 30, 2021, from https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/death-education