Politics

DUE: 5/18/2020
Directions: You are going to write a 4-page paper! Access an on-line news source (i.e. New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Post, Vox, Politico, Chicago Tribune, NBC, CNN, USA Today, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Business Insider, Wall Street Journal, TeenVogue, Forbes…you get the idea) and look for an article that goes no farther than 1/1/2020. In other words, you article has to be from this year. To make things easy for you, the article should be somehow connected to politics.
Once you read the on-line article you have chosen you job for this project will be to analyze it given what you have learned this chaotic semester. So, I will leave it up to you in regards to what you want to focus on. Some of the options you have, though, are analyzing the subject of your on-line article through the lens of:
• • • • • • • • • • •
1. How does your on-line article connect to the section from above that you have chosen to focus on?
2. Explain how the text book (i.e. McClain & Tauber) helps you explain your on-line article. For this, I highly recommend that you focus only/mainly on the chapter that the topic from above is located in the book.
3. Find 1 academic article (i.e. using JSTOR or Academic Search Complete through the CSUB library) that researches your topic, i.e. civil rights OR the presidency, OR federalism, etc…and use it to explain why what your on-line article says/argues is important.
Here is the breakdown of what your paragraphs should look like:
Paragraph 1 (25pts combined with paragraph 2) – introduction AND begin to discuss what your on-line article news article
Paragraph 2 (25pts combined with paragraph 1)– finish discussing and explaining your on-line article
Paragraphs 3-5 (40pts) – answer the questions/statements above
Paragraph 6 (15pts) – Conclusion – BUT in the conclusion include 2-3 sentences that explain why we should care about what you are writing about.
Federalism
Political Parties
Interest Groups
Civil Rights
Civil Liberties
Money in Politics
The Madisonian Model
Voting Behavior
Congress
The Presidency
The Courts
am asking you to do is to explain your on-line article using the ideas, language, examples
What I
from any of the main sections from our class that are noted above. Here are the questions you need to answer within the paper.
Additional Notes:
Paper needs to:
• Submit via Blackboard using Microsoft Word – BB does not like other softwares
• Be typed with 1-inch margins all around (top, bottom, right margin, left margin)
• Have a font size that is 12-pt – Times New Roman or Arial ONLY
• Have a cover page (not a part of the 4-page count) that includes:
o Creative Title
o Your name
o Date paper is due o My name
o Name of class
***********Please do not put your name anywhere else other than the cover page. I want to grade anonymously so no headers/footers with last names**************
• Have page numbers on the bottom right hand corner
• Have an alphabetized bibliography at the end of the paper – not a part of the 4-page
count either
• Be 1 document with cover page, paper, and bibliography all in one that you will
submit via Blackboard as a Microsoft Word document
• No quotes – put ideas in your own words and use in-text citation
• Only double spacing – no more and no less than that
• Paragraphs are between 4-6 sentences in length
• No headers/footers with your last names – just a page number
• Never put lists as a part of a paper.
o If there is a list in one of your sources that you want to include you need to
summarize the points – preferably the more important ones- and work them
into a paragraph or two, whichever is most appropriate
• Since you are ONLY doing 4 pages, they need to be complete pages – go all the way
to the bottom!
• Bibliography should be its own page (and not a part of the 4-page count)
o You do not have to provide a copy of the on-line news article BUT you do need to cite it and provide the website in the bibliography
Some Grammar Points: (Doing any OR all of these will lower the points you receive on the paper)
• No contractions, i.e. don’t, can’t, won’t, shouldn’t – do not use these – spell words out completely
• Again, no quotes! Use in-text citations and summaries in YOUR OWN words
• Be careful with run-on sentences and sentence fragments
• Do not plagiarize
• Please proofread and make sure your sentences make sense