American Politics
Social Security Reform
Flag
Immigration and the Changing Face of
Gun Control
“No Child Left Behind”?: Education Reform in
National Defense
The War on Terrorism and Civil Liberties
The National Rifle Association
Campaign Finance: The Backbone of Elections
Do We Need the Electoral College?
Religion and Politics
Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
Hate Crimes
Why Are Americans Disliked Around the World?
Taxes: Who Decides – Who Pays – Who Benefits
Racial Discrimination in
The Government Role in Stem Cell Research
The Regulation of Wetlands
The Clear Skies Initiative
The Government Role in Breaking the Cycle of Poverty
Same-Sex Marriage
As an alternative to choosing a topic from the above and doing a standard political science paper, you can also do this:
Great Conversation. During this semester, you will encounter a
number of great personages who in some way have had an impact on American
politics. If you choose this topic for
your paper, you will be asked to learn something of the lives of two of
these personages from different historical eras and make a creative leap
of imagination: imagine their meeting and having a conversation. You create the script for this meeting: write
it as a play with a certain setting and time that you determine, and relate the
dialog that ensues. Your play should be
4-5 pages in length. Dialog should
center on some aspect of American politics; while you can use your imagination
and are encouraged to be creative, the personages should remain in character.
Use at least three sources for your background information on the personages
and note these in a bibliography at the end.
REQUIREMENTS for the PAPER:
The paper should be at least five pages long: double spaced with 1”
margins.
Be sure and adhere to usual research paper standards: use a title, page
numbers, footnotes and references.
Use at least three references (book, periodical or internet source);
a diversity of sources is best.
Be careful of internet sources; they may not always be accurate or unbiased.
NOTE for example: I do NOT accept Wikipedia as a
valid source for a research paper. While you may use Wikipedia
for general help in your research, you should be careful of relying on it too
much: it is an open-source encyclopedia and is often unedited and therefore
open to misinformation.
A useful website to consider in evaluating the quality of internet sources
is on the KSU Library website. Go to the library home page, then
go to: Web tools/Criteria for Evaluating Web Resources. At this website, you
should also be able to download a website evaluation form, a very useful tool.
Present both sides of the issue you choose for your paper. Explain each side
fairly. Then come to your own conclusion as to what should be done about this
issue.
PROOFREAD your paper before you hand it in. Better still, get a friend to proofread it (someone who regularly gets As in English class would be a good idea). On the paper, style and grammar will count about 1/3 of the grade; content the rest.
HOW I EVALUATE YOUR PAPER:
Length 10%
(at least 5 pages – could be longer, but don’t get off-topic or be unnecessarily verbose)
Sources of information (need at least 3) 10%
Bibliography page and footnotes (or citations in body of text) 10%
Content:
- Relevance to American Politics 20%
- Argument (well made or not?) 20%
- Fairness to opposing view 10%
- Express an informed viewpoint 10%
English expression 10%