Paper
This course is about politics, governmental policies, and people. Select a topic which covers a current event or situation that addresses a local or foreign issue, problem or person of international consequence.
Learn about a current political issue, problem, or person of political consequence.
Develop your Internet and library research skills.
Evaluate your topic from the perspective of different cultures and/or political viewpoints as well as your own.
Improve communication and critical thinking skills.
Paper:
Your paper may be submitted early but is due on Monday, April 15th.
At least 3 pages or 750 words, font of 12 characters per inch; Times New Roman theme font; double spaced; and margins 1”
Grading:
During the grading process your paper will be reformatted if it appears that the criteria above has not been followed and your grade will reflect penalties for improper formatting.
Anytime you borrow someone’s ideas, paraphrase or quote them, cite all sources using citation styles for research papers. Analyze and question your sources assumptions. You will need to indicate through endnotes any citations through the body of your paper and add a Work Cited page listing those citations in your paper. You should have at least 3 sources.
Your grade [up to 10 points] will then be posted on blackboard under “Paper.”
Expectations:
This course is about politics, governmental policies, and people.
What your paper should focus on:
Address the various sides of the issue with conclusions based on your own analysis of the issue, and demonstrating an understanding of its complexities.
Compare and contrast the different viewpoints of at least 3 sources used on your topic taking into account the limits of a position.
Present an informed evaluation of the evidence and different viewpoint surrounding the topic.
Blackboard will not accept:
BLACKBOARD WILL NOT ACCEPT—and your professor cannot open for grading—any other word processing software other than Microsoft Word or PDF file.
Internet Explorer is accepted by Blackboard as your browser; frequently other browsers are not compatible with Blackboard.
Using Internet Explorer seems to be the only really safe way to assure your paper can be opened, read, and graded.
If your professor cannot open your document, it will be deleted.
It is your responsibility—if your document has been deleted—to convert it to the proper form and re-submit the new document in two ways:
via Blackboard using a browser compatible with Blackboard
or, attach your paper as a document to an email to the professor
Blackboard does not accept: Apple documents, Word Perfect documents, Notepad documents
It is your responsibility to check your grades and determine if your paper has been properly received and graded or, if it has been deleted, to resubmit your paper in the proper format.
Penalties will be applied for punctuation or grammatical errors as follows:
Typos, incorrect punctuation, formatting, etc.
Misspelled/incorrect words, contractions, omitted page number, grammatical errors, improper hyphenation, unidentified acronym.
Improper paragraphing, incomplete sentence, margin over/under-run, redundancy, unclear sentences, incorrect information, improper quotes.
Weak argument, unacceptable length.
Plagiarized paper (any part) will be given a ZERO.
