Poli 1100 Short Essay assignment (20%)
Purpose of assignment:
The aim of this essay is three-fold: to allow you to examine a contemporary
issue in poli
Ɵ
cs
relevant to the curriculum we’re exploring; to engage with academic sources (provided
to you) rela
Ɵ
ng to
a set research
ques
Ɵ
on
, and
to build capacity in effec
Ɵ
ve essay wri
Ɵ
ng through
specific requirements of nota
Ɵ
on, highligh
Ɵ
ng, and cita
Ɵ
on
.
Research ques
Ɵ
on
:
If you were advising Elec
Ɵ
ons Canada to lower the vo
Ɵ
ng age to 16,
what arguments
would you provide?
Assigned readings:
Your essay must be informed by the arguments, insights, and examples drawn from a
minimum of 5 of the readings listed below. These sources are provided for you in the Assignment folder
in Brightspace.
Any essays submi
Ʃ
ed using sources other than those assigned
below will earn a 0 mark
on their assignment.
Baumtrog, Michael D. “Youth V
o
Ɵ
ng, Ra
Ɵ
onal Competency, and Epistemic Injus
Ɵ
ce
.”
Informal
Logic
41, no. 1 (2021): 41-45.
Clark-
Kazak, Chris
Ɵ
ne.
“Why lowering the v
o
Ɵ
ng age in Canada is such a good idea.”
The
Conversa
Ɵ
on
. April 6, 2022, 9:31 a.m., EDT.
h
Ʃ
ps://theconversa
Ɵ
on.com/why
-lowering-the-
vo
Ɵ
ng
-age-in-canada-is-such-a-good-idea-180108
Maheo, Valerie-Anne and Eric Belanger.
“Lowering the Vo
Ɵ
ng Age to 16? A Compara
Ɵ
ve Study
on the Poli
Ɵ
cal Competence and Engagement of Underage
and Adult Youth.”
Canadian Journal
of P
oli
Ɵ
cal Science
53 (2020): 596-617.
h
Ʃ
ps://
doi:10.1017/S0008423920000232
McAllister, Ian.
“The poli
Ɵ
cs of lowering the vo
Ɵ
ng age in Australia: Evalua
Ɵ
ng the evidence.
”
Australian Jour
nal of Poli
Ɵ
cal Science
49, no. 1 (2014): 68-83.
h
Ʃ
ps
://doi:10.1080/10361146.2013.868402
Peto, Tommy. “
Why the vo
Ɵ
ng age should be lowered to 16.
”
Poli
Ɵ
cs, Philosophy & Economics
17, no. 3 (2018): 277-297.
h
Ʃ
ps:/
/doi:10.1177/1470594X17705651
Pickard, Sarah. “
Young People, the Vo
Ɵ
ng Age and Votes at 16
.” In
Poli
Ɵ
cs, Protest and Young
People
: Poli
Ɵ
cal Par
Ɵ
cipa
Ɵ
on and Dissent in 21
st
Century Britain
, 273-310. London, UK: Palgrave
MacMillan, 2019.
h
Ʃ
ps://doi.org/10.1057/978
-1-137-57788-7_9
Wherry, Aaron “Old
enough to choose: The case for le
ƫ
ng younger Canadians
vote”. CBC News,
December 8, 2021, 10:31 a.m., PST
.
h
Ʃ
ps://www.cbc.ca/news/poli
Ɵ
cs/vo
Ɵ
ng
-age-canada-
mcphedran-1.6277881
Wood, Bronwyn E. and Nick Munn., “How lowering the
vo
Ɵ
ng age to 16 could save demo
cracy.”
The Conversa
Ɵ
on
. March 22, 2018, 7:41 p.m., EDT.
h
Ʃ
ps://
the
conversa
Ɵ
on.com/how
-lowering-
the-
vo
Ɵ
ng
-age-to-16-could-save-democracy-93567
Structure:
Your essay will be five paragraphs in length, containing an introductory paragraph, three
paragraphs cons
Ɵ
tu
Ɵ
ng the body of the essay, and a concluding paragraph.
Lenth:
Your essay should be wri
Ʃ
en to a target length of 4 double
–
spaced pages, not including a
Ɵ
tle
page and a bibliography
lis
Ɵ
ng only the sources used to inform your
discussion and cited in your essay.
Cita
Ɵ
ons:
For this assignment, you are required to use footnotes
for ci
Ɵ
ng all informa
Ɵ
on and evidence
that supports the key points you are making, drawn from the assigned readings. These (and your bibliography) will be
forma
Ʃ
ed
using the
Chicago cita
Ɵ
on
style provided in the guide below:
h
Ʃ
p
s://langara.ca/library/research-
help/ci
Ɵ
ng
–
help/pdf/ci
Ɵ
ng
-chicago.pdf
Required highligh
Ɵ
ng and nota
Ɵ
ons
:
Apart from answering the
research ques
Ɵ
on
, you
must perform the following highlights and nota
Ɵ
on
within your essay:
1.
In your introductory paragraph, highlight the essay’s thesis statement and iden
Ɵ
fy it with
‘T’.
Sample:
In this essay I will discuss how na
Ɵ
onal economic policies conferred unequal
benefits on regions. In par
Ɵ
cular, an examina
Ɵ
on of
the federal tariff policy, freight rate
policy, and land policy will show how western development was hindered.
2.
In the introductory paragraph indicate in the following manner –
“a)…. b)…. c)….”
– the
specific points your essay will make to substan
Ɵ
ate the claims made in your thesis
statement (note the use of lower-case
le
Ʃ
ers in these nota
Ɵ
ons
).
3.
In each of the three paragraphs in the body of the essay highlight and indicate with an “a)”
(in the first body paragraph –
“b”
for second,
“c”
for third) where you introduce the point
(first iden
Ɵ
fied in the introduc
Ɵ
on) that you will develop in that paragraph.
4.
Highlight and indicate with an
“E”
the evidence you use in each paragraph in support of the
point you are making.
5.
Highlight and indicate with an
“A”
your analysis of the evidence you use in each paragraph
in support of the point you are making.
Other important information:
Your assignment should:
o
Be 4 double-spaced pages (not including the title page and bibliography)
o
Be written using 11pt or 12pt font, contain 1” margins around all sides of the page, contain
page numbers, and be submitted in either Word or .pdf format.
o
Include a title page (this is the cover page of your assignment) indicating: the title of your
essay, your name and student number, the course number and instructor name, the date
that you uploaded your assignment to Brightspace. Note: your name and the essay title
should only appear on the title page and not on any of the pages that follow it.
o
Include a bibliography (this is the last page of your assignment) where only the sources
referenced in the body of your essay are listed in alphabetical order by the (lead) author’s last
name and formatted according to the citation style noted above
Your essay will be assessed based on the following criteria:
o
Form:
Does it meet the assignment requirements?
Style (e.g. spelling, grammar, quality and clarity of your prose)
o
Content:
Thesis statement is clear and responds to question posed; claims are outlined in
introductory paragraph and at outset of each paragraph.
Evidence presented is relevant to point being made and is correctly cited.
Evidence is analyzed, analysis is sound, and works to back up thesis statement.
