- 17 Mar, 2021
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- 3 Mins Read
Maybe Something about Trump? But it’s up to you
Your assignment is to submit a report of your findings on a current event pertaining to American Government.
A current event for the purpose of this assignment is an event that 1)can be interpreted by a reasonable person as a national issue, i.e. an issue that effects all Americans directly or indirectly; and 2)has occurred between 2015 and 2019.
To clarify, one possible topic would be to write about an event related to civil rights. That does not mean you should simply write about civil rights, it means that you would write on a current event that can be interpreted as a civil rights issue based on what you have learned in this course. For example, gay rights can be interpreted as a civil rights issue. Is there a current event surrounding gay rights that interests you?
Perhaps one obvious example is the impeachment inquiry opened this past week against President Donald Trump. That is a current event relating to American government that most definitely affects all Americans in some way. Although you are not required to do so, you are strongly encouraged to contact me to ask if your current event topic is acceptable. I ask only that you do not wait until the last minute to do so. It is your responsibility to ensure that your topic choice fits the parameters of this assignment.
Your report should be organized into multiple paragraphs and provide roughly equal coverage of both of the prompts below.
1)Discuss your chosen current event.
2)Discuss how your chosen event relates to American government.
For example, if you choose to write about the impeachment inquiry against President Trump, you should discuss both specifics of the event itself, i.e. the details surrounding the impeachment inquiry, as well as how the impeachment inquiry relates to American Government.
You are required to include between three-to-five sources in your report. Please list those sources at the end of your report in a Works Cited section, including web links for online sources. I do not care which official style you use for the Works Cited section, as long as you are consistent, your source list makes sense, and you include the correct web links so I can access your web sources myself if needed. IMPORTANT: One of your sources must be the course textbook, which will be necessary in order to connect your current event to American Government.
On the one hand, I am flexible regarding which sources you use because I want you to have enough flexibility in completing your research. On the other hand, outright partisan sources and Wikipedia are not a good idea. The point of this assignment is NOT so you can write a polemic, such as stating that President Trump is the Devil or that climate change is a hoax. Facts matter in my class. You are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts. You are submitting an objective report with sound evidence to explain how your chosen event relates to American government, not why your event proves that you are right about a given political issue. If you cannot be objective on your chosen topic, pick another topic. If you experience difficulty finding sources, contacting the Mid Library is a good place to start.
Although your work will be evaluated primarily on its content, it will also be evaluated on its “form,” i.e. its grammar, clarity, organization, and formatting. Your report should be 400-800 words; this word count does not include your Works Cited section. Your report should be typed, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, 12-pt font, in Times New Roman, and be submitted in Google docs, Word, or PDF format. No title page or footnotes are necessary.
Citations are needed whenever you reference information from one of your sources, whether you are putting that info in your own words, paraphrasing, or using direct quotes. When you cite, please use a parenthetical citation, which means including the author and page number(s) or web link in parentheses at the end of the sentence you are referencing that information.
Example: “blah, blah, blah (Name of Author, 77)” or “blah, blah, blah (Name of Author, www.professorhamricrocks.com).”