Honors Government  

Possible Topics:

-                      Electoral College

-                      Judicial Review/Activism

-                      Gay marriage

-                      A women’s right to chose

-                      Flag burning amendment

-                      Racial profiling

-                      Immigration reform

-                      2^nd amendment

-                      capital punishment?

-                      Mandatory military service

-                      Drug testing and welfare

-                      Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

-                      A topic of your choice with instructor approval

Assignment: Your assignment is to research and write a position paper on a controversial issue pertaining to American Government. This paper will take a balanced approach to both sides of the issue and will contain a well supported opinion on the subject.

Research Requirements:

Major ideas are fully developed and supported with relevant information from a minimum of eight (8) sources:

o        Five (5) data base or monographic (book) sources that can be accessed through the Cone Library or other reliable journal sources.

o        Three (3) primary source documents

o        If you use an internet source, you must prove that it is a reliable source via a web evaluation form if it is not from one of the libguide sources.  All web sources MUST be annotated in Noodlebib.

o        The textbooks and general encyclopedias are a good place to start the research process but CANNOT be used as a source.

o        All sources must be cited at least once in the paper, using MLA format.

Organization of the research paper:

o        Paragraphs deal with one topic and are at least (minimum) 5 sentences long

o        Your paper length should be at least 7 pages long and no more than 10 pages long. Anything under or over this requirement will lose points.

o        Your introductory paragraph should provide relevant background information and present both sides of the argument on your issue, building to a thesis statement- which will be at the end of the introduction.

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  • The thesis will address both positions on the issue and the student’s point of view about the issue (no first person).

o        You need to incorporate real world examples to support you position. Use facts, details, statistics, and testimonies to better support your points.

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  • This is best done with court cases, journal articles, newspaper stories, etc.

o        The credits section, entitled “Works Cited”, follows MLA format; this includes all research and cited material within the written work.

Due Dates:

Library day                                                    Tues  2/14/12

Library day C block                                         Thur  2/16/12

Library day B and F blocks                               Fri.    2/17/12

Library day                                                    Wed. 2/22/12

Bibliography containing all sources                   Thurs 2/23/12

First 30 notecards                                          Wed  2/29/12

Second 30 notecards                                      Mon  3/5/12

Finished Project                                             Monday 3/12/12

To see Mrs. McLean's presentation for Honors Government, click on this link.

The Berkeley online database username/password list for remote access is available using Edline. Select Cone Library - UD from the contents section. You will then see the word document containing the complete username/password list in contents.