United States Government (Essay Sample)

2186290 Topic category United States Government

Work type: Writing
Deadline 31 May - 4 PM Title Annotated research and bibliography
Number of sources 3
Number of pages 4 Paper format APA
Course level
Type of service Research paper
Title page 1
Paper details
Annotated Research Bib. Guidelines
Introduction
This project is a mandatory component of this course. It serves as the standard course assessment for all students. Failure to submit this project in its entirety will result in a failing grade for the course. There are two steps to completing this project.
Step 1 : Identify an institution or policy of the US government that could be improved.
Step 2 : Critically annotate three scholarly research articles or books that address your suggested improvement.
Each of these steps is detailed below. The grading standards that will be used to assess your work on this project will be detailed in a Research Project Grading Rubric, which will be provided during the semester.
It is strongly suggested that each student use the library database during the first week of the course to begin researching a topic. This project requires carefully planning in advance of the deadline. Refer to the course calendar for the specific due date. The final product is to be submitted as a single file via the submission guidelines identified by your instructor.
NOTE: Procrastination on this project has resulted in many students, who were otherwise passing, having to fail and repeat the course.
Step 1 - The Research Question
Identify an institution or policy of the US government that could be improved.
A. Write a paragraph introduction to your policy / institutional recommendation.
B. Discuss what changes you would recommend, why you would recommend them, and any additional information you feel supports the recommendation.
C. Develop a specific question of personal interest to you. There are many institutions or policies that one could study. The examples below may not be used for this assignment. Note that each topic has a major question (around a specific topic) and several related sub-questions.
Examples:
· Would term limits for members of Congress make that body more "representative" than it currently is? If so, what specific time span (limit) would be appropriate and how would you address objections that term limits weaken Congress relative to the executive branch and interest groups? If not, what else could or should be done to address the "insider mentality" of long-serving Congressional leaders. (Chapter 6)
· Does the President now have too much power to "make war?" What is the Constitutional framework and how do more recent innovations such as the War Powers Resolution impact the Presidency? Does the President's relationship to Congress, the military, and the media add or limit war powers? How have these developments impacted recent military conflicts? (Chapter 9)
Please writer choose any of the following topics to write the paper- Research on the economic policy or the social welfare policy using the example above and how it can be improved
Your central research question should address the theme of institutional or policy reform. Your question should be a "why" statement seeking an explanation of a social phenomenon, rather than a "what", "when", or "where" statement that merely seeks a description of a phenomenon. Your question should be consistent with the general topics covered in this course (see the syllabus for topic headings).
Your research statement should pose a question in such a way that there are three or more alternative outcomes or answers to it. A major purpose of your research paper is to gather evidence for and against each possible answer or outcome.
Step 2 - Critical Annotation Guidelines
Provide a list of three scholarly research sources in the form of a critical annotation. The purpose of an annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the source and how it applies to your suggested policy or institutional improvement.
A critical annotation has two parts. First, each citation is followed by a brief, descriptive, and evaluative paragraph or two. Second, the citation is used address the policy/institutional recommendation from Step 1. This stage of the critical annotation asks the following questions: How does this source apply to my recommendation? Is it relevant? Is it accurate? Does it support my recommendation? Refute it? Raise additional questions?
The purpose of this project is for you to demonstrate your understanding of the material not to summarize it. Again, the final product is not to be a book report.
Find three high-quality reference materials (journal articles, books, government publications, court cases, laws, etc) using APA or MLA format.
· Your sources must be no more than ten years old, a minimum of five pages in length, and should meet the standards of college level material. Carefully choose those works that provide a variety of perspectives on your topic.
· Newspaper articles, magazine articles, textbooks and items of the like are considered "supplemental sources" on the collegiate level and are not quality research materials.
· Dictionaries, Encyclopedias (including Wikipedia), Almanacs, or an Atlas are reference materials and should not be listed in any bibliography on the collegiate level.
· Provide the formal citation for each item as the title for each new article. Each new entry should begin on a new page.
Each annotation must consist of the following elements:
· An evaluation of the authority or background of the author.
· A discussion around the logic of the arguments made and a critique of the author's position.
· Compare or contrast this work with prior knowledge or other cited materials. If you look up additional information to help you with the annotation, be sure to properly document it in the body of your annotation and on the works cited page.
· Most importantly, the majority of your writing should explain how the work addresses your research.
· Each annotated article must be 1.5 - 2 full pages in length. No more and no less is necessary for an annotation. The point is to summarize its central theme, scope and relevance.
The minimum writing requirement for the annotated bibliography is 1.5-2 full pages per annotation . Failure to meet the minimum writing requirement for each article will result in a zero for the entire assignment (no partial credit as this is a course level assessment).
Add a cover page at the front of the document and a bibliography at the end if you used sources in addition to the three required. If you only reference and discuss the three required sources, you do not have to...