Essay on civil liberties, civil rights, and powers of the president.

Students are required to submit one written assignment in the course of the semester. The expected content of the assignment is set forth below. The written essays must be submitted electronically by the student into the course Safe Assign system. Only Word format is accepted by the system. The written assignment is due no later than the date and time set forth on the course schedule. Absolutely no late papers will be accepted.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Students are NOT allowed to submit papers they have written for any other course including written assignments and papers submitted in POLS 2301. If a student is retaking POLS 2302 for a grade replacement, the student is NOT allowed to submit a paper previously submitted in any POLS 2302 course or any other course. Submission of a paper previously submitted by you or any other student in any other course will appear in SafeAssign and be considered by the instructor to be plagiarized. A paper submitted in this course – written by the student or any other person – that appears in any other course will result in an assignment score of zero. Your name and work will be submitted into a permanent file marked “plagiarism” and may be used by the instructor or subsequent instructors for evidence of one-time or repeated plagiarism and may be used as evidence of academic dishonesty resulting in expulsion from Lamar University. Your name and the plagiarized assignment will be submitted for permanent record with the Office of the Dean of Students.

· Your essay must include a title page containing your name, POLS 2302, Written Assignment (with an essay title), semester, and the date of your submission of the assignment through Safe Assign. (The title page is not included as a numbered page and your essay should meet the page number requirement exclusive of the cover page.) Failure to include a title/cover page will result in an automatic score of a zero on the written assignment.

· The written assignment MUST be uploaded as ONE document (title page, essay, works cited should all be in the SAME document). Students can find the link to submit their written assignment by clicking the “Written Assignment” tab in the left-hand column of the course, then clicking “Term Paper Submission.” Students may NOT submit the assignment via email inside or outside the course Blackboard system. Students may not cut and paste essays into the assignment window – the assignment MUST be uploaded as a WORD document and MUST be in ONE file. Do NOT upload more than one written assignment document. The system will only allow you to select ONE file, so make sure that file is the combined cover page, paper, AND bibliography. Assignments uploaded in any format other than WORD, such as a PDF, RTF, ZIP, etc., will automatically receive an overall assignment score of zero. Assignments submitted only via email will automatically receive a zero as will assignments submitted outside of Safe Assign. In summary, you MUST submit your paper:

1. As one complete paper (no separate submissions of title pages or bibliographies);

2. In Word format (no zip files, PDF, RTF or other forms of submission);

3. As an uploaded document from your computer; with the box checked for your

agreement to submit your paper to the Global Reference Database;

4. No later than the date and time indicated on the course schedule. Absolutely NO late

paper submissions will be accepted.

5. WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS ARE DUE BY 11:59 P.M. ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2020

You should note that the assignment folder closes precisely at 11:59 p.m. Submissions submitted at 11:59.1 will be rejected by the system, registered as a late submission, and result in an assignment score of zero.

The written assignment will be used to access the Critical Thinking and Communication Skills Learning Outcome core curriculum requirements of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). A copy of the assessment rubric designed to satisfy THECB requirements is provided by clicking on the assignment in Blackboard. Once you click on the actual assignment, you will be able to review the rubric. The rubric used to grade the assignment is based on a 100-point scale. The rubric may be found under the “Resources” tab in Blackboard.

Write a three-to-five page essay containing the following:

1. An introductory paragraph containing a brief description of three subject areas studied this semester that you found most interesting and/or informative, and a statement about a contemporary political problem or issue related to the course that will be discussed in greater detail later in the paper.

2. Discussion of the three subject areas identified in your introduction. Citations and specific academic information gained from the course MUST be provided in both the body of the text and in the bibliography. The three subject areas you discuss MUST be from POLS 2302 and cannot be topics studied in POLS 2301 (i.e., parties, the media, interest groups, elections). Subject areas should focus on topics listed in the syllabus. In POLS 2302, one of your topic areas should be one of the three branches of American government. Note that your three subject areas must be distinct. In other words, you cannot

write on three cases studied in civil rights. Rather, one topic may be civil rights and various cases examined in the subject area may be used to communicate your knowledge of the topic.

An example of a proper in-text citation is: (Davis, p. 18, 2018). An example of a proper citation in your Works Cited page is: Davis, Terri and James P. Nelson, The Texas Constitution: The People, History, and Government of the Lone Star State, Lamar Literary Press, 2017. An example of in-text citation of the instructor’s video lecture is: (Davis, “The Federal Judiciary”) with citation also provided in the Works Cited section. Failure to provide in-text citations will result in major point deductions in the grammar section of the assignment rubric.

3. Identify, discuss and describe a specific contemporary political problem related to one or more of the subjects examined in POLS 2302.

4. Construct and communicate a solution to the problem you identified (above). Make sure to develop and express your solution in the form of an argument that is supported by well-documented and properly cited facts and data. A good paper will have at least 3-5 scholarly sources in addition to the course textbook(s) and course videos.

Note: The topics studied in Module 4 including the Texas Constitution and Texas government may not be one of the three topics you select for written assignment discussion. Discussion of a Module 4 topic will result in an automatic 20-point deduction in your written assignment grade.

Correct grammar, capitalization, punctuation, complete sentences, and CITATION of your sources is required. Textbook readings with page numbers (or chapter headings and subheadings for digital textbooks without page numbers) and textbook citation; lectures or video instruction (title and presenter/author of the video); and outside scholarly research must be included in your assignment.

Wikipedia/Encyclopedia/Dictionary/Spark Notes and other similar sources are NOT allowed and will result in an assignment score of zero. Failure to submit the assignment by the deadline will result in a grade of zero for the overall written assignment grade. Citations must be provided in both the body of your essay and in a “Works Cited” section at the conclusion of your essay. Also note that references to court cases must be italicized (Brown v. Board of Education) or underlined (Brown v. Board of Education). If you are using internet citations, you MUST include the FULL URL, title, author (if available) and access date.

Your written assignment should be typed and double spaced with 12-point font and one-inch margins top, bottom, and side. Political Science as a field has adopted the APSA Manual of Style; however, you are free to use the citation style adopted by your major department or the style used in your English composition courses (MLA or other style). Regardless of citation style, all sources must be properly, thoroughly, and consistently cited. When citing a URL, you must have the full URL, title, author, date of publication, and access date. Careful attention to grammar, spelling, and the mechanics of presentation is expected. Wikipedia is not a reliable source of information. Any citation of Wikipedia, Dictionary.com (or any Dictionary related website), E-Encyclopedia (or any Encyclopedia website), american-historama.org, Ask.com, bensguide.gpo.gov, biography.com, Cliff Notes, Collegeamericangovernment.org, ConstitutionalCenter.org, Constitutionfacts.com, Constitutionlaws.com, Constitutionus.com, Constitutionweekusa.com, gunlaws.com, history.com, judiciallearningcenter.org, infoplease.com, legaldictionary.net, legallanguage.com, nationalparalegal.edu, presidentialsystem.org, procon.org, Quimbee.com, quotationspage.com, Reference.com, scholastic.com, Shmoop.com, Socialstudieshelp.com, Softschools.com, Spark Notes, Study.com, thepoliticalguide.com, thoughtco.com, totallyhistory.com, USA.gov, USconstitution.net,

UShistory.org, UShistoryscene.com, USlegal.com, The Bible, Vocabulary.com, youtube.com, Major Motion Pictures/Netflix Shows or TV series, Book Reviews, or anything similar in a term paper or other assignment in this course will result in an automatic score of 0 (zero) on the assignment.

Scholarly resources would include journal articles, books, and objective news organization websites. Scholarly sources are REQUIRED for this paper, you need 3-5 sources BEYOND your textbook, lectures, etc. Remember, your sources should support the points in your paper.

Carefully read the Course Management Policies, “Academic Honesty Statement” for additional guidelines for your written assignments. Any cut and paste, plagiarized, or Wiki cited posts or papers will result in an automatic grade of zero for the overall assignment and possible expulsion from the course and Lamar University. NO late papers will be accepted! Students have ONLY one chance to upload papers to Safe Assign and the version that is uploaded is the version that will be graded.