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UNION COUNTY COLLEGE FALL SEMESTER 2008 GENERAL INFORMATION: General information about this course, classroom behavior, and similar matters are discussed on a separate WEB page called Gen Info Fall 2008. This material is part of this syllabus and you should print it out for future reference.TEXTS: Schmidt, Steffen W., Mack C. Shelley II, and Barbara A. Bardes, There is a WEB page associated with this textbook at http://www.thomsonedu.com/politicalscience/schmidt
ASSIGNMENTS: Read the assignments listed below. You should keep up with the class lectures and have mastered the material before your schedules exams.. You may be tested on all material in the reading assignments, whether it was specifically covered in class lectures or not. In addition to the assignments in your Schmidt text, you are expected to keep up-to-date with current events. Watch The News Hour with Jim Lehrer or BBC World News. Read a daily newspaper. The New York Times or the Wall Street Journal make excellent sources. Weekly newsmagazines like Newsweek, Time, and US News and World Report provide excellent political updates on each week's events. You might also check the News Page on Google or some other Web server. Being up-to-date on current events is part of this course. Quizzes may be given. Term Paper Outline is Due: Thursday, September 18 Term Paper is Due: Tuesday, December 2 Last Late Withdrawal Date with Permission of Instructor: Tuesday, December 2 Syllabus I: Political Institutions FIRST HOURLY EXAMINATION: Thursday, October 2 II: Public Policy SECOND HOURLY EXAMINATION: Thursday, November 4 III: The Judicial Subsystem THIRD HOURLY EXAMINATION: Thursday, December 9 FINAL EXAMINATION IS GIVEN DURING THE FINAL EXAMINATION WEEK FROM Date to be announced. THE FINAL EXAM IS COMPREHENSIVE. IT HAS BOTH OBJECTIVE AND ESSAY PARTS. THE ESSAY PART EMPHASIZES MATERIAL COVERED SINCE THE SECOND HOURLY EXAMINATION. THE MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS ARE DRAWN FROM ALL THE CHAPTERS OF THE TEXT.
GRADING POLICY: Only the two highest grades of the three scheduled exam grades will be counted. There are no make ups in this course. There is no extra credit work. TWO HOURLY EXAMS -- 40% TERM PAPER -- 20% ATTENDANCE AND QUIZZES -- 10% FINAL EXAM
-- 30% COURSE GRADE -- 100%
TERM PAPER INFORMATION INFORMATION LITERACY: All students at Union County College are expected to become "information literate" before they graduate and all college-credit courses are expected to have an information literacy component. "Information literacy" requires that you can do research on any topic assigned using the library, online data bases, and the internet. It requires that you can distinguish facts from opinions, reputable sources from propaganda, primary sources and secondary sources, and much more. It also requires that you can do a bibliography. The end product of research is usually a term paper or article. American Government is considered to be a Sophomore-level course and you are expected to write a term paper. Please check out the Information Literacy Pages on my Web site for additional information on how to do research, do a bibliography, and write your term paper. TERM PAPER: This course requires a research paper, 11 - 19 pages in length, typed with footnotes and a bibliography using the Turabian format. Please submit TWO typed copies, the original and a photocopy. The original will be returned with comments; the copy will be retained by the instructor. If only one copy of your paper is received, it will be graded but not returned.
TERM PAPER TOPIC: Select one of the major campaign issues raised by either or both of the Presidential candidates in the 2008 Presidential Election Campaign. Link the issue to the current public policies in place. Your topic MUST BE APPROVED IN ADVANCE by the instructor. One topic per student. PAPER OUTLINE DUE DATE: After initial approval, a short one to two page OUTLINE, typed, and a short BIBLIOGRAPHY (five entries), using the Turabian Format must be submitted by THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 . TERM PAPER DUE DATE: TUESDAY, December 2 . PLAGIARISM: Plagiarism is a deadly sin and will lead you straight to hell. It is defined in the Student Handbook . It can easily be avoided by using quotation marks or paraphrasing AND then footnoting (giving credit) to the source of the information. Please guard against this kind of cheating.
Updated September 2, 2008 |