1. Role as seminar discussion leader, class participation and
complete (and timely) submission of discussion
questions 20%
2. Book review 20% (Due Dec. 7) See Instructions
3. Analytical essay or website (25%) (Due Oct. 26)
4. Final Comprehensive takes home Exam (35%) given out Dec.
7 and due on Dec.14
In order to receive an INCOMPLETE in the class all requirements must be fulfilled
before the end of the semester except the last essay.
E-MAIL: All students are required to have e-mail
accounts. If you do not have an e-mail account you may acquire one from the university. I
will demonstrate the basic uses of e-mail on the first day of class.
The assignments for each week include a set of common readings. At least one and often
two students will be assigned as discussion leaders to present arguments and engage the
discussion with the rest of the class. It is imperative that class members complete
the assigned readings prior to each class session and arrive in class prepared to discuss
them. Each discussion leader is required to forward to the instructor two discussion
questions no later than 6 PM on Sunday evening prior to the Tues. evening class
before the class discussion of a topic. Each class member is required to consider the
questions in the "discussion section" of the online class syllabus prior to
coming to class by posting comments online for discussion purposes
Students will be required to write one book review (1300-2000 words) on Friedman, Lexis
and the Olive and one analytical essay (2500-4000 words -see instructions below)
based on the assigned readings. There will be a take home comprehensive exam. For the book
review look at any recent issue of the American Political Science Review as your
guide for writing. The final grade will be based on these three projects and class
participation as evidenced in your role as discussion leader and as class participant.
The analytical essay will focus on some topic relevant to the study of American
politics. It is expected that the essay will review and critique the research in a
particular area, with special attention paid to how faithfully the literature "maps
onto" the theory underlying it, and how directly it addresses issues of concern to
political science. The paper will therefore discuss shortcomings of the current
literature, and present either a) broad guidelines for future research in the area, or b)
a specific proposal for research on some aspect of American politics. As an alternative to
the analytical essay you may construct a web site on some item related to this course. The
web site would need to contain some original or value-added material as well as links to
other related sites.
A set of supplementary readings is suggested after each topic. Often the supplementary
readings involve topical and, to some extent more popular writings while the common
readings focus on traditional political science materials in each subfield. You may find
these readings helpful for your analytical essays. Regular attendance at class meetings is
essential since the seminar discussion will focus on a much broader range of ideas than is
taken up in the common set of readings.
