TEXT: 

O’Connor, Karen and Sabato, Larry. 2004.  American Government: Continuity and Change. New York: Longman Publisher.

Other Reading Material: 

WASHINGTON POST (You should plan to read a copy of the Post on a regular basis. There are other good newspapers, however, the Post focuses considerable "analytical" attention on the National government.)

TV NEWS PROGRAMS (To supplement your reading try to watch any one or all three of the following news programs: Washington Week in Review (Friday 8:00-8:30. ch 26;Inside Washington, Sat. 7:00-7:30 ch 9; McLaughlin Group, Sat. 7:30-8:00. ch 4) 

OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE: 

This course is an introduction to the structures and processes of American national government and politics.  By the end of the semester it is expected that students will be able to identify and  discuss:

-- the basic documents of American government especially  
                                         the U.S. Constitution  
                    -- the three branches of government; the ways they  
                             share power; how those relationships have changed;  
                    – the rights and duties of citizenship;  
                    -- the fundamental problems facing American government:  
                    – current issues and how they are being resolved.  

The course is designed to expose students to political processes and realities through a discussion of current national events. Theory and practice are underlying themes for this course.

REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION:  

Each student is expected to read the assigned material and be prepared to participate in class discussion. 

Course Requirements:
 

Exam I                   Thurs., Feb. 26, 2004         20% total grade          100 pts

Exam II                   Thurs, April 15, 2004        20% total grade         100 pts

Short Paper            Thurs, May 6, 2004           20% total grade          100 pts

Final Exam              Thurs, May 13, 2004        20% total grade          100 pts
                                         10:15 - 12:15. 
                                         LI 200 

NOTE: April 2, 2004 is last day to withdraw with a grade of W or to change to/from Pass to C-/D/F or audit grading. 

General Format for Midterms and Final: 

 1/4 - multiple choice
           l/4 - sentence completion
           l/4 - short answers
           l/4 - essay**
**At least one essay will be based on an article from the Washington Post which will be xeroxed and attached to the exam. Students should read the paper on a regular basis and familiar with the format and vocabulary so that you will not need to spend a lot of time during the exams reading and rereading the article.   

Students are expected to take all the exams. NO MAKE‑UP EXAMS WILL BE GIVEN. If a student misses a scheduled exam and has a valid reason and a written excuse [e.g. illness, accident, death etc] he or she will have the final exam which is cumulative doubled.

 Students who miss an exam without a valid reason will receive a zero for that exam.
Any student with a handicapping problem should consult the instructor at the beginning of the semester to make arrangements for alternative examinations. 

FINAL EXAM ‑‑ THE FINAL EXAM  IS CUMULATIVE. IT WILL COVER THE ENTIRE COURSE. ALL THE READING MATERIAL, LECTURE MATERIAL, VIDEO, ETC.                     

PAPER: 

Write an 8 page paper comparing and contrasting two member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the same state. You may choose any state except a state which only has one representative (yes there are a few of these). Although Maryland will be the easiest from which to  get information, last semester I had a lot of students from New York and New Jersey, and, quite frankly, I found reading about representatives from states other than Maryland to be very enjoyable. (Hint!Hint!)  You may pick members from different political parties or the same party and analyze the following:

–background and demographics of member;
                      –issues they are concerned with;
                      –district demographics and geography;
                      –committee assignments and leadership responsibilities;
                      –2002 election campaign and strategy;
                      --2004 strategy if they have developed one;
                     –anything else you think is relevant. 

All members of the U.S. House of Representatives are up for reelection ever two years in November.  All members of the House will be up for election in November of 2004. Some, depending on how long they have been in office, may  have already started campaigning. We had an election in November of 2002 which used the newly drawn district lines. How did your representative do when his/her district lines were redrawn so that each of the 435 congressional districts have approximately the same number of citizens.

Your paper should help you  understanding the election process in the U.S. as well as how Congress operates.  Your analysis MUST (not should, MUST) include some discussion of the theories found in our text. Of course, daily reading of the Washington Post will also give you many ideas as well as feature stories on some of the members. 

All Papers: 

Papers must be typed, double spaced with margins of no more than one inch

[top, left, right, and bottom]. All pages must be numbered. Use standard fonts (i.e., no stretching text with extra large or extra wide fonts). All papers must be properly cited using using APA format. There are many electronic sources to help your put your citations in this form. See  http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html. Or our very own Cook Library is a great source, see:  http://cooklibrary.towson.edu/infotutor/citing/citing1.cfm. Also Cook Library has some hard copy handouts of citation forms. Please see me if, after examining the above web sites, you do not understand how to cite sources using APA format.

You must use at least 8 citations using 4 different sources. All the sources may NOT be from the internet.  So this means that the Washington Post is 1 source and although you can cite it more than once you must use 3 other, different source e.g. books, journal articles, news programs, interview with the member or their staff, data off the internet etc.

If a source has both a hard copy and an internet version, you may choose where to put it. But you can only count  the source once. 

Late papers will be marked down 10 points per day beginning at 6:00 p.m. on the day the paper is due.
Also: -- 5 misspelled or mistyped works = 5 points off
             no page numbers =                       5 points off
             no title page =                               5 points off

You are expected to proofread and edit your paper before turning it in. 

GRADING:  

Grading is on a numerical curve and plus and minus is used . The student who earns the highest number of points out of the total number of points possible will receive an A.  Students will receive points for each exam and the short paper. No letter grades are kept by the instructor. It is only at the end of the semester when all the assigned work is completed and the points totaled that a final class curve is calculated and a letter grade assigned. However, after each midterm and the paper  the instructor will let students know how they are doing relative to the rest of the class by creating a hypothetical letter grade for numerical distributions.   

PLAGIARISM:  

Any student found plagiarizing [copying, paraphrasing, taking ideas from a book, magazine, newspaper or any other published or unpublished source] without properly citing the source will receive an "F" for the ENTIRE COURSE. For more detailed discussion of plagiarism see [http://www.towson.edu/~sara/plagiarism.htm]

CHEATING ON EXAMS:    

Any student found cheating on his or her exam will receive a grade of "F" for the ENTIRE COURSE. By cheating I mean passing notes to other students, using or looking at study notes or crib notes, talking to others during exams, and looking at and/or copying from a colleagues paper with or without their permission.  Moreover, any student who sees someone cheating during an exam should report this to the instructor immediately. Remember your grade is based on how well YOU do.

CLASS ATTENDANCE:  

I have no mandatory policy on class attendance. I do not take roll. However, I do get to know students by sight and even name (especially if you come to class regularly). Over the years I have found, and perhaps you have observed the same thing, that students who miss a lot of classes, do poorly on exams.   

CLASS BEHAVIOR:  

Please try to be courteous and thoughtful. In this class, as in society, we must balance the needs/desires of the individual with the needs/desires of the class.  Eating, walking in and out of class, coming to class late, leaving class early and other such behaviors make it hard for your classmates to learn and for the instructor to teach. 

 PLEASE turn your beepers and cell phones on low – or better yet turn them off.

 

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