Each student will submit a 4-6 page research paper on either a piece of legislation, an executive order, or a Supreme Court case, enacted or decided since 2000 by the US federal government. The tool of policy that you chose must be active, meaning that it is a law that has been passed and is currently enforced, it is an executive order that has not been rescinded, or it is a Supreme Court case that has been decided and not overturned. Students will use this paper to analyze the example of governmental power/action of their choice by explaining the action to the best of their understanding and then putting the issue in context of the broader scope of government .For starters, ask yourself, what does this action say about the power of the branch? How does it affect the power of the branch as given by the Constitution? How does this action affect the relationship between the acting branch and the other branches? Use these questions as a basis for your paper but expand on these ideas from there. Analysis is based on data and facts, not suppositions. Challenge yourself to present statistics or scholarly evidence to back up your analysis.

For this paper, students may only use scholarly, peer reviewed sources or governmental documents. You may access research databases, through the Lone Star College Library, such as JSTOR or Lexis Nexis for material that can help you develop the analysis as sociated with this paper and the websites of the US House of Representatives, US Senate, White House, or US Supreme Court to help you determine your topic. For Supreme Court cases, I would encourage you to use law reviews, such as those published by Duke or Harvard. Content that is derived from outside sources will take points away from the analysis component of the grading rubric. Please remember that this is a research paper and not an argumentative or opinion paper. Prior approval is highly recommended, though not necessary. Neglecting prior approval may result in pointsdeducted should your paper topic not meet the syllabus’ listed requirements. The analysis portion of this paper relies heavily on your initial to pic being correctly chosen. For instance, you cannot analyze a law that has not yet been enacted. If you choose an incorrect subject you will not only lose points for the topic but also the analysis portion of the rubric. All submitted papers will be checked for originality through Turnitin.com.Points will be deducted from the paper’s final grade as the percentage of the overall work that matches to outside sources increases. Turnitin.com marks not only in text content but also citations that can be found in other sources. Matching citations will not be counted against the student, but matching in text content will. If you submit original work with proper citations, you will not have a problem. I am available for notes and feedback on a rough draft of this paper. All rough drafts must be emailed to me by Monday, November 12@ 12:00pm (noon) in order to be considered. Students will not receive feedback for papers received after this date and time.

Format: -Submitted as a .doc or .docx file ONLY

– Double spaced – 12 pt Arial or Times New Roman font

– 1 inch margins – Page numbers

– Cover page, with student information, and bibliography are not included in the overall page limits

-Citations must appear as in text citations and in a bibliography page

-You must have a minimum of 2 sources

-from scholarly, peer reviewed sources or government sources only

___________________________________________________________

I've posted a sample Research Paper in D2L (D2l -> Content -> Supplemental Materials -> `Research Paper EXAMPLE-Fd'). In it, I write over a page worth of notes commenting on both the example and the assignment in general. One thing I emphasize there that I wish to emphasize here is: I want to see you analyze your chosen instrument of policy. I do not want to see a paper of only its description or (worse) your opinion. Please do not subject me to a half-baked editorial on some aspect of the so-called `culture war' or your love/hatred for [insert politician and/or political party here]. This is a course about Federal government, not on how to become a professional, predictable, partisan pundit.

Your key to doing well on this assignment is communication with me. You should be picking out your topic (see the syllabus) and sending it to me for approval. If you're having trouble, send me emails for advice/suggestions. Try to at least send me an outline of your paper by Monday, Nov. 12 @ 12pm (noon) so I can provide you feedback. Also, definitely communicate with me throughout your writing process, as I'm happy to answer any questions you have. How well you do depends entirely on how much effort you put into it. If you get a grade below a high B, then it's probably because you waited to the last minute and threw some words together on a Word document.

If anyone has any questions about anything, please let me know.