Research Paper Instructions

The purpose of this paper is to provide practical application of material learned by developing concepts learned in the presentations. The body of the paper must be at least 6 pages (double spaced, 12-point font) and include level 1, 2, and 3 headings as appropriate and necessary. In addition to the body, you must include a separate title page and reference page. Do not submit an abstract with this assignment.

Do not write the paper without carefully studying the related presentations. To achieve more than a passing grade, you must demonstrate a mastery of the presentations and factual information and incorporate those ideas into your paper. Naturally, stylistic points such as grammar and spelling will be considered in grading. Your paper must adhere to current APA format. Doing the minimum amount of work does not guarantee a perfect score.

Topic: Becoming an Informed Voter Researching Your Congressional Delegation

The research paper has 2 steps. First, you will analyze the background of your congressional district and your U.S. Representative. Second, you will analyze the political background of your state and 1 of your U.S. Senators. You may choose which senator to study; however, if one senator is newly elected and does not have interest group ratings, study the other one. Note that these are United States Representatives and Senators. Do not use members of your state legislature.

The first part will deal with your congressional district and congressman; the second part will deal with your state and senator. Interest group scores may be found at Vote Smart Links to an external site..

Document to properly format this essay as you will be required to use formal writing with level 1, 2, and 3 headings as necessary to address and elaborate on each of the following questions in paragraph form:

What is the recent political history of your district and state?
How has your state and congressional district voted in recent presidential and congressional elections?
Can your district or state be considered to be leaning Republican or Democrat?
Are the political parties relatively even, or does one party dominate the elections?
Does your district have a long tradition of supporting one party, or has it been changing in recent years?
How did your representative and senator come to power? (Thoroughly describe their backgrounds.)
How do the interest groups (ADA, ACLU, ACU, CC or FRC) rate your representative and senator? (Note: If the Christian Coalition score is not available, you may substitute the Family Research Council score. Include the exact scores from each of these groups. The rationale for this is explained in the presentation.)
Based on these ratings, would you classify your representative and senator as conservative or liberal? Justify your answer.

Do not submit your paper in the form of a series of questions and answers. Organize this information into a standard research paper (paragraph form with level headings) utilizing APA format. Consult the grading rubric to make sure that all the necessary information has been included.

Research Paper Grading Rubric

Element

Criteria

Points Possible

Points Earned

Content

Recent political background of the congressional district is given.

0 to 30 points

Political background of the U.S. Representative is given.

0 to 30 points

Required interest group scores (ADA, ACLU, ACU, CC, or FRC) for the U.S. Representative or Senator are given.

0 to 30 points

Recent political background of the state is given.

0 to 30 points

Political background of the U.S. Senator is given.

0 to 30 points

Required interest group scores (ADA, ACLU, ACU, CC or FRC) for the U.S. Senator are given.

0 to 30 points

Analysis

      Identification of U.S. Representatives voting record as liberal or conservative based on scores is given.

      Identification of U.S. Senators voting record as liberal or conservative based on scores is given.

0 to 15 points

Length

      Paper meets the length requirement of at least 6 body pages.

      Paper includes a title page and reference page that adhere to APA format.

0 to 15 points

Materials/ Sources

0 to 10 points

      Sources are given and cited according to APA format.

0 to 15 points

Structure

    Questions are answered using formal writing with level 1, 2, and 3 headings as necessary to address and elaborate on each of the specified questions in paragraph form.

    Transitions are clear.

    Treatment of the topic is logically oriented.

0 to 15 points

Style

    Paper correctly adheres to APA format.

    Paper is without spelling and grammatical errors.

0 to 10 points