18 Nov CURRENT EVENT ESSAY

Find any current and specific issue, story, or event that is occurring or has recently

occurred since the start of the year and is focused on the U.S. federal government. You

could write about a proposal or legislation in Congress, a presidential initiative or action,

an administrative decision or action, a follow-up event related to the 2020 elections, a recent

federal court ruling, a foreign policy story or other interesting national government story

that has very recently been in the news.

· YOU’RE STRONGLY ADVISED NOT TO CHOOSE COVID-19 as a topic. Papers that

cover the history and spread of the pandemic will not earn credit. Remember, this is a

government class, so your paper has to have a government topic. If you decide to take on

COVID-19, then you must write ONLY about the government angle, such as very recent

actions of the Congress, the president, the Federal Reserve Board or a federal

government agency, like the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). If you have any questions or

concerns about whether your topic will work for this assignment, email me BEFORE you write

it.

EXAMPLES:

– Presidential executive orders or actions, such as immigration, military, trade, travel or

foreign policy decisions

– Election news, such as a 2021 story that resulted from last year’s federal elections.

– Administrative news from a department of the federal government, such as a new drug

or medical device recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

– Current legislation that has moved or is moving through Congress in 2021.

– International news and U.S. Government involvement in it.

· DO NOT cover a state- or local-level issue or a non-government topic area, unless it has a

strong national government angle and you can show a specific and direct connection to the

national government. DO NOT write about a broad topic, such as COVID-19, global warming, 

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stem-cell research, immigration, gun control or gasoline prices. You must find a story that is

narrowly focused, specific, current and governmental or political in nature.

· Use the Internet, electronic databases, search engines, journals, newspapers, magazines,

etc. to research the topic. Be sure to obtain your information from legitimate, objective and

scholarly sources, and provide research from at least three sources in your essay. You may

find that news sites (such as National Public Radio) provide you with the best start. Avoid

obtaining information from biased sources, such as interest group websites, and do not use

biased or opinionated information as fact.

· Provide a detailed summary of your topic and be sure to UPDATE it as much as possible

by using the most current research available. You must have up-to-date, 2021 research.

Make it interesting for your reader!

· Explain the significance of your topic in the context of your overall study of American

Government. You must tie in/connect your topic to information learned in class and from our

reading materials. Where possible, you should incorporate specific information from our class

readings and Blackboard Lessons when explaining the topic. Your grade will be largely

based on your ability to connect the topic to what you have learned in this class.

· Provide your personal opinion about and analysis of the topic. What do you think about

it? Why did you choose this particular topic to write about? What is so interesting about it?

· Any information obtained from a source must be parenthetically cited in your essay, and

you must include a Works Cited or References page at the end of the paper. Avoid even the

appearance of plagiarism.

· Do your own, original work. Do not submit the same paper to two or more instructors or

submit a paper previously prepared for another course without first discussing the matter with

all instructors involved. Since you may have to verify your paper’s authenticity and/or

authorship, you should save all of your notes, rough drafts, materials used in preparation of

the paper, copies of sources, etc. until the paper is graded.

· Your paper must be at least 1000 WORDS, typed via computer, double-spaced, and in a

standard size (10 – 12 point) type. It should be free of grammatical and style errors. Be sure

to save your file as a Word document (ending with a .doc or .docx extension) or in Rich Text

format (ending with an .rtf extension) before uploading it.

· Turn in your essay electronically no later than the designated deadline at 11:55 p.m. by

uploading your document to the assignment area of the course site. No submittals are

accepted after this deadline, regardless of the reason, and no essays are accepted via email,

hard copy, fax or any other method.

· This assignment is worth a maximum of 30 extra-credit points toward your overall total for

the course.

A paper that lacks any of these items, does not follow the proper format or is not

submitted correctly will not earn credit. Papers are not accepted late or by email.