Cornell College - Department of Poltics

As is the custom in many graduate seminars, you have reading and reporting responsibilities that go beyond the assigned texts. The Course Calendar & Assignments lists discussion topics for each day of the class beginning on Day #2 and concluding on Day #7. When the responsibility has been assigned to you, you are obligated to locate, read, analyze, and share one article in a scholarly journal that is relevant to the day's discussion topic. For a refresher course on identifying scholarly sources, consult A Guide to Accessing Scholarly Resources: Locating Information for Politics-Related Assignments. Each selection must be within the scope of the day's discussion topic and should bear some relationship to the topics covered in the assigned reading from the textbook.

Your grade for this portion of the course will depend upon both what you contribute to the seminar discussion and what you submit in writing. For the discussion your job is

Learn to use the traditional and electronic research tools available in the Cole Library.
Search out recently edited volumes that print or reprint significant articles in areas of interest to our course.
Search out relevant texts which contain notes and/or bibliographies which can help you find relevant reading. Don't ignore the possibilities raised by the citations in your text book.
Avoid selecting articles and books more than five years old unless the specific discussion topic is historical.

GROUP LEADERSHIP ASSIGNMENT:
Panel Presentation of a More Specialized Text

Learning Objectives:

To sample the diversity of scholarship applicable to urban politics.
To develop expertise in a specific area of urban politics.
To work effectively as part of a group in pursuit of a group goal.
To communicate your expertise effectively to the larger group in a multimedia presentation.

Assignment:

During the second and third weeks of the course, panels of students will share their knowledge the books listed as supplementary texts for this course and briefly described there. For the schedule of presentations consult Course Calendar & Assignments.

Preparation:

On the first day of class students will be assigned to one of the panels.

The resulting groups will have leadership responsibility for the corresponding class meetings.
Each panel will need to meet regularly to plan and prepare its presentation. It is up to your group how often and when you meet. I appreciate that students often like to meet at 3:00 a.m. However, to assure that there are times when each group member will be available, I have reserved the hours from 9 to 11 each morning prior to the presentations for your group meetings.
Prior to your presentation (see Course Calendar & Assignments) your group will meet with me in the classroom. At that time, I will want you to show me your slides and explain what you will be doing and how. You should be completely ready to make your report prior to that meeting.
Prior to your meeting with me (see Course Calendar & Assignments) your group will e-mail me two thoughtful assignments/questions, suitable for use in an essay-style examination. Each assignment/question should allow respondents to engage intellectually with the central messages or core concepts from your book. Of course, it is your obligation to present those central messages or core concepts effectively to the class. Indeed, I hope that being required as a group to formulate questions/assignments about your presentation will help you to think more clearly and carefully about what is important and how it should be presented.

Things to think about:

Your fellow students have not read the book upon which you are reporting. They are your target audience. It follows that you must take special care not to lose the forest among the trees.

Know what the major points are. Can you express the book's thesis in a few clear sentences? Can you reduce the book's substance to three to seven major lessons?
Emphasize the major points in the introduction, body, and conclusion of your report. In other words, preview the report at the beginning and review it at the end. "Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em. Then tell 'em. Then tell 'em what you told 'em."
Reinforce the main points and important subordinate points with audiovisual aids wherever appropriate. The use of visual aids will materially affect the ability of your listeners to absorb the points you wish to communicate. We have the benefit of digital projection equipment suitable for PowerPoint presentations, among other things. Take advantage of the technology, but don't make the technology an end in itself. Make sure that the technology reinforces the substance of your presentation rather than distracting your audience from it. See also POLICY PRESENTATION: How to Succeed, which is directed specifically at your individual presentations but contains recommendations about the use of presentations software that are equally valid for your group report.
Be extraordinarily careful about subordination. Does the listener understand why you are reporting what you are reporting? What's the big point to which this lesser point attaches?

Your presentation will obviously require some specialization and division of responsibility, but each member of the panel must have a comprehensive understanding of the the whole book, its parts, and how those parts are integrated. The best way to arrive at that understanding is to read and discuss the book in its entirety before any decisions are made about how to allocate responsibilities for the presentation.
Responsibility for both preparation and presentation should be apportioned in approximately equal shares among members of the group.
Class lasts about two hours. I am reserving the final 15 minutes for a class critique of the reporting panel. That leaves about 1:30 for your report and your responses to the questions of the class if you schedule a break. It follows that your presentation should not exceed an hour if questions are reserved for the end. It should not exceed 1:30 if question opportunities are integrated into the presentation.
Be prepared to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the volume on which you are reporting.
No one wants to listen to you -- or to me for that matter -- for an hour and a half. Develop strategies to involve class members in their learning.
The best way to know that you are properly prepared is to hold a dress rehearsal.

Grading the Panel Presentations:

Grades will be assigned to the entire group. Grades are determined by content and elocution. Strong content depends on knowledge of the subject, clear presentation of main ideas, careful subordination of secondary ideas, explanations and examples, and close attention to logical transition, all supported by good visual aids. Effective elocution depends on your skill in referring to notes, managing the time available, enunciating clearly, speaking with appropriate pace and variety of emphasis, and maintaining effective eye contact with your audience.

INDIVIDUAL PROJECT ASSIGNMENT:
Policy Paper & Presentation

"He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that."
--John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859)

Learning Objectives:

To enhance your knowledge of a specific area of urban policy.
To enhance the class's knowledge of a specific area of urban policy by means of your report.
To improve your knowledge of research methods and materials including government documents and specialized indexes.
To improve your skills in persuasive writing including grammar, punctuation, spelling, mechanics, usage, and documentation using a recognized style sheet.
To improve your writing through your responses to constructive criticism.
To improve your confidence and skill as a public speaker.

Assignment: Your job is to write a policy paper of 2,500 to 3,500 words in length exclusive of abstract, illustrations, notes, bibliography, appendices, etc. Your paper must deal with a significant urban policy question about which you have not previously written a college level paper and which is, or ought to be, on the agenda of American politics at the national, state, or local level. If in doubt, consult.

Public Policy & Policy Papers: A "policy" is regular practice or a clear course of action. (E.g., it is the policy of Cornell College to issue grades once a month.) A "public policy" is any policy adopted by a government. (E.g., it is the policy of the United States to devote gasoline taxes to the highway trust fund.) A "policy paper" is a concise document that recommends a public policy and argues for the adoption of that policy. Your policy paper--and the seminar report, which will be produced from the same materials--will be developed through five stages. The deadlines for each stage are listed on the Course Calendar and Assignments page.

Stage I -- Topic & Bibliography: You must submit an e-mail attachment describing your research topic and presenting a working bibliography for that topic. Your topic is satisfactory if it describes a reasonably discrete area or issue substantially related to the themes of this course. You bibliography is satisfactory if it contains sufficient scholarly or primary sources to assure the viability of research and writing on the chosen topic. You should begin work on this as the course commences. Advanced policy papers are likely draw research material from diverse sources, and you should have already mastered the basics of searching proprietary databases such as EBSCO and LEXIS-NEXIS in Politics 262. Therefore, no formal research instruction has been scheduled for the class as a whole. However, you are strongly encouraged to make us of the specialized research guides available on the Cole Library website and even more strongly encouraged to seek the assistance of our research specialist, Consulting Librarian Mandy Swygart-Hobaugh (Cole 308; 895-4256; aswygart@cornellcollege.edu) as you prepare your bibliography. Be sure that your bibliography conforms to one of the approved style sheets, and label your bibliography to indicate which you are using.

Stage II -- Policy Recommendation & Outline of Contentions: You must submit an e-mail attachment stating your policy recommendation and setting forth an outline of the contentions you intend to make for it. Please note that articulating a good policy recommendation will require you to have already completed much of the research on your chosen topic. The policy recommendation is the paper's thesis. The outline of contentions previews your paper's anticipated structure. Selecting a topic requires only that you identify an area appropriate for inquiry and susceptible to a policy recommendation. Stating a policy recommendation takes you an important step further: you must determine, with some considerable degree of specificity, what policy ought to be adopted with respect to your topic. For example, "public school funding" is a topic. "States should assume all responsibility for funding public schools" is a policy recommendation. Your thesis must state a policy within the legal power of some officer, agency or institution of local, state, or national government in the United States.

This is the point at which trouble most often arises, so before you submit your policy recommendation and contentions, examine them carefully using the criteria set forth in Getting from Topic & Bibliography to Recommendation & Contentions. Before you organize your contentions into an outline, consult A Good Argument Is a Hierarchy of Contentions.

Stage III -- Policy Paper: Your recommendation and supporting arguments will be presented in a formal paper with appropriate manuscript format, proper citations, etc. Remember, you are being asked to take a position and make a case for it. Papers that take a position and argue a case are very common at all levels in law, business, journalism, and government. They may be called briefs (law), decision memoranda (business), editorials (journalism), or policy papers (government). Whatever they are called, good ones have certain characteristics. They are:

Convincing: They state a conclusion and back that conclusion with reasoned argument. The purpose is to convince the reader, and the better the argument, the higher the probability of success.

Well Researched: They are firmly rooted in careful research. You must have a command of the relevant facts. You must understand your own position and the positions of those with whom you disagree.

Concise: They are not always short, but they must be concise. That means no padding and no B.S. Papers such as these are meant for the eyes of very busy decision makers: the judge, the corporate executive, and the high government official. If you want to convince such a person, you must not waste her time.

Hierarchically Organized: They organize the arguments to be made into the strongest possible hierarchy of contentions. Refer again to A Good Argument Is a Hierarchy of Contentions.

Please deliver your policy paper in the form of a single e-mail attachment. Consult POLICY PAPERS: How to Succeed for more detailed instructions. To view a sample policy paper written for another course click here.

Stage IV -- Policy Presentation: Your research and recommendation will also be shared with the class in the form of a seminar report. You will have 20 minutes to make your presentation. You will not have sufficient time to read your paper, nor would it be appropriate to do so. You will want to rework your material, including text and illustrations (if any), for the most effective possible oral presentation. See POLICY PRESENTATION: How to Succeed. Selected classmates will provide you with critiques of your oral presentation. So will I.

Note: the Cornell College Student Symposium is an excellent opportunity to showcase your best work to a larger and more diverse audience. It also looks good on your resume. If you are not graduating this month, consider submitting your project for the next symposium. You've already written the abstract and prepared the oral presentation! Consult the Student Symposium web site for deadlines and details.

Stage V -- Policy Paper Rewrite: After receiving a written critique of your policy paper, you will rewrite and resubmit the paper making as many improvements in substance and presentation as you can manage. The rewrite should be better than the original paper. After all, you will have had the benefit of expert editorial advice. As a practical matter, a conscientious effort to address the technical problems that have been identified in your paper will preserve your grade. More substantive improvements will enhance your grade.

Department of Politics