CMC Congress Course: First Assignment, Spring 2018

ABOUT THIS BLOG

I shall post videos, graphs, news stories, and other material there. We shall use some of this material in class, and you may review the rest at your convenience. You will all receive invitations to post to the blog. (Please let me know if you do not get such an invitation.) I encourage you to use the blog in these ways:

To post questions or comments about the readings before we discuss them in class;
To follow up on class discussions with additional comments or questions.
To post relevant news items or videos.

There are only two major limitations: no coarse language, and no derogatory comments about people at the Claremont Colleges.

Monday, January 22, 2018

First Assignment, Spring 2018

Pick one:

Compare and contrast the “Hill style” and “home style” of any current member of Congress. That is, how the "presentation of self" at home either resemble or differ from the member's Washington persona?
Pick any House race that appears as a "tossup" in this chart: http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/2018-house/ After reading course materials and doing research on the district, predict the likely outcome. Explain your prediction with reference to local and national conditions.

Essays should reflect an understanding of class readings and discussions. Many resources, including CQ Weekly and Politics in America are at Honnold Library/Databases/CQ Library. See The Almanac of American Politics either in hardcopy at Honnold or via the library website. Consult other sources as well. See: http://www1.cmc.edu/pages/faculty/JPitney/congress.html

The specifications:

Essays should be typed (12-point), double-spaced, and no more than three pages long. I will not read past the third page.
Please submit all papers in this course as Word documents, not pdfs.
Cite your sources. Please use endnotes in the format of Chicago Manual of Style. Endnotes do not count against the page limit. Please do not use footnotes, which take up too much page space.
Watch your spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation. Errors will count against you. Return essays to the Sakai dropbox for this class by 11:59 PM, Friday, February 2. Papers will drop one gradepoint for one day’s lateness, a full letter grade after that.