SSCI 110

Final Reflection Assignment

Assignment Overview

For your final reflection, you’ll choose to focus on one of the three course topics (Voting Rights, the Environment, or Education). You’ll write a paper of at least 2 complete pages, double spaced, 12 pt font, MLA/Chicago/APA format. Additionally, you’ll include a Works Cited page at the end and cite your sources throughout.

Details:

Now that you’ve read a lot about the history of these topics in America, I want you to choose one of the topics from the course to write a final reflection. What you want to talk about in the reflection is relatively open-ended, as long as it meets the following criteria:

· Connects historical information to the present-day. There are certainly many different issues and areas you could focus on in each of these topics, but I want you to research and write about the topic in the 21st century and how it relates to the historical information from the course. For example, what are some modern issues in education? What are current major environmental concerns? What’s going on in the news involving voting rights? Depending on which topic you choose, you’ll want to look for current information and recent developments in this area. Then, think about how that issue is related to or differs from the primary sources and historical information about the topic from the course.

· While talking about the topic you choose in both the present day and historically, you should refer to at least one of the primary sources from the course as a point of reference and at least two secondary sources (these can be academic articles, newspaper articles, or other credible sources)

For example, you might reference the political cartoon “The Formerly Good Earth” and talk about how it similarly represents environmental concerns from a 2020 New York Times Article. Or you might say that the images in the cartoon from 1970 are no longer representative of the environmental concerns we face, as detailed by a recent academic article. Then talk about one or some of those current issues in the environment and environmentalism. Think about why it is important to understand the history of the topic when considering current conversations.

· Cites the sources with in-text citations and on the Works Cited page. Whether you use MLA/APA/Chicago formatting, you’ll want to properly cite the sources you use throughout the paper.

The goal of the assignment is to foster a deeper understanding of one of the three course topics, to compare historical discussions of the topic with how it is currently represented in the media, or to compare historic issues with current developments.

Of course, there are a vast array of issues and arguments about each of these topics, and you’re certainly not expected to cover them all in two pages, but you should find recent information and articles that are interesting to you and focus on one of the present-day issues relating to the topic you choose. For example, you might focus in on Voting Rights in a certain state or in a specific recent election. You don’t have to talk about or find sources about every voting rights conversation that is happening in America, but just the one that is most interesting to you at this time. Then you might compare that with one of the Voting Rights primary sources from the 19th century to talk about how similar or different things are today. How is the current conversation on voting rights that you’re writing about related to the historical conversation about voting rights that we discussed in the course? Why is it important to understand the history of the topic when considering current conversations?