Examine what effects the major agents of socialization have had on you and your thinking about politics.

Written Assignment: Paper

American Government POS 2041 David Twigg, Instructor Write an essay on the topic below, 5-6 typed (12-pitch) double-spaced pages long (not

including reference page or cover page). The paper is due no later than February 9, 2019.

This will be an academic paper. That means: Check your spelling and your grammar.

Use paragraphs. Use (with proper referencing – see below) the required American

Government: Your Voce, Your Future text and two other academic journal sources,

i.e. Political Science Quarterly, American Political Science Review, American Journal of

Political Science, Political Research Quarterly, etc. (Newspaper articles, news magazines,

and WEB sites do NOT count as academic journals.) This will require a little library

research.

Topic - Political Socialization

Examine what effects the major agents of socialization have had on you and your

thinking about politics. Here are some things to think about as you plan this paper. What

is your earliest memory of thinking about politics? When did you first begin to know

something about presidents or political parties? What influence along these lines did

your family have on you? Your school(s)? Your neighborhood (maybe the one in your

former country)? Your peers, experiences, etc.?

When did you begin to form political opinions of your own, not just repeating what you

had heard? Do you consider yourself conservative – liberal – radical – moderate –

nothing? What are your general attitudes toward authority in its various forms? Are you

usually obedient, respectful, resentful, passively aggressive, openly hostile? If you have

no real political leanings or beliefs, why do you believe that is the case?

Format

You need to open with an introductory paragraph describing what you intend to convey

and end up with a concluding paragraph that ties the paper together. Do not just list facts

and definitions from the text book and article. Analyze them and show how they fit

together, and how they fit into the general theme of your essay. You have many options

for approaches. Write this so that it is meaningful to you as well as meeting the course

requirement as provided herein.

Note

Type this in a computer or word processor, and be sure to save a copy (at least until the

end of the semester!) on a disk or on your hard drive (if it is on your personal computer at

home). Begin by reading American Government: Your Voice, Your Future’s chapter

3, which covers political socialization. We will have covered the subject matter, too.

Don’t wait until the last minute. Go to the library and find your material so you can have

First Paper

2

it completed in time to meet the due date. I will post a presentation on finding sources

through the library. If you need help with doing this library research, let me know. I am

here to help as needed.

Referencing An important part of an academic paper is proper referencing. There are numerous

formats, but for this paper use one of the following:

Option 1 - Footnotes: Personal computers make this easy. Use either footnotes at the

bottom of the page or endnotes but be consistent. First time a work is cited use full

citation: [author’s name, title, publisher, publication city & date, and page number.] I.e.,

for a book.1 For an article.2 If you use the source again, and the footnotes follow each

other, use.3 If there is another citation in between use just the last name and page.4

Option 2 – In-Text citation: Use the author’s last name, year of publication, and page

number in parentheses within the text (Patterson 2006. p. xx) and also a bibliography

page listing all sources in alphabetical order:

Patterson, Thomas E. We the People: A Concise Introduction to American Politics,

Sixth Edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill. 2006.

Putnam, Robert D. “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital.” Journal of

Democracy: Volume 6. January 1995. (include the page range of the article, i.e.

pages 234-263)

When you quote something (allowed; but use sparingly) be sure to use “quotation marks”

and use the author’s exact words. When you are not quoting, use an author’s ideas by

explaining them in your own words. Do not copy down a sentence or two and change a

word or two. In either case, use proper referencing. There are different styles for

references, pick one from above and be consistent. Remember: plagiarism is a major no-

no in academic work. Plagiarism is defined as “the deliberate use and appropriation of

another’s work without any indication of the source and the passing off of such work as

the student’s own. Any student who fails to give credit for ideas or materials taken from

another is guilty of plagiarism.” (FIU Student Handbook, page 15)

1 Thomas E. Patterson, We the People: A Concise Introduction to American Politics,

Sixth Edition, McGraw-Hill, Boston, 2006, page xxx. 2 Robert D. Putnam, “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital” in Journal of

Democracy, Volume 6, January 1995, page xx. 3 Ibid., page xx. 4 Patterson, p. xx.