Prior Approval- Students should receive prior approval for their essay topic if one of the pre-approved
topics is not selected. Prior approval should be done through email with the instructor.
PRE- APPROVED TOPICS: Essay Approval is not required if one of the following topics is used: death
penalty, legalization of marijuana, gay marriage, stem cell research, gun rights, tax reform, lowering the
legal age of alcohol consumption, and immigration reform. NOTE: abortion is not an approved topic.
Essay Requirements.
-The Political issue essays are expected to highlight both sides of a political issue. Students are allowed to
take a political standpoint as long as both sides of the political issue are explored. For example, a student
may want to explore the political issue of gun control. A student should provide a very brief historical
perspective of gun control and explore both the pro-gun control and the anti-gun control political
perspectives. Finally, students can argue whether they feel that gun control is appropriate or under which
conditions and circumstances that gun control is acceptable or unacceptable.
Papers may be refused if they do not adhere to the following basic requirements:-The essay should be at least 1000 words in a standard academic format, not including the
references/works cited list.
-All resources are cited in the body of the essay with in-text citations and corresponding full citations in
works cited page.
-12pt. Times New Roman Font, and double-spaced formatting.
-Students are required to utilize at least three academic resources (There is a link to Galileo from the
course home page- wikipedia and ask.com are not academic resources and may not be used)..
-This project MUST be submitted through this assignment link and MAY NOT be emailed to me.
Penalties- If a paper is not submitted by the deadline then the paper is considered late. Papers will be
accepted at any time prior to the deadline, although papers will not be graded until the deadline has closed.
Papers will be graded as follows:
Automatic Deduction of 50 points taken off the final grade for lateness.
Please review the Writing Assignment Rubric
Remember:
–Be original – All papers submitted in this class are reviewed via Turnitin.com, a proprietary software
database that identifies unoriginal material in papers. NOTE: This paper will be submitted to a plagiarism
detection database. If plagiarism is detected in a paper, it will receive a 0 with no opportunity to rewrite.
Helpful Resources:
Students should use the writing center:
https://www.asurams.edu/academic-affairs/asuonline/online-writing-center/
Refer to the Writing Guidelines content page for additional writing assignment criteria.
Once you have completed the writing assignment, please attach and submit your assignment here.