Earlier in the semester, students completed a group project which included development of a Factsheet and reporting on a visit to a local agency. Now they will follow up with an individual project, with a case study approach, that will use the Executive Summary format.
As a recent college graduate, you have been hired by the newly elected Indiana Governor Jeannette Aristotle as a political consultant to assist her with developing state and national policies on contemporary social issues. The Governor’s meteoric rise in national political circles has also resulted in her election as Chair of the National Governor’s Association. The Governor is very open-minded politically and expects you to provide her with concise, documentable information with very little editorial comment.
Over the next six months, Governor Aristotle has asked you to develop a series of executive-summary style papers on the social issues of Hunger and Poverty, using your research, critical reading and thinking, and writing skills. (The Governor recently attended a series of excellent presentations by Indiana State University students on issues related to homelessness, so she feels comfortable that she has enough information on this topic.) The Governor has identified the following issues as priorities
Child Poverty and Education
The Relationship of Race/Ethnicity and Poverty
The Health Impacts of Hunger
She will allow you to choose you’re the topic for your summary paper. Your final product will be distributed to local, state, national leaders to assist them in their in-depth understanding of this particular problem and its solutions.
The executive-style summary will have four discrete sections. The first section will define and describe the particular problem. The second section will identify and explore the factors that describe your problem. The third section will identify and explore current and proposed solutions to the problem. The fourth section will identify at least three additional resources for the Governor to consider if she is so inclined. The Governor insists that you use at least fifteen (15) high-quality sources in your summary. The attached memorandum provides more in-depth detail about the substance of each of the sections. However, the overall project must be cohesive and your writing must be clear, concise and sophisticated, conveying the expertise that you have developed from taking PSCI 107.
In addition, the Governor, having produced a number of these types of documents in other areas, is very particular about the stylistic requirements that must be followed.
(1) You must cite appropriately to all sources using APA or MLA citation style using in-text citations and a corresponding Reference or Works Cited Page.
(2) Your final product should be 5-6 pages of text (which does NOT include the References/Works Cited page).
(3) You must have a project title that appropriately and succinctly describes the project.
(4) You must use headings for each of the four sections. You may use your own language for the headings.
(5) You must single-space the text in each section and subsection.
(6) You must double space between sections and subsections.
(7) You must handle quotations in accordance with APA or MLA citation requirements.
(8) Your name must be on every page as a Page Header and you must use page numbers.
(9) You must use complete, grammatically correct sentences.
(10) You must address each of the required sections.
Failure to do any of these items will result in a deficient grade.
In addition, the Governor is interested in making sure that your research, critical reading and thinking, and writing for the project is on track, so you will be asked to provide a draft of the final project, which will be submitted for your instructor’s review in class on Tuesday, April 17th. The Draft will be worth 50 points and will be graded with the following rubric:
Rubric for DRAFT Final Project
Drafts are worth 50 points.
Drafts are due on Tuesday, April 17th
A Draft that receives 50 points will have substantial, well-developed information for each of the four sections, will follow the formatting requirements, will have include at least fifteen high-quality sources, and will include a correctly-formatted reference page.
A Draft that receives 40 points will have substantial, well-developed information for three of the four sections, will follow the formatting requirements, will have at least ten high-quality sources, and will be correctly formatted.
A Draft that receives 30 points will have substantial, well-developed information for one to two of the sections OR minimal information for all sections, will follow the formatting requirements, will have at least ten high-quality sources, and will have a substantially correctly-formatted reference page.
A Draft that receives 20 points will only have one well-developed section OR will have minimal information in three to four sections, will have moderately correct formatting, will have at least ten high-quality sources, and a moderately correct reference page.
A Draft that receives 10 points will have minimal information in at least two sections, at least five high-quality sources, and a moderately correct reference page.
Drafts that do not meet the 10 point criteria will receive a 0.
Overall Paper Topic
Child / Youth Poverty and Education is a HUGE topic! How can I possibly get all of that information into 5 or 6 pages?
No matter which of the topics you choose, continue to narrow your focus! Come up with an “angle”. For example, you could decide to narrow your focus to early childhood education (pre-K), so your review of statistical information and the academic literature would be more focus. Another angle option would be to focus on a particular aspect of child/youth poverty: literacy, college retention rates, etc. Narrowing your focus is difficult. A paper that develops a particular topic will be much better than one that bounces around.
I don’t like any of these topics. What should I do?
If you want to choose another topic, you must have an in-person conference with me by April 12, 2012. I am open to other topics, so if you have a particular interest or would like to link this topic in some way to your major, I will work with you.
Define and describe the problem
Each term should be defined.
(e.g. if you refer to the term “hunger” or “food insecurity”, define these terms)
What is the scope of the problem?
(e.g. if you are discussing illegal immigration and poverty issues, give me the numbers!)
Note: it’s perfectly appropriate to either be expansive or more limited. You may choose to focus on national trends or Indiana, but consider that this focus should live on throughout the paper. So, if you identify statistical information about illegal immigration and poverty in Indiana, you will want to be sure to link any of the “solutions” to this population. You MUST include information on defining and describing the problem using original sources as much as possible.
Identify and explore factors that describe your problem.
What do you mean by “factors”? How many do I need?
Your paper should examine at least three of the following “factors” in some detail.
1) Economic
2) Historical
3) Psychological
4) Sociological
5) Philosophical
6) Ethical
7) Political [can be generally i.e. conservative/liberal or specific to Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, etc. Party Platforms]
8) Other significant factor you discover; must be approved by the instructor.
For this portion of the paper, ask yourself: What are the economic (historical, psychological, etc.) factors that impact this social issue? Example: What historical factors may impact the level of poverty among African Americans (or Hispanic Americans)?
You will most likely use government reports and books/academic journal articles to develop this portion of your paper. You must use high-quality sources. This is not “just what you think”. Examine what the experts say!
Identify and explore current and proposed solutions to the problem
What do you mean by solutions? How many do I need?
You must address at least four solutions.
You must identify and describe a government program that seeks to alleviate this problem.
AND
You must choose three of the following areas to explore:
1) Educational
2) Financial/Economic
3) Political
4) Legal
5) Sociological
6) Activist/Grassroots/Fundraising
7) Monetary/In-kind
8) Spokespersons for specific problem (celebrities, politicians, authors, experts)
9) Support needed but not identified (something that is NOT available, that you notice/become aware of while seeing what IS there
10) Other significant solution you discover; must be approved by the instructor.
Example: Feeding America has developed an awareness campaign with Matt Damon and others to highlight issues of hunger. You might explore how this campaign was developed, how it works, etc.
Note: Just listing solutions will not be acceptable. You should explore them.
Identify at least three additional resources
What do you mean?
Include a “For Further Information” section. This should include sources that you maybe did not include in the rest of your paper but that offer a more in-depth review of the problem or an aspect of the problem.
