Voter Guide Project Assignment and Instructions

We need to begin thinking about the final major assignment in the course, the Voter Guide Project.  The explanation below does not include all details of the assignment, but gives an overview of the purpose and steps in the project.  Further details will be explained as the project moves forward.

The objective for this project is to create a class-produced voter guide that will help us understand the Presidential candidates, key issues, and local propositions in detail, and help all of us be better informed voters.  The overall objective is to research and understand an issue relevant to the upcoming election, and do in-depth research that will enable you to come to a conclusion on your own.  You’ll need to complete the following steps:

  1. Topic Survey: Respond to the “Voter Guide Topics Survey” so I can begin to create the groups.
  2. Informative Research: Once you are placed in a group, I will begin a group discussion and  assign each group member a specific research task.  All group members will be required to find 2 credible, substantive sources that inform us about the group’s topic.  You must summarize your sources and include links to the original source.  You will post your summaries to the group’s google document, which will house the research that the group collects.  You will also submit your research as an assignment for grading.
  3. Analysis of the Research: After all group members have posted their research, each group member will be tasked with reading the information collected so far, analyzing it, and identifying areas for further research.  The idea here is to get beyond sound bites and the partisan bias of much of our media, and investigate these issues in detail.  You will share your ideas with your group members and me in a group discussion.
  4. Further Investigation Research: Again, all group members will be assigned a specific research task based on the group’s analysis of the research collected so far.  Basically, this is a repeat of step 2.  Again this will be submitted both to a shared google doc and as an assignment for grading.
  5. Final Conclusion:  After reading and synthesizing the additional research compiled by each group member, you will write a 1-page explanation of your final conclusions about the issue at hand.  The idea here is to aid the reader in deciding how to vote, or enabling them to move beyond soundbites when deciding their opinion of a key issue.  This will also be submitted to a shared google doc and as an assignment for grading.

PLEASE NOTE: The specifics of each of these steps will be outlined in further detail as your groups moves through them.  Because each group is covering a different topic, the specifics of your assignments may vary.

Grading

According to the syllabus, this project is worth 20% of your grade and will be 4-6 pages long.  Those numbers will be broken down across the assignments listed above:

  • Informative Research (2 pages) — 5 %
  • Further Research (2 pages) — 5 %
  • Final Conclusion (2 pages) — 10 %

Other work that you submit to prepare for this project will count as homework assignments.  These elements of the project may include group chats or meetings and group discussions.

Groups

The only purpose of the topic groups is to share research among group members.  Each group member will be graded for their own individual work.