Political Science Essay

POLS 205: First Essay Assignment

7-8 pages, double-spaced, 12 point font similar to Times New Roman or Calibri, 1-inch margins

Due Date: Monday, March 4, before class

turn in online through Canvas; no Mac Pages documents; convert to pdf

Compose document in Google Docs. Share Google Docs link with me ([email protected]), put the link at the beginning of your paper, then submit a pdf or docx version to the Turnitin link on Canvas.

1. Utilitarianism and libertarianism provide two different foundational principles for understanding what is the appropriate way to order society and establish the extent and limits of governmental power versus individual freedom. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these two foundational principles. How should we decide what foundational principle is better than another?

• The introductory paragraph establishes what the paper is about, what your question is, why this question is important, and gives the reader some idea of what you are going to do in the entire paper.

• The introductory paragraph has a thesis. The thesis is the argument the entire paper is going to be arguing for. The following is not a thesis: “This paper will look at different foundational principles of justice.” The following is an example of a thesis: “Utilitarianism provides a better foundational principle than libertarianism because (your reason here)”

• Your paper shows detailed knowledge of and reflection upon the readings. There are many citations to a wide variety of the readings, both to avoid plagiarism and display your comprehension of the material. Better papers will go beyond what has been discussed in class or presented in the Powerpoints.

• Your paper is not simply a summary of material of the readings/classes. Some summary is important, but there must be a significant amount of analysis and evaluation that you bring to the table.

• Your paper considers both evidence for and against your thesis. You show why such evidence or arguments are either wrong or of limited value in weakening your thesis.

• The paper is not an infodump. Each paragraph and sentence follows each other in an organized, logical manner without abrupt shifts in thought.

• You are writing for a person who doesn’t know anything about the topic you are talking about. Don’t presume the reader has read what you read, or heard class lectures.

• The conclusion of the paper summarizes your main finding from the paper.

• In general, no quotations are allowed. The exception is only a quote of a term or phrase that is especially novel or catchy or crucial to analyze (e.g. you are going to follow-up with an extensive breakdown of the quote).

• Cite any information you get from elsewhere with a footnote or endnote. Err on the side of more citations rather than fewer.

• Titles of books, movies, journals, and newspapers are italicized. Titles of chapters, essays, and newspaper articles are put in double quotes.

• All citations have a specific page number cited, not the entire page range of the document. (If there are no page numbers, manually count the page in the electronic document.)

• You have no extra spacing between paragraphs. The space for footnotes do not count toward your page minimum. Do not play around with margins and font size just to reach the page minimum.

• Conclude your paper with a conclusion that summarizes your argument.

For citations to the texts in the class, use footnotes, which look like this.1 Note the number comes after the period at the end of the sentence. You use footnotes whenever you are citing facts or ideas that are not your own. Typically, hitting CTRL+ALT+F will insert a footnote. Alternatively, go to the tab at the top of Microsoft Word under “References” or under “Insert” in older versions of MS Word; in Google Docs, go to the “Insert” tab where you will find the option to insert a footnote. If you are confused about inserting footnotes, try Googling “inserting footnotes Microsoft Word/Google Docs.”

For Pages, you can consult: https://support.apple.com/guide/pages/footnotes-and-endnotes-tanbb3f4cb/mac

If you can, make the numbers appear as numbers, not Roman numerals (e.g. i, ii, iii…). In Word you select the entire document, expand the Footnotes tab, and then change the number format. For Pages, see the link above.

Example of full citation:

John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, London: Parker, Son, and Bourn, West Strand 1863, p. 7.

If you repeat a reference that is the exactly the same as the footnote preceding it, then you can use “Ibid.,” followed by the page number.

1 Author, Title, Where and When Work is Published, Page number if available. Example: John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, London: Parker, Son, and Bourn, west strand 1863, p. 7.