Politics 124 Fall 2003
Ellis
Paper #2
Construct a 2500 to 3000 word dialogue about patriotism between five of the authors we read between weeks 6 and 9. Included in the dialogue must be at least one author from week 6, at least one author from week 7, at least one author from week 8, and at least one author from week 9. The precise questions you explore in this dialogue are up to you, but you should use the dialogue to demonstrate your understanding of key ethical and political questions raised in the texts. Use the dialogue to carefully probe the strengths and weaknesses of the authors' arguments. Try to make each author as persuasive as possible. The setting for this conversation is up to you; use your imagination. It is important that the participants in the dialogue talk to each other rather than past each other; that is, they need to respond directly to the point being raised by the preceding speaker rather than simply delivering a rehearsed stump speech. Participants in the dialogue generally should not quote themselves but you still must provide page numbers (in the form of in-text citations) that indicate where you are deriving your interpretation of what the person is saying. You want to be true to what the individual would argue but what they actually say should be written in your own words. Be inventive and have fun with the assignment; at the same time I am looking for your command of the texts as well as clarity of expression and organization. The writing, as with any paper, should be clear, concise, well-organized, and free of grammatical and spelling errors.
The dialogue paper is due Tuesday, November 11 at the beginning of class at 9:40 a.m. Any paper handed in late will be penalized with a full grade deduction. Note that the November 11 due date is a change from the due date indicated on the syllabus. A draft of the paper of at least 2000 words must be brought to class on Thursday, November 6. Failure to show up in class (on time, at the beginning of class) on November 6 with a dialogue of at least 2000 words will result in a grade deduction on the final paper. The draft and the final paper should be typed, double-spaced, and include a word count at the top of the first page of the paper. Pages should also be numbered.