GOVT 2305 Unit 2
Up Work Samples

 

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Unit 2: Political Behavior

 

 

A.  Read the following selections from the Margin Notes by clicking on each link.

 

B.  Watch these presentations. When you click on one of the links below, a new screen will pop up. Use the scrollbar on the side of the new screen to navigate. You need Adobe Reader to view PDF files.

 

C.  (Optional) Read the following chapters from the textbook.

Chapters 05 - 06

 

D.  The following Optional Links are designed to help you do better in your course but they are not required.

GOVT 2305 Activity #1 Rubric

The Negative Consequences of Uncivil Political Discourse (PDF)

What Do You Believe? (PDF)

What the Lincoln Project Ad Makers Get About Voters

LOOK AT THIS!

For every assignment, I've given you a grading rubric.

If you look at the rubrics you will know exactly what I look for when I grade an assignment.

Each assignment's grading rubric will always be under Optional Links on the same unit page as the assignment instructions.

 

E.  Activity #1: What is Your Political Ideology? (10 points)To Do Note

Your political ideology is "a consistent set of values and beliefs about the proper purpose and scope of government,"  what you believe government ought and ought not be responsible for.

The things you'll be doing in this first activity are not difficult or time-consuming but I want you to take your time and think about what you're doing. When you've finished everything, you ought to be able to describe your own political ideology. If you complete everything at a dead run, I doubt that will happen!

Quick Note:  There are obviously a lot of instructions below but don't let that worry you. Since I'm asking you to do some very specific things, I've given you some very specific directions so you won't be confused at any point. That requires a lot of instructions but the length of the instructions is not necessarily an indication of the length of the activity!

Step 1 -- Pew Research Center Political Typology Survey

America has its own diverse political culture and multiple ideologies. For a survey of your political ideology, take the Pew Research Center’s Political Typology survey. The website asks for your opinion on a range of controversies. When you finish, you'll be assigned to one of the following groups.

§  Solid Liberals

§  Faith and Family Left

§  Next Generation Left

§  Hard-Pressed Skeptics

§  Young Outsiders

§  Business Conservatives

§  Steadfast Conservatives

§  Bystanders

When you get your results, make certain to scroll down the entire page. You'll see a myriad of facts and descriptions about your group and how it compares to the general public. Familiarize yourself with PRC's descriptions of your group and then use the Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology link. The information on that page fits your group into a larger context.

NOTE: To use the link I gave above or to explore some of the other links on your results page (and I encourage you to do so), right-click on a link and choose open in new tab or open in new window. If you just click on a link and leave your results page, you may not be able to get it back without retaking the survey. I suggest you print your results page.

 

Step 2 -- Liberal? Libertarian? Conservative? Communitarian?classification of ideological types

To add some variation to what you learned from the PRC survey, you're going to take the Idealog survey. This survey has questions that are more specific and more policy-oriented than the PRC survey. To start, go to the Idealog site. When you arrive, you may see a large gray box taking up most of the space on the page. Scroll to the very bottom. You'll see the message "You're taking the Self-Test outside of a class context. Your answers will not be counted as part of your class assignment or in national statistics. If you've received this link from your teacher, please verify its correctness. Click 'OK' to take the quiz anyway." Ignore the message and click OK  to get rid of the box.

Work your way through the intro, the tutorial and the self-test using the previous and next buttons. The entire process is fairly brief but make sure you understand things as you proceed. If you are asked to do something during the tutorial part, you won't be able to advance until you do so. During the self-test part, you can't advance to the next question until you answer the current question. Since these questions are more policy-oriented, it's possible you'll be asked your opinion on an issue about which you know nothing. If so, just consider the question carefully and answer as best you can. On each question, you'll chose A or B.

Once you've answered all 20 questions, you'll get your results. With this survey, you'll get a box divided into fourths rather than a written description. You can't copy-and-paste the box so you should print the page, take a screen shot, use a snipping tool or sketch the box on a piece of paper so you'll have the results.

 

Step 3 -- Evaluating the Results

Once you've finished what you need to do on both the PRC and Idealog sites, write a summary of your results that includes the 9 points below. Your summary should be thorough, specific, include relevant concepts from the course material and be free of spelling and grammar errors. [NOTE: As I've done below, I almost always list the things you need to include in your assignment so you won't miss anything. However, you should never write an assignment as a list unless the instructions specifically tell you to do so. Lists encourage short, quick responses, and they don't usually require much thought or much attention to spelling and grammar. They also won't earn you many points! Instead, write your assignment in complete sentences and paragraphs, using the list only to be certain you cover everything. Do your best to make your writing thorough, thoughtful and organized. Don't try to be concise ,,, Try to be complete.]

  1. What is the basic description of your PRC group?

  2. What are the defining values of your group?

  3. How did the results characterize the lifestyle notes and media use for your group?

  4. What are your Idealog self-test results?

  5. Which survey did you prefer, PRC or Idealog?

  6. Do you think the two results are consistent with / similar to each other? If not, why do you think your views led to two different results?

  7. After thinking about it, are one or both of the two results pretty accurate in describing your political views? If so, in what way? If not, why do you think the results were so inaccurate?

  8. Using what you've learned in this activity, how do you describe your personal political ideology?

  9. Make specific and detailed connections to course content. Always include course concepts in your work. If you're reading your margin notes and watching the presentations, you'll have plenty of material from which to choose on every activity.

 

Activity Submission Instructions

By the deadline shown in the Course Schedule on the main page of the syllabus:

  • Send your summary addressing the 9 points given above in the body of a new email to dramyglenn@gmail.com.

  • Put only your name and Activity #1 at the beginning of your email. (If you read your syllabus, you know that I tend to delete assignments without a name.)

  • Be careful to use the correct subject line. If you are not positive you know the correct subject line, go back and read your syllabus carefully. Emails with incorrect subject lines will not reach me. At best, you'll correct your mistake later and your assignment will be late. At worst, your assignment will never reach me and you'll receive no points for it.

  • Late answers will lose one point per day late, including weekends and holidays.

 


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Copyright © 1996 Amy S Glenn
Last updated:   03/06/2024 2100

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