Topics and Questions We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Moreover, you may not consult or use external sources of any kind to develop your answer. You don't need them. What matters the most is your voice, your ideas, and to articulate them as clearly and coherently as possible.

For the Final Exam, you must develop a 1,000-word response to the following question:

“What model of democracy do you think would work best for the United States today (and into the future)?”

That is, you need to develop an essay that makes an argument for the model of democracy (out of the various models you read about during this semester) that you think would best serve our individual and collective needs. To this end, your job is to describe the central features of the model of your choice (which assumes you will identify the proponents of the model we read this semester), then compare and contrast it with other models, and finally to make an argument for the model of your choice. As you did for the midterm exam, you might want to organize the response in three to four sections that flow clearly and coherently.

Finally, to help you answer this question, keep the following general guidelines in mind (these are a series of general guidelines to clarify how to write a more successful response). When I read any response, I look for a clear and coherent summary and analysis of the assigned reading. To this end, I use the following criteria to assess your answers:

Summary – of required readings, including key ideas, concepts, and questions to be used as a foundation for the analysis. In your summary, you can demonstrate that you read carefully and thoroughly.

Analysis – comparison and contrast of ideas, concepts, and questions between the readings. In your analysis, you demonstrate your ability to fully address or answer the questions I posed in the prompt. This is where you can demonstrate your understanding of the material and that you are thinking for yourself. Therefore, no external sources can be accepted for the analysis because it must be based on your close reading of the required texts.

Coherence – this means organized, step-by-step, progression of ideas. In other words, ideas should flow in orderly fashion from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph. Coherence is very important because it helps you to demonstrate that you read carefully and fully, that you can develop a thesis or argument, and that you can impose order on your thoughts – thus making your claims and arguments easy to follow for the reader. Otherwise, good ideas or claims go to waste because they become disconnected or fragmented and the reader gets lost.

Clarity – this refers to grammar, mechanics, and style, and command of writing conventions such as in-text citations, quoting, balance between paraphrasing and quoting, and so on. Poor sentences make it difficult to get your point across.

Submission –adhering to basic requirements, particularly on-time submission, word count, and academic honesty.

What model of democracy do you think would work best for the United States today (and into the future)?