Name______Date______

Honors US HistoryMs. Elshakhs

Election 2012 Project

Project Description:

The 2012 Presidential election is a good time to investigate the state of our nation. Both the Obama and Romney campaignsclaim their candidate to be best suited for the Presidency, but their messages areloaded with political bias. Your challenge is to sort through the political overtonesin order to:

1)Explain the issue as objectively as possible,

2)Summarize the positionsand arguments of both candidates, and

3)Make a persuasive argument for your own perspective, using factual/statistical support.

Possible Topics (Topic DUE Tues, 9/25):

Choose an interesting campaign issue to investigate, such as proposals for stimulating the economy, unemployment & job creation, tax policy, small business policy, budget proposals, reining in the national deficit, health care, immigration, foreign policy (on Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, terrorism, China, North Korea, Israel, Syria, the Arab Spring), sustainable energy, global warming, environmental pollution, education, same-sex marriage, abortion, Social Security, Medicare, gun control, government funding of birth control, voter ID laws, etc. You may also be able to choose a different topic if you discuss it with me.

Project Requirements:

  1. Annotated Bibliography in MLA format (30 pts)DUE Tues 10/9: Find at least five good sources on your topic. At least two articles must be opposing views editorials from the two campaigns or political parties. At least one article must be a balanced news article, which discusses various perspectives. Sources must be at least 500 words and must be from well-respected news sources.
  2. Your annotated bibliography must include at least 5 MLA source citations.
  3. For each citation, write two paragraphs which summarize the following ideas for each article:
  4. Summarize the main points of the article.
  5. What are the author’s credentials/expertise with respect to the topic? You may need to do a search on the author to answer this. The author may be an individual or organization.
  6. Evaluate thequality of the author’s sources. (e.g. currency, did they use the best sources available, use of balanced or biased sources, credentials of the people quoted or cited to)
  7. What bias do you believe the author/publisher has? Explain why.
  1. Outline (20 pts)DUE Mon 10/15: Write a one-page detailed content outline of the issue, using information from all five articles. This will serve as the only note source that you may use during your oral presentation. You may not write out your presentation word-for-word (or 10% of your total grade may be deducted). Instead, use key words and ideas, statistics, and sources.
  1. Oral Presentation (50 Pts)DUE Mon 10/22: Your oral presentation (and also your outline) will follow the 3-point format outlined under Project Description above. You must also be prepared to answer your classmates’ questions as an expert on the topic.

Suggested Sources:

Wall Street Journal Washington Post

New York TimesWashington Times

Inquirer

There are many other respected news sources. Be sure to doublecheck with me if you are unsure of the nature of a source.

  • Please NOTE: The campaign or party home pages will likely ask you to register your email address or donate money. Look for the button to skip that page if you don’t wish to do so.
  • Several of these newspapers are available full-text in our library’s ProQuestdatabase. Narrow your search by publication (recommended newspapers) and by date (“most recent”).
  • Other things you might want to check out in the databases:

SIRS Researcher has a special feature on the election, with some interactive content.

Facts on File World News Digest has a special feature on the election. The “key issues in the election” section provides general information about each issue, and will be useful in making sense of and/or contextualizing the newspaper articles.

  • You are strongly encouraged to access the official websites of each candidate.