Draft Paper Assignment
The paper will consist of a title page, three distinct and individual sections that focus on your selected Supreme Court case, and a works cited page. Late papers are accepted, but they will receive a one grade (20 point) deduction for each day they are late, or any portion thereof. The last submission date for late papers is five days after the due date, at which point the assignment will be graded as an "Incomplete." Below is a description of each section.
Section I. This section should provide a short background of the case, including the circumstances of the initial arrest, incident, or challenge to established law. Include any information you feel is important for the reader to know in order to understand your subject. This section should be a minimum of one and a half pages in length.
Section II. This section should explain the decision by the court. This will include the motivations for the decision as well as an explanation of the dissenting votes (unless it was a unanimous vote, in which case you would analyze the legal arguments presented by the losing side in the case). This section should be a minimum of one and a half pages in length.
Section III. This section will analyze the significance of the case on civil liberties and should much more extensively researched than the first two sections (which are largely explanatory). Examine the outcomes of the decision in terms of immediate changes and their impact on other cases, if relevant. This section should be a minimum of two full pages in length
Submission Format and Requirements
Your total paper should consist of a title page, a total of at least five complete typed pages of essay, and a works cited page.
The top page of your submission should be the title page for your paper. The cover page consists of the subject of your paper in the center, with your name and any other information you want to include in the bottom right. Feel free to include a title for your paper to give it some personality, but this is optional.
Each of the three sections should be clearly marked with a title as a new section. For example, Section I would be titled, "Background" and Section III would be titled, "Significance." This is a very basic example, so feel free to get creative on titles, etc. The titles should be regular sized font, but centered, bolded, and/or underlined to make it clear. If Section I is two and a half pages, you should end the section there (mid-page), start a new page, and add the title at the top of the new page to indicate the beginning of Section II.
The total submission is a minimum of five double spaced pages, which means five full pages of essay not including footnotes, titles, etc. Essay should be 12 point Times New Roman font with standard 1" margins. Do not put your name on each page or skip extra lines between paragraphs. Writing should be tight and have a good flow (e.g. avoiding dropped quotes and having topic sentences).
You should use Chicago style formatting for all citations, which means you must include footnotes for the evidence used in your paper. Footnoted citations are required for all direct quotes, paraphrasing, and any information that is not common knowledge. For example, the fact that Thomas Jefferson was the third president does not need to be cited, but something specific like the fact that 43% of New England voters in 1800 supported him does need to be cited. If you aren't sure if something should be cited, err on the side of caution and add a citation. Failure to cite sources can be construed as plagiarism - please see the syllabus and college catalog for details. Any direct quotes five or more lines in length need to be cited as block quotes but as a general rule, five lines is too long anyway and you should try to paraphrase or only use part of the quote.
The final part of your paper is the works cited page. The works cited page should be on its own page and includes the full citation of the sources you have used in the paper in Chicago style.