Extra Credit Assignment

Assignment: Write an approximately 3-5 page paper taking a position either for or against the following statement:

1. The role of the policy entrepreneur, as defined in Kingdon's agenda setting model, plays the most important role in the agenda setting process.

Instructions:

1. Clearly state your position for or against the statement: Please, do not pick a middle of the road position clearly state you are either for or against the statement. Then tell me, formally, how you are going to support this position. This should appear in the first paragraph of the paper. I am judging you on how well you make an argument so you need to take a strong position and outline the basics of the argument.

2. You need to define your terms. Assume you reader does not know about the topic.

3. Whatever your position, you need to support it with evidence and examples. Most of these will come from the book. Although you can use outside materials, please do not feel obligated to use them. You can get a good grade without using them conversely you can get a bad grade for using outside materials ineffectively. Your performance is based on how well you employ evidence to support your argument. The best papers do a good job of supporting their positions with specific examples from the class materials. Please, do not just cite an example; you need to explain how it supports your argument.

4. Address potential counterarguments. This means that you need to address how critics of your position might counter your argument and why your position is more convincing.

5. Please provide references in your paper by giving me the author's name and page number in parentheses at the end of the section in which you used the reference (eg. Putnam, 92) . If you go to outside materials (which you are not expected to do) please include a reference page with bibliographical information (author, year, title, publishing information, and page numbers).

6. When you finish your paper reread steps 1-6 above and make sure your paper meets these criteria.

7. If you have any questions please contact me.

Sample Introductory Paragraph:

The structure of your introductory paragraph should look very similar to the following:

Matthews argues that "Hardball" politics is about gaining and holding power. He identifies a number of strategies for how politicians pursue power on the national stage (Brief opening statement). In this paper, I agree with the premise that retail politics is more important than wholesale politics (your position for or against). Using Matthews' work, I support the premise in the following ways: 1), 2, 3) (how you support your position). The evidence from this discussion leads to the conclusion that retail politics is more important than wholesale politics (reiterate the goal of the paper).

The rest of the paper follows the structure set out in the introductory paragraph.