Instructions:

Find a NEWS article that addresses a current political issue of concern to voters in t U.S. There are numerous possibilities, such as immigration, election interference, trade, healthcare, climate change, abortion, corruption, etc. It must, however, be an issue that is not a topic of another one of your essays. (A news article is an article from a media source like a newspaper or magazine such as the New York Times, FOX, The Washington Post, VICE, etc. that addresses a current event. It does not include sources like Wikipedia, eHow, dictionaries, academic journals, or other information websites.)

Write a minimum 300-word essay that answers the following questions:

Based on the article you chose, what is the political issue and why is it important to voters in the U.S.?
How do current political parties in the U.S. stand on the issue? Do you think their stances are reasonable and based on facts or are they designed to simply appeal to voters biases and emotions? (See Chapter 16 for information on political parties.)
How can social science research be used to better inform politicians and voters about the issue, i.e. where can someone go to get reliable information about the issue to make an informed decision?

Guidelines

Your essay should:

be a total of 300 words or more. 

The 300-word limit DOES NOT include the questions, names, titles, and references.

It also does not include meaningless filler statements

have factual information from the textbook and/or appropriate articles and websites. 
be original work and will be checked for plagiarism.  

You will receive a zero if substantial portions of your work are taken from other sources without proper citation

have references and citations for your sources, including the textbook

Cite your sources in-text and provide references for each source according to the APA Style Guide. FYI web addresses or links are not full references!

Essays are automatically submitted to SafeAssign. Watch the video – SafeAssign for Students – Blackboard Learn

Any work that SafeAssign identifies as having more than a 10% rate of plagiarism after quoted material and small matches (10 words or less) are excluded will not be read and will receive a grade of F (No points).
All essays must be written using Microsoft Office applications such as Word. Work that is not submitted through the assigned dropbox or that is submitted using software that is not compatible with Safe Assign (SafeAssign accepts files in .doc, .docx, .docm, .ppt, .pptx, .odt, .txt, .rtf, .pdf, and .html file formats only) will not be read and will receive a grade of zero.
Submitting a paper that was already submitted by the student to another professor and/or course is also considered an act of academic dishonesty. Students who are found doing this will also receive an F (no points) for this assignment. Students must write a different new essay or paper for every class they take.

Essays must be submitted through the proper dropbox. Essays that are not submitted through the assigned dropbox will not be accepted. Do not submit essays through the Comments Window!!
No essays will be accepted after the due date. 
View the grading rubric above (Points Possible).