FIT Supreme Court Politics and Abortion Law Across States Blog Project – Description
This blogging assignment will help you examine your ability to recognize current stories about state and local government issues, practices, and jurisdictions. In addition you will learn how to communicate your thought, comments, or reactions about the story by writing and publishing a blog.
You will have three Blogs to write this term. Each will cover different topics from the class. For this Blog, you can use the inspiration from anything mentioned or discussed in Chapters 6-10 in the text book as the basis for your News Article and Blog topic. Just get your topic idea from the text; you are not blogging directly about anything written in the text. For example, in Chapter Two you read about Federalism. You can go find an article published in the past two weeks that presents news that is related to the state’s role in Federalism, then blog about it.
For this blog Assignment, find an article from a major recognized news source that has to do with state or local government, or state or local issues that we have read about during the past two weeks. Just because someone puts “news” out does not mean it is a quality source. Make sure to choose a credible news source, and the library can help you determine and find credible news sources. Organization, government, or interest group website content or articles are NOT news articles. This is a graded element, so make sure you use a news source article, and make sure you provide a link we all can access in your blog, as that is also graded.
In addition, make sure your news story is about a STATE or Local GOVERNMENT issue. It cannot just be a local issue, like “Disney World is having a busy season”. Disney World is certainly of local interest, but this story is not about a local GOVERNMENT issue. So, make sure your article and blog are directly linked to, and discuss, something about State or Local Government. Successfully choosing a state or local government issue is also graded.
Next, assume the role of a blogger. Bloggers take many different approaches, but they are largely individuals who are creating their own place to make well-reasoned, well supported arguments or points. For bloggers, starting a blog is cheap and easy, and their impact has already changed the history of nations as citizen journalists and opinion makers have influenced others. This class is a Gordon Rule class, and rather than just have you do big research papers all term to meet the Gordon Rule requirements, I worked to mix up the kinds of writing you do. A very important style of writing to learn is to write with what is called your “voice”. Your “Voice” is your personal opinion and viewpoint about something, and is based on your knowledge of something or your convictions about something. This is not an uneducated or uniformed opinion, but one that you are basing on an educated conviction or belief and MUST BE SUPPORTED with credible details. Be bold with your “voice”. Of course, be respectful of others, but do not shy away from your educated and supported “voice”. Others may not agree with you, but isn’t important for them to hear what you have to say? And, they may someday agree with your opinion based on what they learned from you. So, with that said, don’t worry about being “persuasive”. That is another class. But, we are about sharing our ideas about what is right or wrong based on our experience, beliefs, learning, and convictions, as this is a place for all of us to learn about others and ourselves. FINAL NOTE: Do NOT just say what the article says. That is not the point of this blog assignment. We can read the article ourselves and get that information. You are to REACT and COMMENT on the article! Your VOICE!
You blog is to use the article you have selected and use it as a point of discussion for some point you want to make to others. You are NOT to restate what the article says. YOU are REACTING TO something in the article and using it as a point to teach your reader about a point you wish to make. Blogs are more like editorials in the newspaper than news stories in that paper. You are to have a strong opinion and make strong arguments for it.
Work to create your style. There are many different directions a blogger can take. You work to find your style and your voice. Work to make it interesting for your reader. While your blog won’t be posted for the public, write as though it is written for anyone who has access to the internet, just like a normal blog.
In selecting the point you are trying to make, and the article you choose, you may use any of the state and/or local issues we have read about or discussed in class.
Provide the link to the article in the blog.
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