Course Description
This course is an introduction to the institutions and political culture that define the American political system. Emphasizing the science in political science and pursuing analytical thinking, the course will:

• define concepts and causal models of politics and develop students' familiarity with the vocabulary of political science;
• focus on the origins of American institutions and the concept of self-government;
• seek to draw conclusions about the role of the individual citizen and the nature of civic participation.

Goals for students:

• Understand the basic organization of U.S. national government, its founding philosophy and its historical development
• Develop critical reasoning skills: the ability to analyze a political situation, anticipate the perspectives of all of the participants and recognize opportunities for and obstacles to change.
• Acquire and correctly employ much of the basic vocabulary of contemporary political science.

Classroom Tone
The instructor is committed to helping students enjoy the class, the materials, and the learning process. To that end, students should provide ongoing feedback on the class. The class will convene a short weekly meeting on Fridays to discuss the workload, assignments and lecture/discussion content. Students are expected to be respectful of each other in the classroom and online as we model the civil society we are studying.

Textbook
The text is available in the Duke Textbook store:

Dye, Thomas R. (2001) Politics in America, fourth edition (Basic Version). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc. [Textbook web site] [Purchase online]

CourseInfo Web Site
Use of the CourseInfo website is absolutely required; the site is located at:

http://courses.duke.edu/courses/POLSCI91.01-1SS2001/

All class business will be conducted through the CourseInfo site. Students must check the site on a regular basis (preferably daily). If you are not comfortable with the Internet or have not used CourseInfo before, you should meet with the instructor immediately for a crash tutorial.

Course Calendar
The calendar is posted on the Web and is included here by reference. The calendar includes (or will include) links to all required supplemental reading materials. It may be revised at any time with notice to all; students may participate in making changes.

Grading
Grading will be as follows (subject to small changes given class input during week 1); see below for detailed descriptions:

• 20% attendance (5%), class participation (5%) and regular written contributions to the online course discussion group (10%).
• 15% weekly quizzes (5 weeks, 3% each) on current events and supplemental reading.
• 20% analytical classroom presentation about an important political personality, group, event, or institution, with accompanying essay paper (1,000-2,000 words, 4-8 pages).
• 20% midterm exam
• 25% final exam (June 28 @ 9am).

Assignments & Examinations
Attendance (5%) and Classroom Participation (5%): the instructor will take attendance daily. Although attendance is officially only 5% of your grade, more than two absences without an official excuse (see below) will result in a score of 2% and a request to your dean to check on your progress. More than four will result in a score of 0.0% for attendance and no possibility of an "A" grade. Class participation is independent of attendance; students who come prepared and are at all responsive in class will easily get the full 5%.

Newspaper Reading: All students must read the New York Times on the Web daily to keep up with current political events. A free registration is required; you may request the Times not to send you any e-mail. The instructor will read the main upper "front page" section and the "Politics" and "National" headlines linked in the lower section of the front page. One quiz question will be selected every day (including weekends); students are expected to score at least 50% on the news portion of a very simple weekly current events quiz (see Quizzes below).

Course Readings: Readings on the course calendar marked with an asterisk (*) are required; you will need to know this material to pass the class. Readings marked with a hyphen (-) are supplemental. Please print and at least skim each supplemental reading before class and bring it to class; the instructor will refer to these materials in class and you can use the printed copies to take notes. You will need to read some of the supplemental readings each week to be able to score at least 50% on the readings portion of the weekly quiz.

Quizzes (15%): Every Wednesday at the beginning of class there will be a short quiz with 8 to 16 simple questions, half about the New York Times readings and half about the readings. The quizzes are intended primarily to hold you accountable for reading. The instructor does not expect you to read every paragraph carefully or to memorize everything you read; if you can score at least 50% on each section of these questions, you will not suffer any pain in your final grade. Students with low scores on other assignments can make up ground with high scores on the quizzes, however.

Forum Posts (10%): There is a forum in the CourseInfo Discussion Board just for discussion of class concepts, current events, and readings. The students are required to post at least three messages per student per week; one of these messages should begin a new "thread" with an original comment on the readings. Extra points will be awarded for posts referencing the supplemental readings. Each post can be as short as a single paragraph, but they must be substantial enough to meet the instructor's approval. The instructor will respond to these posts with thoughts about politics and with writing tips; responses will be private when appropriate. As noted on the Course Calendar, posts from the previous week will be tallied every Monday. This assignment is intended to pursue several goals: 1) to work on writing skills without having a large number of assignments; 2) to practice the new technology of online discussions in a literate and civil fashion; 3) to further encourage reading and discussion of the supplemental readings. In this light, forum posts should be well-written, polite and thoughtful. Humor and banter are welcome, but be careful to keep the forum focused on class topics. Students must decide how to administer this forum and how to meet the weekly quota of messages.

Presentation and Written Project (20%): Each student will prepare a short (5-10 minute) classroom presentation and a short four- to eight-page essay analyzing an important political personality, group, event, or institution in American politics. The flexible topic allows the student to choose an area of personal interest. The instructor must approve the topic and will help students select a topic if necessary. A page of project guidelines will be posted soon. The topic must be chosen and submitted to the instructor by Friday, May 25. A draft of the essay is due Monday, June 11; a version will be posted for class review on June 18; presentations will be on June 14 or 15; final submissions of the essays are due on June 18.

Examinations: Two exams will be administered, a midterm (20%) on Monday, June 4 and the final exam (25%) on Thursday, June 28 from 9am-12pm. If class performance on quizzes is satisfactory and students are agreed, exams may be open-book and essay-oriented. If not, closed-book exams with substantial multiple choice and short-answer questions may be necessary.

Suggested Class Work Day
Here is an idea of how you can manage this workload fairly easily for a typical day:

• Come to class and take notes: 90 minutes, including some travel time
• Read New York Times on or off-line: 20 minutes maximum
• Print if necessary, then read assigned texts for the following day: 100 minutes maximum
• Post a message on the online forum responding to the readings or another student's message: 30 minutes maximum.

This adds up to 240 minutes or four hours daily, maximum, including class time. Many days will be slower; you will need some of that time and some additional weekend time to prepare your projects and to study for exams. Overall, if you are taking two classes you should not need to work more than eight hours a day on average, leaving plenty of time for recreation and/or employment. Falling behind will obviously begin to hurt in a hurry, however. If you find that you regularly need more time to fulfill the course requirements, please talk with the instructor immediately.

Writing Focus
This class will focus on writing well; while your grades will not depend heavily on your initial writing ability, you must demonstrate effort and improvement in response to critique as the course proceeds. The instructor will provide detailed editorial comments on each paper. Grammatical errors, stylistic problems and logical faults addressed in these comments should not reoccur if you want to receive a good grade for the course. You are encouraged to take advantage of the services the campus Writing Studio offers. It is best to schedule an appointment early in the writing process. To do so, use the on-line appointment calendar.

Dean's Excuses
Official excuses can be obtained only for missed written assignments and examinations, and only for illness, representing the university (e.g. athletic competition), or for a death in the family, from the dean's office of your school; a list is available at http://www.provost.duke.edu under the "Deans and Directors" link; for most, your dean is in the School of Arts and Sciences; if you are a visiting student for the summer, it is Paula Gilbert in the Summer Session office.

Psychological Services
If at any time you feel your state of mind is interfering with your class performance, please speak with the instructor. If you would prefer to speak with someone else, contact Duke Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at 660-1000 or in 214 Page (next to the Duke Chapel).

Disabilities
Students with disabilities that may require extended exam times or other accommodations should contact the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities at (919) 684-5917 or e-mail director Emma Swain at eswain@duke.edu. The instructor cannot alter the course requirements for any disability without certification from this office.