Adam R Brown

In case you missed it, the final exam study guide is now available on webCT .

While you’re in WebCT, click on the “mail” tab to see the messages that Prof. Galderisi has sent recently. One of them contains information about how you can boost your grade by improving on the final. Here’s an excerpt:

As I mentioned in class, I believe that students should not be judged against each other, but against themselves–individually. Effort and improvement should be rewarded, particularly after a first try at an exam. So, here’s what I will offer to motivate you to work your *&&^% off for the final:

1. The final will have two sections: the first will be just like the midterm–explanatory T/F–covering only material since the last exam. The second will be a cumulative essay covering the entire quarter. I will give you a listing of possible themes this weekend (on the Study Guide).

2. If you improve by at least 5 points on the T/F section, we will add that improvement, up to 10 points, to your first midterm score. Your effort, like some grocery coupons, will have double value.

3. Although I don’t believe in “curves”–allocating a certain percentage to each grade (that would force me into giving a certain, fixed percentage of As, Bs, Cs, but also Ds and Fs), I do have a generous bottom-end cutoff for “minus” grades.

4. Meaning? Work hard, and the rewards will follow.

Tomorrow’s reading, “Running Scared ,” will do a real job on your printer. I took a few minutes and made a printer-friendly version for you which will save you 13 pages or so in your printer.

Here’s the article: Running Scared (PDF ).

Here’s the article’s sidebar responses from Rauch and Sabato: Running Scared sidebar (PDF ).

This is my third post today, so scroll down and look at the other posts, too.

We’re discussing Congress this week. Here’s a little game that will give you a clear idea of what redistricting and gerrymandering are all about.

The introduction page is a bit hokey. Just click “play game” to skip it. Start with the “basic” game to get a feel for how the game works. Missions 2 and 4 are the most informative.

Click for the redistricting game .

And on another note, here’s a very informative (or something) video about how hard Congress works: Uncle Jay explains how Congress works .

(If you missed my other post earlier today, keep scrolling down.)

If you had grammar or style problems noted on your term paper, consider reading through Strunk and White’s very short (and inexpensive) book The Elements of Style. I guarantee that if you read it carefully you will earn higher grades on your papers. You will also write more impressive admissions essays when you apply for law/business/medical/graduate school.

William Strunk wrote the original version in 1918. It’s available for free online . E.B. White later updated the book, now in its fourth edition. I recommend that you read through this updated version. It’s not free, but it’s also not expensive. Get it at Amazon . You can probably also get it at the UCSD bookstore–in fact, I’d be shocked if you can’t.

A few quarters back, I posted on my website some general tips for writing a term paper well. Many (but not all) of these tips apply to the paper that you will be turning in on Monday.

I suggest that you read these tips. Click here. The most relevant sections are “Use a clear structure,” “Write clearly,” and “What not to do.”

The other sections are less relevant to this assignment; the section on evidence and on “additional tips” are mainly tips for how to approach your topic, but he’s given you clear guidelines in the instructions about how to approach it.

A couple weeks ago we talked about turnout. Now you’re writing a paper about it. Just for fun (and for an added perspective), you might be interested in an article published in the current issue of the American Political Science Review, the leading research journal in the discipline, which reports on a novel (but unfriendly) way to boost turnout dramatically.

Click here for a summary of the article . (If you get an error message, just reload the page.)

Professor Galderisi has posted a midterm study guide on webCT (here ). Please look over it carefully before section. We will not have time to cover everything on it during section. You’ll get the best midterm preparation if you come to section with specific questions.

You’ve got two Supreme Court rulings to read for this week. They’re long. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read them. But for help picking out the most important points, you might want to read the Wikipedia entries for the two cases. The entry for Griswold is very good; the one for Johnson is okay, but still useful. Links:

• Griswold v Connecticut summary
• Texas v Johnson summary

Here’s hoping that folks notice this post before section today.

The Washington Post reports (here ) about the Supreme Court’s decision this week upholding the Constitutionality of lethal injection as a means of execution.

The question in this case was not whether the death penalty is Constitutional, but rather whether lethal injection is an excessively painful means of causing death. The judges ruled that it was acceptable.

However, this ruling prompted a flare-up of the legal versus policy distinction that we talked about in class. Take a look at the news article .

Here’s what happened: In a concurring opinion, Justice Stevens made the strange argument that he was (1) voting to uphold lethal injection even though (2) he is convinced that capital punishment is not Constitutional. This is a significant reversal; in 1976, Stevens wrote the majority opinion for the court re-instating the death penalty as a Constitutional punishment.

(Want to read the rest of this post? Click here.)