Unit 4 DiscussionDiscussion Topic

Demographics and Congress

The United States Congress is divided into two parts (bicameral): the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Whereas the U.S. Senate is comprised of two senators per state, the House of Representatives divides 435 representatives among each state, according to U.S. Census data. By constitutional law each state has at least one congressional representative. That said, many populous states have over twenty congressional representatives. California has over fifty congressional representatives!

A congressional representative serves two year terms. A representative proposes bills, amendments, and resolutions, and serves on a myriad of congressional committees. Yet, in contrast to a U.S. senator, your congressional representative serves a distinct, geographical area – his or her congressional district. Thus, they are charged with representing the political will of the citizens in their district.

Using the House of Representatives official website (www.house.gov) investigate your district’s member of Congress. If you do not know your congressional representative, enter in your zip code to locate your congressional district and representative. Then, access your congressional representative’s individual website. Examine your congressional representative’s legislative policies (proposed bills and voting record) and constituent services (how the office of your representative helps the citizens in their district).

Directions: Write a letter to your congressional representative regarding a specific piece of legislative policy or constituent service. Articulate, in detail, how a specific piece of legislation or constituent service aligns with your individual, political views. Post your completed letter as your main post.

Although slightly edited for format: these ‘responses’ were crafted by undergraduate students: Discussion Board Example

MAIN ASSIGNMENT

Getting to Know Your Congressional Senators

For the Unit 4 Assignment, you will identify your Congressional Senators. Using the Senate (senate.gov) website you will research your senators’ legislative accomplishments. You will then compose a 500 word essay in which you declare your support or opposition to your senators’ re-election.

Within a 500 Word essay please include:

• An introduction
• Describe your state. What are its major cities? Is it predominantly rural or urban? Does your state have important industry, finance, and tourist centers? Does the unique ‘make-up’ of your state influence legislation or policy positions?
• Does your state lean Republican or Democrat? Why?
• Who are your senators? What are their party affiliation, background, length of service, voting record, and key issues?
• Given what you have read for this week, do your senators follow the delegate or trustee concept of a legislator?
• Would you support your senators’ re-election to office? Why or why not?
• Support your answer(s) with information obtained from the text and at least two academic sources.
• A conclusion
• Correct grammar and syntax
• APA format

The Assignment should be at least 500 words, and must use and cite the text and primary documents as sources. Cite the work internally and in full reference at the end, following APA style guidelines. Citation is important to build the definitions, demonstrate your research, and to make it clear which ideas are yours and which are from the source. Check with the Writing Center for APA style tips and assistance.

https://kucampus.kaplan.edu/MyStudies/AcademicSupportCenter/ WritingCenter/WritingReferenceLibrary/ResearchCitationAndPlagiarism/Index.aspx

Turnitin Analysis

A special feature is available to help you with reviewing your Unit 4 Assignment for plagiarism. When you submit your Assignment to the Unit 4 Dropbox, your Assignment will automatically be analyzed by the plagiarism detection tool, Turnitin. Soon after you submit your Assignment, you will be able to view the Turnitin Originality Report. Originality Reports provide a summary of matching or highly similar text found in a submitted paper. When an Originality Report is available for viewing, an icon will appear in the report column of the Assignment Inbox. Originality Reports are only available in the InBox. For this reason, you will need to download the report prior to the grading of the Unit 4 Assignment. To do this, click on the print icon at the bottom of the Originality Report. This will prepare a readable, PDF version of the Originality Report that you can save to your computer.

Submitting your Unit 4 Assignment:

When you are ready, submit your Assignment to the Unit 4 Dropbox.

To view your graded work, come back to the Dropbox or go to the Gradebook after your instructor has evaluated it.