Reference no: EM132243611

Step 1 - Identifying the Issue - Identify an issue that involves federalism, then conduct research on how both the US federal government and Texas state government addressing it (this requires examining the history, application and effectiveness of laws at both levels).

Pick one of the following topics:

- Women's role in enacting family planning and abortion policies in Texas

- Public education policy and funding

- Environmental policy and air pollution

- Affordable Care Act and Medicaid funding

- Joint law enforcement efforts to combat human trafficking

- Impact of President Trump's tariffs on business and state revenues in Texas

- Texas Child Protective Services and Foster Families

- Reintegration of veterans in Texas higher education

Step 2 - Gathering Sources Conduct research to locate three academic journal articles that specifically address the policy issue that you selected and meet the following criteria:

- The articles must be no more than ten (10) years old.

- The article must have more than five (5) pages of actual content (without graphs, charts, footnotes, citations, etc.).

- Books will not count toward the minimum research requirements.

- Carefully choose those sources that provide a variety of perspectives on your selected topic.

- In addition to the minimum research requirements, you should offer "supplemental sources" for essential current events information relevant to your topic.

These may include academic sources that are not peer-reviewed (position papers), newspaper articles, magazine articles, and other quality or reputable sources.

- Textbooks, Dictionaries, Encyclopedias (including Wikipedia), Almanacs, or an Atlas are reference materials and are not to be listed as sources on the collegiate level.

- Provide the formal MLA citation for each source, both in the essay and on the works cited page.

- Summarize the policy topic you will be addressing. o Describe the current status of the policy or topic. o Describe why the policy is important. o Policy changes you would recommend

- Include a bibliography listing the three primary sources. The citations are to be formatted using MLA citation style.

- A model proposal has been provided in eCampus.

- This is not an outline. Consider it a rough draft of your final project essay. The purpose of the Proposal is to provide enough detail so that I can give you suggestions for your final project. This portion of the assignment is worth 50 points. If it is not submitted, the activity will be considered incomplete.

Step 4 - The Policy Paper Your task will be to prepare a formal research paper regarding the selected policy. The assignment is to be around 2-3 pages with in-text citations for your research.

The minimum writing requirement is a 2-3 pages of your own words or around 3 pages of a word document (excluding the cited information).

The essay is to discuss each of the following prompts:

· An introduction and brief overview of the policy relationship.

· What are the major issues facing each level of government?

· What are the reasons for initiating changes to the policy?

· What are the options to be considered (discuss several)?

· What are the pros and cons of each potential reform (costs v. benefits)?

· Which is the best option moving forward (pick one)?

· A summary and conclusion Special Notes: The grading standards used to assess the quality of your work for this project will be detailed in a grading rubric, which will be provided during the semester.

It is strongly suggested that every student read ahead and use the library database during the first week of the course to begin researching a topic.