Pick a President Paper – Students will select a US President (and their administration) to evaluate. The purpose of this assignment will be for students to address multiple aspects of a president, their policies, the political climate of their administration, and their successes. In this course, we will examine how different presidents (and their administrations) serve as models for deeper analysis. This is your opportunity to evaluate a president. Upon selecting a president for examination, students should then address the following questions –
1) What was the historical period of your selected president? Does the historical period complicate the president’s ability to initiate policies or present a policy agenda?
2) What was composition of the US Congress at the time of your selected president? If this was a period of divided government, did the US Congress impede the president’s policies? If so, did the president then act to place a check on Congressional power?
3) What would scholars argue were the most important successes of your president’s term in office? Why were these noted accomplishments or successes?
Students will be asked to write 1,500 words (roughly 6 pages in a Word document) to address these questions. Students should use a variety of sources for this project. Books, memoirs (if your selected president wrote one), journal articles, newspapers, speeches, and documentaries should be consulted. While there are no restrictions on how many of each type of source is use, the assignment requires the demonstration of at least 10 scholarly sources. Students that do not demonstrate the use of at least 10 sources will receive a grade no higher than a C. Furthermore, papers that cite unsuitable sources (those not deemed scholarly) will receive a grade no higher than a C on the assignment. Students should ONLY consult books and scholarly journal articles (articles accessed by using the databases from the college’s library website). Scholarly journal articles are those sources located in JSTOR and Project Muse (the databases housed on the library’s website).
The instructor has provided a Tips for Success Guide for the location of suitable sources. This can be found in the Student Guides and Supplemental Information folder on Blackboard.
In order to successfully complete this assignment, students will be asked to submit a preliminary bibliography of intended sources. Submission of the bibliography will allow the instructor to ensure that your sources are suitable for the project. Students that fail to submit a bibliography will have their Pick a President Paper decreased by 10 percentage points. Each source will be graded separately upon this bibliography. Points will be lost per entry of an unsuitable source.

NOTE: CHANGED WORD COUNT TO 1200, PAPER IN MLA, SOURCES IN CHICAGO