This assignment is worth 60% of the total grade. One entry is due for each Lesson. Entries will consist of your written reflections on certain questions, problems, or ideas that students will themselves discover existing within and across the readings for that lesson. The lesson outlines and introductions will give important clues about the most relevant questions, problems, or ideas in that Lesson, but the Lesson will not provide specific questions that must be answered. When reading, of course, students will always want to ask themselves questions like: What did I learn from the assigned readings this week? What are the major themes of the week’s readings? If the readings disagree with one another, what are the major disagreements; which side has the stronger argument; and why? Can I support my opinion with arguments and evidence from the assigned readings? ("Support" means pointing to specific arguments or passages in the readings and citing them, using parentical citations.)

These entries should engage with the "primary source" readings (which is everything assigned in this course beside the Young textbook.) (Textbooks are "secondary sources." They provide context for the other readings. Do not write about the Young textbook chapters alone.)

Your Journal entries must be a minimum of 500 words long. There is no maximum, but it should not be necessary to go beyond 1000 words per entry. By the end of the course, you will have written several thousand words.

Writing is mental exercise, and so the purpose of this assignment is to exercise your mind through exercising your ability to read and write. Another purpose is to show evidence that you have indeed read the material and have learned something from it. Learning is not the same thing as always agreeing with it. In fact, because most of these readings are records of disputed political questions, it is mostly impossible to simply agree or disagree with them. The most important thing is understand the nature of the dispute, the character of the different arguments being made, and the influence they have had on the creation and development of our political institutions. Therefore, students’ agreement or disagreement is not terribly relevant to this assignment and should never overshadow the quest to understand what they think–"they" being the important political thinkers, actors, and documents which have contributed to the shape of our political institutions.

Here are some examples of what you should avoid in this assignment.