Briefly, in your first paragraph, explain the basics of the Electoral College system: What is the formula that determines how many electors each state gets? What is the role of the voters in determining the outcome of the election? How is it determined which candidate wins each state’s electoral votes? What does a candidate for President have to achieve in order to win the election? What if no candidate wins a majority of the Electoral College vote? [Don’t go any deeper into the workings of the system here: these are the essentials.]
Then, spend the bulk of the paper discussing the pro and con articles about the Electoral College. Describe and explain what you determine to be the key points from the articles we read: Judith Best’s argument for keeping the Electoral College, and Alexander Keyssar’s review of Prof. George Edwards’ book arguing for getting rid of it and having a direct popular vote to determine who becomes president. To “explain” a point is to explain HOW the Electoral College system results in the effects claimed by the authors. See note below for more about this.
Conclude by assessing the validity of the pro and con arguments and by explaining which author you believe is right and why. Provide strong reasoning for your conclusion. DO NOT BASE YOUR CONCLUSION ON STYLE – don’t agree with one author or the other because you prefer the way one side’s article is written. TOO MANY STUDENTS IGNORE THIS PART OF THE PAPER OR TREAT IT AS AN AFTERTHOUGHT: NO! IT IS THE THINKING PART, WHERE YOU GET TO REACH A WELL-REASONED CONCLUSION. DON’T IGNORE IT OR GIVE IT SHORT
If you use any outside materials for help in explaining how the Electoral College system works, cite by putting author name or website name in parentheses after the information from the source, and include a works cited page to list: Author or web site name, title of article, name of publication (or web site if you start with author name), and publication year.
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