Prospectus: The Poli Sci Major and the Writing Center

Because Political Science is likely my major, and because I have had a significant amount of interaction with the department, it made sense for me to do my final project on the Political Science Writing in the Disciplines page on Writer’s Web (http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/polisci/index.html). The current page already contains faculty advice and information on how papers are generally assessed in the discipline. There are still several ways in which I hope to increase the scope of the page. The first way I would like to expand the site is by incorporating information on APSA (American Political Science Association) citation, which would also probably link back to the original Writer’s Web citation page, because there is apparently a problem surrounding a lack of knowledge of the citation style. Luckily, there are several websites online with information on APSA citation. I would also like to incorporate rubrics and, potentially, dissected assignment sheets, since Kendall emphasizes the importance of understanding and decoding an assignment sheet to gather insight into the expectations of the assignments (3). I would also like to incorporate, with professors’ and writers’ permission, old papers with written commentary. Posting these on the Political Science site will demonstrate what a well-argued, organized, clear and precise paper looks like, because several professors explained that those are the major criteria they seek in Political Science papers (http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/polisci/grading.html). Aside from that, including commentary will help remove the stigma of professorial commentary as “negative criticism” and “unproductive pronouncements about [students’] failings” (McGlaun 5). It will provide, hopefully, examples of useful, clear, and critical (though most likely directive) commentary that will help to clarify professors’ expectations for future students. And though directive commentary can often appear overbearing, from a professor, it is more acceptable from a professor and, as Straub points out, can often be helpful (233).