The assignment is intended to afford students latitude in producing a well written paper that synthesizes(or summarizes) the relevant information in these two chapters and other sources about (1) political parties, (2) interest groups, and (4) campaigns and elections of state legislators in general and in the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates in particular. This writing assignments is intended to encourage students to pull their thoughts together relative to the subject matter.The assignment focuses on state Senators and Delegates in the Maryland General Assembly, not the U.S. Senators Congresspersons who represent Maryland at the national level of government. The intent of this assignment is for students to focus on the political environment of state legislatures.
Secondly, each student should identify the Maryland Senate and the Maryland House of Delegate districts in which he/she lives and the persons who represents these districts (Insert your address after “Who represents me” in http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmmain.aspx?pid=legisrpage&tab=subject6). You should also provide their party affiliation, the committees which they are a member, and any positions they hold within their respective chamber. There are 47 members of the Maryland Senate (one per district) and 141 members of the Maryland House of Delegates (3 per district). Students who do not live in Maryland should provide this information for the Maryland Senate and the Maryland House of Delegate district in which UB sits. The following web site should provide a starting point in obtaining relevant information: http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/html/mmtoc.html & http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frm1st.aspx?tab=home.
Submissions should be approximately 1,200 words in length (not including a table of content which is not needed, exhibits, long quotes and citations), double spaced, use a 12pt. font, and have 1″ margins. Where appropriated, cited material should be identified in the text and relate to full citations at the end of the submission via a list of “works cited” or “endnotes.” The APA or MLA citation style should be used. Papers must be written in standard English using coherent prose, and correct grammar, punctuation, and capitalization.