Reflective Writing 2- TX Legislature
Formatting, Length and Citation Requirements:
When completing your essay, you must provide a bibliography, as well as in-text citations for any work that is directly quoted or paraphrased. Bibliographies should be uploaded, as a single file, along with your 1.5 page essay. The bibliography should be on a separate page, and does not count towards the minimum 1.5 page length requirement. Citations may be formatted in APA, MLA or Chicago style, as long as they are consistent throughout. For assistance with proper citation formatting, use the easybib website. Access this website, by clicking HERE (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
When writing your essay, respond to the prompt thoroughly, and completely. Essays must be a minimum of 1.5 pages in length, double spaced, 1 inch margins, 12 point font, and written in Times New Roman.
Your response should be your own thoughts and analysis. Research and resources should be incorporated with scholarly application. I.e. used as examples or evidence to support your analysis. Make sure to use complete sentences, and proper grammar. Your response to the prompt should focus on analyzing the information you gathered. Incorporate the information you gathered by using it to provide examples and support for your response.
Instructions:
This is a guided investigation activity.
To get started, copy and paste the link below access the Texas Legislature Online official government website to find out who represents you in the state legislature’s house and senate.
http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/Home.aspx (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Fill in your information to find your district and representatives for each of the following, state elected, offices: House, Senate, and Board of Education. MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE IDENTIFYING the representatives, currently holding this offices, in the state of Texas, and NOT the U.S. government.
When writing your essay, you will need to identify and include the following information, for each of these three representatives. Do not simply copy and paste what is on the website. Gather the information and compile it to write a thorough essay. Submissions that simply list answers, using numeric or bullet points will automatically receive a 0.
The most efficient way to organize this information into complete sentences, would be to do the research first. Gather the information required for each of the 3 elected representatives you are being asked about. To get started, I would suggest perhaps making a chart to list the different characteristics you are required to find out about each of your 3 representatives. Then, when writing your essay, dedicate a separate paragraph (should be 3-5 sentences) to each of the individuals. It will help you keep your information organized and structured; as well as meet the length requirements of this paper, faster.
IMPORTANT- make sure to cite and source everything that you use to retrieve information about these 3 individuals. Even the Who Represents Me website link, I have directed you to, should be included. Cite this both parenthetically, where necessary, and bibliographically.
1. What is your House, Senate, and Board of Education district number? (you will ONLY have one for each)
2. Who represents your district in the Senate, House, and Board of Education?
3. Identify the following for each, your House, Senate and Board of Education representative. For this part, you may have to do some Sherlock Holmes investigative research (aka level up your Google Fu).
· Age
· Race
· Tenure (length of years served in their current position. Do not provide the date in years that they have served. I want an actual number. Do the math)
· Educational attainment level (highest grade level or post secondary degree obtained)
· Gender
· Career/profession/employment (what to do they do to earn income)
· Partisanship (political party affiliation)
· Marital status
· Religion
· Committee membership
· Political service and achievements ( if applicable)
4.In your own words, what have each of these individuals contributed, or not contributed, to your district?
5. Assess and critique the nature of these individual’s representation, as it personally applies to you. Do this by grading them on a scale of 1-10. Explain why you scored them in this manner. Be thorough and detailed in your explanation.
6. What did you learn or take away from this activity.
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