Primary Discussion Response is due by Wednesday (11:59:59pm Central), Peer Responses are due by Sunday (11:59:59pm Central).

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 300–500 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

Interest groups play a significant role in contemporary American politics, on a wide range of public policy issues, from healthcare (Affordable Care Act, for example) to gun control (the NRA is a well-known example), and from financial services regulation to regulating food production.

For this discussion board, choose an interest group that appeals to you and then identify a public policy issue that your selected interest group is working on impacting. In addition, include the following information:

• What types of activities are conducted by your interest group? Provide examples of activities undertaken by the group within the last 12 months. Activities can include lobbying, television or radio spots, media spots, rallies or other activities. Also, if available, provide links to any news articles about the organization’s activities or press releases from the organization or other articles from the organization’s website for your classmates’ reference.
• How is your chosen interest group connected to the average citizen, if at all? Provide examples of average citizens’ involvement in your chosen interest group, if any. If your chosen interest group rarely or does not interact with the average citizen, please discuss how the work of your chosen interest group indirectly impacts the average citizen, if at all.
• Do you believe that interest groups do, or have the ability to, promote corruption in government? Explain your position. If they do or have the potential to do so, why do you believe so? If not, what do you think prevents them from corrupting government? Support your position with specific examples.

Responses to Other Students: Respond to at least 2 of your fellow classmates with a reply of at least 100 words about their primary task response. To help you with your discussion, please consider the following questions:

• What did you learn from your classmate’s posting?
• What additional questions do you have after reading the posting?
• What clarification do you need regarding the posting?
• What differences or similarities do you see between your posting and other classmates’ postings?

Individual project

Weekly tasks or assignments (Individual Projects) will be due by Monday and late submissions will be assigned a late penalty in accordance with the late penalty policy found in the syllabus. NOTE: All submission posting times are based on midnight Central Time.

PHASE 3 OUTLINE – THIS PROJECT MUST BE SUBMITTED IN OUTLINE FORM

After researching your topic and finding reliable sources, the next step is to use the information you have found to develop a working outline. In this assignment, you will build from your annotated bibliography. Using the same topic you researched in phase 2, you will plan and outline a Problem/Solution essay. You will use this outline to create a rough draft.

Before creating your first draft of the Problem/Solution essay, you will create a double-spaced outline that plans out your Problem/Solution essay in process.

The outline should begin with your Thesis Statement and introduce the Problem/Issue.

A well-integrated outline will include evidence of outside research integration, including specific statistics and data. Avoid using single word descriptions.  The stronger outline will be the more detailed and developed outline. 

Your Outline should contain the following:

• A thesis statement
• Topic sentences
• Supporting information in the form of quotes or paraphrased passages
• A properly formatted reference page with at least two reliable sources
• Proper in text citations

In addition to these structural guidelines your individual project should also contain the following:

• A cover page
• Headers
• Page numbers

Be double-spaced using 12 point, Times New Roman, Arial, or Courier fonts. Please submit your assignment.