SPRING 2021 SYLLABUS: English Writing for Political Science (Juniors)
Meeting Time & Location: Tuesdays from 8-9:30AM, Thursdays from 10-11:30AM on DingTalk
Instructor: Mr. Julian Lee 李立安 Class Website: www.omnifoo.info/pages/PSWriting.html
Office: None. The instructor will be located in Mae Sai, Thailand, as long as possible (until July, it is hoped).
Email: omniscientfool@tom.com
Jump to: "Chalkboard" file Grading Essay 1 Essay 2 Essay 3 Class Schedule Midterm Review Games

OVERVIEW: This course aims to improve students' English writing skills in general and specifically with regard to topics in political science. A writing course entitled "English for Academic Purposes" (EAP) may be considered approximately analogous, though again the subject material for research and writing assignments will be focused rather than general. In each session of class, students should expect to do some writing, so a notebook and pen or pencil are REQUIRED for each class! Students should keep the same notebook throughout class to observe the progress they make throughout the course of the semester. We will do A LOT of writing in this class! Some of the writing will be corrected by your peers, so try to sit next to someone you trust to read and comment on your writing. Writing topics will be provided by the instructor and will require some preparation and previous knowledge of topics such as comparative politics, political theory, and current events. The class will include a review of basic grammar concepts, and this will involve many exercises to practice parts of speech, sentence and paragraph structure, improve vocabulary, and translation of basic sentences from Chinese to English. Exercises intended to advance students' writing from Chinese-style English or "Chinglish" toward a more standard, academic style of an American university will be emphasized. As the ultimate goals are to write English essays reviewing other scholarly works and containing some original research, extensive attention will be paid to proper quotation methods to avoid plagiarism. This course will share a similar structure, along with some materials and activities, with an international politics version. 讲课的语言是英语。 听/看不懂英语的学生千万要提前安排助学办法。

IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES: Depending on students' receptiveness, a variety of activities will be employed in this class. Above all, class sessions will be ACTIVE, with lots of student participation and a goal of minimizing lecture time by the instructor. Likely activities will include dictations (covering material from the previous session), individual & team games, grammar exercises, and correction of homework. Occasionally, the instructor will meet with students 1-on-1 online to read and correct past assignments, with the goals of explaining grading criteria and providing opportunities to make sure students can express their personal ideas precisely and clearly.

ASSIGNMENTS: Most class sessions will assign homework. Homework assignments will consist of both reading and writing. Reading assignments will mostly be to read an article, book chapter, or other text online to be prepared for in-class writing exercises. Some assignments, especially those completed in class, will be handwritten, while others may be either handwritten or typed. Occasionally the instructor will ask students to turn in writing assignments from in-class exercises or homework to be used as "daily grades" (平时成绩). If technology permits, at least twice in the semester, a dictation will be used for a daily grade. All of these will be submitted electronically via DingTalk, whether as a pdf or jpeg photograph.

EXAMS: This class will not have exams, unless students or higher authorities request them.

GRADING (ESSAYS): The three essays will be the main determinants of the final grade (30% x3), and with attendance and daily grades influencing borderline cases (10%). One essay will be due at the end of April, another at the end of May, and the third at the end of June. Prompts and requirements for such essays will be presented and discussed in class, then posted below. Students are encouraged to share drafts of essays with classmates before turning them in to the instructor. Essays will be graded on clarity, structure, and how well they meet the requirements in the next section. Self-expression, i.e. being able to express your own, unique thoughts will also be increasingly important as the semester progresses and technical skills improve. Grading standards will become more strict as the semester progresses, and some consideration of overall improvement of writing skills (as shown in the progression from the first to the third essay) may factor into the final grade for the course.

ESSAY GRADING CRITERIA: The instructor will write prompts for the three essays and choose the topics in consultation with students. A student wishing to write ESSAY 2 or 3 in response to a previous prompt should ask first and be aware that standards will be higher and more strict after feedback on other students' writing is available. ESSAY 1: Due Apr. 30th. Required length: 4-7 paragraphs (at least 1 introduction, 2 body paragraphs, 1 conclusion); not more than 5 double-spaced, typed pages. TOPICS: 1.TBA. PROMPT- See below.

Point Distribution : On Time? 20, Clarity & Cohesiveness 20, Grammar/Punctuation/Spelling/Capitalization 10, Title 5, Format (double-spaced, fonts, margins, paragraphs indented) 5, Evidence 5, Persuasiveness 5, Analysis (Thesis w/ body paragraphs connected to it, At least two questions in the PROMPT answered, Counter-argument considered) 15, Interesting/Original? 15.

Topic 1: Categorizing China as a Country. Is China today a developing country, a “middle-income” country, or a developed country with some very poor areas, similar to the USA? (For an example of how poor some areas of the USA are, consider that the UN recently filed a report on poverty in the USA, concluding that 18 million Americans live in “extreme poverty,” which Xi Jinping recently declared to have eliminated in China.) How do you know? Points of Focus: Keep in mind that developing countries are assumed to be poor, pre-industrial (subsistence agriculture economies), and above all, weak in the world. China’s many recent achievements make it antithetical to that definition. China is fully industrialized and has the largest economy in the world at PPP, a space program, a world-class and innovative high-tech sector, the world’s best high-speed rail system, mostly replaced other forms of currency with phone payments, more billionaires and a higher life expectancy than the USA, and a military befitting a global superpower. And you surely know many more.

If you insist that China is still a developing country, state your condition(s) for when it would no longer be.

You are also encouraged to argue that the three terms are outdated, no longer applicable to entire countries as they exist today.

For the best grade, carefully consider counter-arguments to your position and evidence.

Extreme poverty in the USA video to be sent via DingTalk.

Topic 2: Regime Types Background: Comparative politics rests on a foundational typology of totalitarian, authoritarian, and liberal democratic regimes and claims that these "ideal types" are objective, backed by empirical evidence/observation, and applicable to virtually all regimes around the world with little or no pro-Western bias. At the same time, the teleological sub-subfield of political development largely assumes that regimes will progress toward a procedural democracy based on "polyarchy," supplemented and enabled by the liberal rights and freedoms outlined in Schmitter & Karl's "What Democracy Is...And Is Not," even if such a regime does not help the economy. This assumption rests on a body of work called "human development theory," which in a very oversimplified form claims that economic development creates a middle class which gradually comes to prefer "self-expression values" and demand liberal democracy. Furthermore, living in a liberal democracy reinforces a political culture which makes any other regime type, including "illiberal democracy," unacceptable to citizens.

PROMPT: To what extent do you agree or disagree that the three basic regime types are objective and universally applicable, not Western impositions full of subjective value judgments? Do you think people in liberal democracies would really tolerate years or decades of economic stagnation rather than change their regime? Will all the world's political regimes, including China's, eventually converge in some form of liberal/"Western"/"bourgeois" democracy? Why/why not? Why are there so few totalitarian regimes left in the 21st century?

SUGGESTED TEXTS TO CITE: Stepan & Linz, Schmitter & Karl.

Topic 3: Why a particular movie is deeply meaningful to you. PROMPT: Tell me...1. What your favorite movie is and which movie you'll be writing about (if it's not your #1 favorite). 2. Why it's deeply meaningful to you, personally. 3. Why others should watch and appreciate it, too. 4. Who might not like it and why they are wrong. (i.e. "This movie is not for people who...") OTHER REQUIREMENTS: 1. Give both the English and Chinese name (if available) for the movie, the date (year) it was released, what genre it belongs to, and (if applicable) what the MPAA rates it (i.e. PG, PG-13, R). 2. Give a very short summary of what the movie's about, and avoid "spoilers". DO NOT summarize the entire plot or spend more than TWO SENTENCES saying what the film is about. This is also an analytical essay! 3. Quote at least one review of the movie written by a professional film critic (i.e. one who writes books about movies, works for a magazine/newspaper, or who writes for a well-known entertainment/film website: For examples of reviews, visit www.metacritic.com). You should either agree OR disagree with the quotation, giving reasons why you do. Give all the basic information about the movie (country, director, year, genre such as comedy/drama/horror/action), avoid spoilers, and DON'T choose the same movie as another student. Students are encouraged to make use of the Preferential Introduction to Motion Pictures in English for EFL/ESL Students and the instructor's page of favorite films (though some are naughty, and you shouldn't say I recommended them to you!). OPTIONAL: Is your favorite movie mostly entertaining, educational, or a combination of both? How do movies compare to books in general in these regards?

ESSAY 2: Due Sun., June 13th. Required length: 4-7 paragraphs (at least 1 introduction, 2 body paragraphs, 1 conclusion); Required length: 800 words, but not longer than 7 double-spaced pages. GRADING OF ESSAY 2: On Time? (15); Clarity & Cohesiveness w/ at least two questions from the prompt addressed (15); Grammar/Punctuation/Spelling/Capitalization (10); Title (5); Format (Student’s name in digital file and above title, paragraphs indented, length, margins, font) (5); Evidence (5); Persuasiveness (5); Analysis (10); Two direct quotations of outside sources, cited formally w/ bibliography (15); Interesting/Original? (15).

Topic 1: Chinese nationalism

PROMPT: What does the West, whether average people or “China Watchers,” misunderstand about Chinese nationalism and patriotism? How concerned should the rest of the world be about China of the 21st century being a nationalist superpower intent on taking revenge for the wrongs of imperialism while China was weak under the late Qing and early 20th century? To what extent is it OK to be a cosmopolitan or otherwise not patriotic in today’s PRC, and how do you know? As a whole, is the Chinese nation ethnic or civic, and to what extent are “ethnic Chinese” in the Chinese diaspora included? How far might Chinese irredentism and “Great Han Revivalism” go (claiming lands formerly under Chinese control in Outer Mongolia, Siberia, Northern Vietnam, Singapore, Chinatowns across the world)?

SUGGESTED TEXTS TO CITE: Chart on jingoism/nationalism/globalism/cosmopolitanism. Smith & Gellner’s book chapters.

Topic 2: Stateless Nations. Background: Most large states and not a few small ones today face challenges from ethnic minorities showing the characteristics of a nation, such as self identification with a sub-national group rather than the country of citizenship, the desire for an independent state based in a national homeland for the purposes of protecting their unique cultures and achieving “national self-determination.” Many “micro-states,” much smaller nations, and states without a national majority have achieved statehood despite having much smaller populations and weaker claims to deserve it than groups like the Tamils, Sikhs, Kurds, and more actively persecuted groups like the Palestinians and Rohingya. As mentioned in class and on the handouts, governments have a range of policy options towards such minorities such as allowing them to separate and form their own state (quite rare) and accommodation with autonomy on the side they would likely choose for themselves. Integration is somewhat of a middle option, but in the long term it is likely to have an assimilative effect that minority nationalists are likely to fear and oppose. Full assimilation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide are surprisingly still commonly chosen, despite these being obvious violations of human rights.

PROMPT: Choose an example of a stateless nation in the world and analyze its prospects (present and future) for survival and prosperity within its current state(s) and getting its own state. How much, if any, autonomy do they currently enjoy in their homeland? To what extent do their separatist/independence movements threaten national security/integrity? Do the majority of the state(s) they are in accept them as citizens, national members or want to do something like ethnic cleansing (or worse)? Do you think they are kept within the state by force/against their will of “national self-determination”? What exactly do its most fervent nationalists want, and how much support do they have among the population (the nation itself, the larger majority population of the country, and around the world)? More generally, should every nation get its own state? Why/why not? Should stateless nations focus instead of independence/separatism on integrating and assimilating into the majority nation for the economic benefits that would likely result (as Marx would argue)? To what extent can states distinguish between separatist movements and terrorism? What do you think of how “virtual states” like Canada, Britain, and Spain handle their separatist movements by allowing citizens to vote on whether to stay in or leave (as opposed to traditional states which would never allow a loss of territory/population)?

SUGGESTED TEXTS TO CITE: Smith & Gellner’s book chapters. Websites for nationalist separatist movements.

Topic 3 : Chinese political economy. Background: With each new chairman of the PRC, Western capitalists hope that he will be the one to reform (marketize/privatize) the Chinese economy to be just like those of Western countries, and they are repeatedly disappointed with the slow pace of change. Western economists are especially critical of the ongoing prevalence, size, and strength of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the PRC, claiming that they are inefficient, financially unviable (often called “zombies” that will never turn a profit and only continue to take gov’t loans to keep people employed), or supposedly worst of all “outcompeting” private MNCs globally thanks to support from the Chinese state. Some critics also warn that having “soft budget constraints” may create overly high tolerance of risk and create “overcapacity” found in several heavy industries in the 21st century PRC (much more steel and other commodities can be produced than is demanded by the domestic economy, and exporting them at sub-market prices is considered anti-competitive “dumping”). Many assume that “mixed” economies like China’s today must be temporary and transitional towards one that more clearly resembles an ideal type of capitalism or communism in macroeconomic theory.

PROMPT: How far in either direction (nationalization & state planning versus privatization & marketization) should economic reforms continue in the PRC? To what extent are terms like “Red Capitalism” and “State Capitalism” accurate descriptions of the contemporary Chinese economy? We all know the benefits of “reform and opening” that Deng Xiaoping began, in terms of GDP growth and poverty reduction, but how do they compare today in terms of the drawbacks such as environmental degradation, species extinction, socioeconomic inequality, insecurity from the end of "the iron rice bowl," corruption, foreign influence (Westernization), etc.? To what extent is the current “mixed” economy in China sustainable in the medium to long term rather than transitional?

SUGGESTED TEXTS TO CITE: Article on Changchun in the LA Times, Arnold in TeenVogue, Tupy in The Atlantic, The six-hour documentary from 2002, “Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy”, Marx, Stalin, Mao, Deng, Xi, etc.

ESSAY 3: Due at the end of the semester on July 14th. Since the prompts came late, the "on time value" has been reduced to five points. Required length: 800 words, but not longer than 7 double-spaced pages. GRADING OF ESSAY 3(POINT DISTRIBUTION): On Time? (5); Clarity & Cohesiveness w/ at least two questions from the prompt addressed (15); Grammar/Punctuation/Spelling/Capitalization (10); Title (5); Format (Student’s name in digital file and above title, paragraphs indented, length, margins, font) (5); Evidence (5); Persuasiveness (5); Analysis (10); Two direct quotations of outside sources, one from a source in English & the other from a Chinese source, cited formally w/ bibliography (20); Interesting/Original? (20).

OTHER REQUIREMENTS: Outside Sources = use (quote directly) at least one source originally in English and one source originally in Chinese (to be translated into English while including the original text and citation). Bibliography = include a bibliography of outside sources, alphabetized by authors'/editors' surnames, at the end of the essay. The format will be discussed in class. TOPIC: Students may choose between Topic 1, Topic 2, Topic 3, OR Topic 4.

Topic 1: Early 2021 in Burma (Myanmar). Background: The Burmese Military, known as the Tatmadaw and led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, declared the results of the 2020 election fraudulent, dissolved the government, and declared that it would take full control of the country again, ending Burma’s latest, short and limited experiment with something like Western/liberal democracy. The 2020 election overwhelmingly sent members of the NLD (National League for Democracy) to Parliament and reaffirmed support for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as the de facto head of state (though she never held power entirely independent of the military). Ms. Suu Kyi has since been charged with numerous crimes and corruption, held once again under house arrest, and recently put on trial by the junta. Besides outright killing citizens protesting on the streets, the junta routinely imprisons its opponents and tortures them, some fatally, while the country’s many ethnic minorities may be supporting military opposition efforts and an NLD “alternative government” made up of those who won the 2020 election. As of June, the death toll from the coup stands at 850+, and there remain concerns that a full-scale civil war could yet break out in this poor SE Asian country. There appears to be a divide in the country over the very definition of a state, specifically related to Max Weber’s requirement that one group have anything close to “a monopoly on the legitimate use of force.” As class readings have argued, a regime which exists and “governs” primarily through violent force will not enjoy high legitimacy in the 21st century.

PROMPT: Why are Burma and Thailand so prone to military coups and military authoritarian regimes, while most of the rest of the world has left such forms of government in the 20th century? Must all poor and middle-income countries undergo a “praetorian phase” of forceful rule as part of their “political development” (whether or not in a process towards becoming liberal/Western democracies)? How do the presence of an “alternative government” led by the party which won the 2020 election (the NLD) and the ongoing violence relate to Max Weber’s definition of the state as “a bounded territory whose government has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force”? Evaluate the Tatmadaw’s (the junta’s) claims to legitimacy. Does "might make right"? How close is the country to being a “failed state”? What can “the int’l community” (such as the UN), ASEAN, Western countries, and China do to re-establish peace and order, and would it be wrong for them to take sides or intervene in the conflict without the permission of either the Tatmadaw or the NLD government? To what extent can a regime that lacks the support of the majority of citizens (or is actively opposed by a majority) govern a 21st-century state? To what extent is the Tatmadaw justifying its return to rule as “the only way” to keep minority separatists from declaring independence/seceding from the “Union of Myanmar,” giving minorities “too much autonomy,” or preventing the Muslim Rohingya minority from being recognized as legal citizens, and are they right or wrong to do so?

SUGGESTED TEXTS TO CITE: Samuel Huntington’s “Political Order in Changing Societies”, news articles & editorials in English & Chines (incl. class readings by Chin, Fisher, Zin Mar Aung)

Topic 2: Public Administration Versus Business Management. Background: We briefly discussed the idea taking hold in the West in recent decades that government should be both run and evaluated more like businesses, in terms of efficiency. U.S. political figures like Donald Trump, Mitt Romney, and countless others came to politics after successful business careers and campaigned on the promise to cut government “waste,” reduce budgets/spending, and generally shake up the public sector with ideas like monetized performance evaluations, deregulation to “set free” the forces of the market, downsizing bureaucracies, removing “red tape,” and ending the idea that a gov’t job is safe and stable (i.e. difficult to be fired or laid off). At middle management levels, there is indeed much overlap in the skill sets required for managing a for-profit business office and a non-profit public service organization (PSO) such as a gov't agency. However, many public administrators push back with objections such as the distinction that gov’t agencies and organizations providing essential services like fire control, public education, policing, taxation, and general governance should be judged more on their effectiveness—-are they achieving their objectives as stated in their mission statements or not? Reducing their size (staff, resources, etc.) and funding might appear to make them more efficient but is also likely to reduce their effectiveness as well. Morale at federal agencies, especially the U.S. Dept. of State, whose budget and staff were greatly reduced (including some positions which were simply left unfilled for four years), was said to be very low under the Trump Admin., for a U.S. example.

PROMPT: What does Chinese PA literature say about tradeoffs between (financial, time) efficiency and effectiveness in PSOs? Why should/shouldn’t gov’t agencies and other PSOs be subject to the “austerity” and fiscal discipline of corporate management, such as experiments to see how low a budget can be allocated while still accomplishing the main goal(s)? Should PSOs try to earn a profit to offset public budget reductions? In your view, what are the key similarities between business management and non-profit and PSO management? What, if anything, about the way provincial and local governments are administrated in China leads citizens to trust them less and find them more corrupt that the central gov’t in Beijing? If you plan to go to graduate school for PA or get a job immediately after graduating from NENU, what are your goals and likely career path (especially related to your prospects for entry-level employment related to your field of PA)?

SUGGESTED TEXTS TO CITE: Max Weber’s “Politics as a Vocation”, public administration & management literature in English & Chinese

Topic 3: Military Conscription & National Service. Background: As mentioned in the session handout, 75 countries around the world required their citizens to serve in the military as of 2018. Despite starting and being involved in more wars than any other country in the 21st century, the USA hasn’t drafted its citizens into the military since the Vietnam War of the 1960s & 70s, fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (as well as filling its dozens of global military bases) with an entirely voluntary force. After the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy against LGBTQ people serving in the military was ended by Pres. Obama in 2011, Pres. Trump prohibited transgender citizens from serving, and Pres. Biden recently reversed that policy, too. The U.S. military has a higher percentage of women serving than any other country, but women are still banned from combat (i.e. infantry, tank operation, etc.). All U.S. males 18 or older who wish to be eligible for financial aid in college must register for The Selective Service, which would become another military draft in the case of insufficient volunteers (or another major war on a larger scale than Iraq and Afghanistan), and there is consideration of whether women should also be required to register. Also under serious consideration in the U.S. is a requirement that citizens give a period of their time and energy for national service (non-military), a policy which already exists in countries such as Nigeria, Germany, and Denmark.

PROMPT: Should women who join the military be able to fight enemy soldiers in combat situations? Should LGBTQ people be allowed to serve in the military? Why/why not? Should military service for a country at peace/war be voluntary or mandatory, and why? Other than military training in college, how else are you required to “serve your country” as a Chinese citizen, and do you think these requirements should be increased or decreased? Are there enough opportunities for citizens to volunteer in China, and what kinds of causes/organizations would you consider volunteering for (have you volunteered before/will you volunteer?)?

SUGGESTED TEXTS TO CITE: Military conscription policies around the world, Chinese texts on citizens' military service requirements and volunteer organizations, the website for U.S. Selective Service.

Topic 4: The Jan. 6th Sedition & Right-Wing Populism in the USA. Background: Jan. 6th, 2021, will be remembered as a dark day in American history. A mob of right-wing populists (mainly supporters of Pres. Trump who believe the 2020 election was fraudulently stolen from him) broke into the U.S. Capitol building, perpetrating acts of looting and vandalism, accompanied by the deaths of police and fellow citizens, threats to lawmakers requiring them to flee the floor of Congress for underground bunkers, and a crowd chanting to “Hang [Vice President] Mike Pence” for his ceremonial role in certifying the results of the Electoral College vote against the wishes of outgoing Pres. Trump. Surveys show that a majority of Republicans today still either support these seditious acts or think that they were actually committed by far-left activists trying to damage the reputation of Trump supporters and other right-wing populists. Social disorder in this case as well as violence in protests against police brutality across the country lead to the conclusion that while a military coup and the establishment of martial law in the USA might have been thought impossible and ridiculous four years ago, it may now be seen as not only possible but even desirable or necessary among some segments of the population (and for various reasons). Republicans in Congress, largely elites, may hope for the tide of populism—-and Trump’s popularity—-to subside, but for now it seems they are still firmly in the grips of the 45th president, even to the point of rejecting a bipartisan investigation into the events of Jan. 6th. The one Republican on the investigative committee in the House of Representatives is Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President (and architect of the 2nd Iraq War) Dick Cheney, and populists in her party voted to strip her of her leadership positions after she voted to impeach Pres. Trump for his role in encouraging the riot.

PROMPT: How do you and your fellow Chinese citizens view the events of Jan. 6th and retired Gen. Michael Flynn’s (denied) call for a military coup in the USA to reinstall Trump as president? Will social disorder and violence get better or worse in Pres. Biden’s four-year term as president, and why? How likely is an actual military coup in the future of the USA? To what extent are Trump’s followers members of a “cult of personality” similar to dictators in history? How accurate or inaccurate is it to call the white nationalists and white supremacists among Trump supporters “fascists,” and to what extent do you think the majority of Republicans today share those extreme views? How do elite versus populist divisions in the U.S. Republican Party (and/or the Democratic Party) support or complicate “economic-determinism” and other Marxist views that reduce politics to class struggle between the rich and the poor?

SUGGESTED TEXTS TO CITE: News articles and newspaper editorials in English & Chinese (incl. class reading by Schogol), Ross Douthat in the NY Times (http://www.omnifoo.info/images/NYT%20Douthat%20The%20Two%20Crises%20of%20Conservatism.pdf ) , Goldberg on “What it means to be a conservative today”. Be especially careful to use your critical thinking skills if you cite any editorials on this subject!

For all essays, you will lose points if... 1. You try to answer more than one prompt/write on more than one topic (don't do it!); 2. You try to address every single thing in the "Background" section or very little (or worse, none) of it; 3. Your essay doesn't have a single, unifying thesis to tie your points together, or you don't directly address each part of the prompt; 4. (Essay 2 & 3 only) You don't have a bibliography/works cited section or citations (in-text or footnootes) for outside sources/direct quotes; 6. (Essay 2 & 3 only) Your Chinese source doesn't include the original text in Chinese; 7. Your essay is too long or short

SUGGESTED ONLINE FORUMS FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION (EXTRA WRITING PRACTICE): Global Voices

Care to see what Julian's other classes are doing and have done? Visit the NENU landing page for his reading, writing, public administration, and IR theory courses. All classes should have received a copy of EFL student guides to Western music and Western movies. Feel free to share and distribute them.

WEEKLY SCHEDULE:

WEEK 1 ( 3-9, 3-11): TUES. - Course introduction. Sign up for 1-on-1 session to discuss your first assignment (Winter Vacation Story) Distribute glossaries on Reading & Writing, Critical Thinking, etc. Introduce dictation exercise and practice a test dictation. Sentences, Paragraphs, and what they build to. HOMEWORK: Winter Vacation Story (Assignment) THURS. - No group meeting. Collect Winter Vacation Story (Assignment). Talk about sentence structure: simple, compound, complex, sentence fragments and run-on sentences. Grammar point: Expressing regrets with past participles of verbs. Academic VS. Non-academic writing. HOMEWORK: Write three sentences using past participles of verbs to express how you wish your winter vacation had gone differently. (i.e. Do you have any regrets? What do you wish you had done/not done/done differently?) Be ready to talk about Sentence Structure exercise in next class.

WEEK 2 ( 3-16, 3-18): TUES. - Return & explain graded "test" dictations. Learn to "extend a sentence" without breaking grammar rules. Handout on sentence structure. THURS. - Give answers for Sentence Structure exercises. Review handouts on "How to Talk Like a Political Scientist from the USA" and "Basic Political Structures & Functions in the USA."

WEEK 3 ( 3-23, 3-25): TUES. - Chinglish Elimination exerise, correction/editing marks THURS. -

WEEK 4 ( 3-30, 4-1): TUES. - Discuss handout on basic political terms. THURS. -

WEEK 5 ( 4-6, 4-8): TUES. - Discuss handout on basic political geography THURS. - Chinglish Elimination exercise 2

WEEK 6 ( 4-13, 4-15): TUES. - Read the guide to academic articles & in the specific case of the pre-print of the female leaders & Covid-19 responses article. THURS. - Continue reading (about) academic articles. HOMEWORK: Read two classic pieces on regime types from the 1990s by Schmitter & Karl and another by Linz & Stepan. Which of the "-cracy & -archy" labels best fit your view of how and who govern the societies of the USA, Russia, and Japan? Feel free to use more than one label for each country. Write a sentence or two for each, and connect them to your "Top 3" and "Bottom 3" that you'd like and not like to live in.

WEEK 7 ( 4-20, 4-22): TUES. - Quoting exercise. HOMEWORK: 3 examples of quoting an "outside source" for an essay THURS. - Topic sentences, introduction to types of paragraphs. HOMEWORK: Add a new topic sentence to paragraphs from the latest news in an updated topic sentence exercise & unscsramble a paragraph.

WEEK 8 ( 4-27, 4-29): TUES. - Read the instructor's handout on -archy and -cracy to prepare for discussion of regime types. Begin discussion of regime types within a typology of Weberian "ideal types." HOMEWORK: In your notebooks, rank the "Top 3" kinds of "-archy & -cracy" you would want to live in (and why) and the "Bottom 3" you think would be the worst to live under (Choose from, in alphabetical order: anarchy, autocracy, democracy, gerontocracy, gynarchy (matriarchy), kleptocracy, meritocracy, monarchy, oligarchy, patriarchy, plutocracy, theocracy. Discuss your rankings with your classmates and as a class. THURS. - Discuss regime types based on handout, chapter from Stepan & Linz, article by Schmitter & Karl. HOMEWORK: In one paragraph, answer one of the following questions: 1. Your instructor (and his professors) generally prefers to call Linz & Stepan's "sultanism" a kind of personalist authoritarianism, in contrast with the institutionalized version the authors describe but too similar to be another regime type. To what extent do you think this is a real difference worth separating? 2. Many students, especially at first, find it hard to tell the difference between a totalitarian regime and an authoritarian one (especially when Stepan & Linz include the transitional "post-totalitarian" type). How would you describe their differences and, if any, similarities in contrast with liberal democracy? 3. The instructor has taken great care to modify what both texts call "democracy" (and the only kind recognized in the West) as "liberal democracy." This regime has been criticized variously as "bourgeois democracy" by Marxists, "Western democracy" by "Asian Values" advocates (such as China and Singapore), and very often in terms of the instructor's handout such as "oligarchy" or "plutocracy." To what extent do you agree or disagree with such criticism? 4. Schmitter & Karl wanted to make an authoritative reference for how actually existing democracies look and vary, but are they really only describing what we in the 2010s would now call liberal democracies? To what extent does their authority as Stanford professors make for an authoritarian definition of democracy, excluding other, illiberal forms and the regime-type conceptions of average people?

WEEK 9 ( 5-4 NO CLASS, 5-6, 5-8): THURS. - Introduction paragraphs & thesis statements, conclusion paragraphs. Write an introduction paragraph containing a thesis statement for Essay 1 (you can still change your topic and thesis statement later before submitting it). For Saturday's make-up session, watch Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 11-9 & Planet of the Humans for examples of left-wing populism in the USA SAT. MAKE-UP SESSION. - Discuss the film(s).

WEEK 10 ( 5-11, 5-13): TUES. - ESSAY 1 DUE. Small conversation groups (3 groups of four students each?) THURS. - Democratic Theory & Practice exercise

WEEK 11 ( 5-18, 5-20): TUES. - Titles: Subtitles, Capitalization, & Punctuation. Disagreeing with a quotation THURS. - Altering quotations with brackets [ ] exercise. READINGS: A news article from the LA Times on economic reforms in Changchun, an article on Bernie Sanders' democratic socialism versus capitalism from Tupy in The Atlantic, and a surprisingly long article on socialism by Arnold from TeenVogue (a fashion magazine for teenagers).

WEEK 12 ( 5-25, 5-27): TUES. - Study how to write general statements in English. THURS. - Political economy based on handout available on request

WEEK 13 ( 6-1, 6-3): TUES. - Continue political economy handout THURS. - Articles on political economy. HOMEWORK: Check out a book from the NENU library in English

WEEK 15 ( 6-8, 6-10): TUES. - Citation styles (in-line, footnotes, end notes) & bibliography/works cited/references sections. THURS. - Citing edited volumes & unusual sources

WEEK 16 ( 6-15, 6-17): TUES. - Military-civilian relations base upon handout THURS. - Articles on military coup d'etats & the coup in Burma (Myanmar), regime legitimacy

WEEK 17 ( 6-22, 6-24): TUES. - Quoting & citing Chinese language sources THURS. - Small Conversation Groups

WEEK 18 ( 6-29, 7-1): TUES. - Final Review Game THURS. - Writing & Drawing "game"

TBA = To Be Announced.

This syllabus is subject to change and will be updated throughout the semester. Check back regularly to be fully informed!