RJA #12a: Progress Report

What I have done:

I have been able to plan out what my points will be, my outline has helped me decide what I will say and waht sources I need to use. I have looked over a good portion of sources and have enough information to pull from them.

What I need to do:

I really need to continue looking for more sources, mainly books. I have a good list but they are long, I need to set time aside to read over them.

RJA #12b: Presentation Plan

My main plan for my presentation is to give a brief overview on how the Electoral College system works. I will explain why we have it and the objections that people have againts it. I will not argue for it, hopefully just give an unbiased overview. If I argue for the system my presentation will exceed the time limit.

RJA #12c: Introduction Check

I commented on Jane Park's and Su Nguyen's posts.

RJA #11a: Introduction

Over the past few decades there has been a growing dissatisfaction for how we elect our presidents. The system that was written into our constitution has been challenges repeatedly, but none of the challenges have taken any affect. There are several reasons why citizens have been growing a dislike towards the Electoral College. The Electoral College was set in place by the founders of America because they did want there to be a large majority who controls all political branches, but to give representation to the most people and the states; this electorate system must not be removed from our Constitution.

RJA #11b: Visual Aids

Maps:

Red vs Blue Maps- by county, state, city, district.

States in proportion to their population

States in proportion to their electoral votes.

Chart or diagram:

How the process takes place

how electorates are chosen

RJA #11c: Thesis Statement Check

I checked Rob's and Sean's.

RJA #10b: Argument

Argument 1: Creates better representation for all people, not just the majority who would elect the President.

Argument 2: Gives more of a voice to people and groups who would not have any say in a election. It helps the minorities and fights against a tyranny of the majority.

Argument 3: Keeps the elections focused on the states. This is important because it give value to the the average people and the candidates work harder for the state votes.

Opposition:

1. A total vote of all the people would give better representation.

2. The electoral college takes away from the voices of the common people.

3. We should not look at the states but the country as a whole.

RJA #9: Evaluation of Sources

Book: Enlightened Democracy: The Case for the Electoral College

Person Evaluated: Tara Ross

Conclusion: Tara Ross is a lawyer and has focused on law, public policy, and constitutional history. She seems to be a public figure of sorts; she often appears as a guest on different talk shows. She also has been published in several law reviews and newspapers, including the National Law Journal, USA Today, the American Enterprise Online, National Review Online, WeeklyStandard.com, FoxNews.com, HumanEvents.com, The Washington Times, and the Texas Review of Law & Politics.

Periodical: Don't Mess with the Electoral College

David Lewis Schaefer

Conclusion: David Schaefer is a political science professor. He has written several books and seems to be a credited writer. He has written a lot for periodicals like the Wall Street Journal.

Website: Save The Electoral College

Paul Greensberg

Conclusion: Greensberg is a long time conservative writer. He has written lots of books and has written for townhall for a long time.

NARA

This is a government site. I think most of what comes here is creditable. There are also links to the electoral college website.

Citizendium

This is a lot like Wikipedia. From what it look like the information here is good but there is a works cited to I can check if everything is reliant or not.

PBS: Pros and Cons of the Electoral College

There are two people involved in this dialogue: George Edwards and Alexander Keyssar.

George Edwards is the author of the book, Why The Electoral College Is Bad For America. He teaches political science at Texas A&M. Alexander Keyssar is a history and social science professor at Harvard.

RJA #8a: Websites

Resource: Sweet Search

Keywords: Electoral College Support

Search Strategies: Boolean

Number of Hits: Does not give a cumulative number

Relevance: 5

Resource: Metacrawler

Keywords: electoral college necessary

Search Strategies: Boolean

Number of Hits: 43

Relevance: 2

Resource: Yahoo Directory

Keywords: U.S. Presidential Elections>Electoral College

Search Strategies: Followed the Directory

Number of Hits: 12

Relevance: 3

Resource: incywincy

Keywords: electoral college support

Search Strategies: boolean

Number of Hits: 10

Relevance: 2

Resource: Soovie

Keywords: Electoral college history support pros and cons debate reform system

Search Strategies: boolean math

Number of Hits: N/A

Relevance: 5

RJA #8b: Social Media

Resource: Technorati

Keywords: Electoral, College, System, Relevance, Support, Reasons

Search Strategies: boolean and math

Number of Hits: 0-180

Relevance: I tired several times to use this site but I could not get anything good: 0

Resource: Collecta

Keywords: Electoral college support

Search Strategies: mathmatical

Number of Hits: N/A (does not say)

Relevance: 1

RJA #8c: Multimedia

Resource Used: Blinkx

Keywords Used: electoral college reasons

Search Strategy: Boolean

Number of Hits: 837

Relevance: 3

Internet Research Project

• Viewzi
• Summary: Basically it uses both google and yahoo to search. But what sets it apart is all of the different ways that you can view the results. Some of the options to view are more useful than others, but some are just useless.
• Strengths: Because you can make your own account you can personalize viewzi and make it your own. It is also much more interesting to look at and use.
• Weaknesses: Some of the viewing options are pointless and does not do anything helpful, but it probably depends on what you are searching and your topic.
• Databases: Viewzi does not use it's own database, it uses yahoo and google's.
• Operators: Supports both Boolean and Mathematical operations.
• Case Sensitivity: No
• Stop Words: Everything is searched for.
• Advance Search Function: as far as I can see, there is no advanced option.
• Limits: Does not allow for an advanced search and can become slightly overwhelming with all of the different viewing options.
• Sorting: Sorted by relevance and popularity.
• Display: The display is really what sets viewzi apart from the rest. It is crisper, colorful, and just all around better to look at than most search tools.
• Help Function: There was none that I could find.
• Special Features: Create and account and multiple ways to view results.

RJA #7a: Internet Research Tools

Like most, I usually just use google. It is mostly because it gets the job done for most day to day searches and it is on my toolbar in my browser. Like most complaints with google, a too many results come from a search and they may not be very great. So far I really like the search tool that was given to me, I will probably use it a lot. I also get a lot of good stuff from the school resources.

RJA #7b: Internet Research Tool Test

Because of how viewzi is set up there are lots of different ways that my results came up. One of the first searches I did that brought up a good amount of results was "importance*electoral*college". I got 37 results in the simple text option, 20 from the yahoo option, and there are a lot more options to choose from. As far as relevance goes, it is a 5 of 5. I can't really see anything that is not relevant. This specific search is very useful.