Current Event Short Report (CESR)
It is essential to stay on top of political and cultural news in order to
fully understand and process political science concepts. To do that, this
course will require frequent briefs on news events tied to course concepts.
These reports are short writings that provides for a deeper inquiry into the
news issue as well as the continued practice of writing needed for university
work and the AP exam’s free response questions.
They cannot be turned in earlier than 3 days ahead of time so that the
reporting is timely and based on CURRENT events.
Writing is expected to contain high quality sentence structure and grammar,
and should reflect a strong understanding of both the news event and the
course subject connection. You should use EVIDENCE to support your
arguments (your evidence will come from the news report and course content)

Paragraphs may be numbered if you prefer, but numbering is not
required.

Be sure your news story is STRAIGHT NEWS from a CREDIBLE NEWS
SOURCE. No editorials, or opinion pieces, and no sources from think tank
websites or obscure blogs. A list of news sources is available on the front
page of my website. Please try different sources for your CESRs.
FORMAT:
 TITLE for your report (not title of assignment / your own created title to go
with your subject matter)
 Article Annotation (MLA/APA format – required at TOP of report)
P.1: INTRO to the story and why you chose it (what about the event/topic interests
you?)
P.2: BRIEF SUMMARY of the story and its importance
P.3: How is the Assigned Political Issue most applicable to this story and how did
the Government’s behavior play into the issue?
P.4: CONCLUSION: What is your response to the issue and/or the government’s
behavior? Can you offer any original solutions or criticisms? overall impressions,
where you think it will go from here, etc
*** You will not receive full credit if your news item does not match the assigned
topic and/or you do not effectively connect it with the Constitutional/Political
issue assigned.
Subject to change, CESR’s will follow this path:
CESR #
1
News Event/Story Topic
Federal or State Gov
Constitutional/Political Issue
Constitutional Supremacy (Article
6)
2
Election News
Voter Behavior/Public Opinion
3
National News
Interest Groups/ Iron Triangle
4
Federalism (Feds v. State)
Fiscal Federalism
5
Executive v. Legislative
Domestic/Foreign Policy
Branch
6
Congress
The Elastic Clause (Art.1,S.8)
7
Executive Branch
Article 2 Powers
8
Three Branches
Separation / Balance of Powers
9
Civil Rights / Civil Liberties
Bill of Rights
Due Process or Equal
14th Amendment
10
Protection
11
Supreme Court
Judicial Decisions/Article 3
powers
12
Civic Engagement
Grading Rubric:
CESR #1
Name:
Preamble of the Constitution
TITLE for your report / Article Citation
/2
P.1: INTRO to the story and why you chose it
/3
/3
P.2: BRIEF SUMMARY of the story and its importance
/5
P.3: APPLY THE ISSUE: Constitutional Supremacy
/5
P.4: Your RESPONSE to the issue
P.5: CONCLUSION
/2
/20