Peer Review Portfolio
John Comer

CONTENTS

  1. Background
  2. Course Goals
  3. Instructional Practices: Methods, Materials and Assignments
  4. Assessment
  5. Lessons From a Course Portfolio
  6. Appendices
    1. Appendix A: Course Syllabus
    2. Appendix B: Student Questionnaire
    3. Appendix C: Focus Group
    4. Appendix D: Bias in news
    5. Appendix E: Public Opinion
    6. Appendix F: Format of Paper
  7. Student Work
    1. Sample Paper
    2. Poll Paper
    3. Focus Group Paper
    4. Bias in Media Paper

    Format of Paper Based on Poll

    I. One or two pages. You may if you wish cite arguments from information at you disposal but this is not necessary. I am more interested in having you spend time thinking about and clearly expressing the reasoning behind your hypothesis (proposition or question), for example, "Persons of higher education are more likely to be interested in presidential campaigns than persons of less education." or "Why are persons of higher education more interested in presidential campaign than persons of less education. Note we assume that our study addresses questions and issues beyond the single 2000 election, and thus, the hypothesis speaks to presidential elections in general rather than the 2000 election.

    II. Here, you will reproduce the table/s along with your interpretation of what it/they show/s. If you are examining a number of variables, think about including the information in a tabular format that includes all the variables but at the same time shows what a single table like the one shown in class today contains, if possible. It’s important to examine and interpret the table carefully and thoroughly.

    III. In this portion of the paper, you will address the implications of your findings and, if your expectations are not confirmed, why they were not. With respect to the later, you might consider some of the following:

    1. The questions in the survey are not adequate measures of the variables.

    2. The sample is simply not large enough to be reliable.

    3. Nebraskans are some how unique (you will need of course to be specific) and therefore deviate from expectations.

    4. Faulty reasoning or logic. Perhaps there is another way to think about the variables and your expectations. Be creative. The best papers will address this possibility.

    With respect to implications, what is the significance of your findings for society, politics, government, citizenship, democracy, the free world, life as we know it, etc. Presumably they have some significance. If not what’s the point, you are wasting your time. Show some imagination and creativity here also.