FRS 101: Election Machinery

Princeton
University

Freshman Seminar 101
Election Machinery

Andrew W. Appel

Fall 2008

Directory
General Information | Schedule and Readings | Assignments | Course Blog

Reading

The Schedule and Readings page lists the required reading for each week. You must do this before class. Take notes on the reading, and bring in a 1-page summary sheet (handwritten or typed) so that you have some interesting things to talk about during class.

Class discussion

Because this is a seminar course, a major part of your work is to participate intelligently in the class discussion.

Weekly writing

Each week, you will be expected to write a short essay of 400-500 words on some topic related to the course. Your weekly writing might discuss an issue raised in class discussion, in the reading, or in another student's weekly writing. If you like, you can raise a new issue that you think was missed elsewhere. Any topic you like is fine, as long as it relates to the subject matter of the course.

You will publish your weekly reading on the course blog, a web site readable by the instructor, other students, and the public. The site takes the form of a weblog: a sequence of entries organized by date. You can log into the blog site using your Princeton University NetID.

Because the weekly writing site will be available to the public, when you write on the site you'll have the option to use your real name or a pseudonym. If you choose a pseudonym, it must be known to the instructor, but it will be your choice whether to reveal it to the other members of the class or to the public.

You are required to submit one essay to the site each week, except for Week 1 (and the break week). We hope to have a constant flow of essays through the week. Therefore, each student has been assigned a random day of the week on which his or her essays are due. However, you are welcome to post your essay earlier in the week. If you want to reflect on a class discussion, for instance, it makes sense to do so right away, because your memory of the discussion, and your ideas about it, may tend to fade with time. Furthermore, you may swap due dates with another member of the class, provided both students notify the instructor.

Because the web site will be organized like a discussion, we hope you will take a relatively informal, conversational tone in your essays. This doesn't mean I will ignore sloppy thinking or sloppy writing. But it does mean that I won't reward you for taking a formal tone, and I won't punish you for speaking frankly or for writing in the first person.

I will grade your weekly essays and give you brief feedback on them. We'll send you these grades and comments by email. They won't appear on the public website.

What to do if courseblog.cs.princeton.edu is down

If the courseblog web site is not working, and it's the due date for your writing assignment, then do BOTH of the following things: