WRITING ADVICE Prompt In 6-8 pages develop an argument about the key factors determining successful presidential leadership in the modern era (FDR forward). Your argument should be deeply rooted in the scholarly literature on the presidency. Develop your argument in more detail by exploring two cases where a president attempted to provide leadership in some way. The cases that you select should be narrow (e.g. FDR and the passage of the Social Security Act rather than FDR and the New Deal). Prompt (cont.) You only have a few short pages to discuss each case and it is better to be an inch wide and a mile deep than a mile wide and an inch deep. I think that the easiest way to do this would be to choose a policy or action widely viewed as a historical success and another that is widely viewed as a historical failure (e.g. Truman’s Marshall Plan and Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia). However, you do not need to follow this mold. You could also compare two successes or two failures. Prompt (cont.) In the development of your mini-case studies, you should draw heavily from the Green Library’s large collection of newspapers (available online). For each case, you should be citing from The New York Times and other online newspaper databases from the week surrounding the event. This will help give your cases much more depth. I also encourage you to find other supplemental sources like presidential biographies, journal articles, academic books, primary documents, and oral histories about the actual event to bolster What do you need? A theory of presidential leadership developed from the scholarly literature • Two interesting cases that you’ll analyze in light of that theory Developing a theory Look for books and articles about presidential leadership • Look for useful references in the “suggested readings” section of your textbook • Where do you start? http://library.fiu.edu • Search books for “presidential leadership” or other important key terms that you might be interested in • Sign in from off campus to have access to articles (“Log in for Access” on the yellow toolbar) • Go to “Find > A-Z List > G > Google Scholar” to make your way to Google Scholar from off campus What about the cases? Explore the appendix in Greenstein (233-274) • Read newspapers from the time • Produce copies or directly transcribe into a Word document with the information that you will need for citations and references • “Blah, blah, blah... Marshall Plan...” (Greg A. Halpriggs, “The Marshall Plan,” NY Times, March 27th, 1948, Section A-11, Paragraph 4). Not an actual citation or reference (just the info you will eventually need) • Look for scholarly works on the cases in the same way that you did for your theory Organization Write a strong thesis statement that clearly elaborates your main argument and organizes your paper: • Ex. “Ultimately, the paper contends that the failure of President Nixon’s invasion of Cambod.

1. WRITING ADVICE
Prompt
In 6-8 pages develop an argument about the key
factors determining successful presidential
leadership in the modern era (FDR forward).
Your argument should be deeply rooted in the
scholarly literature on the presidency. Develop
your argument in more detail by exploring two
cases where a president attempted to provide
leadership in some way. The cases that you
select should be narrow (e.g. FDR and the
passage of the Social Security Act rather than
FDR and the New Deal).
Prompt (cont.)
You only have a few short pages to discuss each
case and it is better to be an inch wide and a
mile deep than a mile wide and an inch deep. I
think that the easiest way to do this would be to
choose a policy or action widely viewed as a
historical success and another that is widely
viewed as a historical failure (e.g. Truman’s
Marshall Plan and Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia).
However, you do not need to follow this mold.
You could also compare two successes or two
failures.

2. Prompt (cont.)
In the development of your mini-case studies, you
should draw heavily from the Green Library’s
large collection of newspapers (available online).
For each case, you should be citing from The New
York Times and other online newspaper databases
from the week surrounding the event. This will help
give your cases much more depth. I also
encourage you to find other supplemental
sources like presidential biographies, journal
articles, academic books, primary documents,
and oral histories about the actual event to bolster
What do you need?
A theory of presidential leadership
developed from the scholarly literature
• Two interesting cases that you’ll analyze in
light of that theory
Developing a theory
Look for books and articles about presidential
leadership
• Look for useful references in the “suggested
readings” section of your textbook
• Where do you start? http://library.fiu.edu
• Search books for “presidential leadership” or other
important key terms that you might be interested in
• Sign in from off campus to have access to articles (“Log
in for Access” on the yellow toolbar)
• Go to “Find > A-Z List > G > Google Scholar” to make
your way to Google Scholar from off campus

3. What about the cases?
Explore the appendix in Greenstein (233-274)
• Read newspapers from the time
• Produce copies or directly transcribe into a Word
document with the information that you will need for
citations and references
• “Blah, blah, blah... Marshall Plan...” (Greg A. Halpriggs,
“The Marshall Plan,” NY Times, March 27th, 1948, Section
A-
(just the info you will eventually need)
• Look for scholarly works on the cases in the
same way that you did for your theory
Organization
Write a strong thesis statement that clearly
elaborates your main argument and organizes
your paper:
• Ex. “Ultimately, the paper contends that the failure of
President Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia and the
success of President Truman’s Marshall Plan hinged on
three important elements of presidential leadership: (1)
communication with the public, (2) the partisan makeup
of Congress, and (3) the organization of the president’s
staff.”• WARNING: this thesis statement is 100% hypothetical –
I’m not sure whether or not
these events actually hinged on these elements of presidential
leadership! The
purpose here is just to show you how useful your thesis can be
for organization and
argumentation. And what it should look like.
What does this tell us?
Your argument about the success or failure of the cases

4. • Your argument about the key elements that are important
for presidential leadership
• It also tells your reader the organization of the paper!
• See suggested organization in the syllabus
• Case 1
• Brief overview
• Evidence for element #1 (communication)
• Evidence for element #2 (makeup of Congress)
• Evidence for element #3 (organization/advisors)
• Case 2
• Same as above...
Suggested organization (from the
syllabus)
Introduction (~1 page)
• Theory / Determinants of Successful Presidential
Leadership (~1 page)
• Discuss the scholarly literature that led you to adopt the thesis
you
elaborated in the introduction...
• Case 1 (~2 pages)
• Explain the event with a focus on how the case highlights the
determinants identified in your theory.
• Case 2 (~2 pages)
• See case 1.
• Conclusion (~1 page)
Citations
Author’s name in-text (paraphrased)
• Jones (2011, 14) shows that the adoption of Twitter occurs
more
rapidly during election years.

5. • Author’s name in-text (direct quote)
• Jones (2011, 14) shows that “the adoption of Twitter occurs
more
rapidly during election years.”
• Author’s name not in-text (paraphrased and direct quote)
• The author shows that the adoption of Twitter occurs more
rapidly
during election years (Jones 2011, 14).
• String of authors:
• Research on Twitter adoption shows that MCs use the tool
more
aggressively during election years (Barnaby 2010; Jones 2011;
Kelley and Gregg 2011; Peterson et al. 2011).
References
The citations give me enough information to find
the reference at the back of the paper and let me
know where to look within the reference
• Book reference example:
• Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns. 2007. The War: An
Intimate
History, 1941–1945. New York: Knopf.
• Article reference example:
• Weinstein, Joshua I. 2009. “The Market in Plato’s Republic.”
Classical Philology 104: 439–58.
• Use the Chicago Manual of Style’s “author-date”
system for your citations and references (see
here)
Plagiarism
Please review your student handbook’s
section on academic dishonesty and
plagiarism.
• Do not use the language or ideas of others

6. without properly attributing credit.
• All direct quotes must be in quotation
marks.
General advice on writing
Mix up complex and simple sentences
• Read your paper out loud
• Work hard on organization and clarity
• You should paraphrase more than you use direct
quotes
• Don’t paraphrase when taking the quote out of its
original language would do harm (e.g. definitions)
• Paraphrasing will help you maintain a consistent tone
and style throughout the paper (yours!)
• Topic sentences, transitions
• Edit, edit, edit
Problems
Topics are too broad / not clear
• Tendency to add more topics along the way
• Big topics - hard to maintain focus
• Make sure your cases are somewhat narrow and
relatively time-bound (discussing your topic in
office hours can help!)
• Lack of rigor in developing the theory,
building the case, and connecting the two
Research Paper Assignment Sheet
Assignment
In 6-8 pages develop an argument about the key factors
determining successful

7. presidential leadership in the modern era (FDR forward). Your
argument should be
deeply rooted in the scholarly literature on the presidency.
Develop your argument in
more detail by exploring two cases where a president attempted
to provide leadership in
some way. The cases that you select should be narrow (e.g. FDR
and the passage of the
Social Security Act rather than FDR and the New Deal). You
only have a few short pages
to discuss each case and it is better to be an inch wide and a
mile deep than a mile wide
and an inch deep. I think that the easiest way to do this would
be to choose a policy or
action widely viewed as a historical success and another that is
widely viewed as a
historical failure (e.g. Truman’s Marshall Plan and Nixon’s
invasion of Cambodia).
However, you do not need to follow this mold. You could also
compare two successes or
two failures.
In the development of your mini-case studies, you should draw
heavily from the Green
Library’s large collection of newspapers (available online). For
each case, you should be
citing from The New York Times and other online newspaper
databases from the week
surrounding the event. This will help give your cases much
more depth. I also encourage
you to find other supplemental sources like presidential
biographies, journal articles,
academic books, primary documents, and oral histories about
the actual event to bolster
your arguments.

8. Due Date and Time
• October 23, 2022
General Paper Requirements
• 6-8 pages (excluding title page and references), double-
spaced, 12-point Times
New Roman font, and 1” margins.
• No fewer than 7 references.
• Students will use the Chicago Manual of Style’s “author-date”
system for their in-
text citations and references.
o Some hypothetical examples of in-text citations:
▪ Author’s name in-text (paraphrased or direct quote)
• Jones (2011, 14) shows that “the adoption of Twitter occurs
more rapidly during election years.”
▪ Author’s name not in-text (paraphrased or direct quote)
• The author shows that “the adoption of Twitter occurs more
rapidly during election years” (Jones 2011, 14).
▪ String of authors
• Research on Twitter adoption shows that MCs use the tool
more aggressively during election years (Barnaby 2010;
Jones 2011; Kelley and Gregg 2011; Peterson et al. 2011).
o Some hypothetical examples of references:
▪ Book
• Grazer, Brian, and Charles Fishman. 2015. A Curious
Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. New York: Simon &
Schuster.
▪ Journal article
• Keng, Shao-Hsun, Chun-Hung Lin, and Peter F. Orazem.
2017. “Expanding College Access in Taiwan, 1978–2014:
Effects on Graduate Quality and Income Inequality.”
Journal of Human Capital 11, no. 1 (Spring): 1–34.
https://doi.org/10.1086/690235.
▪ Newspaper article
• Manjoo, Farhad. 2017. “Snap Makes a Bet on the Cultural
Supremacy of the Camera.” New York Times, March 8,

9. 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/technology/snap-
makes-a-bet-on-the-cultural-supremacy-of-the-
camera.html.
Suggested Organization
• Introduction (~1 page)
• Determinants of Successful Presidential Leadership (~1 page)
• Case 1 (w/ focus on how the events highlight the determinants
you identify; ~2
pages)
• Case 2 (w/ focus on how the events highlight the determinants
you identify; ~2
pages)
• Conclusion (~1 page)
• References
Useful Resources Related to the Assignment
• Green Library’s online newspaper databases
• Green Library’s catalog of books
• Miller Center’s oral history projects
• Presidential Libraries
• Google Scholar key word searches to identify books and
journal articles
Academic Integrity
quotation or paraphrase – you need to cite and reference them
properly (please see the
section on in-text parenthetical citations in the research paper’s
assignment sheet for
more details). All direct quotations must be placed in quotation
marks.