Graded “Essays”:

This course will include three major essay assignments, of no more than five printed pages in length, which will be an opportunity for you to demonstrate your thinking in more depth than you typically can in class or even in a blog posting. The essays will be due about one month, two months and three months into the semester, respectively. You must turn each essay in by its due date (obviously), after which I will give you detailed feedback on it. You may write as many revisions as you like until the end of the semester, and I will respond to each making careful suggestions for improvement. (Feel free to turn the initial draft in early. This will be especially useful for the last essay since we won’t have much time left in the term.) Since the objective of this course is learning, rather than grades, I will only put a grade on the final version you turn in. The Graded Essays will be worth 25% towards your final grade.

First Graded Essay:

You have been asked to testify before the U.S. Congress about globalization. What do you see as the most important questions that need to be answered about globalization? Explain and justify your choices: Why are they important? Who are they important to?

Note: This isn’t due for several weeks. I just wanted to give you a heads-up.

We will use your answers to this assignment as the outline for this course.

Second Graded Essay:

The U.S. has long promoted free international trade. But at the same time it continues to use a variety of tariffs, quotas and subsidies to protect businesses in many sectors of the U.S. What is the justification for this? Such barriers to trade impose costs on our trading partners, in some cases very severe costs. Is U.S. trade policy moral or immoral? Your essay should consider both sides of the argument and the conclusion should be based on evidence you provide. Specific evidence will be more persuasive than general statements. Please email me your essay before Thanksgiving.