Module 3: Congress

You learned that for a bill to become a law, it must be approved by a vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Before any votes are cast, representatives in both chambers of Congress debate the benefits and drawbacks of a potential law. Sometimes bills are unanimously accepted or opposed, but often, an intense debate will ensue.

Debate

There are several examples of issues where opinions are split, in Congress and in public opinion. For this assignment, you will assume both sides of a debate and prepare twelve notecards (six for and six against) addressing the questions below. Use the questions below to guide your note card creation:

  • Why would you choose this side of the debate?
  • Why would you not choose the other side of the debate?
  • What are the benefits and drawbacks of each side of the debate?
  • What data and/or facts support your argument?

Each note card should include the following parts:

  • A short heading showing the overall topic of the note card;
  • One to two bullets pertaining to the topic of the note card; and
  • Any citations or footnotes about the bullets.

You can design your own note cards, or you can use the Congressional Debate Preparation Note Card Template to produce copies of your cards. Before you begin, access the Congressional Debate Preparation Note Card Checklist to make sure that you include all of the items required for full credit. You may need to use resources outside of this course to complete this assignment. If so, please submit a Works Cited document. If you need assistance, visit the Developmental Module for information on citing any resources that you used.

Reflection

After you have finished creating your notecards, think about the following questions, and write your response to them.

  1. Why did you select your topic of debate for this assignment?
  2. What did you learn about the topic of debate you chose that you did not know before you began?
  3. How is this topic of debate relevant to your life?
  4. Is there any way for you make a difference in this topic of debate?


Once you have completed your note cards, please submit your work to the dropbox.


Once you have completed this module, please complete the module test.