The major requirement of the course is an 8-10 page (double-spaced) term paper. Don’t let the length fool you. This paper is designed to help you become a better thinker and more persuasive writer, whether you consider yourself to be a “good” writer or not. This class will stress the link between clear, compelling writing and sound thinking. It will advance the view that writing is thinking and that one way to develop your thinking is to work on your writing. As such, we will write, re-write, and re-write some more. The process will be grueling and, if done right, will throw you into existential perplexity (a rarely experienced feeling in our modern age of instantaneous “answers”). However, by breaking it down into smaller pieces and teaching writing as a process at which anyone can excel, I hope you will find the assignment manageable and rewarding. The term paper will be completed in two cycles. Each cycle will involve writing a paper proposal, a peer draft, and a final paper. You will also edit a peer’s paper for each cycle. For the first cycle, you will work on crafting a 4-5 page paper (hereafter, Paper #1) that analyzes either Hobbes’ or Rousseau’s approach to a political question of your choice. After writing and receiving feedback from me on a 1-page paper proposal, you will write an initial draft of Paper #1, which you will exchange with an assigned peer editor. Based on her or his feedback, you will craft the final version of Paper #1. I will then give you extensive comments on this paper, which you will use to revise the paper as you build on it to create the full, 8-10 page paper (Paper #2). Like Paper #1, Paper #2 will involve writing a 1-page paper proposal, a peer draft, and a final version. Paper #2 &nbsp