Discuss some issues surrounding public service leadership and apply to the field of public service

COURSE SYLLABUS SUMMER 2015 Undergraduate Level Coursework
NOTE: Last day course assignments can be submitted is: August 1, 2015

Office: UHCL – Bayou Bldg. Suite 1508, # 9
(Office hours by appointment – call me!)
Cell: Phone and Text # 281-905-3066 (Prefer you call me via my cell instead of
office phone!)
Email: Through WebCT – delaguardia@uhcl.edu
or 2nd email (backup): neorouge@hotmail.com

If you do not hear from me by phone or email within 24 hrs. – I did not receive your message. Contact me again please & text! (281-905-3066)
Do NOT fail to contact me with concerns or questions. I am here for you.
Class officially begins on June 8, 2015 and finishes/completes on August 1, 2015.
COURSE OVERVIEW: This course provides students with an understanding of the common elements and differences that shape leadership in the public, voluntary, and private sectors. Students will have an opportunity to learn about the basic ideas and debates concerning the nature of leadership. The course will explore a number of key themes and topics including different approaches and theories of leadership, leadership ethics, women and leadership and the personal development of leadership traits.
As this course is taught via the internet Course, students are expected to work independently, while communicating with instructor via email, phone calls, and meetings by appointment. Students will also participate via discussions on the course bulletin board. It is essential that you read the assigned material weekly. Students may be directed to hypertext links, or related web sites related to chapters in text and topic areas. The course will focus on public service leadership, making a conscious effort to define systematically and think through the various qualities that define leadership.
COURSE GOALS:
Discuss some issues surrounding public service leadership and apply to the field of public service
Discuss diversification in the public sector, particularly as the issues related to public leadership.
Introduce students to a wide variety of variety of psychological and sociological theories and analysis of public service leadership.
Understand the process of public service leadership and personal leadership.
Understand the patterns of ethical relationships and the responsibilities of an ethics based public leadership mode.
Discuss new concepts in the discussion forum about different societies and how leadership can affect them.
Discuss concepts in the discussion forum related to development of personal leadership as well as public leadership.
Develop a broader understanding of human differences and way of life and how this can affect public leadership.
Develop a broader understanding of the effect of public service leadership and lack of
public service leadership on both a micro and macro level.
Discuss issues in public service leadership in the discussion forum

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

The student will be able to:
Develop the ability to research and write a documented paper
Express their ideas both written and orally
Understand the basic principles of critical thinking to evaluate sociological and
psychological concepts, theories in the area of public service leadership
Demonstrate knowledge of the terms, concepts and issues in public service
leadership and use the sociological and psychological knowledge base to raise
personal awareness and sensitivity in working with others from diverse
backgrounds
View the impact of issues in society and global stratification related to Information
Technology
Apply the knowledge base to life and professional experience
TIME FRAME: This is a 3 credit unit course. You must complete all of the requirements for the course successfully by the end of the semester period. Please be cognizant of the time frame. It is important that you do not let time “get away” from you. You cannot do the whole course in one week, nor can you wait until the end of the course to do all of the work. Please pay close attention to opening and closing dates of all material.

TEXTBOOK: There are three (3) required textbooks for this course:

1. LEADERSHIP: THEORY AND PRACTICE, 6/E 2013 by Peter G. Northouse.
ISBN: 9781452203409
2. EXPLORING LEADERSHIP, 3rd/E by Susan Komives, Nancy Lucas and Timothy McMahon., ISBN- 9781118399477
3. THE TRUSTED LEADER, Second Edition, Building the Relationships That Make Government Work, edited by Terry Newell, Grant Reecher, Peter Ronayne, ISBN: 978-1-60871-276-2

Suggested Text: (You do not have to buy this text book)

4. DOES YOUR GOVERNMENT MEASURE UP, by William Coplin and Carol Dwyer., ISBN: 0-9702864-0-6

In addition to any journal articles and/or readings assigned in class.

COMMUNICATION: You will want to contact me via phone at least two times this semester. You are encouraged to communicate with me. I am available as a teacher, coach, and mentor to assist you in meeting your goals for this course. Primarily, communication is through email or phone but you may meet with me in person by appointment if you would like. Please keep my email address and/or phone number (281-905-3066) handy so that you can contact me whenever necessary.
COURSE EVALUATION: The final grade will be determined by performance on two exams, a term paper, and two article reviews as well as participation in discussion forums. The points available for each component are listed below.
1 Exam @ 10 points total
1 Formal Book Review @ 20 points total
Term paper @ 35 points
5 Discussion Topics posts & 5 Responses to other student’s posts @ 2 points each
for a total of total of 20 points
2 Article Reviews/Commentaries @ 10 points each = total 20 of points
Introductory Tasks COMPULSORY

Total Points Possible 100
GRADING SCALE:
Grades will be assigned according to the average received in the course (Earned Points/Total Points Possible)
100 through 94 A
93 through 90 A-
89 through 87 B+
86 through 83 B
82 through 80 B-
79 through 77 C+
76 through 73 C
72 through 70 C-
69 through 67 D+
66 through 63 D
62 through 60 D-
59 or below F

INTRODUCTORY TASKS: During the first week of the semester you will be asked to do several things to get you acquainted with the course, your instructor, and your fellow classmates. These tasks are detailed in the READ ME FIRST document on the course outline page. For example, one of the tasks is to post a brief personal introduction on the discussion board. This allows students to get to know each other better which generally supports a stronger discussion environment. Make certain to copy your bio and contact information and send directly to me on the blackboard email within the first week of our course.
EXAMINATIONS: There is one examination for this course. The material for this exam will primarily come from the Northouse text, which provides the core foundations of leadership theory and practice. This exam is designed to test your comprehension of the core reading for this course. This is an open book, untimed essay test. A short paragraph will not suffice.
DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES: The discussion forum constitutes the “participation” part of the course. I have chosen several leadership exercises for you to reflect upon and discuss together as a class. These activities will be based primarily on the “Exploring Leadership” text, although feel free to pull from all course materials. It is expected that each student post a response to at least 6 of the discussion questions. Responses should be approximately 200-300 words. Students will then respond to 6 of their fellow students’ posts.
Book Review: The book review will be taken from the text, THE TRUSTED LEADER, 2nd Edition, Building the Relationships That Make Government Work. The requirements for this book review are listed under ‘Book Review’ within our blackboard course.
THE TRUSTED LEADER, 2nd Edition, Building the Relationships That Make
Government Work

These instructions will help you write a formal book review that offers a critical perspective on a text. It offers a process and suggests some strategies for writing book reviews. I suggest you start early in this semester and obtain help from our excellent writing center and tutors. They are set up to help you online!

Content for Formal Book Review:

Professors tend to want the same kinds of things when they ask for you to write about a book.

The first and most important rule is: Read the book. Most professors are skillful at determining whether a student has actually read the book.

The second most important rule is: Give your own summary and analysis. If a professor is convinced that a student has read the book and is earnestly trying to write his/her own paper about it, the professor will be rooting for the student to do well. Conversely, the moment that a professor suspects that a student has not followed those two rules, the professor will be on the lookout for evidence to prove these suspicions.

When you read a book, take notes about it and formulate your thoughts as you go along. Before you sit down at your computer to type your paper, review your notes. You should be able to write most of your critique without looking back at the book. If you continually are paging through the book, the result is likely to be a string of paraphrases taken from the book rather than your own evaluation. This will seriously cost you points.

Some of you will begin your publishing process by performing formal book reviews to have published in scholarly journals. Before beginning your review, think about the reader. What should the reader of the review know? What does he or she need to be told? Reviewers should book is an example.

The purpose of a review of a work (book or article) is generally to let readers know what the work is about and what its merits are so that readers can decide whether they want to read the work. Because the readers of a review probably have not read the work under discussion, you must describe the work as well as evaluate it.

Keep in mind that you are writing a book review. In other words, if your book is a history of the American People, your paper is not a summary of the American People. Rather, your paper is a summary and analysis of how this particular book treats the American People.

A book critique should contain both summary and analysis. Let’s say that you are writing about a biography of John F. Kennedy. The first page or so of your critique might concentrate on giving the reader some idea of the scope of the book: What topics does it concentrate on? Is it a personal biography that focuses mostly on private life? Does it concentrate primarily on his public career? Or does it do both? How is the book organized? Does it give 25 pages to Kennedy’s early life and 900 pages to his presidency?

Above all, a review makes an argument. The most important element of a review is that it is a commentary, not merely a summary. It allows you to enter into dialogue and discussion with the work’s creator and with other audiences. You can offer agreement or disagreement and identify where you find the work exemplary or deficient in its knowledge, judgments, or organization. You should clearly state your opinion of the work in question, and that statement will probably resemble other types of academic writing, with a thesis statement, supporting body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
Your review will be 750 to 1000 words, double spaced. Your review need to be succinct. While reviews may vary in tone, subject, and style, they share some common features:
• 1st ~ a review gives the reader a concise summary of the content. This includes a relevant description of the topic as well as its overall perspective, argument, or purpose.
• 2nd ~ and more importantly, a review offers a critical assessment of the content. This involves your reactions to the work under review: what strikes you as noteworthy, whether or not it was effective or persuasive, and how it enhanced your understanding of the issues at hand.
• Finally, in addition to analyzing the work, a review often suggests whether or not the audience would appreciate it.
The minimum requirements for a review are:

1.) Information about the author/editor (other works, nationality, recent prizes, etc.); some reference to the genre (fiction, non-fiction, criticism, poetry); the field (public service, natural science, history, etc.) if appropriate.
2.) A sentence or two that describes the main theme, plot or organizing principle (see, for example, the brief descriptions of books that appear in the NY Times Book Review called “And Bear in Mind”).
3.) A statement about the place of the book in a wider field—other books of the same genre, other books by the same author—and explanation of the points of similarity or difference.
4.) An analysis of the book’s strengths and weaknesses with examples of each.
5.) A conclusion that brings together the main points of the review but is more than a summary or a recapitulation of what has been said.

Some things you will want to avoid in your review: quotations that do not clearly illustrate a specific critical issue; long quotations; references to works or authors not generally known to most readers; anecdotes or details about the reviewers themselves, unless these are di¬rectly relevant to the argument of the review; biographical details about the author that do not bear directly on the book. At all times it is important to stay focused on the patterns in the field or genre of which the book is an example.
Helpful link for research:
http://www.aresearchguide.com/styleguides.html
Remember:
DEVELOP AN ASSESSMENT BEFORE YOU WRITE!
There is no definitive method to writing a review, although some critical thinking about the work at hand is necessary before you actually begin writing. Thus, writing a review is a two-step process: developing an argument about the work under consideration, and making that argument as you write an organized and well-supported draft.
What follows is a series of questions to focus your thinking as you dig into the work at hand. While the questions specifically consider book reviews, you can easily transpose them to an analysis of performances, exhibitions, and other review subjects. Don’t feel obligated to address each of the questions; some will be more relevant than others to the book in question.
• What is the thesis—or main argument—of the book? If the author wanted you to get one idea from the book, what would it be? How does it compare or contrast to the world you know? What has the book accomplished?
• What exactly is the subject or topic of the book? Does the author cover the subject adequately? Does the author cover all aspects of the subject in a balanced fashion? What is the approach to the subject (topical, analytical, chronological, descriptive)?
• How does the author support her argument? What evidence does she use to prove her point? Do you find that evidence convincing? Why or why not? Does any of the author’s information (or conclusions) conflict with other books you’ve read, courses you’ve taken or just previous assumptions you had of the subject?
• How does the author structure her argument? What are the parts that make up the whole? Does the argument make sense? Does it persuade you? Why or why not?
• How has this book helped you understand the subject? Would you recommend the book to your reader?
Beyond the internal workings of the book, you may also consider some information about the author and the circumstances of the text’s production:
• Who is the author? Nationality, political persuasion, training, intellectual interests, personal history, and historical context may provide crucial details about how a work takes shape. Does it matter, for example, that the biographer was the subject’s best friend? What difference would it make if the author participated in the events she writes about?
• What is the book’s genre? Out of what field does it emerge? Does it conform to or depart from the conventions of its genre? These questions can provide a historical or literary standard on which to base your evaluations. If you are reviewing the first book ever written on the subject, it will be important for your readers to know. Keep in mind, though, that naming “firsts”—alongside naming “bests” and “onlys”—can be a risky business unless you’re absolutely certain.
WRITING THE REVIEW
Once you have made your observations and assessments of the work under review, carefully survey your notes and attempt to unify your impressions into a statement that will describe the purpose or thesis of your review. Then, outline the arguments that support your thesis.
Your arguments should develop the thesis in a logical manner. That logic, unlike more standard academic writing, may initially emphasize the author’s argument while you develop your own in the course of the review. The relative emphasis depends on the nature of the review: if readers may be more interested in the work itself, you may want to make the work and the author more prominent; if you want the review to be about your perspective and opinions, then you may structure the review to privilege your observations over (but never separate from) those of the work under review. What follows is just one of many ways to organize a review.
Introduction
Since most reviews are brief, many writers begin with a catchy quip or anecdote that succinctly delivers their argument. But you can introduce your review differently depending on the argument and audience. The Writing Center’s handout on introductions can help you find an approach that works. In general, you should include:
• The name of the author and the book title and the main theme.
• Relevant details about who the author is and where he/she stands in the genre or field of inquiry. You could also link the title to the subject to show how the title explains the subject matter.
• The context of the book and/or your review. Placing your review in a framework that makes sense to your audience alerts readers to your “take” on the book. Perhaps you want to situate a book about the Cuban revolution in the context of Cold War rivalries between the United States and the Soviet Union. Another reviewer might want to consider the book in the framework of Latin American social movements. Your choice of context informs your argument.
• The thesis of the book. If you are reviewing fiction, this may be difficult since novels, plays, and short stories rarely have explicit arguments. But identifying the book’s particular novelty, angle, or originality allows you to show what specific contribution the piece is trying to make.
• Your thesis about the book.
Summary of content
• This should be brief, as analysis takes priority. In the course of making your assessment, you’ll hopefully be backing up your assertions with concrete evidence from the book, so some summary will be dispersed throughout other parts of the review.
• The necessary amount of summary also depends on your audience. Graduate students, beware! If you are writing book reviews for colleagues—to prepare for comprehensive exams, for example—you may want to devote more attention to summarizing the book’s contents. If, on the other hand, your audience has already read the book—such as an class assignment on the same work—you may have more liberty to explore more subtle points and to emphasize your own argument.
Analysis and evaluation of the book
• Your analysis and evaluation should be organized into paragraphs that deal with single aspects of your argument. This arrangement can be challenging when your purpose is to consider the book as a whole, but it can help you differentiate elements of your criticism and pair assertions with evidence more clearly.
• You do not necessarily need to work chronologically through the book as you discuss it. Given the argument you want to make, you can organize your paragraphs more usefully by themes, methods, or other elements of the book.
• If you find it useful to include comparisons to other books, keep them brief so that the book under review remains in the spotlight.
• Avoid excessive quotation and give a specific page reference in parentheses when you do quote. Remember that you can state many of the author’s points in your own words.
Conclusion
• Sum up or restate your thesis or make the final judgment regarding the book. You should not introduce new evidence for your argument in the conclusion. You can, however, introduce new ideas that go beyond the book if they extend the logic of your own thesis.
• This paragraph needs to balance the book’s strengths and weaknesses in order to unify your evaluation. Did the body of your review have three negative paragraphs and one favorable one? What do they all add up to? The Writing Center’s handout on conclusions can help you make a final assessment.
In review
Finally, a few general considerations:
• Review the book in front of you, not the book you wish the author had written. You can and should point out shortcomings or failures, but don’t criticize the book for not being something it was never intended to be.
• With any luck, the author of the book worked hard to find the right words to express her ideas. You should attempt to do the same. Precise language allows you to control the tone of your review.
• Never hesitate to challenge an assumption, approach, or argument. Be sure, however, to cite specific examples to back up your assertions carefully.
• Try to present a balanced argument about the value of the book for its audience. You’re entitled—and sometimes obligated—to voice strong agreement or disagreement. But keep in mind that a bad book takes as long to write as a good one, and every author deserves fair treatment. Harsh judgments are difficult to prove and can give readers the sense that you were unfair in your assessment.
For further reading
A great place to learn about book reviews is to look at examples. The New York Times Book Review, the New York Review of Books, and the Book Review Index can show you how professional writers review books.
Drewry, John. Writing Book Reviews. Boston: The Writer, 1974.
Literary Reviewing. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987.
Teitelbaum, Harry. How to Write Book Reports 3rd ed.. New York: Macmillan, 1998.
Walford, A.J., ed. Reviews and Reviewing: A Guide. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1986.
Note: Content within these directions was taken from The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Harvard’s Writing Center.
TERM PAPER: The term paper assignment for this class is a formal research paper – written in the 3rd person, APA format. You will set the paper up with title page, running headlines, page numbers, and an abstract. The paper will consist of a 6-8 page leadership problem/solution paper. Detailed directions will be available in blackboard. Contact me to discuss your paper before writing it. The paper will be 6-8 pages using APA format and double spaced. You must have minimum of three scholastic references (other than your text books). The person you interview will count as one of three outside resources. You must cite your texts in the paper (when using quotes or paraphrasing) – while being aware that the texts themselves do not count as the three outside sources for your paper.
The person you interview may not be a relative, spouse/partner, or religious leader. If you do – your paper will NOT be graded and you will receive a “ZERO” for the term paper. The paper itself is NOT about the person who you are interviewing. The person you interview is to provide a living field resource related to the problems experienced in being a leader in public service.
This paper is in problems/solutions thrust. Again – it is NOT about the person whom you interview as one of your resources.
You will identify problems and solutions to these problems in the delivery of leadership in the public sector today.
Schedule for due dates for course work:
Class Dates
June 8, 2015 First Class Day – Regular 15-Week Session
August 1, 2015 Last Day of Class – Regular 15-Week Session

June 12, 2015 Bio due to instructor via email
June 12, 2015 First phone call to instructor due – 281-905-3066
June 23, 2015 Both (2) Article Review are due
June 27, 2015 Only Test is due
July 7, 2015 Outline for paper due
July 15, 2015 Send in draft of paper for Instructor approval
August 1, 2015 Book Report due
August 1, 2015 Final Term Paper due
August 1, 2015 All Discussion posts and responses due

Holidays
June 4, 2015 University Holiday – Independence Day

Other Important Dates
June 1, 2015 Summer 2015 Semester Financial Aid Disbursements Begin
May 18 – June 17, 2015 Apply to graduate for Summer (On-Time)
June 15, 2015 Census Day-Regular 15-Week Session (Contact instructor via email, text, or phone – confirm in class.)
June 18 – July 2, 2015 Apply to graduate for Spring (Late)
June 13, 2015 Last day to Drop/Withdraw-Regular 15-Week Session
August 15, 2015 Official Closing of Spring 2015 Semester
NA No Summer Commencement Ceremony
August 26, 2015 Grades available over E-services Online

Make certain to contact me personally with any questions. Questions related to course work are important to me.

All discussion posts and responses are due by the last day of class!
ACADEMIC HONESTY: The University of Houston Clear Lake is committed to a high standard of academic integrity among its students and faculty. In becoming a part of the UHCL academic community, students are responsible for academic honesty. Failure to uphold these standards, includes, but is not limited to, the following: plagiarizing written work, cheating on exams or assignments and collusion among students on an exam or project without specific permission from the instructor. The simplest way to do this is to follow straightforward honesty code which states: I will be honest in all my academic activities and will not tolerate dishonesty from myself or my fellow students.

• Academic Honesty Policy: “All UHCL students are responsible for knowing the standards of academic honesty. Please refer to the UHCL catalog and the Student Life Handbook for the University Academic Honesty Policy. Plagiarism, that is, using research without citations, or using a created product without crediting the source, will result in a grade penalty or failure of the course” (You may wish to add policies about internet sources as well as your policy on whether a student can use the same paper for more than one course or a further discussion of plagiarism.)
• Disabilities: “If you have a disability and need a special accommodation, consult first the Coordinator of Health Disabilities Services, SSB 1.301, telephone 281-283-2627, and then discuss the accommodation with me. This must be done before the first exam (assignment)”
• Incompletes: “A grade of Incomplete (‘I’) may be given at the discretion of the instructor to students who are making satisfactory progress in a course. Incompletes are typically given for emergency situations which occur after the withdrawal date but prior to the end of the semester, and which prevent the student from completing course requirements. When assigning the grade of ‘I,’ instructors provide a student with an Incomplete Grade Contract that outlines the work to be accomplished before the ‘I’ can be converted to a final grade and specifies a deadline date.”
• 6 Drop Rule Limitation: (for undergraduate classes): “Students who entered college for the first time in Fall 2007 or later should be aware of the course drop limitation imposed by the Texas Legislature. Dropping this or any other course between the first day of class and the census date for the semester/session does not affect your 6 drop rule count. Dropping a course between the census date and the last day to drop a class for the semester/session will count as one of your 6 permitted drops. You should take this into consideration before dropping this or any other course. Visit www.uhcl.edu/records for more information on the 6 drop rule and the census date information for the semester/session.”
• Changes: “The instructor reserves the right to make appropriate changes in the syllabus. It is the student’s responsibility to keep updated on course information if he or she is absent.”
THE WRITING CENTER
http://www.uhcl.edu/portal/page/portal/WC
The Writing Center is an instructional facility designed to provide the university community with tutors to help at any stage of the writing process, from idea generation and organization to style, grammar, and editing strategies. Our primary function is to teach writing. We welcome all members of the UHCL community: students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
We will work with any type of writing task; however, we do not provide editing or proofreading services. Writers must bring their own papers to their conferences and are responsible for the quality of their final products. We recommend that writers schedule appointments with us in advance, but walk-ins are also accepted if a tutor is available. Appointments start on the hour and last 45 minutes. Online tutoring is also available in the forms of phone chat and instant message chat.
Note: Online Tutoring
For distance students and those who attend classes at off-campus locations, we also offer online chat sessions. Please let your students know that they will be able to work with us using a program that is conveniently integrated into our scheduling system. Instructions for using this service are available on our website.
DROP DATE: June 13, 2015 Last day to drop without receiving a grade.


Last Completed Projects

# topic title discipline academic level pages delivered
6
Writer's choice
Business
University
2
1 hour 32 min
7
Wise Approach to
Philosophy
College
2
2 hours 19 min
8
1980's and 1990
History
College
3
2 hours 20 min
9
pick the best topic
Finance
School
2
2 hours 27 min
10
finance for leisure
Finance
University
12
2 hours 36 min