Review for the Final Quiz in Social Movements
Spring 2003

Many of the questions on the Comprehensive Final Quiz will be taken or adapted from the previous quizzes.  The questions from these quizzes are available here (but not the answers, you should figure these out for yourself if you have lost them).  The online Review Quiz for the Third Exam has been reopened on WEBCT.  You may take it as many times as you wish up until May 12.  If anyone does not have a good score on that exercise by May 12, I'll know they weren't really trying.

In reviewing, remember that the links on the class notes page are illustrative, not assigned reading.  The assigned readings are listed on the Syllabus Page.  The notes cover much, but not all, of the material covered in class and give you an idea of the most important points you should focus on in the reading.

Here are some guidelines for reviewing
  1. The Persuasion and Social Movements book is most important in giving a conceptual overview of the course, and is more important for detailed study than the Hystories book.
  2. Within the Persuasion and Social Movements book, we focused especially on the nature of argument, and especially on Political Argument and Argument from Transcendence.  
  3. In the chapter on Political Argument, Rossiter's scheme is interesting but it is complex to memorize.  It is more important to understand the Typology of Political Arguments than the Political Spectrum.  Focus on understanding what he means by Insurgent, Innovative, Progressive, Retentive, Reversive, Restorative and Revolutionary argument.  These are fuzzy concepts which can make them frustrating on a multiple choice test.  But this reflects the fuzzy nature of political thought, perhaps of thought in general.  On Quiz Three I dealt with this by allowing two answers to some of the questions.  I can also deal with it by not including adjacent alternatives.  On Quiz Four, I plan to have some quotes from pages 228 to 244 and ask you to indicate which type of argument they reflect.  I may also introduce some new quotes, possibly from your own papers.
  4. The best way to review would be:
    1. Go over the questions from the previous exams.  When you aren't clear on them, go back to the reading or the notes and find the answer.  I don't recommend just memorizing the answers, because I will change the wording of some of the questions and introduce some new questions.  The more general and abstract questions are more important than ones that refer to illustrative examples.
    2. Read pages 228 to 244 in the Persuasion and Social Movements book carefully and  make sure you can see how the passages quoted illustrate the concepts.  If you study with a friend, have her or him read a passage and see if you can tell what type of argument it illustrates.
  5. There is a long gap between our last class on May 5 and the exam on May 12.  If you have questions during this period, you can email me.  However, you should make an effort to find the answer yourself first.  If I get some questions that are of general value, I may post them on the web page, in which case I'll send an email to let you know they are there.  If you have questions in time for the Review Class on May 5, so much the better.