Orientation Guide”: Writing the Rules of Institutions Don’t you know there’s rules to this here game?”—Omar (4.6) you think you could sit down and write the laws to your thing?”—Howard “Bunny” Colvin (4.8) Due Date: Final Day of Class OR Tuesday of Finals Week Instructions What are some of the informal rules that govern institutions that we’ve observed and analyzed this semester? For the final assignment of the course, you will create a small guidebook that outlines and briefly explains the essential lessons about institutions as represented in the five seasons of The Wire. Envision this as an unofficial or alternative “orientation packet” (those documents usually given to new employees of a business or agency), one that provides information not typically relayed through official channels but which nevertheless plays an important role in the institution’s normal functioning. To get a better sense of this assignment, please consult the “48 Laws of Power” sheet included on ANGEL. While you don’t want to thoughtlessly copy every feature of this document, this sheet should give you a general idea of what I’m looking for. In terms of the differences between your work and that in the “48 Laws of Power” sheet, your “rules” should, in many (if not most) cases take the form of broad observations rather than explicit recommendations or commands for action. They are diagnostic descriptions rather than being prescriptive commands. It might be better to think about this assignment as producing a list of broad trends or recurrent patterns within institutions—in other words, when I use the word “law,” I’m thinking about it more in terms of “laws of nature” rather than in terms of “Ten Commandments.”