Political Science Research Methods
Description Details
Discipline Politics
Assignment type : Term paper
Description
10 pages, double spaced. Include title page. Bibliography and any included charts and tables do not count toward the 10 page limit. The paper structure should introduce your research question and connect it to the wider world, should explore the relevant literature, and have a research hypothesis. Operationalize the concepts you’ve introduced in your question and that contribute to your hypothesis. You need to then add information showing how you test the hypothesis — what is your data set, how was it collected? Who are you studying? What statistical tests are you going to use to test your relationships, and why those tests and not others? Show your analysis — copy the SPSS output into your paper or retype it. Discuss the meaning of the output — does it support your hypothesis or not? What are the implications of your findings for the research question you first posed? Your whole paper should follow the hourglass approach I outlined in class – draw your reader in, dig into your data, the pan out again and discuss the relevance. Follow this citation style! Use in text parenthetical citations like this: (Field 1997). Make sure you include the date of publication in the citation. I need to see at least three, and better at least five, academic sources, which means books from the library, journal articles, government-published data and/or quality think tank analyses. Newspaper articles are ok, and may be very helpful, but they don’t count. Bibliography: EVERY entry in your bibliography must be cited at least once, and every citation must have an entry in your bibliography. Alphabetize your bibliography by last name of first author. DO NOT NUMBER your bibliography entries! Late papers get a full letter grade off per 24 hours late. Grading rubric: State a clear hypothesis. You will be graded on the quality of your hypothesis. A good hypothesis posits a clear relationship between different factors, such as a correlation, or cause. It has to be testable. Part of formulating a good hypothesis is picking the right variables that allow you to test your hypothesis. (2 points) Review the appropriate literature. You will be graded on the relevance of the literature you chose. In other words, a good grade reflects that the articles you chose speak directly to your research question. You will be graded on your choice of sources. Are you using peer-reviewed political science, criminal justice or other appropriate sources? Do they talk about public opinion? Are they academic? Are they up-to date or otherwise significant? Are you using at least 5 sources? Are half of them from political science journals? Did you give enough detail? Did you compare and contrast the findings in the literature to each other and relate the findings to your hypothesis? Did you use the literature to show why your hypothesis is relevant? (5 points) Did you summarize the literature and restate your hypothesis at the end of the literature review? (5 points) Method: Describe your method, including what the data are that you are using. (Look on the ANES website to learn about the data and how they were collected.) State what statistical method you are using and why. How does your method allow you to test your hypothesis? Provide basic information about your variables (frequencies, descriptives). Talk about them. Test your hypothesis using at least one method and tell a story about what you find. Mention concepts from this semester, e.g. generalizability — showing off that you know something about sampling and can utilize that knowledge to talk about the validity of your findings. (10 points) Discuss your findings. Do they confirm your hypothesis? What are the implications of your research? How do they speak to your literature review? What should be done next? What do you think your results mean? What are the limitations (if any)? (This is where you get to state your own opinion. It is the only place in this paper where you get to offer your own thoughts. (3 points)
Format AMA
Academic Level: –
Volume of 2000 – 2050 pages (8 pages)
Type of service: Custom writing
