The GrAde
You may take several approaches to the question or questions that are of interest to you. First and foremost, your paper must make an argument. For example,
1) Three or four viable parties would provide better representation and more responsible policymaking than the current two-party system.
2) A gender quote would improve policy responsiveness in the area of women’s health.
3) Local governments can do a better job of protecting human health and the environment than can the federal government.
4) Some form of amnesty is necessary for the United States to implement immigration reform successfully.
5) The Supreme Court case Citizen United v. The Federal Election Commission has been beneficial to American politics because it has created facilitated a new period of citizen activism.
6) The Supreme Court case Citizen United v. The Federal Election Commission has been detrimental to American politics because it has strengthen the power of big doners in elections.
7) As American society ages, DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) is an important policy tool for generational replacement of these older Americans in the work force.
8) Ending the Iranian anti-nuclear proliferation deal is beneficial to U.S. interest because the deal has allowed Iran to spread its influence throughout the Middle East?
9) Ending the Iranian anti-nuclear deal is problematic for American foreign policy because ending the deal will signal that the U.S. is not a credible partner in international agreements.
You should be sure to detail the political implications of the aspect that you choose to examine. Please see me if you have a problem in selecting a project or countries for comparison.
Your paper should be at least five pages and no more than seven typed double-spaced pages long. You should use either APA (American Psychological Association), Chicago or MLA (Modern Language Association) or APSA style sheet (I prefer parenthetical citations, but footnotes or endnotes are also acceptable forms). For those using Word, please use Times New Roman font at size 11 or 12, Arial font at size 10 or 11, or Courier New font at 10 or 11. Your paper should include at least five non-web-based (referred) sources (academic books or scholarly journal articles). Once you have meant this source requirement minimum, you may use web-based sources to support your argument. You may use the course textbook as sources provided that you cite it properly. See the attached on how to recognize a referred journal article.
Questions to answer in determining the thesis and writing thesis paragraph:
· What is the argument?
· Be specific—particular policy, institution, themes, and information from the various topics of the course.
· Focus
· Deal only with your argument and the sources that you are using to support your argument
· Why does the argument matter to the general topic of your discussion?
· What evidence will you use?
· Use information from your sources to support your argument by finding details that illustrate your argument or place your argument in a certain context.
· For example: If you are writing about the effect of women as elected officials in policy making, you might argue that the presence of women in elected office brings new ?
· How will you present the argument—how will argument proceed?
Thesis paragraph:
· Thesis sentence
· “Road Map”—evidence listed as used
· Summarize what is to follow in terms of your argument and your conclusions
EVERY ITEM IN THE PAPER SHOULD BE EITHER A PRESENTATION OF ARGUMENT OR DIRECT SUPPORT FOR THE ARGUMENT. DEAL WITH THE TEXT (LITERATURE) ONLY, SPECIFICALLY, AND DIRECTLY—BE AS SPECIFIC AS POSSIBLE.
Thesis statement—argument plus your “so what” factor—should be the FIRST sentence of your paper.
By the way, our librarian (Julie Leuzinger) is available to help your source search. Her email is Julie.leuzinger@unt.edu
Julie Leuzinger
Political Science Librarian
Library Learning Services
Department Head
University of North Texas Libraries
Library Guides
How to recognize peer-reviewed (refereed) journals
In many cases professors will require that students utilize articles from “peer-reviewed” journals. Sometimes the phrases “refereed journals” or “scholarly journals” are used to describe the same type of journals. But what are peer-reviewed (or refereed or scholarly) journal articles, and why do faculty require their use?
Three categories of information resources:
· Newspapers and magazines containing news - Articles are written by reporters who may or may not be experts in the field of the article. Consequently, articles may contain incorrect information.
· Journals containing articles written by academics and/or professionals — Although the articles are written by “experts,” any particular “expert” may have some ideas that are really “out there!”
· Peer-reviewed (refereed or scholarly) journals - Articles are written by experts and are reviewed by several other experts in the field before the article is published in the journal in order to insure the article’s quality. (The article is more likely to be scientifically valid, reach reasonable conclusions, etc.) In most cases the reviewers do not know who the author of the article is, so that the article succeeds or fails on its own merit, not the reputation of the expert.
Helpful hint!
Not all information in a peer-reviewed journal is actually refereed, or reviewed. For example, editorials, letters to the editor, book reviews, and other types of information don’t count as articles, and may not be accepted by your professor.
How do you determine whether an article qualifies as being a peer-reviewed journal article?
First, you need to be able to identify which journals are peer-reviewed. There are generally four methods for doing this
1. Limiting a database search to peer-reviewed journals only. Some databases allow you to limit searches for articles to peer reviewed journals only. For example, Academic Search Complete has this feature on the initial search screen - click on the pertinent box to limit the search. In some databases you may have to go to an “advanced” or “expert” search screen to do this. Remember, many databases do not allow you to limit your search in this way.
2. Checking in the database Ulrichsweb.com to determine if the journal is indicated as being peer-reviewed.
If you cannot limit your initial search to peer-reviewed journals, you will need to check to see if the source of an article is a peer-reviewed journal. This can be done by searching the database Ulrichsweb.com. Go to the alphabetical listing of databases and click on the “U”. Select Ulrichsweb.com. It helps to type in the exact title of the source journal including any initial A, AN, or THE in the title. If you don’t find the journal you are interested in, you may want to utilize Method 3 below. If your journal title IS displayed, check to see if the journal is indicated as being refereed by having the symbol
3. Examining the publication to see if it is peer-reviewed. If by using the first two methods you were unable to identify if a journal (and an article therein) is peer-reviewed, you may then need to examine the journal physically or look at additional pages of the journal online to determine if it is peer-reviewed. This method is not always successful with resources available only online. The following steps are suggested:
a. Locate the journal in the Library or online, then identify the most current entire year’s issues.
b. Locate the masthead of the publication. This oftentimes consists of a box towards either the front or the end of the periodical, and contains publication information such as the editors of the journal, the publisher, the place of publication, the subscription cost and similar information.
c. Does the journal say that it is peer-reviewed? If so, you’re done! If not, move on to step d.
d. Check in and around the masthead to locate the method for submitting articles to the publication. If you find information similar to “to submit articles, send three copies…”, the journal is probably peer-reviewed. In this case, you are inferring that the publication is then going to send the multiple copies of the article to the journal’s reviewers. This may not always be the case, so relying upon this criterion alone may prove inaccurate.
e. If you do not see this type of statement in the first issue of the journal that you look at, examine the remaining journals to see if this information is included. Sometimes publications will include this information in only a single issue a year.
f. Is it scholarly, using technical terminology? Does the article format approximate the following - abstract, literature review, methodology, results, conclusion, and references? Are the articles written by scholarly researchers in the field that the periodical pertains to? Is advertising non-existent, or kept to a minimum? Are there references listed in footnotes or bibliographies? If you answered yes to all these questions , the journal may very well be peer-reviewed. This determination would be strengthened by having met the previous criterion of a multiple-copies submission requirement. If you answered these questions no, the journal is probably not peer-reviewed.
4. Find the official web site on the internet, and check to see if it states that the journal is peer-reviewed. Be careful to use the official site (often located at the journal publisher’s web site), and, even then, information could potentially be “inaccurate.”
Helpful hint!
If you have used the previous four methods in trying to determine if an article is from a peer-reviewed journal and are still unsure, speak to your instructor.