Political Science Research Paper

Criteria for Research Assignment

PSCI 1010

· The paper is due on Apr. 29 before 11:59pm.

· For your final paper, you might want to follow the suggested guideline/rubric below:

1)       Introduction

a)    Thesis: “The primary purpose of this paper is to...”, Or “Terrorist attacks influence public support for civil liberties” The thesis of the research should be stated early in the paper—the first few paragraphs. http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/thesis-statements/

b)     Include in your introduction a brief statement describing the importance of the topic and the thesis. What is new here? What are the political, theoretical, and normative implications of your research? How does your research improve upon the existing literature? What contribution will the proposed research make to the literature? What new, exciting directions will you take the literature? Like a journalist, you need to convince the reader that the paper is worthy of careful consideration.

c)       Be sure to discuss the political implications of your research.

d)     Plan of the paper: In a brief paragraph (usually placed at the end of your introduction), give an overview of your arguments and how the paper will be organized. This should be short.

e)     Think about the Reader when writing your paper. You must convince the Reader (me or anonymous reviewers) in the first few sentences to keep reading. You need to engage the Reader, tell her/him what your research is about, convince her of the importance of your study and its contribution to the literature. The Reader is busy and has volunteered a few hours of their day to read your study. -Narrative Hook-  

2)    Past Research (review of the literature—collect qualitative/quantitative data to support your thesis). Please be especially vigilant about keeping the review relevant to the central thesis of the paper, which should be the central organizing theme of your paper. I don’t want a bibliographic essay, but an evaluation of relevant prior research on the topic that will prove or disprove your thesis statement (three concise but informative paragraphs).

a)       Strengths and weaknesses of prior research; you might discuss one or more of the

following:

i)      How existing research has overlooked or given inadequate attention to your topic,

for whatever reason.

ii)    You might critique existing studies on a number of grounds, including inadequate measures, inappropriate design, fuzzy concepts, lack of theory, contradictory findings, puzzles in the literature that need to be solved, and so on.

b)       Don’t call it a “Literature Review” and don’t say you are filling a gap in the literature.  

3)       Conclusions: Reflect back on your thesis and the contribution of your research.

It’s that simple! Something else you might do is take a close look at an article you really like and see how the authors introduce the topic, make transitions, and all the other things listed above. Use that article as a template to organize and write your paper. Imitation is an important form of learning!