Phase 1
Selection
of Topic and Introduction
A brief
introduction on what you intend to study. You should include the following:
1) A research topic (“Why…”)
“Why do some people vote for one candidate and others vote for a
different one?”
“Why do some nations
have democratic political systems and others have authoritarian systems?”
(Corbett p63)
2) A background on the topic
3) Discuss
why this topic is important
4) Cite at least two academic sources and discuss what research has been
done. (You can use JSTOR to search for articles. You can also go to the
library.) Articles in magazines and newspapers are not considered as
“academic.” Attach a bibliography at the end of the introduction (i.e. Do not
insert the bibliography in the text).
e.g. -According to Smith (2002), …
-Riker
(1982) argues that …
-Although a number of scholars have applied these theories to the
implementation of regulatory policies (see Lowry 1992; Ringquist
1993; Moe 1982, 1985, Scholz and Wei
1986; Wood and Waterman 1994; Hunter and Waterman 1996)…
Bibliography
(Journal)
Riker, William. 1982. “The Two Party System and Duverger’s
Law: An Essay on the History of Political Science.” American Political Science Review 76:
753-766
Bibliography
(Book)
Sheingate, Adam. 2001. The Rise of the
Agricultural Welfare State.
5) Layout a plan for the rest of the
study.
Phase 1. Research question
Phase 2. Theory (explanation) and testable hypotheses
Phase 3. Variable list / operationalization
Phase 4. Statistical analysis
Phase 5. Conclusion and final product
e.g. “The plan of the study is as follows. First, I will explain what
factors influence the attitudes toward abortion and derive hypotheses. Second,
I will operationalize the hypotheses. Third, I will
conduct statistical analysis and test the hypotheses. Finally, I will conclude
with…”
1. Know
what you are trying to explain. For example, you are interested in the impact
of electoral rules on party systems. In this example, you are trying to explain
cross-national variations of party systems by electoral rules.
Other examples
The impact of economic
growth on democratization
The impact of gender on
party support
The impact of race on
voting behavior
The impact of guns on
crime rates
2. You will
not be using JSTOR to gather data. You can use JSTOR to search for academic
sources.
3. You will
be performing statistical analysis in Phase 4. You are only going to use a
dataset in SPSS to complete your statistical analysis. In other words, you will
not collect data by yourself.
4. You will
be using a single dataset in SPSS. The use of multiple datasets will not work
in statistical analysis
5. It is
very important that you check the datasets in SPSS to make sure that you can
carry out statistical analysis later.
6. You
should not argue the importance of your research paper based on your personal
experience. Your research paper should be important to other readers.
7. Avoid
factual research questions. Avoid normative questions.
8. Make
sure that your research question does not just focus on some individual cases.
9.
Attach Assignment 1.
Note:
1. Phase 1
should be 1-2 page(s) using 12 point font (Use either Times New Roman or
Arial). Double spaced. Do not adjust margin sizes.
2. Staple
(Do not use a binder).
3. Make sure to write in paragraph format.
4. Save
your work in disks (Make sure to have multiple backups). You will be
responsible for a lost disk.
5. At the
end of the semester, you will turn in your paper by combining the phases. You
will be asked to turn in the original phases with your final paper. In other
words, you need to keep your original phases with my comments after I return
them to you.
6. Please
do not send your assignments using e-mail.
7. Overall,
present your paper professionally.