Writing a Research Paper in Political Science
A Practical Guide to Inquiry, Structure, and Methods
- Lisa A. Baglione - Saint Joseph's University, USA
Even students capable of writing excellent essays still find their first major political science research paper an intimidating experience. Crafting the right research question, finding good sources, properly summarizing them, operationalizing concepts and designing good tests for their hypotheses, presenting and analyzing quantitative as well as qualitative data are all tough-going without a great deal of guidance and encouragement. Writing a Research Paper in Political Science breaks down the research paper into its constituent parts and shows students what they need to do at each stage to successfully complete each component until the paper is finished. Practical summaries, recipes for success, worksheets, exercises, and a series of handy checklists make this a must-have supplement for any writing-intensive political science course.
New to the Fourth Edition:
- A non-causal research paper woven throughout the text offers explicit advice to guide students through the research and writing process.
- Updated and more detailed discussions of plagiarism, paraphrases, "drop-ins," and "transcripts" help to prevent students from misusing sources in a constantly changing digital age.
- A more detailed discussion of “fake news” and disinformation shows students how to evaluate and choose high quality sources, as well as how to protect oneself from being fooled by bad sources.
- Additional guidance for writing abstracts and creating presentations helps students to understand the logic behind abstracts and prepares students for presentations in the classroom, at a conference, and beyond.
- A greater emphasis on the value of qualitative research provides students with additional instruction on how to do it.
“Writing a Research Paper in Political Science is a helpful research and writing guide for students from various disciplines and undergraduate levels.”
“Lisa A. Baglione’s book is a highly accessible resource to help undergraduate students transition from writing about politics to writing about empirical political science research.”
“With clarity and compassion, Lisa A. Baglione leads undergraduates step by step through the morass of empirical research.”
“Writing a Research Paper in Political Science is an essential text for every political science major.”
This is an engaging and well written book that seems geared to the level of the course - students writing their senior capstones.
Excellent, in-depth review of how to do a research paper. Perfect for learning objectives of my course.
too focused on political science, not a good fit for urban planning.
Sample Materials & Chapters
CHAPTER 1: So You Have to Write a Research Paper
CHAPTER 3: Learning Proper Citation Forms, Finding the Scholarly
