Writing a Research Paper in Political Science~ A Practical Guide to Inquiry, Structure, and Methods Third Edition Lisa A. Baglione Saint Joseph'sU niversity Los AngelesI London I New Delhi SingaporeI WashingtonD C I Boston &iii ($)SAGEI CQPRESS Los Angeles I London I New Delhi Singapore I WashingtonD C I Boston FORI NFORMATION: Copyright © 2016 by CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. CQ Press is a registered trademark of ca 'Congressional Quarterly Inc. Prass An Imprinto f SAGEP ublicationsIn, c. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or 2455T eneRr oad utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, ThousandO aksC, al~omia9 1320 including photocopying, recording, or by any information E-mailo: [email protected] storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. SAGEP ublicationLst d. 1 Oliver'sY ard 55CityRoad LondonE C1Y1 SP UnitedK ingdom Printed in the United States of America SAGEP ublicationIsn diaP vt. Ltd. Libraryo f CongressC ataloging-in-PublicatioDn ata B 1/11M ohanC ooperatiIvned ustriaAl rea MathuraR oed,N ewD et.11100 44 Baglione, Lisa A. India Writing a research paper in political science: a practical guide to SAGEP ubMcattoAnss ia-PacifiPc ie.L td. inquiry, structure, and methods/Lisa A. Baglione. - 3rd ed. 3 ChurchS treet p.cm. #10-04S amSU11Hgu b Includes bibliographical references and index. Singapor0e4 9483 ISBN 978-1-4833-7616-5 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Political science-Authorship. 2. Political science-Research. I. Title. JA86.B24 2015 808'.06632-dc23 2011025074 This book is printed on acid-free paper. AcquisitionEs ditor. SarahC alabl CertifiedC haino f Custody SeniorD evelopmenEtd itor. NancyM atuszak ~ S~USWTAINeA BLEP romotinSgu stainabFleo restry EdltoriaAl ssistant: DaviaG rant www.sfiprogram.org SFl-01268 ProductioEn ditor. LibbyL arson SFIl abeal ppHetos t exts tock CopyE ditor. Jim Kelly Typesetter.C &MD igltals(P )U d. CoverD esigner.A nupamaK rishnan MarketingM anager.A myW hitaker 15 16 17 18 19 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 About the Author Dr. Lisa A. Baglione is professor and chair of the political science department at Saint Joseph's University. Her major fields of study are international relations and comparative politics. Dr. Baglione has published works exploring post settlement peace building; the arms control decision-making process in the United States, the Soviet Union, and Russia; and the research paper-writing process and has coauthored articles on the transformation of the Russian polity and economy in the early postcommunist period. Currently, she is researching the determinants of contemporary Russian foreign policy. At Saint Joseph's, Dr. Baglione teaches two courses-Writing in International Relations and Sophomore Seminar in Political Science-in which she develops and tests the ideas, advice, and techniques offered in this work. To JackM oran The consummate teacher-researcher-friend Contents Preface xiii 1. So You Have to Write a ResearchP aper 1 What Is a Research Paper? A Few Helpful Metaphors 3 What Research Paper Writing Entails 6 Blueprint of the Book 7 2. Getting Started: Finding a ResearchQ uestion 15 Characteristics of a Good Question 15 Find Something Interesting 16 Determining Why Your TopicI s Important 24 If Possible,I dentifying a Puzzle 26 Starting Wordsf or Questions 26 Types of Researcha nd Questions 30 Usingt he Advice to GenerateQ uestions 31 Stating Your Question Conciselya nd Directly 35 Practical Summary 3 7 Recipe 1: The Research Question 38 Exercises 39 3. Learning Proper Citation Forms, Finding the Scholarly Debate, and Summarizing and Classifying Arguments: The Annotated Bibliography 41 What Are Bibliographies, and Why Do We Bother with Them? 42 Plagiarism versus Paraphrasing 45 Annotating the Bibliography 48 Identifying the Key Conceptual Issues 49 Searching for Sources 50 Identifying Similar Arguments and Grouping Your Sources 58 One Last Word of Advice: Generic Schools of Thought 60 Writing the Annotated Bibliography 61 The Beginningso f Gabriela'sA B 65 Practical Summary 69 Recipe 2: Annotated Bibliography 70 Exercises 71 vii Iv m CONTENTS 4. Making Sense of the Scholarly Answers to Your Research Question: Writing the Literature Review 75 Preparing for and Understanding the Literature Review 76 The Fundamentals of the Literature Review 77 Writing the Literature Review 79 Practical Summary 88 Recipe 3: Literature Review 89 Exercises 91 5. Effectively Distilling Your Argument: The Thesis, Model, and Hypothesis 93 The Thesis 93 The Model 94 The Hypothesis 98 Applying These Insights 102 Practical Summary 104 Recipe 4: Model and Hypothesis Section 104 Exercises 106 6. Revising and Editing Your Work: The Writing-Thinking Spiral 109 Practical Summary 115 Recipe 5: Revising and Editing 116 Exercises 119 7. Making Your Plan and Protecting Yourself from Criticism;_Ih ~ Research Design 121 Research Design: The Medical Science Analogy 122 Writing the Research Design 126 ChoosingC ases 126 ConceptD elineationa nd Measurement: OperationalD efinitionsa nd Operationalization 134 IdentifyingD ata Sources 139 Strategiefso r Uncoveringa nd, at Times, CreatingD ata 140 Methodology 141 Finishing Touches on the Research Design 143 Practical Summary 148 Recipe 6: Research Design 148 Exercises 151 8. Evaluating the Argument: The Analysis and Assessment Section 155 Qualitative Analysis 156 Quantitative Analysis 163 Contents ix! Practical Summary 170 Recipe 7: Analysis and Assessment 171 Exercises 173 9. Bringingt he Paper Together in Three Essential Ways: The Conclusion,I ntroduction, and Title 175 Considering the Significance and Limitations of Your Findings: The Conclusion 176 Writing a Good Introduction 181 A Last Element in Attracting Readers: Developing an Appealing Title 185 Are You Done? The Joy (and Continued Responsibilities) of Finalizing Your Draft 187 Practical Summary 188 Recipe 8: Conclusion, Introduction, and Title 188 Exercises 189 Bibliography 191 Index 197 List of Features Figure Figure 8.1: Level of Media Access and Strength of the MENA Uprisings 168 Tables Table 1.1: Research Paper: Tasks to Be Accomplished, Sections, and Suggested Calendar 8 Table 2.1: Finding a Topic: Students with Clear Passions, Activities, Interests, or Aspirations 18 Table 2.2: Finding a Topic: Using a Favorite Course 20 Table 2.3: Finding a Topic: Using Various Techniques to Find a Topic That Is Interesting to Multiple Audiences 23 Table 2.4: Generating Questions and Identifying Their Type 32 Table 3.1: Questions, Concepts, and Hunches 50 Table 3.2: Beginning Your Annotated Bibliography: Gabriela's Basics 63 Table 3.3 Identifying the Key Factors or Short Answers 64 Table 5.1: Models and Variable Values 101 Table 7.1: Understanding Variation by Looking at Questions with Built-in Puzzles 127 Table 7.2: Understanding "Good" Samples by Considering Variation and Control (in Two Steps) 129 Table 7.3: Controlling for Competing Explanations 145 Table 8.1: Freedom House Media Rankings, Algeria and Egypt, 2009 to 2011 159 Table 8.2: Summary of Independent Variable Values in Algeria and Egypt 161 Table 8.3: Party Affiliation and Support for Immigration Reform 165 Table 8.4: Model Summary 167 Table 8.5: Analysis of Variance, Media Access and Protest Levels 169 Boxes Box 3.1: Paraphrasing and Plagiarism: Knowing the Difference 47 Box 3.2: Results from a Library of Congress Online Catalog Search 52 Box 3.3: Learning More from Two Library Records 54 Box 3.4: Learning from the Permalink 56 xi j xii LISTO FF EATURES Recipes Rtcipe 1: The Research Question 38 Recipe 2: Annotated Bibliography 70 Recipe 3: Literature Review 89 Recipe 4: Model and Hypothesis Section 104 Recipe 5: Revising and Editing 116 Recipe 6: Research Design 148 Recipe 7: Analysis and Assessment 171 Recipe 8: Conclusion, Introduction, and Title 188 Preface As I write this preface, I am preparing to speak at a memorial service for my dear friend, Jack Moran, the long-time head tutor at Cornell-in Washington's (C IW) internship and public policy program for undergraduates. My commitment to the importance of teaching research paper writing and this book originated in my experiences there and are very much a result of my interactions with Jack. For those of you who notice that the dedication of this edition is different from the previous one, the reason is not related to any change in my status but as a way to honor my friend, who taught me so much as a graduate student and who, over the ensuing two-plus decades, engaged in numerous conversations with me about teaching research methods and how to engage students in the research process. I was not an early believer that requir ing political science undergraduates to undertake a journal-style research article was a good idea. The instructors who are picking up this book likely have heard these criticisms and more: such an endeavor puts students under too much pressure, is too specialized when a liberal arts education is not intended to produce academics, and is too much work for faculty and students alike. In my time at Cornell and then with even more fervor as a faculty mem ber at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, I became a convert, and Jack was central to helping me arrive at that transformation. I firmly believe that learning how to conduct research and effectively communicate ideas in the form of an academic paper not only teaches students invaluable writing, research, logical, and analytic skills but, perhaps most compelling, empowers them to become critical consumers of information and, therefore, better citi zens in a democracy. Today Americans and people in liberal polities the world over must assess arguments, weigh evidence, and consider the appropriateness of cases, data, and comparisons as they decide whose policy positions appear best suited to contemporary challenges and whose inclinations and worldviews seem capable of handling unforeseen opportunities and dangers.1 Jack Moran was the consummate teacher, who knew how to expertly guide students through the research process and, over his career, oversaw more than a thousand undergraduate public policy theses, ranging in length from about 60 to 100 pages. Weekly, he would meet individually with his students after having read their drafts, intellectually poking and prodding them to sharpen their ideas, encouraging, laughing, and challenging them to do their best. He shaped so many students and gave them an unbelievable experience that was more than an intellectual one, because Jack was not just a teacher but a mentor. He lived in the CIW complex with these students, and he gave them his all. Also remarkable about Jack was how much time and energy he spent on the graduate students who were teaching at CIW. For this program to xiii