Writing a Research Paper in Political Science: A Practical Guide to Inquiry, Structure, and Methods

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. This writing guide breaks down the research paper into its constituent parts and shows students what they need to do at each stage to successfully complete components until the paper is finished. Even writing an introduction, coming up with effective headings and titles, presenting a conclusion, and the important steps of editing and revising are covered with class-tested advice and know-how. In addition to using updated examples of student topics that pull from both American government and international relations, Baglione also includes examples of actual student writing to show readers how someone "just like them" accomplished tasks while writing their papers. Practical summaries, calendars, exercises, and a series of handy checklists make this a must-have supplement for any writing-intensive political science course.

Table of Contents:
So You Have to Write a Research Paper Getting Started: Finding a Research Question Learning Proper Citation Forms, Finding the Scholarly Debate, and Summarizing and Classifying Arguments Making Sense of the Scholarly Answers to Your Research Question: Writing the Literature Review Effectively Distilling Your Argument: The Thesis, Model, and Hypothesis Revising and Editing Your Work: It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over! Making Your Plan and Protecting Yourself from Criticism: The Research Design Evaluating the Argument: The Analysis and Assessment Section Bringing Your Paper Together in Three Essential Ways: The Conclusion, Introduction, and Title

About the Author :
Lisa A. Baglione is a Professor and the 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 contemporary Russian foreign policy, post-settlement peacebuilding, the arms control decision-making process in the United States, the Soviet Union, and Russia, and the research-paper writing process, and has co-authored articles on the transformation of the Russian polity and economy in the early post-communist period. Currently, she is researching conflict transformation in the twenty-first century and contemporary Russian center-periphery relations. At Saint Joseph's, Dr. Baglione teaches courses in which she developed the ideas, advice, and techniques offered in this work.

Review :
"The book's strengths are clear: it summarizes the writing process that coincides with the typical process that I teach students to conduct empirically-oriented research in political science. The author captures the typical undergraduate political science major audience well, and is accessible to students who do not intend to pursue political science as a profession, but who I think will benefit from a greater understanding about the process that political scientists follow to identify a puzzle or problem, survey the literature, develop a thesis, and design and carry out a logical process to address the problem.” “The book is very accessible in terms of writing, complete with great examples. I like that it walks students through the process of finding a topic, formulating the research question and writing the literature review so thoroughly.” "Most of my students did well once they identified a tractable research question. This is where Baglione’s text shines. A poorly-thought out project is not likely to end well, even if the author is otherwise smart and industrious. Designing research projects, starting with the development of a good question, is probably the single most important skill that I can teach beginning college students. It’s a wonderful reference. I’ve enjoyed using it, and I can imagine using it again in the future." "The strengths are the checklists, the clear guidance from A to Z on how to think through the process; the calendar is helpful to students. The incorporation of political theory and the different students with different interests is excellent. Finally, it’s short and thus not overwhelming. It’s a simple guide and that’s very useful." "The strengths of the book are numerous: the use of actual student writing, the emphasis on multiple draft writing (I particularly appreciate this), the length of the text, the emphasis on finding and then evaluating sources and plagiarism, and I really appreciate the skills-based approachm particularly when it is deliberately done and demonstrates how these skills are portable." "As a supplemental text, it contains an appropriate mix of writing skills and methodology. The emphasis is first and foremost on writing skills, but the book introduces enough methodology to help undergraduate students design rigorous research papers. I also like that the book provides clear advice for both qualitative and quantitative analysis (and combinations thereof)."