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

In Writing a Research Paper in Political Science, author Lisa Baglione breaks down the research paper into its constituent parts and shows students precisely how to complete each component. The author provides encouragement at each stage and faces pitfalls head on, giving advice and examples so that students move through each task successfully. Students are shown how to craft the right research question, find good sources and properly summarize them, operationalize concepts, design good tests for their hypotheses, and present and analyze quantitative and qualitative data. Even writing an introduction, coming up with effective headings and titles, presenting a conclusion, and the important steps of editing and revising are covered. 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.

In this Third Edition, updated sample research topics come from American government, gender studies, comparative politics, and international relations. And now, more extensive materials are available on the web, including checklists and worksheets that help students tackle each step, calendar ideas to help them complete their paper on time, and a glossary.