DRAFT
Honor’s Thesis Seminar
Political Science 411
Fall 2009
Professor Priscilla Yamin
Office: PLC 916, 346-4879
CRN:
Office Hours:
Course Description
This course is designed for students who are beginning work on senior honors theses in Political Science. Taken in conjunction with an independent study under the supervision of your thesis advisor, this course will enable you to develop a detailed plan for researching and writing an acceptable senior thesis for honors in Political Science. You will work with your peers, your advisor, and me during the term to frame a suitable topic, conduct preliminary research, and write a “prospectus”: an in-depth description of your topic that includes how you plan to research it and how you plan to develop your argument. Please note that this class is NOT a substitute for working closely with your advisor.
The course will meet five times during fall term as specified below. There will be a short assignment due at each meeting after the first, for a total of four. Course meetings will largely be devoted to discussing the assignments and trouble-shooting any problems that you are having in the course of developing and researching your topic. The students in the course will be researching widely varied topics, but will work together to provide feedback and ideas for every aspect of the process. The course is one credit and is offered on a pass-no pass basis only; in order to pass the course, students must attend the meetings, complete the assignments, and submit acceptable prospectuses at the end of the term.
Course Requirements
Students will be expected to attend all class meetings and participate in discussions. In order to participate effectively, students must have completed the assigned tasks in advance of each class meeting.
The course will have little assigned reading, most of which will be available on reserve in the Knight Library. The course has one major writing assignment, the preparation of a prospectus for the senior thesis. Students will be provided with guidelines for the prospectus early in the term. Throughout the term, students will complete drafts of the various sections of the prospectus and the other students in the class and I will review these drafts. Students will first be asked to produce an initial statement of their thesis topics. You will then begin work on a review of the literature on your topic. You will also develop a description of the methods you intend to use to research your topic. Finally, you will complete a more sophisticated description of your topic that will serve as the introduction to your prospectus.
You must keep up with the assignments during the term. If you fall behind, you will jeopardize your chances of producing an acceptable thesis. Keeping up will help you to pace yourself, enabling you to avoid a panicked scramble to finish your thesis before the deadline.
Policies
Extensions are possible under the following circumstances. 1) They must be requested at least two
working days in advance. 2) They must be cleared with any student in the class
who is dependent upon receiving a copy of the assignment. 3) They may be for no
more than two working days under any circumstances, or you will receive no
credit for the assignment.
Academic
Integrity, Plagiarism, Fabrication, Cheating, and Misconduct: Plagiarism is intellectual theft and violates the honor code. Exact
quotes must have quotation marks and an appropriate citation. Paraphrases must
have appropriate citations. Submitting a paper written by someone else, even if
updated, constitutes plagiarism. If you have any doubts, give credit to the
source. If you have questions, see me before you submit the assignment. The minimum penalty for plagiarism or
cheating will be a failing grade for the course. Ignorance of this policy is
not a defense.
I strongly believe
that a university degree should be a sign of significant accomplishment and a
source of great pride, and therefore maintain a zero-tolerance-for-cheating
policy. Make sure you are familiar with
the University Policy on Academic Dishonesty.
Anyone suspected of committing an act of academic dishonesty will be
reported to the Director of Student Judicial Affairs. Those found guilty will receive an NP in the
class, and may be subject to additional penalties such as expulsion,
suspension, negative notation on the transcript, revocation of the degree,
disciplinary probation, community service, loss of privileges, or conduct
reprimand.
University
guidelines concerning academic dishonesty are described in http://www.uoregon.edu/~conduct/sai.htm,
and http://libweb.uoregon.edu/guides/plagiarism/students/ . Make
sure you are familiar with them, as lack of familiarity or “unintentional”
cheating will not be considered a legitimate defense.
You may be required
to submit writing assignments to SafeAssign. SafeAssign is a software tool
designed to help students avoid plagiarism and improper citation. It encourages
original writing and proper citation by cross-referencing submitted materials
with an archived database of websites, essays, journal articles, and other
published work. I may in some cases also submit your work to SafeAssign or some
other plagiarism analysis and detection program. By enrolling in this course
you grant me permission to do so.
Though your work is
your own, by taking this class you give me permission to xerox your papers for
future reference.
Course Materials
Stephen Van Evera.
1997. Guide to Methods for Students of
Political Science. Ithaca: Cornell University Press is available for
purchase the UO Bookstore. It is also on
reserve at Knight Library.
In addition, two other
books concerning research methodology are also on reserve in Knight Library.
They are Ira Katznelson, ed. 2002. Political
Science: State of the Discipline II.
Articles are
available on Blackboard.
Also prior honor’s
theses are available to check out from the political science office. Students
are strongly encouraged to read these and get a sense of what an honor’s thesis
looks like.
Syllabus
First meeting: Introduction:
What is a prospectus and how do you write one?
At this meeting we
will get to know each other and you will introduce your topic to the other
students in the class. I will explain what a prospectus is and distribute
guidelines for preparing one. We will go over requirements for graduating with
honors and discuss selecting the best advisor and second reader for your
thesis.
The Frank and
Bartels readings both present interesting and plausible arguments, but Frank is
a journalist and Bartels is a political scientist. How does Bartels frame his
analysis, and how is his approach different from Frank’s? The answer to that
question provides important hints about research design in political science. Be
prepared to learn about dependent variables, independent variables, theory,
indicators, operationalization, and hypotheses, among other things.
Readings to be completed before this class:
·
“Writing
an Honors Thesis in Political Science,” Julie Novkov (BB)
·
“Guidelines
for Preparing the Prospectus,” Julie Novkov (BB)
·
Frank. 2004. What’s the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, Introduction
and Chapter 1 (pp. 1-27) (BB)
·
Bartels. 2005.
“What’s the Matter with What’s the
Matter with Kansas?” (BB)
Assignment (due at beginning of class):
·
Provide
the name of your advisor
·
Provide
an initial version of your prospectus, including a one-page introduction
describing your question or puzzle, a one-page literature review, and an
initial bibliography including at least 10 citations from scholarly journals or
books.
Van Evera is an
introduction to systematic analysis. As you read his description of different
types of variables and causal processes, think how your own topic might submit
to this kind of structure. The Goldhagen reading shows how one scholar approached
this problem. He identifies a research
puzzle and then transforms it into a sophisticated research design that can yield
interesting and convincing answers. What is this author’s dependent variable?
What are his independent variables? What are his hypotheses? Does he have any
“conditioning variables?” What other cases, if any, could he have used to
investigate the question that motivates him?
Readings to be completed before this class:
·
Van
Evera, Guide to Methods for Students of
Political Science, chaps. 1 & 2
·
Daniel
Jonah Goldhagen. 1996. Hitler's willing
executioners: ordinary Germans and the Holocaust.
Assignment (due at beginning of class):
Provide a four-page
(at least) description of your research methodology. Answer the following
questions:
This session will
try to clarify how to use theory to inform your research. We will go over how
using theory helps identify hypotheses and independent variables and how to
write a literature review that is theoretically sophisticated and informs your
research.
·
Examples
of literature reviews (both on BB):
§
Robert
H. Bates, Open-economy politics: the
political economy of the world coffee trade, chap. 1
§
Jack
Snyder, Myths of empire: Domestic
politics and international ambition, chap. 2
Assignment (due at beginning of class):
§
How have
other scholars thought about and answered your primary research question?
§
What is
the range of ways in which other scholars have discussed the phenomenon you
seek to explain?
§
What is
the range of factors that other scholars have used to explain variation in the
phenomenon you seek to explain?
§
What are
key disagreements, debates, and sources of contention in the literature?
§
Create a
monthly schedule with deadlines for specific tasks necessary to complete a
draft of your thesis by the deadline of the last day of classes in the winter
term.
At this meeting you
will present your thesis topic to the other students in the class. Two other
students will critique your presentation.
Assignment (due at beginning of class):
·
Provide
the name of your second reader.
·
E-mail
a draft of your full prospectus to both of your critiquers no later than Monday,
November 24th at 5 pm. Re-read the “Guidelines for Preparing the
Prospectus” by
·
Review
and provide written comments on the two prospectuses for which you are the
critiquer. Your critique should have three sections:
§
at least
two honest and constructive criticisms of the prospectus;
§
at least
two clear and specific suggestions for how to improve the prospectus and
thesis; and
§ at least two elements of the prospectus that you believe the thesis writer did particularly well and which you are going to use in improving your own thesis.
PROSPECTUS DUE TO PROF. YAMIN: End of term, tba
Prospectus due to advisors according to
their instructions, but no later than tba