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

Product Description

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.

Review

”
Writing a Research Paper in Political Science is a helpful research and writing guide for students from various disciplines and undergraduate levels.” — Dorian Brown Crosby

“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.” — Ashlie B. Delshad

“With clarity and compassion, Lisa A. Baglione leads undergraduates step by step through the morass of empirical research.” — William M. Flanik

”
Writing a Research Paper in Political Science is an essential text for every political science major.” — Steve B. Lem

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.