Abstract: . . .  COUNT! Please write in appropriate academic style – avoid contractions, use proper grammar, and make sure your spelling is correct. Improper grammar/spelling makes it very difficult for the reader (me) to follow your arguments. Page 3 1 Spring 2006 30:154: Political Psychology Note: Many of the specific suggestions about how to define and organize your paper listed here are adapted from an assignment Prof. Debbie Schildkraut, Tufts University uses for her students. Research Paper Thirty-five percent . . .
. . .  articulated hypothesis and research design. Tools that might help you locate relevant literature, such as books and journal articles, include: o JSTOR: The Scholarly Journal Archive: www.jstor.org o Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) o Worldwide Political Science Abstracts o Lexis-Nexis/Academic Universe/Congressional Universe Note: relying on newspaper and magazine articles is not sufficient. You should be including published academic research in your description of the current state of knowledge . . .
. . .  psychology is a broad discipline so you have lots of choices. What will make it political “psychology” is that your topic must have some focus on the psychological aspects of political behavior. First, you will need to select a broad topic in political psychology that interests you. Then you will need to narrow your topic down to a specific research question. Designing your paper will require you to: o review relevant scholarly literature o identify controversies, problems, or unresolved issues o develop . . .
. . .  Edit. 3. Repeat steps 1 and 2. 4. Make sure your schedule allows you to have a day or two where you DO NOT look at your draft. Then go back and repeat steps 1 and 2. 5. Ask a friend to proofread your paper for you. 6. Offer to proofread your friends’ papers, even if they are taking classes you know little about. Evaluating other people’s writing can be very valuable in helping you to improve your own writing. The best thing to happen to my writing was for me to start teaching and grading other people’s . . .
. . .  can get examples of abstracts from academic papers in any journal (such as the American Political Science Review , or the Journal of Politics .) E. Please staple your paper and don’t bother putting it into a plastic cover. II. Typical Paper Outline (Guidelines only, you will modify as needed.) A. Introduction. Here’s where you spell out what you are investigating and previewing what will be discussed in your paper. Generally this is a couple paragraphs, and should never be more than a page. Don’t . . .
. . .  – I have some links to online sources o The U.S. Census: www.census.gov o Fedstats: www.fedstats.gov o The National Journal: www.nationaljournal.com o The Pew Center for People and the Press: www.people-press.org o The National Election Study o The General Social Survey Page 7 5 o Thomas: searchable database of legislative activity in Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov/ o Public Agenda: public opinion and policy summaries on a variety of issues: www.publicagenda.org o National Conference of State Legislatures: . . .
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