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.

New to the Fourth Edition:

• A non-causal research paper woven throughout the text offers explicit advice to guide students through the research and writing process.
• Updated and more detailed discussions of plagiarism, paraphrases, "drop-ins," and "transcripts" help to prevent students from misusing sources in a constantly changing digital age.
• A more detailed discussion of "fake news" and disinformation shows students how to evaluate and choose high quality sources, as well as how to protect oneself from being fooled by bad sources.
• Additional guidance for writing abstracts and creating presentations helps students to understand the logic behind abstracts and prepares students for presentations in the classroom, at a conference, and beyond.
• A greater emphasis on the value of qualitative research provides students with additional instruction on how to do it.

About the Author
Dr. Lisa A. Baglione is a professor in the Department of Political Science and a member of the International Relations Program at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. Currently, Dr. Baglione also serves as the co-director of the Gender Studies Program. During her career, Dr. Baglione has conducted research in five areas, and while they are varied, she has benefited from the ways that insights from each have interwoven: negotiations between adversaries, authoritarian transformation, peacebuilding, gender in politics, and pedagogy. She has published two other books, To Agree or Not to Agree: Leadership, Bargaining, and Arms Control with University of Michigan Press and Writing a Research Paper in Political Science: A Practical Guide to Inquiry, Structure, and Methods, now in its fourth edition, with Sage.


Book Information
ISBN 9781544371726
Author Lisa A. Baglione
Format Paperback
Imprint CQ Press
Publisher SAGE Publications Inc
Weight(grams) 410g