Research Project
2. Substantive Issue Related to the Project:
The paper should persuasively support and elaborate on the argument stated in your thesis
section. As such, while you could present arguments that contradict your line of thought, you do
not necessarily have to do so. Yet, if you decide to present arguments that oppose your claim,
you need to show convincingly how your argumentation accommodates or refutes them. While
doing so may constitute an extra work for you, it may also improve the overall quality of your
argument. In both instances, please keep in mind that this is a paper written for a political science
not a history course. Therefore, you will need to use historical phenomena to support your
arguments. Mere narration of events without showing any connection to your main thesis will
not earn you much credit.
3. Format for the Research Project:
The research project must have an introduction, a thesis statement, a body, and a conclusion. The
research project should have a clear organizational structure including transitions between the
sections.
•
Introduction: In this part you need to get reader’s attention. First, state the question
that you are answering. Then, explain why it is an important question. You may
include any practical (and theoretical) advances that answering this question will
bring. If you think that the question you are answering is ambiguous, please make
sure to interpret the problem in the way you understand it. If the question you are
tackling is too broad, narrow it down. (10%)
•
Thesis statement: In this section clearly state your argument. Although you do not
have to explain the logic of your thesis in this section, be sure to define any major
concepts that you are using in your argumentation. Do not use definitions from
dictionary or web. If the authors from the reviewed studies provide a definition of the
main terms, you may use these. (20%)
The body section: In this section you will need to show the logic of the argument. In
other words, explain why we should expect a relationship between the factors that
you think are important and the phenomenon/phenomena that need/s to be explained.
In this section try to make the big points that relate to the question that you are
answering. After you write a paragraph try to re-read it to make sure that it is clear
how this paragraph relates to the question under consideration.
While writing this section you will need to elaborate on the previous literature that
has dealt with this problem as well. The purpose of this exercise is to see what we
know about the answers to your question based on other people’s research and how
your paper “fits” into it. In writing this section you should avoid presenting mere
paragraphs that describe one by one previous studies. Rather, your task here is to
analyze previous studies and explain how they are similar and different. If there is
more than one explanation to the phenomena that they study, try to explain why there
might be two or more explanations. This means that you need to assess previous
knowledge and present your own judgment about its relevance to the question.
In this section try to demonstrate how your answer “fits” the previous knowledge. If
there is a disagreement among scholars on a particular issue, does your study solve
this disagreement? Does it take any particular side? If so, then why? If there is a
complete agreement among scholars on a particular issue, does your argument agree
with them or does it bring a new revolutionary explanation that overturns the
conventional wisdom? Or maybe the problem has not yet received much attention
and you are a pioneer in explaining the phenomenon (phenomena) of your interest. In
either case, demonstrate how your argument is superior to other explanations, if any
of them exist. (50%)
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Conclusion: In this section, briefly re-state the issue that you investigate and its
importance. Re-emphasize your own answer to this question and its place in the previous
research. Indicate any potential areas for the future research in light of the statements you
make. (20%)
The project should be in a double-spaced format.
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It should be 9 to 12 pages long, not counting the front sheet and references.
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The paper should be typed in a 12-point font.
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The body of the text on a page should be framed by 1-inch margins.
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Your paper does not need to be bound—just stapling or clipping is fine.
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Please number the pages on the paper.
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Your paper must have a bibliography in a format shown below.
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While the Internet could be used as a source of information, you must employ at least
seven
academic sources, meaning academic books and articles. Some academic sources are
available in the “full-text” electronic format. You could access them via the University
a. Citations
Please cite your papers thoroughly and use the specified format. Failure to do this will result in a
significant grade penalty. The citation requirements for this class are as follows.
a1.
Direct Quotes
You must enclose direct quotes—text taken word for word from another source—in quotation
marks. Right after the quote, in the parentheses put the author’s last name, the year of publication
and page numbers. Within the parenthesis, the author’s last name and the year of publication
should be separated by a comma. Use a colon to separate the year of publication and page number.
Books as well as newspaper and journal articles have the same format. The appropriate punctuation
for the sentence should follow the parentheses.
Example: “The transition in East-Central Europe from the centrally planned economy to
the market economy turned out to be a very complex process” (Hegedüs,
1999: 132).
a2.
Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)
Whenever you employ somebody else’s ideas and put them in your own words, you have to give
a proper credit to the original author. At the end of the sentence provide the author’s last name as
well as the year when the study was published. Alternatively, the name of the author could be
integrated into your writing.
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Below is a direct quote from Higley and Lengyel:
“The basic difference between the institutional changes that occurred before and after
state socialism’s demise was that the former were intended to reproduce state socialism
while the latter were meant to transcend it” (Higley and Lengyel, 2000: 8).
If in your writing you express this idea in your own words, you still need to give credit to the
authors.
The fundamental novelty of institutional reforms in the post-communist period is that they aim to
go beyond the socialist system, rather than replicate it (Higley and Lengyel, 2000).
Alternatively:
Higley and Lengyel (2000) point out that institutional reforms implemented in the post-
communist age are designed to surpass state socialism rather than replicate it.
Whenever in writing an entire paragraph or idea you are employing a single source, show it at
the beginning of the paragraph:
Higley and Lengyel (2000) consider a fundamental change in the way institutional
reforms work in Central and Eastern Europe with the demise of state socialism.
Particularly, focusing on the role of elites they point to…
If the ideas on which you rely are general to the entire article/source, you do not need to list a
page number.
a3.
String Citing
String citing is stringing together a lot of direct quotes and connecting them by your own words.
It is not acceptable. Use direct quotes only when they are especially relevant to the author’s idea.
It is not appropriate to quote information that relates to pure facts rather than ideas. Doing so
suggests that you do not have a clear understanding of the material. As a general rule, direct
quotes should be one or two sentences in length.
String citing makes it impossible to assess and grade the work. Simply, it does not contain much
of student’s own work.
b. Bibliography
To the end of your paper attach a list of all references used for writing your paper. The list
should be in alphabetical order. The format should be as follows:
Books
Higley, John, and György Lengyel. 2000.
Elites after State Socialism
.
Lanham, MD:
Rowman & Littlefield.
Roskin, Michael G. 2002.
The Rebirth of East Europe.
4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Regulska, Joanna. 1993. “Self-Governance or Central Control? Rewriting Constitutions in
Central and Eastern Europe.” In
Constitution Making in Eastern Europe
, ed. A. E.
Dick Howard: The Woodrow Wilson Center Press/The Johns Hopkins University
Press.