Final Project Proposal (10 Points)
By the end of this course, you will have been introduced to several of the major methods used by political scientists and themes of American politics. Your Final Project will demonstrate your mastery of both. For your Final Project, you will answer a research question you have developed about American politics using the methods, texts, and ideas we have discussed in class. The first step will be to create and submit a Final Project Proposal, due via email as a Word document no later than our class meeting at 11:00am on November 20th, which includes the following:
Your driving research question
A paragraph describing the method you will use to answer your research question
Your preliminary answer to your research question (hypothesis) or preliminary findings
An expanded outline which details the organization of how you will present your research
An annotated bibliography with at least 10 sources
Your topic questions should avoid simple yes or no answers. Example questions might be “When does the U.S. Congress most closely represent the electorate?”, “Under what conditions does the U.S. government represent Hawaiian culture?”, or “How is Big Data used to represent the ‘will of the people’?” In addition to the listed requirements above, your Proposal may also include a proposal for a non-textual format you think best suited to present your research.
Final Research Project (40 Points)
The final project will be a 10-page research paper (not including your citation pages), double spaced, with 1” margins and no larger than 12pt font. Your essay will be an answer to the question you formulated in your proposal which clearly shows how you answered the question (methods), how you support your answer (findings), and what you think the larger implications of your research might be (conclusion). Rather than waste the final class by saying tearful goodbyes, we will use December 6th session to workshop drafts of your papers and share our research with each other. Please bring a copy of your draft, in whatever state it may be, printed out to class with you. The final project is due to me by email in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) format
