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Course OverviewCourse Description“I hear and I forget. Each day, we all encounter politics in many different ways—reading the newspaper, participating in extra-curricular activities, or discussing the upcoming election with our friends. Each of these encounters may raise questions about how or why something happens. Why did Bush beat Kerry in 2004? Why has public opinion about the war in Iraq changed? Why are some student organizations more effective than others? All of these questions are part of political science—the effort to understand how politics works and why certain political outcomes emerge. The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the basics of research in political science so that you can learn to answer questions such as those posed above. This will be accomplished by introducing you to inquiry in political science, or the process of asking—and then answering—questions. We will address a range of different approaches to answering questions in political science, with a particular focus on quantitative analysis. You will learn how to formulate questions and answers about politics, develop hypotheses that help explain political outcomes, and design and conduct a study that will help you test these hypotheses. Class FormatThis is a hands-on course, which means that students will be applying
the skills and ideas they learn in a real-world context as they
learn them. Thus, students are expected to attend class every
day, and actively engage with the material during class. The
class will meet twice a week. The success of the course depends
on students asking questions and vocalizing their ideas. Thus,
all students are expected to actively participate in discussions.
If you must miss class, you are responsible for obtaining information
on material covered in class from one of your classmates.
In addition, students are responsible for checking the course conference
and keeping up with any notices and materials posted there. Contacting the ProfessorPlease feel free to attend my office hours, and contact me if you are having problems with the course material. In addition, feel free to ask questions about the material, or ask me to consult on your projects and papers. I do not regularly check email or my office phone on weekends or in the evenings, so if you have a time-sensitive question, please be sure to contact me during normal working hours.
Course Requirements
Participation (15%) Throughout the semester we will be reading and discussing a series of articles about empirical research, or examples of empirical research itself. Students will be required to actively participate in discussions of this work. Only in this way will we be able to develop, assess, and apply our understandings from this class to the world around us. In addition, your participation grade will assess your effort and timeliness in keeping up with work on your research project. Problem Sets (35%) The only way to learn statistics is to do them. The problem sets are designed to teach you to apply the skills we learn in class to cement your understanding. Research Portfolio (50%) This project of your own making will be a central part of the course
throughout the semester. In order to get this done in one semester,
we will have to hit the ground running. That means you should be
thinking about your topic from the first day of class. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE
THE AMOUNT OF TIME THIS PROJECT WILL TAKE. Doing good research takes
time and patience. Start early and work consistently on the project
throughout the semester. Your grade on the project will be based
solely on the final portfolio that you submit at the end of the
semesterr. Throughout the semester, however, you will have pieces
of the project due to me; all of these earlier work products will
be more helpful to you if your work is farther along. Thus, doing
a good job on these will help your final grade. Policy on Extensions and Special AccommodationsIf a religious observance or other unavoidable factors will limit you from sticking to the class schedule, you MUST see me at the beginning of the semester. Otherwise, please do not ask me if you can have an extension. Instead, follow the policy below. Excused extensions There are only two contingencies which are acceptable for the excused postponement of assigned work: personal illness or family crisis. If either of these contingencies prevents you from satisfying your assignments, you are entitled to an excused extension. If an excused extension is taken, the following steps must be taken: 1) Prior to the class period in which the work is due, you must notify me that you will not be present or that the assignment will not be submitted. This notification must be made before the actual class begins. 2) You must contact me by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday if you miss a Monday assignment to make arrangements to complete the work. If you miss a Thursday assignment, you must contact me by 5:00 p.m. on Friday. 3) You must submit to me with your assignment a signed, written statement indicating that you are acting in accord with Wellesley's Honor Code. The signed statement may be brief and needs only to indicate: 1) that you are requesting an excused extension; 2) that the reason for the extension is consistent with the criteria described above; and 3) that you are acting in accord with Wellesley's honor code. The statement should be signed and submitted with the late assignment. (I will assume that any late work submitted without a written statement is an unexcused extension.) Unexcused late work Any late work for which the procedures above are not followed will be considered unexcused late work. Such work will be subject to the following penalties: Missed assignments must be made up within one week of the date
of the assignment. The assignment will be reduced by a third
of a letter grade for each late day (A to A- for the first day,
A- to B+ for the second day, etc.). If the assignment is due
in class on Monday/Thursday, any assignment turned in after class
time on Monday/Thursday is counted late (i.e. if you turn the problem
set in Monday after class, it is counted late by one day, Tuesday
is the second day late, etc.). After one week, the student
will receive a zero for the assignment. Books
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Created by: Annie Choi '07 and Adilia James '07 |