For those interested in those relaxation techniques, Go to this web page and scroll down to the “Nov 20 - 22, 2009, Portland, OR” event, and listen to tracks 7 and 9. See which one works for you. Lots more available on that page, try any of the “guided meditation” tracks. The ones lying down are the most accessible, for those who have not learned how to do the sitting meditation postures. (If ever interested, the book by Will Johnson, The Posture of Meditation, is perhaps the best place to start.)
Week of November 29 & December 1.
Tuesday, November 29: For today, bring to class a polished abstract of your project (on paper), what you envision would be attached to the completed project. Remember the purpose of an abstract: It is NOT a general summary of a project aimed at general consumption. Rather, summarizes the main points of the project using the language of the project, including the research question, methods, and major findings. Note how you use abstracts in your literature searches. They let you know whether the concepts your are interested in are dealt with in the project. Also bring notes on the remaining work to be completed on your project, so that you can clearly identify all steps. Refer to the conceptual outline of this course, on the syllabus & course web page.
Thursday, December 1. Bring in a complete draft of your literature survey (on paper).
Tuesday, November 22. Today is Paper Consultation day. There is a signup sheet beside my office door, 107 Xavier.
For each of you, the goal for the rest of the term is to develop your research project into a polished design, complete with abstract and theory & methods section (that will probably take the form of a literature review and discussion of your data sources and treatment). Your projects all differ with respect to the clarity of the research question, the collection of relevant literature, identification of data sources, and so on. Therefore, the next step for you might be different than for the person next to you in class. Start working on your literature review. For Tuesday the 29th, you will be asked to bring an abstract to class, and we will identify tasks you need to complete to finish your project.
Tuesday, November 15. For today, redo your 3-page policy paper from last week, taking the comments and our class discussions into account. You might also find some useful items in the web page on advice for authors, which includes a page on those correction symbols.
Thursday, November 17. The topic is People Do Research. Read Hoover, Chapter 6, “Relections: Back to the Roots;” also read Marx and Gilens, available in Sakai. The main topic for us for the rest of the semester will be the design of your own project.
Read this story about academic fraud in one of the social sciences.
And, for your enjoyment, here is a piece on peer review in the sciences.
Tuesday, November 8: For today, take your semester project topic and identify a related policy choice. Remember how we see policy in this class, using the Meehan concepts. A description is found here. In your paper, identify the policy choice, choose the part of the policy you will focus upon, and share with the reader how you reach your conclusion. The usual rules of methodology apply. Limit yourself to three double-spaced typed pages, and bring a written copy to class. Also bring two colors of pens or pencils to class. If you have questions about this assignment, email them to Olufs by Sunday, 5 pm.
Thursday, November 10: Read the two policy arguments in Sakai, Pollack.doc and matthews_surge.pdf. For each, evaluate the policy analysis using the criteria supplied by Meehan.
Week of November 1 & 3:
This week we will try to link the Meehan policy approach with the details about method discussed in Hoover, Chapter 5. This means we need to be careful about policy claims (cause and effect, claims about value, etc.) and about how we might measure and test relationships between concepts. Toward that end, let us look at some questions about economic policy.
November 1: Read through the documents you find most interesting about budget issues in this set of notes. Come to class with two written policy claims. Describe the (a) key concepts in the policy claims, (b) the measures you propose to use to test those claims, (c) the properties of those measures, and (d) the expected direction of association between the measures. We will discuss these.
November 3: Expect assigned revisions of your Monday documents, based on our discussions.
Tuesday, October 25. Today we look at policy arguments. See the description of policy papers, and read the Meehan selections and chart in the Sakai resources section. Warning: Most people find Meehan difficult, and this is about 100 pages of his book. The link to the policy papers is based on Meehan, and the chart is a schematic of his approach. But do read it, keep notes on his central claims, and bring those notes to class. You should know how to apply this.
Thursday, October 27. We continue our exploration of the uses of data, from last week, with Hoover and a supporting article. Read Hoover, Chapter 5, “Measuring Variables and Relationships.” Be sure you can answer the chapter questions (in the 10th ed., on pgs. 114-15), and are able to use the concepts listed on p. 114. Also read Bartels, in Sakai resources. In writing, describe the components of Bartels that are the subject of Hoover’s chapter. Bring this to class, suitable for turning in and showing to your peers.
Tuesday, October 18. What is your argument? Using the Toulmin approach to depicting arguments, write a description of the argument you will make in your course paper. Separately, bring to class a detailed diagram that depicts (a) the concepts in your project, (b) relationships between the concepts, and (c) definitions of your concepts. Use the criteria listed under October 11, a, b and d below, to evaluate the diagram.
Thursday, October 20. Making sense of tabular and graphic presentations. Read Stevenson (Happiness) and Clinton, both in sakai. We will interpret the data presentations.
Tuesday, Oct. 11. Bring to class the
results of your Find
Sources Exercise 4. The
criteria for the exercise are (a) clarity of your research question, (b)
clarity of what you observe to see or measure the parts of the world identified
in your concepts, (c) correct citations for five reputable sources that you
will use to describe your concepts or take your measurements, and (d)
annotations of a couple of sentences for each source, describing how you will
use the source in your paper.
Please remember, when in doubt, ask yourself: What would Gilens do?
We will compare and discuss these in class.
Thursday, Oct. 13. Read king_smith.pdf, in
the resources section in Sakai.
Draw a diagram of the concepts they describe, and relationships between
them. The diagram should be clear
enough so that a reader of the article can understand what you are doing. Bring to class, and we will compare
& discuss. You should be doing
this for your own research topic, as well.
Tuesday, Oct. 4. Read Hoover, Chapter 4, “Refinements,” (Note: make sense of the data
tables in chapter 4! We will discuss them) and Appendix A, Putnam; and Andolini (the
latter is in the Sakai resources section). Compare the analyses in Putnam and in
Andolini. Do they differ significantly? Prepare for Find Sources
Exercise 4.
Thursday, Oct. 6. Find Sources
Exercise 4.
Tuesday, September 27.
Read the article in Sakai resources section, hook.pdf. This is an example of a political
science paper that borrows techniques from historians. Bring to class, in writing: Identify the
connections between evidence and claims in the article. Using the Toulmin approach, what is the
warrant? We will then visit
the library for a session with librarian Amy
Stewart-Mailhiot.
Thursday, September 29.
We will do Find Sources Exercise 3, based on techniques explored in Tuesday’s class.
Tuesday, September 20.
·
Read Nexon.
[To find the article, get it from JSTOR…. Yes, this is a test.] What do we mean by validity? By
reliability? How does Nexon handle
them?
·
Diagramming Arguments 2.
Read the file in Sakai Resources, Dahl.
Follow the instructions on the first page, and bring completed diagrams
to class.
· Find Sources Exercise 2. We will have another speed-search exercise. This time you will use some of the library online resources.
Thursday, September 22.
Read Hoover, Chapter 3, “Strategies.” Read Miller [To find the article, get it from JSTOR]. Identify the falsifiable statements. Is the way the authors operationalize their main idea consistent with the way you assess presidential candidates? Read Highton [found in the Sakai Resources section] and describe his model of comparison. Also, Bring two possible paper topics to class.
Week of September 13 and 15.
Tuesday, September 13. We are looking at causal relationships. Read ahead in Hoover/Donovan, pp. 73-77 and the first four paragraphs on p. 106.
For today, follow the instructions in the summary of Robert Michels’ theory of the “iron law of oligarchy.” [The file is entitled Diagramming Arguments I and is found in the Resources section of the course Sakai site.]
To prepare for our Find Sources exercise, please read the President’s recent speech on economic policy, and identify the specific policy claims he makes.
This next part is not assigned, but for those interested in what philosophers have to say about causality, with respect to many social science concerns, see the SIEP entries on probabilistic causality and on counterfactual analysis of causality. It is an expansion of this week’s consideration of causality.
Thursday, September 15. Read Hoover, Chapter 2, “The Elements of Science.” Be prepared to discuss the questions at the end of the chapter. Also, Read Gilens, identify in writing the concepts, variables and hypotheses. Bring this to class.
Week 1: Please check the course Sakai Site, and click on the resources section. There are three articles we will read the first week.