Overview
- title of the case study: ( What historical and social factors have enabled the long-standing continuation of authoritarian rule in Iran?)
- The organization of the paper should follow the format of a typical scholarly research article:
- Introduction (15 points): This is where you lay out your overall plan for the paper, including your research question, hypothesis, case study, and overall organization for the paper.
- Literature Review (20 points): Here, you will consider your research question within the larger political science field, and compare and contrast your own hypothesis with other competing political science theories.6
- Evidence from the case study (20 points): Here you will present evidence from your case study that supports your hypothesis, and, if possible, weakens alternative arguments and theories. This section will make up the majority of your written paper.
- Conclusion (15 points): Briefly summarize the main arguments and findings of your paper.
- Citing of Sources (15 points): All research papers are required to include 1) in- text citations and 2) a complete list of references at the end of the paper. All papers are required to include at least six scholarly sources, including books or articles. Newspaper articles and other sources of media may be included, but do not count as a scholarly source.
- Organization, Style, and Grammar (10 Points). Notes on SourcesYour case study paper must have at least six scholarly sources. At least three of these should not appear on our course syllabus. To locate academic articles, use ISI Web of Science (available through the library website), Google Scholar, or a similar searchable academic database. You can search these databases by keyword, which results (usually) in a very long, very disparate set of sources. Much of your research will involve sifting through these extensive lists of potential sources in order to find the articles that will be of greatest value to you. In addition to reading the articles’ abstracts, I urge students to use two other means of narrowing sources:
- Avoid books. Focus on articles, and take into account the article source. Top
general political science journals include: American Political Science Review, World Politics, Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Democratization, and Journal of Democracy. There are also very highly regarded sub-field journals, like Latin American Research Review, Journal of Modern African Studies, and Party Politics. Though there can be good work published in all kinds of journals, the competitiveness of peer review at these top journals means that the journal name is a fairly reliable signal of quality. - Use citation chains. Authors will always include some discussion of the scholarly literature in order to situate their own work. You may want to look up the articles they cite in this literature review, particularly if they seem to be the classic sources on an issue. Secondly, articles only cite sources published in the past (obviously), but you can also follow citation chains forward. If you find a source you really like, both ISI and Google Scholar allow you to search for all articles that have cited that article. This will also give you a sense of whether and how that article has been critiqued by other scholars. It can also let you know if an older article has remained an important work for other scholars.7
3. Generally, you want to steer away from compiling a bibliography full of older or infrequently cited citations. Debates in the social sciences change, and it’s better to situate your own research within a living or more “cutting edge” literature.
Three tips for writing good papers:
- You cannot write on a current event for which there is no academic literature. I understand all of you have passions and interests, but this assignment is to test your ability to construct a persuasive argument using evidence. The evidence has to be from peer-reviewed journals. If your topic does not have a scholarly literature on it or is too new to have published academic work, you can’t write a paper on that topic.
- Assume that the reader has no knowledge of your case or the literature you’re citing. E.g., If you cite one of our class readings, you have to give a brief synopsis of the kernel argument. You cannot say ‘this is similar to the argument made by Huntington’ without conveying to the reader what Huntington’s argument was and how it is relevant to the case. This is also true for historical events.Avoid historical narrative. Focus on giving a selective critical analysis of a case, rather than a comprehensive history. Your references to particular events or other developments should advance your argument. For instance, rather than describing four protests and when they occurred, tell how those four protests shared particular characteristics, were organized in a way that is consistent with your argument, etc.