Research Methods in Social Sciences: Term Paper Guidelines

Term Paper Guidelines

· No cover page!

· You NEW NUMBER should be on the upper right side of the paper, on the first page.

· All pages should be numbered.

· Class name and number should be on the upper left side (IR 303 Research Methods in Social Sciences, Fall 2015).

· Title should be in the center.

· 12 FONT, Times New Roman

· No indentation from left or right.

· No extra space at the bottom of the top (including the first page).

· Double spaced.

· 6-8 pages EXCLUDING the Appendix and the References. (6 full pages, 5 and a half pages will not be accepted). If you use do not use any statistical methods, your paper should be on the long side.

· Your paper should be stapled.

PAPER SECTIONS

These are the sections that MUST be in your research paper. Separate them and write the section name.

1. TITLE

Your title should be your research question: “Is there a relationship between …?”

2. INTRODUCTION

Your first sentence should be your hypothesis.

Your first paragraph should be an outline of your paper.

“In this paper, I will hypothesize that … In the first section of the paper, I wil review the literature on ….. In the second section, … In the third section …… I will conclude that”

3. LITERATURE REVIEW

· Your literature review should be about your hypothesis, not your variables. There should be no personal opinions in a literature review. You should critically analyze the literature to show what has been dones so far and what needs to be done now.

· It should also include definitions of your key terms.

· It should identify important trends in the literature about your hypothesis.

· You should connect the trends in literature to your hypothesis. You should explain why there is a need to write this paper.

· Your literature review should be up to date. Your references should be recent (Most of your references should be from the last decade).

· It should be around 2 pages.

4. METHOD

· How do you support your hypothesis?

· What is your independent variable?

· What is your dependent variable?

· Identify them.

· How are you going to OPERATIONALIZE them? (How will you measure them?) Explain this in detail.

· What method do you use in your research? Is it quantitative or qualitative? Write it.

· Explain your method in detail. How did you conduct your study?

· Did you use focus group interviews or in-depth interview?

· Did you do content analysis? Did you trace the historical process? Did you use a survey? Did you conduct an experiment?

· ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: If you used human subjects, how did you ensure that they were not harmed by your research? Your subjects should be over 18 and mentally capable. If not, you have to get permission from their legal guardians.

5. FINDINGS

· What did you find in your research? Explain in detail. Use graphs and tables, if necessary.

· You CANNOT USE tables and graps from other sources. You have to make YOUR OWN tables and graphs.

· Explain every word and every number on your tables and graphs!

· Explaing historical events and people, if you mention them. Be thorough.

6. DISCUSSION / ANALYSIS

· This is the most important section of your paper. This is where you analyze your findings.

· Do not provide your opinion! This is not an opinion paper. This is a research paper. You need to support everyting you say.

· Explain your findings. What do they mean?

· Do your findings support your hypothesis?

· How do your findings fit in the literature?

· What do your findings contribute to the literature?

· Do your findings have an real world/ policy implications?

· What do you think needs to be researched, in light of your findings?

· What are the weaknesses and strenghts of your research?

7. CONCLUSION

· Summarize your paper. This section should be short. Do not include opinions or platitudes.

APPENDIX

· Include surveys and other related material in the appendix. Do not translate your surveys in the appendix to English. Include the original questions in Turkish. BUT everything should be translated in the main text of the paper.

· Send me the recordings of the interviews per email.

REFERENCES

· You need AT LEAST 15 references.

· Do not provide the name of the article in the text.

· Article and journal names go in the reference section.

· Use APA 6

Last Name, The first letter of the first Name. (Year of publication) Article Name. Journal Name. Journal Number. Page Numbers.

· Do not provide hyperlinks to the references!

· Don’t include hyperlinks in the references. Just write the bibliographic information.

· Do not use old references for current issues:

~~There are 55 million people in Turkey (Özdemir, 1983).~~

This is old information and it is no longer correct.

· If you include a SHORT quote from another source in the text, put it in quotation marks: “As writers, few of Kristof’s interlocutors had his pithy, winning ease.”

· If you include a LONG quote in the text, make it an indented paragraph, use font size 10 to indicate that it is a quote:

To a degree, some of the responses, though convincingly argued, inadvertently bolstered Kristof’s case because of the style in which they were written: fractious, humorless, self-serious, and defensively nerdy. As writers, few of Kristof’s interlocutors had his pithy, winning ease. And yet, if they didn’t win with a knock-out blow, the professors won on points. They showed that there was something outdated, and perhaps solipsistic, in Kristof’s yearning for a new crop of sixties-style “public intellectuals.” (Rothman, 2014).

· Do no use sources in Turkish. All your sources should be in English.

· All your sources should be journal articles or official statistics/data or academic books.

LANGUAGE

· Learn to use the words research and study:

RESEARCHES: Research is always singular.

Study can be plural à Studies show that…

· Verbs are very important

Smith (2009) argues that

Smith (2009) finds that

Smith (2009) indicates that

Smith (2009) shows that

Smith (2009) illustrates that

Smith (2009) agrees with Connor (2007)

Smith (2009) investigates this topic.

Smith’s (2009) findings show that…

This articles shows that … (Smith, 2009)

To research, to put forth, to bolster, to support, to illuminate, to uncover, to discover, to explain, to imply, to apply (to), to connect (with), to review, to analyze, to explore, to engage with, to allude to, to refer to, to cover, to compare, to contrast, to trace, to develop an argument, to disagree with, to summarize, to mention, to touch upon, to sum up, to explain, to understand, to design (a survey/study), to conduct (research/study/survey)...

· Use present tense!

~~Smith (2009) found that…~~

~~Smith (2009) has found that …~~

Smith (2009) finds that …

· Use simple sentences!

Simple is good. Simple is beautiful. Keep it simple!

· Use paragraphs!

On average, one page should have about 3 paragraphs. Each paragraphs has one central idea or topic. The most important sentence in a paragraph should usually be the beginning sentence.

STYLE

· Do not use passive voice. Always use active voice.

~~It is argued that…~~

Smith (2009) argues that ….

In this paper, I argue that…

I put forth the hypothesis that…

· Do not write unecessary things!

~~It is important to discuss this topic.~~

Yes, it is important. That is why you are writing about it.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ADVANCED HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. YOU CREATED A HYPOTHESIS. YOU TESTED IT. YOU REPORTED IT.

THIS IS SCIENCE!!!! J

RULES