Rent 9780136029458 | The Political Science Student Writer's Manual | Scott, Gregory M.; Garrison, Steve M. @knetbooks.com

Summary Table of Contents

This comprehensive, practical writer's manual is designed to help "readers" accomplish two goals: 1) improve their writing skills and strategies and 2) learn political science at the same time. The manual considers the different types of papers common to political science at all levels, at the introductory level, and at the advanced level-exploring the purposes and characteristics of each paper, the steps for writing a successful paper, and typical formats. The volume provides a handbook of style for political science, guide to distance learnin... MORE

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To the Student	p. vi
To the Teacher	p. vii
Welcome to Political Science
The Creative Study of Politics	p. 1
Politics and Political Science	p. 1
Political Science as Creativity	p. 7
Four Millenniums of Thinking About Politics	p. 16
Political Science as the Continuing Creative Search for Truth	p. 16
The Era of Myth	p. 18
The Era of Politics	p. 20
The Era of Philosophy	p. 26
The Era of Theology	p. 30
The Era of History	p. 35
The Era of Science	p. 39
The Era of Eclecticism	p. 43
Current Approaches to Studying Politics	p. 47
Basic Problems and Challenges for the Science of Politics	p. 47
Gabriel Almond's Schools and Sects of Political Science	p. 51
Postmodernism and Political Science	p. 75
Some Quantitative Methods in Political Science	p. 80
The Basics of Scientific Knowledge	p. 80
The Basics of Social Science Research	p. 81
Content Analysis	p. 86
Experiments	p. 87
Nonexperimental Designs	p. 90
Interviews	p. 91
Case Studies	p. 91
Direct Observation	p. 92
Focus Groups	p. 92
A Handbook of Style for Political Science
Writing as Communication	p. 94
Writing to Learn	p. 94
The Writing Process	p. 98
Writing Competently	p. 118
Grammar and Style	p. 118
Punctuation	p. 121
Paper Formats	p. 141
General Page Formats	p. 141
Tables, Illustrations, Figures, and Appendixes	p. 146
Text	p. 150
Citing Sources	p. 152
The APSA Author-Date System	p. 152
Avoiding Plagiarism	p. 167
Conducting Research in Political Science
Organizing the Research Process	p. 172
Gaining Control of the Research Process	p. 172
Effective Research Methods	p. 174
How to Conduct a Literature Review	p. 181
Library Information Resources	p. 183
Reference Books	p. 183
Periodical Indexes	p. 189
Statistics	p. 190
Government Agencies	p. 191
Private Research Organizations	p. 192
List of Political Science Periodicals	p. 193
Internet Resources	p. 197
Writing Resources on the Internet	p. 197
Politics and Government Resources on the Internet	p. 198
Political Science Resources on the Internet	p. 200
Assessing the Quality of Internet Resources	p. 200
Critical Thinking and Acting in Politics
Book Reviews and Article Critiques	p. 202
Book Reviews	p. 202
Article Critiques	p. 208
Writing to Communicate and Act	p. 212
Letters to Newspaper Editors	p. 212
Op-ed Essays	p. 216
Letters to Elected Representatives	p. 219
Table of Forms of Proper Address Formats	p. 222
Critical Thinking Exercises	p. 227
An Introduction to the Observation of Politics	p. 227
An Exercise in Observation: Campaign Commercials	p. 228
Directions for Writing an Allegory Analysis	p. 229
Allegory 1: Plato's Philosopher King	p. 230
Allegory 2: Rawls' Veil of Ignorance	p. 232
Allegory 3: Foucault's Panopticon	p. 233
Elementary Policy Analysis: Position Papers	p. 237
What is a Position Paper?	p. 237
Selecting Topics for Position Papers	p. 238
Conducting Research for Position Papers	p. 241
Contents of Position Papers	p. 241
Papers Throughout Political Science
Analytical Papers in American Government and International Relations	p. 246
Preliminary Choices for Research Papers in Political Science	p. 246
Steps in Writing Analytical Papers	p. 249
Comparing Governments	p. 252
How Governments are Compared	p. 252
Elements of Comparative Politics Paper	p. 254
Policy Analysis Papers	p. 260
The Basics of Policy Analysis	p. 260
Policy Analysis Research Proposals	p. 261
Policy Analysis Papers	p. 263
Amicus Curiae Briefs	p. 267
How to Write Amicus Curiae Briefs for the U.S. Supreme Court	p. 267
Resources for Writing an Amicus Curiae Brief	p. 271
Public Opinion Survey Papers	p. 274
The Scope and Purpose of a Survey Paper	p. 274
Steps in Writing a Survey Paper	p. 275
Elements of a Public Opinion Survey Paper	p. 285
Glossary of Political Science Terms	p. 288
Bibliography	p. 297
Index	p. 300
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