Does participation a peer-mentoring program improve first year experiences of s
Statistics
The assignment is a research report on an empirical question in political science. I look forward
to consulting with all of you about your topic ideas. This should be an integrated formal paper.
In general, I am looking for evidence that you can search and understand the literature in political
science on a question that interests you, propose a research question based on that literature,
discuss the advantages and limitations of the research design that you employ, do basic analysis
of data to evaluate your hypothesis, and discuss how the results of your analysis relates to the
existing literature and avenues for future research.
The requirements include some analysis of data to show that you can integrate data analysis with
your theoretical and substantive interest.
Paper guidelines:
Each student must:
1. Identify a research question
2. Develop hypotheses
3. Find data set(s) to address the research question and hypotheses
4. Conduct analysis
The final paper should be 8-10 pages long, excluding the bibliography and plots. It
must contain the following sections:
• Research question and hypotheses (including literature review that justifies
the hypotheses)
• Description of Data
• Description of Data Analysis Techniques and justification of their
appropriateness
• Data Analysis (Do not copy R output): Tables and Figures
• Conclusion (discussion of limitations and future research)
• Bibliography
