Research Methods for Historians and Political Scientists

Catalog description

(also POL 3190 ) This course is designed for undergraduate history and political science majors. The course will sharpen the student's research and writing abilities through a range of single and multi-draft papers and reports and several individual and group presentations and projects and help prepare students for graduate school. This is a highly hands-on and Interactive course where the student will learn how to acquire and scrutinize primary and secondary source materials both within and outside the structured classroom time. Students will receive critiques from the instructor and benefit from group Review sessions of their work. The course will examine concepts used in qualitative research such as theories, hypotheses, independent and dependent variables, as well as basic quantitative techniques used to examine data with an emphasis on interpreting the results.