PPPM 401, Senior Research Paper and Thesis I Fall, 2001, CRN 13948, 3 Credit Hours http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jeans 10:00 - 10:50 Fridays, 254 Lawrence Professor: Jean Stockard, 103 Hendricks, ext. 6-5005, jeans@oregon; hours: 1:00-3:00 p.m., Tuesdays and by appointment Graduate Teaching Assistant: Sarah Diem, 26E Hendricks, ext. 6-2069, sdiem@darkwing; hours: 1:00-3:00 p.m., Thursdays and by appointment This class is the first term of the three term sequence designed to guide PPPM seniors through their Senior Research Paper project. It is assumed that all students enrolled in PPPM 401 have already successfully completed PPPM 413, Applied Social Research. In this class you will read literature related to the topic of your senior paper and develop a full research proposal. In winter term you will conduct your research and write a rough draft of your final paper. In spring term you will finish the paper and give a public presentation about your research. You will also create a poster summarizing your research, which will be placed on public display. Three books are required for this class: Jose L. Galvan, Writing Literature Reviews: A Guide for Students of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (Pyrczak, 1999); Mildred L. Patten, Proposing Empirical Research: A Guide to the Fundamentals (Pyrczak, 2000); and Wayne C. Booth, et al, The Craft of Research (University of Chicago Press, 1995). All of these books will be used throughout the coming year as you proceed with your senior paper. The book by Booth, et al, provides excellent advice for each step of the writing process, from developing your proposal to writing your finished product. Patten's book gives explicit guidelines for developing your proposal, and Galvan's book provides excellent guidelines for reading and digesting literature into an understandable and useful review. You may also want to consult the research methods textbook that you used in 413. Because we will meet for only one hour each week students will need to spend a great deal of time working on their project by themselves and consult with the instructors frequently. Students will be expected to communicate with the instructors regarding their progress and any problems with weekly e-mail updates. During the weekly class sessions students will be expected to be prepared to discuss their work in progress and may be called upon at random. Requirements for the class include: 1) regular class attendance and participation; 2) weekly e-mail check-in with the instructors; 3) completion of a bibliography and detailed notes on 21 peer-reviewed research articles related to the topic of the senior project; and 4) completion of 3 preliminary papers and a final version of the proposal for the senior research paper. The class may only be taken Pass/No Pass. University regulations indicate that a Pass reflects a grade of C- or better. Points will be awarded for each of the required elements, as outlined below, and any student who fails to receive the points that would be equivalent to a C- grade (65% or higher) within each of these four areas will receive a no-pass grade. Because of the volume of work it is very important that students maintain the time line and due dates developed. One point will be deducted for each day that an assignment is late. For instance, if an e-mail comes in on Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning, rather than by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, it will receive 1 point. If it arrives after 5:00 p.m. on Thursday it will receive no points. A bibliography that arrives within 24 hours after the due date will receive an automatic deduction of 1 point, between 24-48 hours a deduction of 2 points, etc. An outline of the course, due dates of assignments, and a list of the assigned readings are given below. This is followed by a description of the assignments. Friday, September 28 -- Overview of the Senior Paper Process and Expectations Friday, October 5 -- Developing General Problem Statements Bibliography due Read: Booth, et al, chapters 3-6, pp. 35-84; Patten, Parts A and B pp. 1-25; Galvan, chapters 1-5, pp. 1-48 Friday, October 12 -- Developing General Problem Statements Bibliographic notes due Friday, October 19 -- Developing Specific Problem Statements, Expectations, Hypotheses Bibliographic Notes and Preliminary Paper 1 due Read: Patten, parts C-E, pp. 27-58 Galvan, chapters 6-9, pp. 49-86 Booth, et al, chapters 5-6, pp. 64-84 Friday, October 26 -- Developing Specific Problem Statements, Expectations, Hypotheses (continued) Bibliographic Notes due Friday, November 2 -- Methodology Bibliographic Notes and Preliminary Paper 2 due Read: Patten, parts F-I, pp. 59-102 Friday, November 9 -- Methodology (continued) Bibliographic Notes due Friday, November 16 -- Discussion, Limitations, Delimitations, Timelines Bibliographic Notes and Preliminary Paper 3 due Read: Patten, Parts J-K, pp. 103-130 Galvan, chapters 10-11, pp. 87-96 Booth, et al, chapters 11, 13-15, pp. 155-174 and 201-250 Friday, November 30 -- Discussion, Limitations, Delimitations, Timelines Bibliographic Notes due Thursday, December 8, 8:00 a.m. -- Final Paper due Assignments 1) E-mail Updates Because your success in this class is crucial for finishing your senior paper you are required to communicate with the instructors on a weekly basis via e-mail. The length and content of these e-mails may vary depending upon your particular needs, but you must communicate with both the instructor and the gtf (jeans@oregon, sdiem@darkwing) by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday of each week beginning with the second week of class (Oct. 2) and continuing through the Tuesday of finals week (Dec. 4). Please note in the subject line of the e-mail that you are providing a "401 update." Then in the body of e-mail tell us about the progress you have made in finding literature related to your project and in developing your proposal. Also please indicate any questions or concerns you have about your work. We will try to respond to you as soon as possible, usually within 24 hours. Each week that you send a substantive e-mail (i.e. one that indicates you are making progress) by the designated day and time (5:00 p.m. on Tuesdays) you will receive two points, for a total possible of 20 points. 2) Project Bibliography To complete your senior paper you will need to develop an extensive understanding of the area that you are studying. To accomplish this goal you will need to begin searching the literature in the area as soon as possible, and to facilitate this process you are required to both develop a bibliography and submit abstracts of literature you have read throughout the term. Galvan's book, Writing Literature Reviews, will be especially helpful in this endeavor. Each week, at the beginning of Friday's class, you are required to submit evidence of your continuing progress. On October 5, you must submit a bibliography of at least 15 sources related to your general area of interest that you have found by using an electronic data base at the University Library. These sources should be peer reviewed journal articles related to your area of interest. (Note that "academic search elite," a search engine you will probably use a great deal, specifically allows you to limit the search to peer reviewed articles. Most other search engines also provide this option.) You are strongly encouraged to participate in the tours and training sessions offered by the library staff and to use the guides and information provided by the library on their web site. If you need additional help, please consult the instructors. The readings assigned for October 5 also provide excellent guidance for the development of this initial bibliography and should be read carefully. See the material on "Format Issues" below for instructions on the style to use in preparing the bibliography. After developing the initial bibliography you will begin to read the literature. You are strongly urged to follow the guidelines developed by Galvan (pp. 29-47): scan all the articles, group them by categories, organize yourself before reading them, and then carefully read and summarize the important points. Galvan suggests using note cards, but you may want to take notes on your word processor. For each article you must note all of the information included in example 4.4.1 (pp. 31-32) of Galvan: the full citation, and notes regarding the main point of the article, the methodology, the findings, any other notable aspects of the article, and specific details. The more information you include in your notes the more helpful they will be later on. It is also wise to note any questions or concerns you have as you read the article and thoughts or conclusions that you have about the general direction of your project. (These can also be included in your weekly e-mail updates.) Do not simply copy the abstract of the article that generally appears on its first page. You are required to submit bibliographic notes from at least 3 articles each week beginning with the 3rd week of class. These notes will be due at the beginning of class starting with October 12 and continuing through Nov. 30, the last week of class. (None will be due Thanksgiving week.) Thus, at the end of the term you will have completed detailed reading of at least 21 research articles related to your project. You may receive up to 15 points each week for these bibliographic notes, for a total of 115 points (10 for the bibliography plus 105 total for the weekly notes). 3) Senior Paper Project Proposal The major focus of this term will be the development of the proposal for your senior paper. To help you develop this project you will be required to turn in 3 preliminary parts of the project. The instructors will provide detailed feedback on these elements and you will then combine these elements into a completed finished product, which will be due in finals week. All of the assigned books will be especially helpful in this work. Preliminary Paper 1: General Problem Statement will be a short (no more than 3 page) discussion of the general area that you hope to study. The material in Part A of Patten's book (pp. 1-16) should be especially helpful in developing this paper. You should include in this paper a statement of the general area that you want to study and an explanation (as far as you are able) of the specific problem area you want to examine. Explain why this area is important, why you are interested in it, and define key terms. If you have ideas about the methodology you would like to use or any other thoughts please include these as well. Remember that you will no doubt change much of what is in this section as you proceed to later drafts, but it is very important to begin writing down your ideas as soon as possible. The class meetings on Oct. 5 and 12 will focus on the development of your general research problem area, and this paper will be due in class on Friday, October 19. Preliminary Paper 2: Specific Problem Statement and Literature Outline will incorporate revisions of your first paper with a much more clearly refined statement of your problem and an outline of the literature that contributes to the development of your specific research question(s) and/or hypotheses. While you will not have read all of the relevant literature by this time, if you have followed Galvan's methods, you will have scanned the literature and developed a topical outline of the material. You should in this paper include revisions of all of the elements in the first paper, present your specific research questions and/or hypotheses, and indicate how the literature relates to these questions. The material in parts B, D, and E of Patten will be especially helpful at this point, as will the material in Booth, et al, chapters 3-6. The class meetings on October 19 and 26 will focus on these issues and this paper will be due in class on Friday, November 2. Preliminary Paper 3: Outline of Methodology will include all of the material developed for the previous two papers, suitably revised, plus an outline of the methods that you hope to use in addressing your research question. This should include, as appropriate, a discussion of sampling, measures, data gathering, and analysis techniques. This work will be the focus of discussions on Friday, November 2 and Friday, November 9, and the paper draft will be due in class on Friday, November 16. Friday discussion sections on November 16 and November 30 will be devoted to discussions of the entirety of the research process, limitations and delimitations of the work, and the development of timelines. (There will be no class on Friday, November 23 because of the Thanksgiving holiday.) The Senior Project Proposal, the final paper for the class, will be due on Thursday, December 8, at 8:00 a.m. This proposal must include all of the elements required for the preliminary papers as well as a concluding discussion section that includes a review of the limitations and delimitations of the project, possible ethical concerns and how you will address them, how you will maintain your own objectivity and professional approach to the work, and a time line for your work in the remaining terms. You should also include both a title page and an abstract. All work should be in the format specified below. Patten provides a very nice outline of elements that you should include in the proposal. Please follow her instructions that involve a separate introduction and literature review. It is suggested that you follow the outline below, which includes one modification to Patten: Title Page (see Patten, p. 107) Abstract (see Patten, p. 109) I. Introduction -- See Patten, pp. 49-50 for required elements. II. Literature Review -- See both Galvan and Patten for suggestions on organization. Be sure not to simply have an annotated list of sources, but instead point out themes, commonalities, and contradictions, and show how the body of work culminates in your research question. III. Methodology -- Include a discussion of participants (which need not be individuals), measures, and procedures (how you will gather the data). Also include a discussion of how you will analyze the data in this chapter. (Patten puts this as a separate section.) IV. Discussion -- See p. 105 of Patten for a discussion of this section. You should include a short summary of what you hope to accomplish, limitations (possible drawbacks to the approach and work) and delimitations (what the study will and won't look at or questions you won't be able to address), a discussion of ethical issues, a description of how you will try to maintain your objectivity given your personal biases, and possible implications of the work. V. Time-line. Describe your plan for the next few months. (See Patten, pp. 111-112, but note that your time-line will be facilitated by the requirements and deadlines of the classes you will enroll in during winter and spring term.) Because the senior paper is such a central focus of the term it will receive a large number of points. Twenty points will be possible for each preliminary paper and 60 points will be possible for the final project (for a total of 120 points). Writing and Format Issues All material should be double spaced, in 12 point font, and include page numbers. To help you keep track of each draft and changes in your work over time you should use a header that includes the date. You will not include this header in the final copy of your senior paper, but it will be very helpful in the months ahead. Remember that you will be writing many drafts of your work and the more that you write the easier it will become. You must turn in hard copies. E-mail attachments will not be accepted. The instructor's suggestions for writing will be mentioned in class, but some important ones will be listed here. First, you must remember that you need to be as objective as possible in writing your senior paper. This is not the place to spout your own political views or prejudices. Instead, the senior paper is designed to help you seriously and carefully study and analyze a policy issue as objectively as possible. You must do everything in your power to make sure that you are as fair and open-minded as possible in gathering, analyzing, and presenting information. In the final discussion section of your paper you will be allowed to present your own opinions, but they will still need to be supported by the data. If you are not fair and careful, and if you do not have solid data to bolster your arguments, you will only hurt yourselves and those that you hope to help. Second, try to wipe the word "prove" from your vocabulary. We cannot "prove" things in social research as we can with logical proofs in mathematics. Instead we find evidence that supports or does not support hypotheses. You can use the first person in your writing, but do so sparingly. Booth et al, Galvan, and Patten all discuss this issue nicely. Some words are continually misused grammatically, so be careful. Say "data are" and "media are." (Datum and medium are the singular forms, as in "datum is" and "medium is.") Spelling and grammar are very important, so check and re-check your writing. Take additional writing classes if you have any hesitation about your writing abilities. I strongly recommend the scientific and technical writing classes in the English department. Consult editors on campus who can help you with your revisions.. Your instructors cannot do line-by-line editing. We will deduct points for spelling and grammatical mistakes and will return papers to you for rewriting if there are extensive stylistic or writing problems. In developing the bibliography and your project proposal you should conform to the requirements set forth in the Chicago Manual of Style, fourteenth edition (University of Chicago Press 1993). This manual may be found in the reference section of the Knight Library (call number Z253 .U69 1993). References should be cited in the text using the author's last name, year of publication, and page numbers where appropriate. For example: (Chapin and Kaiser 1979), (Reade 1985, 81),(Florida Department of Environmental Regulation 1987, 129-143). Page numbers are necessary whenever a specific argument or finding, rather than the general focus of a work, is cited. All works cited should be listed alphabetically by author's last name in a double-spaced list at the end of the manuscript. Examples of the bibliographic form to be used are given below. an agency report: Florida Department of Environmental Regulation. 1987. Agency Functional Plan. Tallahassee, Fla. an article in an edited book: Harris, Britton. 1986. Quantitative models of urban development: Their role in metropolitan policy-making. In Issues in Urban Economics, eds. Harvey S. Perloff Jr. and Lowdon Wingo, 121-133. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Press. a journal article: Harris, Britton, and Michael Batty. 1993. Locational models, geographical information, and planning support systems. Journal of Planning Education and Research 12(3):184-198. a book: Innes, Judith E. 1990. Knowledge and Public Policy: The Search for Meaningful Indicators. 2nd edition. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers. Footnotes should be used sparingly. If they are used, they should be typed double-spaced at the end of the manuscript. The should not be used for the purpose of citation or acknowledgments.