Assignment
6 2005-06: Term Test or Bivariate ReportDate Assigned: September 27/29
Generally speaking, students are required to take a test at the end of
each term to complete the requirements for POL242y. In the first term
the test will be held in class on December 6th for the Tuesday class and
on December 8th for the Thursday class. The test will consist of a
combination of multiple choice and short answer questions, as well as a
practical data analysis component. The material presented in lectures,
labs and required readings will all be covered on the test.
Students who do particularly well on their homework assignments may,
however, be invited by the instructor to prepare
a written research summary
in lieu of writing the term test. A research summary is a written
presentation of an
original
investigation building upon the student's term work. These summaries
will be approximately
10 typed double-spaced pages in length..
In preparing a research summary a student may use any of the statistical techniques discussed in class.
The report should provide sufficient detail on the operational definitions of
concepts, any indices or other measures used, as well as on the statistical
analyses employed so that another researcher working from the paper
could replicate its findings. Some of these technical details may be
relegated to an appendix.
Beyond striving for a technically sound paper, a student should also consider
the literary merit of their work. This may require
re-writing things as
well as eliminating the unnecessary and moving the extraneous to a note or
an appendix. It is essential that
style, grammar
and punctuation are correct. The idea is to make the work a good read with a theme that
engages the reader as well as communicating your best analyses.
! Assignments
Title of Assignment: Research Design
Due Date: December 6/8
Points: 25
