Final Paper

Objectives: - Search the Internet for information relevant to a certain topic - Distinguish between academic, journalistic and amateurish sources of information - Analyze critically the content of websites and articles related to politics - Make sense of current political events - Construct a webliography on a specialized topic - Express research-based opinions in a confident manner - Demonstrate the ability to write a research paper following the academic standards of excellence - Apply the skills / knowledge learned during the Research Methodology courses to the study of Politics

Your final paper ( words) will have to present one recent political event that has shaped the world of politics - (e.g., the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American president of the USA). Grading scheme: 1%: research statement and outline (week 4) 7%: annotated bibliography (week 8) 20%: content, depth, accurate use of language, variety of sources, originality (week 13) 1% feedback to your peers about their papers 1% self-evaluation

Research statement and outline – 1% -Research question: specific and arguable - 3p -E.g., How did the `Maple Spring` influence the outcome of the September 2012 elections for the Quebec gov`t? -Research hypothesis – the anticipated answer to that question – 3p -A: it did not influence the election outcome at all -B: it greatly influenced the election outcome -C: it had an impact but it was a minor or limited one -Two academic articles – APA, full format, BANQ -Exceptions: if your topic is too recent – 4p

How to choose an effective research question: -Think of a topic that you would like to study -Brainstorm different questions related to that topic -Choose the question that seems the most interesting or the easiest to answer -Try to find three possible answers to that question -If you can not find a satisfactory answer, choose another question - yourself/beginning-research/ yourself/beginning-research/

Warnings: -Once you decide on a research question, the most challenging part will be to find the three different opinions about that event -Graded on 10 -Due: Sunday, the 13 th of September