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A Question and an Argument: Enhancing Student Writing through Guided Research Assignments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2002

Clifford Bob
Affiliation:
Assistant professor of political science at Duquesne University, where he teaches courses in comparative politics and international law/organization. Bob has articles forthcoming in International Politics and Human Rights Review as well as several edited volumes. He is working on a manuscript entitled The Marketing of Rebellion: Insurgents, Media, and International Support. He may be reached at [email protected].

Extract

The term paper is a standard requirement of undergraduate political science courses, yet for both students and faculty it is frequently unsatisfying. When teachers allow students to choose their own topics from the range of issues covered in a course, students often flounder for direction. Papers based on a professor's preselected questions suggest the need for a thesis but leave undergraduates uncertain about how to construct one. The result: papers that deal with a broad topic rather than presenting a sharp thesis. While the writing process alone may be a valuable learning experience for some undergraduates, many other simply throw together a mass of information without spending time integrating their work into a coherent whole. Students complain of being overwhelmed, and the grader is left to sort through a paper in search of its point.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2001 by the American Political Science Association

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Footnotes

* I thank Laurel Willingham-McLain for her helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article.