Rick Wilson Wed. 2:30-5:00
Baker 226, x3352
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~rkw/pls511.html
Office Hrs: Tuesday 1:00-2:00, Wednesday 9:30-10:30, by appointment.
This course is designed to cement what you have already learned about research design in your various seminars. We will now focus on design in a very serious way. This course is also designed to get you a leg up on writing a dissertation prospectus. By the end of the semester you will have the equivalent of a dissertation prospectus in hand (or you will fail the course).
Along the way you will be exposed to some research design elements that you will think are silly. I don't care. Coming out of this program you should be prepared to assess research in almost any domain -- no matter how far removed you may think it is from your own narrow research interests. You'll have plenty of time to focus while writing your dissertation. For now think that learning alien forms of research design will make you a better scholar. It certainly will make you a better scholar.
Textbooks.
I want you to have two books on hand for this seminar:
The Cook and Campbell book is outrageously expensive. But it is a classic and there are copies available online (Bibliofind.com and other used book vendors can get you copies at half or less the cover price).
Course Requirements.
The course requirements are simple. You will have to satisfy four criteria.
First, I will expect every seminar member to participate in the seminar. In order to do so you must have read the material in advance and you must be familiar with that material. Participation in a seminar need not mean that you speak all of the time. What is important is the quality of your contributions. Quality is correlated quite strongly with reading and understanding the material. So, think ahead about the seminar. I strongly believe that seminars represent a forum for exchange. Do not be afraid to voice your informed opinion. Do not come to class with a thin skin.
Second, every week you will have some sort of writing assignment. Most of the assignments will be directly relevant to your final paper. Please write intelligibly and preferably in English. I will make you re-write something if I am not happy with its quality. As with criteria 3 below, I want any written work turned in one day before seminar. The written work should be turned in no later than 4:30 pm. You may email me your work.
Third, you will often be responsible for finding new articles to read that help make the point for the seminar. When I have asked you to dredge up one or two articles, I will expect two things. One, you will give me the complete citation to the article the day before seminar so that I may go find and read the article. Second, you will be expected to know the article(s) and be prepared to discuss them at length in class. I'm allowing you to do some of the article selection because I think it will be useful to have you read in your subfield. Please don't find an article because it is "easy" or "handy." I want an article that is on the point and an article that is challenging. I'm not enthused about reading bad work outside my domain (unless it is bad and makes the appropriate point).
Fourth, you will turn in a final paper. It will be along the lines of an NSF dissertation grant. Such a paper should prepare you for writing a prospectus. Along these lines, you would be well advised to locate the requirements for an NSF dissertation grant.
Grading:
Course Outline (Readings in my box are marked with a *).
The following details some of the topics and readings for the course. Obviously I need to fill in the end of the syllabus. It'll partly depend on what will be useful to the seminar participants.
Note: Readings are subject to change. Keep current with the syllabus.
|
Date |
Topic |
Readings |
|
Jan. 17 |
Introduction |
|
|
Jan. 24
|
Social Science |
KKV, Chapter 1. Cook and Campbell, Chapter 1. |
|
Jan. 31 |
Validity and Inference |
Cook and Campbell, Chapter 2 Jeff Gill. 1999. "The Insignificance of Null Hypothesis Significance Testing." Political Research Quarterly. 52 (3): 647-674. |
|
Feb. 7 |
Causality |
KKV, Chapter 3 Cook and Campbell, Chapters 3, 4 |
|
Feb. 14 |
Bias and Error |
KKV, Chapters 4, 5
|
|
Feb. 21 |
Time |
Cook and Campbell, Chapters 5, 6
|
|
Feb. 28 |
Correlation |
KKV, Chapter 6 Cook and Campbell, Chapter 7
|
|
March 7 |
Mid Term Break |
|
|
March 14 |
Randomization |
Cook and Campbell, Chapter 8
|
|
March 21 |
Experimental Design |
Alan S. Gerber and Donald P. Green. 2000. "The Effect of a Nonpartisan Get-Out-the-Vote Drive: An Experimental Study." Journal of Politics 62 (3): 846-857. <More>
|
|
March 28 |
Sampling
|
TBA |
|
April 4 |
Survey Techniques |
TBA
|
|
April 11 |
New Topic |
TBA |
|
April 18 |
New Topic |
TBA |
|
April 25 |
New Topic |
TBA |