03 Jan Analysis and Findings

IRLS503 International Organizations

Assignment Research Proposal

General Instructions for Assignments and Rubrics

All assignments should be written in Word and uploaded as attachments within the Assignments section of the classroom. Use 12 pt. New Roman font and double-space. Be sure to put your name and class information on the document and put your name on the file. Insert page numbers on all graduate-level work. Assignments will be graded using a rubric appropriate for your class level.

Graduate Rubric 500-600 Level

Specific Instructions for the Research Proposal:

The purpose of this assignment is to derive a specific research focus and create a plan for carrying out your research. Please prepare a document that addresses each of the points below. Label each section and comprehensively address the points within each section. This assignment should be 2-3 pages in length.

(1) IO Selection and Research Question: Select an international organization to focus on and do some initial research to identify a problem with this IO. For example, is its effectiveness debatable? Does it suffer from accountability or legitimacy issues in its institutional design or decision-making processes? Is it unable to achieve its goals? Dominated by a few powerful member states? Unsuccessful in socializing certain member states? Unable to influence the behavior of states? Experiencing internal power struggles? Struggling for external support? Identify the problem and develop a specific research question to explore.

(2) Dependent Variable Identification, Definition, and Measurement: Take your research question and use it to identify your dependent variable (the outcome you are trying to explain). Example: Why is the UN not more effective at preventing conflict? Based on this research question, the outcome you are trying to explain is effectiveness at conflict prevention; therefore, that is your dependent variable. Next, explain how you will define your dependent variable and what criteria you will use to measure it. (Based on the example above, “effectiveness” would need to be defined, and you’d need to come up with some specific criteria for how to measure effectiveness.)

(3) Independent variable: An independent variable is a factor that influences the dependent variable. For example, if effectiveness is the dependent variable, it might be affected by the strength of cooperation among states in the IO. Identify at least one independent variable that you believe influences the dependent variable you identified above, and explain why.

(4) Hypothesis: A hypothesis is a prediction that puts forth a relationship between at least two variables. For example: stronger cooperation between states will increase effectiveness. In this example, you are proposing that variable A (the independent variable) increases variable B (the dependent variable). Using your dependent and independent variables, propose a preliminary hypothesis that you plan to investigate in the research paper. Make sure that your hypothesis is specific and can be tested in the analysis section of your research paper. Note: the goal is NOT to prove that your hypothesis is right; rather, it is to investigate the hypothesis to see how much support it has (or lacks). It’s OK if you don’t find strong support for your hypothesis. In that case, you’d use the Conclusion section of your research paper to explain why and to suggest avenues for future research.

(5) Research Method and Proposed Data Sources: Identify a research method that will allow you to test your hypothesis (examples: case study; comparative case study; content analysis in which you look for themes in documents/websites; statistical analysis to include percentages, correlations, or regression analysis). Explain the research method you will use and what it will entail.

Now that you have a research method, what quantitative or qualitative data will you use to investigate your hypothesis? If you are interested in using quantitative data, there are many publicly available datasets available from the World Bank, V-Dem, the CIA World Factbook, Transparency International, the World Values Survey, etc. Quantitative data can be used, for example, to establish trends or changes over time, to compare member states of an IO on certain indicators, etc.

Qualitative methods include case studies and comparative case studies in which you go into a great deal of depth (as opposed to the breadth of quantitative research). Qualitative studies also rely on data – data of a qualitative nature. Qualitative information can be collected from previous case studies, from collecting information from the websites of the IO and its member states, etc. Please name specific qualitative data sources that you will evaluate in your analysis. A common way of conducting qualitative research is to do a content analysis in which you look for specific words or phrases in texts such as websites or past case studies. See http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/guide.cfm?guideid=61.

IMPORTANT: the data that you use in your analysis (either quantitative or qualitative) must be different from the sources that you will review in your literature review.

IRLS503 International Organizations

Assignment Multimedia Literature Review

Assignment Instructions

There are two parts to this assignment: a 5 page written literature review and an audio summary. Each is described below. The literature review should be written in Word and uploaded as an attachment within the Assignments section of the classroom. Use 12 pt. New Roman font and double-space. Be sure to put your name and class information on the document and put your name on the file. Insert page numbers on all graduate-level work. The audio portion of this assignment should be uploaded along with the written literature review, and instructions are below. Assignments will be graded using a rubric appropriate for your class level (please see the rubric below for the required number and type of sources, and the other criteria on which you will be assessed).

The Literature Review

The purpose of this assignment is to propose a theoretical perspective that informs your research and assess the scholarly literature that has been written on your research question, including how it informs your research question and hypothesis. It should be 5 pages in length, and accompanied by an audio component (see below).

Content of the literature review:

The literature review should assess (1) which theoretical approach that we have covered in the course best informs your overall argument and hypothesis (e.g., socialization and interest convergence, liberal institutionalism, structural realism, feminist theory, etc.) and (2) evaluate the findings from the scholarly literature that exists on your research topic.

Structure of the written literature review:

The literature review is NOT an annotated bibliography. Rather, it is an analytical exercise in which you evaluate a body of literature. As such, your literature review should be organized by theme (NOT an article-by-article summary). A good literature review is a thoughtful study of what has been written, a summary of the arguments and findings that exist (whether you agree with them or not), and is arranged thematically. The literature review should be written in coherent narrative style. At the end of the evaluation, there should still be gaps in the literature that you intend to fill with your research.

Here is a site explaining various ways to construct a literature review. Note that a good literature review is not a list of sources with description, but it involves synthesis and dissection of sources, with minimal use of quotes.

All references must be cited in Chicago/Turabian format, which means including page numbers.

The audio component:

Along with your written literature review, please submit a 5 minute audio file in which you summarize the main themes, areas of agreement and disagreement among scholars, and any gaps in knowledge that remain that your research can help address. Some options for recording the audio are below.

– Windows media audio file

– Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net/) Audacity is an open source digital audio editor. You can use this tool to create audio files to share. Compatible across most of the major platforms, Audacity also works with a variety of audio formats.

IRLS503 International Organizations

Assignment Research Paper

General Instructions for Assignments and Rubrics

All assignments should be written in Word and uploaded as attachments within the Assignments section of the classroom. Use Times 12 pt. font, double-space, and use standard one-inch margins. The research paper should be 10-16 pages in length (cover page and references do not count toward page length). Citations will conform to the Chicago/Turabian format and citations should be in-text parenthetical citations (author, date, page number). Be sure to put your name and class information on the document and put your name on the file. Insert page numbers on all graduate work. Assignments will be graded using a rubric appropriate for your class level.

Graduate Rubric 500-600 Level

The Research Paper

The final research paper should build on the information in your research proposal and should incorporate your week 5 literature review. It should also include revisions based on the feedback you have received on those assignments.

Here’s the format of the paper:

Title Page of the Paper. The title of your paper should be brief but should adequately inform the reader of your general topic and the specific focus of your research. Keywords relating to parameters, population, and other specifics are useful. ALWAYS use a title page and insert page numbers for graduate work! Your title page will include the title, name, course name and number, and professor’s name.

Please label each of the following sections in your research paper:

Introduction (1-2 pages): This section provides an overview of the topic that you are writing about. It situates your topic in a broader context. In addition, the introduction should clearly state your research question and hypothesis.

Literature Review (3-5 pages): This section should incorporate your week 5 literature review and any revisions based on feedback received.

Data and Methodology (1-2 pages): This section should incorporate any feedback received on your week 2 research proposal. This section provides the reader with a description of your strategy to conduct research for this paper. It identifies your dependent and independent variables and how you operationalized them. It describes the data you used (whether quantitative or qualitative) and the method you used to analyze it to arrive at your findings. This section also describes any limitations you discovered about your strategy and how you overcame them.

Analysis and Findings (4-5 pages): The results section of the research paper is where you report the findings of your study based upon the methodology you applied to gather information. The results section should simply state the findings of the research arranged in a logical sequence without bias or interpretation. When formulating the results section, it’s important to remember that the results of a study do not prove anything. Findings can only confirm or reject the hypothesis underpinning your study. Make sure that you make connections back to your hypothesis and the extent to which it was supported or not. Remember, we can also learn something from a hypothesis that was not supported by the data.

Conclusions (1-2 pages): This section will contain the concluding analytical arguments based on what research has revealed to answer the research question. Like any conclusion, it should provide a synopsis of the project, the strategy, and the results and what they add to the body of knowledge. This section should also offer suggestions for avenues of future research for other scholars, as all knowledge is evolutionary.

References (or Bibliography): This section will contain all references, cited in Turabian format, properly indented, and alphabetically arranged. You should compile these and add to them as you’ve gone along. They should be error free!