Politics 480-01, Senior Thesis, Fall 2010

Prof. David S. Gutterman

W 6:30-9:30

This course is designed to facilitate your work on a senior thesis. The senior thesis project can be the most rewarding part of your undergraduate work and it can be the most difficult. The opportunity to explore a question or topic that fascinates you can be both exhilarating and frustrating. This course is designed to encourage and enhance your intellectual passions and help guide you through the difficulties one often encounters in the process of fulfilling such a project.

The two-credit nature of this course reflects the Politics Department's expectations about the amount of time, energy and effort that you will need to successfully complete this project. It is anticipated that a minimum of twenty hours per week will be devoted, in and out of class, to the thesis. The paper you write for this class will hopefully be the best piece of work you will have completed at Willamette and thus a fitting culmination of your Politics major.

We will meet frequently as a class in order to make thoughtful critiques and suggestions about the theses projects. At other times students will meet individually with the instructor (but not necessarily all during the Wednesday 6:30-9:30 class period) to discuss their progress.

Texts & Resources

  • The Craft of Research by Booth, Colomb, and Williams provides an excellent introduction to the process of research and will be very helpful in planning and completing your project.
  • All Politics senior theses should use Chicago citation and style. See
  • Hatfield Library and the Politics Department archive all senior theses. This collection is gradually being digitized (so your final thesis will be available to Willamette students and faculty on line for decades to come!). Senior theses will become available here: and here:

The Writing Center

You are required to work with the fine consultants at the Writing Center. My recommendations are:

  • Schedule appointments early on—perhaps when preparing the thesis proposal—with someone in the Writing Center who has some experience in your field (they keep a list by the phone). Think of this as a kind of get-acquainted appointment during which you’ll explain your project and look at a short piece of writing.
  • If that consultant seems a good fit to you, schedule a series of appointments later in the semester. (If not, try another consultant.) Try to stick with one consultant so that you don’t waste valuable time explaining your project over and over.
  • Schedule appointments regularly for before and after you submit stages/drafts of the work. This will allow you to shape up your work before submitting it to your professor and peers and it will allow you to work specifically on areas pointed out by your professor and peers.
  • And remember 4) Students who bring in a 25- or 50- or 60-page paper a day before it’s due for a one-hour appointment won’t be able to get much help.

The Writing Center log

You must make at least 4 writing center visits during the course of the semester. Those who do not visit the writing center the required number of times will receive a full grade deduction. You must also keep a writing center log indicating the precise date and duration of the meeting, the name of the writing consultant, a description of what happened at the meeting (what part or parts of your paper the consultant read, the sorts of things the consultant said), as well as an evaluation of the usefulness of each meeting.

Grading and Evaluation:

(1) Research prospectus (10% -- 5% for prospectus, 5% for comments on peer prospectuses). Your revised prospectus will carefully lay out your research design, your thesis/problem/puzzle/topic, hypotheses, methods of enquiry/testing, and relevant existing scholarship. Prospectus should be at least 7 pages in length, plus annotated bibliography.

(2) First draft of paper (20%) - a partial draft version (15-20 pages) of research paper with outline and bibliography; receive feedback on both form (prose) and content (argument), and then make revisions.

(3) Second draft (25% -- 20%/ for the paper/ 5% for quality of peer review comments) – a full draft version (35-40 pages) of research paper; continue the process of revising and refining in response to feedback; title, subtitle, abstract, bibliography (20-25 articles, 15-20 books).

(4) Final draft (30%) – final draft of paper (45+ pages), providing an outline, abstract, 10 key words, text with headings, and bibliography; fully revised, edited, proof-read. Every one of these components of the final project must be completed.

(5) Class participation and Oral defense (15% -- 10% on Oral defense of thesis and work as a discussant on two of your peers’ oral defenses) - on-going class involvement, constructive criticism of classmates’ work, and presentation of the arguments and findings of research in class, work in oral defense to challenge your peers to support and develop their arguments.

In addition, you will be asked to write a series of progress reports on your research and writing. Failure to meet deadlines for assignments will result in the lowering of grades.

Late work, an unsatisfactory first draft, or missed appointments and classes can result in a deduction from your final grade. Writing a passing final paper is not enough to pass the course. Each graded component of the course must be satisfactorily completed in order for you to pass the course.

Thesis assessment

The Politics Department uses the following rubric to assess all senior thesis:

  1. Thesis identifies a well-defined and compelling puzzle or question.
  2. Thesis presents and develops a clear and coherent argument.
  3. Thesis makes effective use of evidence.
  4. Thesis demonstrates understanding of competing explanations or interpretations.
  5. Thesis is clearly and concisely written without distracting grammatical or stylistic errors.
  6. Thesis is well organized and has a logical progression of thought.

Schedule of class meetings and paper due dates

W Sept. 1First class meeting: Introductions

Wednesday September 1 - 400 word progress report is due at 4:00 PM. All progress reports should be uploaded to your WISE drop box, saved as a Word document.
Your first progress report should discuss what work you have been doing on your thesis up to this point. Your goals should be to identify an:
* An analytic research question (an answerable research question -- not a topic or broad concern);
* Justification the appropriateness and originality of your research question: why is it important? How does it contribute to existing knowledge? How does it differ from questions other scholars have asked?

* Explanation of how you plan to go about answering your research question (research design)

While your pursuit of these goals will likely not be perfect or final in this opening progress report, I think it is vital to keep these aims in mind.

W Sept. 8Class meeting: The perils and possibilities of politics research

Read: Booth et al, “From Topics to Questions” in The Craft of Research.

Bring one well-written, peer-reviewed journal article relevant to your thesis.

We will schedule next week’s meetings and arrange first peer group.

Wednesday Sept. 8 – 500 Word Proposal and Annotated bibliography due at 9am. Include a critical summary for at least 5 books and/or 10 scholarly articles that address your topic. Discuss how they contribute to your project and identify relevant “schools of thought.” Upload annotated bibliography to your WISE dropbox.

Week of Sept. 15Individual meetings.

Friday Sept. 17 - Prospectus is due at my office (or mail box) at 10am. Your prospectus should also be uploaded to your WISE drop box and emailed to your two peer readers at the same time. (10% of grade; half of grade is for the quality of your written responses to peers’ prospectuses). Guidelines for responding to your peer’s prospectus will be provided.
Your prospectus should be at least 7 pages, plus an extended annotated bibliography (at least twenty scholarly sources summarized with critical comments).First meeting with writing center must occur sometime before September 16th.

W Sept. 22Class meeting: Revised research prospectus; presentation and discussion

Bring copies of your prospectus and written comments on peer papers to class. We will also schedule next week’s meetings.

Monday Sept. 20 - 800 word report on your progress during the last week is due at 9am. All progress reports should be uploaded to your WISE drop box, saved as a Word document.

Week of Sept. 27Individual meeting required.

Tuesday Sept. 28 - 800 word report on your progress during the last week is due at 9am. All progress reports should be uploaded to your WISE drop box, saved as a Word document.

Week of October 4Individual meeting required.

October 8 - First draft is due at my office (or mail box) at 3:30pm (10% of grade). Draft must also be uploaded to your WISE drop box. You must have another meeting with the writing center before Thursday October 7.

Week of October 11Available for individual meetings.

October 20Class meeting: Oral/visual class presentations of work-in-progress.

Students will present their research to the class and we’ll hold a Q & A session.

Week of October 25Individual meetings required to discuss plans for second draft.

W November 3Peer group and instructor meetings discuss drafts of second draft.

Monday November 1 - Second draft is due at my office at 3:30 pm. Draft should also be uploaded to your WISE drop box and e-mailed to your two peer readers. When submitting the hard copy of your second draft to me, please include your the first draft with my comments on it, as well as any draft(s) commented on by the writing center. Before handing in your second draft you must have had at least one meeting with writing center to discuss that draft.

W November 10 Available for individual meetings to discuss second draft.

Between November 10 and December 8 you are required to make at least two writing center visits.

W November 17Class meeting to present second draft (minimum of 8,000 words). Bring your written

comments on peer papers to class.

Thursday November 18 Hard copy of the abstract is due at 3:30 pm, and should also be uploaded to your WISE drop box. An abstract should be no more than 300 words in which you succinctly lay out the main argument of your thesis. This draft of the abstract is not graded but the final version of the abstract will be graded.

W December 1Class Meeting: Oral presentations/defense of thesis

W December 8 Class Meeting: Oral presentations/defense of thesis.

December 8 – Two copies of your final bound and formatted thesis and abstract are due at 5:00 pm. You must also turn in the four progress reports and your writing center log. All files must be uploaded to WISE.

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