General Advice for Paper Writers

• Topic/Question/Thesis
  • Make sure your paper is analytic. Argue for an analytic (or "positive") stance, rather than a normative one. In other words, engage in "objective" rather than "subjective" analysis. Answer the question "what is?", rather than the question "what should be?".
• Research Strategies
  • Clearly state your specific question. Your question is a case of a more general set of political phenomena. Know the literature from the more general set.
  • Compare your political phenomenon of interest to models of how politics works in such cases.
  • Understand counterarguments, alternative explanations, and competing hypotheses to your own. Refute them to the extent possible.
• Content
  • Be clear whether you're making descriptive or causal claims.
  • Make claims that are falsifiable. How would you know if you were wrong? What evidence would disagree with your argument?
  • In making causal claims, the nature of the implicit or explicit comparison group is important.
  • Discuss measurement, modeling, design, and data strategies. Discuss limitations of your approaches.
  • Web sources should exclude wikis, include full citations (including access date), and be kept to a minimum. When possible, cite the original published document instead of the web version.
• Style
  • Be clear.
  • Be concise.
  • Be coherent.
• Formatting
  • Submit your paper with a title page containing the title of the paper, author names, the date, a word count, and an abstract of 150 words or fewer.
  • Papers written for PS3551, "The Welfare State and Social Policy in America" should be of 3000 words or fewer.
    • Include words that are in section headings, footnotes, in-text citations, and table or figure captions.
    • Exclude words that are on the title page, or are in the bibliography.
  • Double-space the content of the paper; single-space footnotes, captions, and the bibliography.
  • Provide 1 inch margins on all four sides.
  • Use a 12- (or 11-) point font.
  • Provide page numbers.
  • Staple your pages with a single staple in the upper left-hand corner.
  • References in the text should employ a consistent formatting style. In political science, consider emulating the style used in the APSR or Political Analysis.
  • You may use footnotes or in-text citations.
  • If a figure or table is central to your argument, include it in the body of your paper. If it is supplementary, include it in an appendix.
• Data
  • Harvard's IQSS's data compilation for research papers
  • IQSS's Dataverse for data from published studies
  • The House of Representatives Green Book with policy data on programs within Ways & Means' jurisdiction (e.g., 50 years of average welfare caseloads)
  • The Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) for individual- and household-level economic activity (requires registration, which can take a few days)
  • The General Social Survey (GSS)
• Further advice
  • On every step of the research process (data, coding, writing, presentation, management), see Harvard's IQSS's Undergraduate Research Resource Reservoir
  • On writing nonfiction, read William K. Zinsser's On Writing Well (noting that academic writing is different than humor writing, e.g.)
  • On writing for publication, read Gary King's online notes and PS: Political Science and Politics article (PDF version).
  • On writing for publication, read Andrew Gelman's suggestions.
  • On citation, see the APSA citation style, the Chicago Manual of Style, and the MLA Handbook.