American Government

JOURNAL ARTICLE SUMMARY ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS

• Description of Project

You are tasked to obtain one recent article (i.e., published after 2010) from the journal - American Politics Research (and no other journal). Full text articles from this journal are accessible electronically via the library webpage.

You must choose an article (not a book review, editorial, commentary, or anything else) that addresses some element of the political, economic, and/or social forces that are shaping contemporary national governmental policy in the United States.

For each article:

• You need to print the article

• Read it

• And provide a 4 - 5 page typed double-spaced summary of the article.

To receive full-credit for this assignment your chosen article needs to be attached to each summary ( as one complete electronic document). A separate reference sheet listing your one article in Chicago Style (author date) format needs to be provided at the end of your summary.

• Objective

To familiarize yourself with empirical research in the field of US government and public policy.

• Research Directions

1. You need to conduct a search of the journal to locate the particular article you want to write about. To find an article on your pre-selected topic, use various related keywords. Don't be afraid to do a bit of exploring. If you encounter difficulties, talk with the reference librarians. These library personnel are trained to assist you in this type of research effort.

2. This is a very important step. Plan to spend at least 1 - 2 hours reviewing various articles. Don't just select the first article you find for your summary. You will regret it later! These articles may be very technical in nature and the language used can often be difficult to process. Your careful selection of an article that is of interest to you will be an important factor in your successful completion of this project.

You are free to choose whatever article (not book review, commentary, summary, or editorial) you wish as long as its subject matter and structure fits within the assignment parameters. Before printing out the full-text of the article, print out a copy of the "Abstract" (if one is available). Abstracts are brief paragraph summaries of the research conducted. Review several abstracts prior to making your final decision. Once you've made a decision, print out the selected article.

3. Read your article. Then read it a few more times. Please do not expect to understand it fully the first time you read it. Expect to have difficulties in comprehending what the researcher(s) attempted to do. Remember what I said earlier about the technical nature of some of these articles.

• Writing Directions

1. Congratulations! You've completed the 1st part of the project. Now you must demonstrate through your writing that you understood the article that you just read. To do so, you need to review and understand the following sections of the article and then summarize each in your writing. Please note, spelling and grammar count! If you are not a great speller, use Spell-Check and/or a dictionary.

PART I: SUMMARY OF ARTICLE

INTRODUCTION

Generally, the first section of a journal article is considered the "Introduction" section. You may see this exact heading in your article. Because this is such a common initial section in all such reports, some authors do not use a formal heading. You should know that all written parts prior to the "Method" section in your article are part of this "Introduction" section.

Authors generally provide the reader with background information in this section. They often review the existing literature on the topic to highlight their objectives for the stated research. By reading this section, you should understand the goals or the hypotheses for the research.

In your summary, you should first describe the objectives of the given research. If the authors provide information about specific aims or hypotheses, you need to give a brief explanation of these hypotheses. Use your own language.

You can paraphrase but if you directly copy sentences, make sure to use quotation marks and cite the page. Keep in mind that I deduct points for over-reliance on authors' language. So please do not write a paper that relies heavily on quotations. I want to read what YOU have to say about the article.

METHOD

This is generally the second section of the article. This section provides a summary of the procedures utilized by the authors to carry out the research. Generally, authors provide you with a description of specific research methods. However, some authors may not, so you may need to make inferences.

For example, do they rely on data derived from interviews with political leaders, census data, content analysis of newspaper headlines, etc?

It is also common for authors to provide an explanation for their choice of specific methods.

In your summary, you should provide a brief explanation of these (stated or implied) procedures. Keep in mind that you don't need to state every single procedure that was utilized. Your task is to be selective and in a one or two paragraph format, summarize to the best of your ability the researchers' procedural methods.

RESULTS/DISCUSSION

This is the last section of the article, although sometimes it may be broken into two sections. In this section, authors generally provide a summary of the findings of their study. They state whether their initial hypotheses were supported or rejected. Authors also discuss the implications of their findings and make recommendations for future research.

In your summary, you should provide a summary of the section/s. Briefly highlight the conclusions of the study and their possible implications.

PART II: RESEARCH EVALUATION

CRITICAL THINKING

In this section of your article summary, you are tasked to critically evaluate the research study that you've read. This should be roughly a page in length.

Provide your own opinions about the validity and the reliability of the research. Consider the following items prior to writing this section.

Please keep in mind that you do not need to address every single item listed here but you should try to provide a comprehensive analysis by addressing as many of the items as you reasonably can.

What were the weaknesses and strengths of the research study?

Do you believe that research in this area was needed? Do you think that this type of research is important? Explain your rationale.

Do you agree with the researchers' hypotheses? Why or why not?

Do you agree with the findings of the study? Can you relate the findings to your firsthand experiences?

Were the findings surprising? Explain.

What are the implications of this research?

What should future researchers investigate? If you were granted funding to build upon this study, what specific areas would you further investigate?