Instructions for Preparing to Write Your Senior
Thesis
Perhaps the most important thing to do when approaching the senior
thesis is to choose a topic that is interesting to you. Ask yourself,
“do I want to spend an entire semester researching and writing on
this subject?” An intriguing topic will sustain your interest
throughout the semester, while a topic that does not interest you will
seem like drudgery by the time the project is finished.
It is also important to find something curious or puzzling about the
topic. In most cases the best senior theses are framed around a
“why” question. Or, to put it another way, it is productive
to think about what is unexpected in the thing one wants to explain.
Then it is easy to frame a question that asks why this unexpected thing
occurs. This is part of defining what is called the “dependent
variable,” that is, the thing to be explained. For example,
imagine you wanted to ask why international peacekeepers have been sent
to the Darfur region of Sudan but not to the Kashmir region of India.
Don’t start out by saying “I want to study violence in
Darfur and the Kashmir.” Instead, ask a question such as “Why has
the African Union sent peacekeeping troops to Darfur but no
international organization has sent peacekeeping troops to
Kashmir?” Notice that in this question, the thing you want to
explain has been specified, and posed in such a way that further
research is required to answer the question.
In addition, try not to ask a question in which the answer to the
question is embodied in the question itself. This is known as a
“tautology” and should be avoided at all costs. For
example, a question that tempts tautology would be one like, “Why
do human rights groups oppose capital punishment?” Since capital
punishment is part of human rights groups’ definition
of a human rights violation, it is like asking “Why do human
rights groups oppose the violation of human rights?” The answer
to the question is predetermined by the nature of the question itself.
This will yield a theoretically empty thesis.
Once the question has been framed it is important to start thinking
about possible, and plausible, answers to your question. This is the
point at which you may want to choose a new question. If all the
potential answers to your question are obvious, it probably isn’t
too interesting a question. For example, a question like “Why do
congressional Democrats oppose cuts in Medicare spending?” is probably not
worth researching, since the answers to the question are so obvious
(Democrats see Medicare as a cornerstone of the American welfare
state—it is part of the definition
of the Democratic Party). In other words, ask a question that poses a
curiosity and that will shed light on a broader theoretical problem.
As you think about possible answers to your question, group your
answers together according to the theories they embody. For example,
let’s say you were asking why peacekeeping troops have been sent
to Darfur but not to Kashmir. Some answers to this question will reside
in explanations that focus on the nature of the international
system. Some answers will imply theories of politics in the Third
World. Some answers will indicate theories of ethnic politics. The task
is
to identify the theoretical schools of thought that relate to the
possible answers to your question because this will indicate the type
of background readings that are necessary for the project.
Furthermore, situate your question within those larger theoretical
schools. Let’s say you were researching the issue of violence in
Darfur and Kashmir. It is likely that other people have addressed
similar questions as they pertain to other regions of the world and to
other historical eras. The goal of political science is to construct theories that
see patterns across time and across cases. So as you think about the
specific subject matter that interests you, don’t forget to think
about similar subject areas. This is one of the mistakes students make
early in the senior thesis project. They say, “I can’t find
any theoretical material about violence in Darfur or Kashmir.”
Exactly. That’s why it’s an interesting question. It is
interesting because people have not yet explained what is curious about
the case. But they have
created theories to explain other instances of ethnic violence in
places like Cyprus, Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, etc. So in the case of
Darfur and Kashmir, a student would want to focus his or her initial
attention on the larger concept of ethnic civil war, and then
test the existing theories on the Darfur and Kashmir cases. Once the
theoretical framework is in place, then it is possible to engage in
focused research of the empirical topic at hand.
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