What should I think about when writing a senior thesis?
The government department has prepared a PDF guide to writing a senior thesis in government, which can be viewed here. The guide covers thinking about whether to write a thesis, the research process, working with an advisor, working in Gov 99, the submission and evaluation process, and other practical concerns.
Congratulations! You’ve starting thinking about writing a senior thesis. A senior thesis is a significant undertaking - your task when writing a senior thesis is, over the course of a year, to conduct and write up an original piece of research that contributes new knowledge to the world. While you have consumed original research during your time in the Government department, and while you may have even conducted some research yourself for a class or as an RA, a senior thesis will ask more of you as an independent researcher, and as a writer, than previous tasks. Writing a thesis means developing an original theory about how politics work, communicating a substantial body of empirical work in a way that clearly and convincingly tests that theory, and framing it all in a way that makes clear the knowledge contributed to political science a field.
How do I write each component of the thesis?
Your primary venue for learning how to write the thesis will be Gov 99 - the Government department’s required course for thesis-writers. This section of GovWrites, in conjunction with Gov 99, provides additional guidance and materials devoted to each potential subcomponent of the thesis. Much of this material builds on skills that you have already developed in your political science coursework, and adapts those skills to the larger and more in-depth thesis context.
Chapter organization
How do I summarize existing literature while maintaining my own voice? What can my literature or book review do that goes above and beyond summarizing the literature? How do I gauge appropriate breadth and depth in my literature or book review?
Writing Case Studies
What should a research proposal do? How to I discuss research that I have not conducted yet? Who is the audience for my research proposal, and how can I write a proposal that works to help my further my broader research?
Writing Statistics
How should I think about writing when my audience is not consumers of political science? How do I balance the need to retain social science principles while making my work relevant to policymakers? How should I change my writing style to make my opinion or argument persuasive and impactful?
Interdisciplinary Writing
What should I write about when applying for research funding? How do I communicate the importance of my research in a very short space? How do I convince a reviewer that my research is worth funding?
