Summer Timetable

POL242Y1S L5101

Research Methods for Specialists

Themes

Have you ever felt uncertain about how an author arrived at the conclusions reported in a reading for one of your courses? Would you like to be able to produce your own research using statistics and other research tools? This course will introduce you to some research techniques commonly employed by political scientists and public policy analysts. No prior background in mathematics or experience with computers is required or expected of students taking this course.

Texts

Readings will be drawn from texts on research design and statistics.

Format and Requirements

The course will be offered in a combined lecture-laboratory format where students will have the opportunity to use computers to complete in class exercises and several short assignments after a short demonstration. These exercises will culminate in a short paper presenting an original multivariate regression analysis. There will also be two tests.

Prerequisites

1.0 POL credit

Exclusions