What are the effects of European colonialism?
  1. What are the effects of European colonialism in [choose case/example]?

 

 

Assignment One must show evidence that you have thought about, and understood, the content of the relevant lectures and tutorials (i.e. see in particular weeks 1 and 2).

 

 

Assessment One Checklist

 

Your assessment should include:

 

A title (or front) page, which lists:

  • the course unit code: POLI20902,
  • the title of your chosen Research Question
  • your student number (to ensure anonymous marking)
  • your tutorial leader’s name,
  • The word count (the number of words in the text).

 

 

The main body should include:

  • A justification for your choice of research question (approx. 150-200 words)
  • This must be from the list of 47 available questions at the end of this course guide and on blackboard
  • When writing your justification, think about the following:
  • What are you interested in researching and why?
  • Is it an empirical or theoretical puzzle?
  • Why is this an important question to research?
  • How viable is it for a politics research project?

 

A short Annotated Bibliography related to your selected research question (1250-1000 words)

You must include at least 6 sources, all of which must be scholarly sources, This means articles published in scholarly peer-reviewed journals and books published by academic/university presses). Text books do not count. All sources must be in the English language (1250 – 1500 words).

 

When reading this literature and writing your bibliography, think about the following:

  • What is the existing literature on your topic?
  • What has been said before?
  • Who are the key scholars?
  • What is the “state of the art” today?
  • What are key themes or approaches?
  • What is the key debate/divide?
  • What non-academic/scholarly literature is available?
  • How does each source help you answer your question and how will it guide your research design?

 

Things to consider for each entry (i.e. each piece of literature):

  • What is the main argument/what is the main finding of the article/book/source?
  • What cases does this source utilize?
  • What methodology does it employ?
  • How does this source contribute to the debate?
  • How does this source help you refine your question? Or help you develop your own research project?
  • How is this source different from other sources you have used?

*you do not have to write the answer to each of these bullet points for each entry. Consider what the book/article/source’s most important contribution is to your RQ and about how the pieces link together. E.g. does it employ a different methodology to the others? Does it offer an answer to a different piece of the puzzle?

 

Concluding statement (100-150 words):

  • How will you continue to search for more literature – what other types of sources may you also require?
  • Revisit to your research question and ask yourself, based on what the literature discusses, do you need to further specify your question?
    • Do you need to specify a particular period of time?
    • Do you need to specify a case study?
    • Do you need to specify that you will use a comparative method?