THE SUPREME COURT
Political Science 451
Spring 2006

Students will write a short research paper (15 pages or so) on an aspect of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1. Instructions. Your paper should contain:

• a general introduction, a section containing a research question and a statement of its importance;
• a theoretical account, a section containing a theoretically-driven answer to your question and demonstrating your knowledge of the existing literature;
• expectations, a section proposing specific hypotheses you propose to test;
• measurement/data, a section explaining how you plan to assess the hypotheses and the data sources from which you plan to derive your assessment;
• analyses/results, a section describing your findings; and,
• conclusion, a section summarizing your findings and how they are/are not compatible with the literature, and some suggestions for future research.
  

You must collect and/or compile your own data. I'll have more to say about this in class.

2. Deadlines.

• February 15 . Description of your research problem due
• March 22. Paper outline due
• April 28. Paper due