.png){kind=icon}
Research report:
This is a research report on a project carried out by first year undergraduate students in Politics and International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London. The students carried out a survey experiment on how the use of the terms ‘migrants’ and ‘refugees’ to refer to people arriving from Syria affects people’s opinions about letting them come to the UK. The web page contains an executive summary of the research and a full research report written by two undergraduate students.
- Summary of the project and links https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/publications-and-resources/research/reports/media-and-political-participation
- The full report http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/mediaaction/pdf/research/political-participation-research-report.pdf
- The executive summary http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/mediaaction/pdf/research/political-participation-executive-summary.pdf
This is a research report published by BBC Media Action on media and political participation. The report itself is long, but is a good example of a commonly used structure. The links here are also useful for showing how to summarize large pieces of research succinctly, for example in the one-page executive summary. The three-page research briefing also gives a nice overview of the methodology used in the research.
Review essay:
http://www.e-ir.info/2014/10/29/review-feature-understanding-iran-a-summary-of-recent-scholarship/
This essay reviews three books on Iranian politics. It might be helpful for students writing literature reviews and book reviews for their assignments or research projects.
This book review by Dr Declan McDowell-Naylor is a good example of how to draw on other literature to situate the book you are reviewing (in this case on power and algorithms) in broader fields of interest.
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/guidelines-and-examples/
There are many book reviews available on the LSE Review of Books website. The second link gives tips for first time reviewers on how to write a book review. While the guidance on length and style may not be applicable elsewhere, the tips on what to do in each section of a review (including how to write a good introduction) will be useful whatever kind of review you are writing.
Research proposals:
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/politics/documents/research-proposal-model.pdf
https://www.york.ac.uk/media/politics/documents/phdsampleproposals/Sample%20PhD%20proposal%201.pdf
The two resources here are examples of research proposals written by PhD students when applying for their programme of study.
Examples of Literature Reviews
The website E-International Relations, which can be accessed at http://www.e-ir.info is an open access site which features the works of students and senior scholars on international politics. Not only does this website provide access to undergraduate and postgraduate student essays, it also contains reviews and commentaries by established scholars, as well as interviews and reviews.
Example 1:
A Critical Review of the Concept of Middle Power (2015), available at http://www.e-ir.info/2015/12/04/a-critical-review-of-the-concept-of-middle-power/.
This short critical review by Dr Shin Dong-Min on the concept of middle power is a nice example as it is structured in a logical way and puts forward an argument. Dr Dong-Min starts by providing a short overview of the development of the concept in international politics, before moving on to a discussion of three main theoretical approaches used to understand the concept of a middle power. The author then details the limitations of these various approaches, and explains why an alternative theoretical approach, namely classical realism, is better suited to analysing middle powers. Finally, the conclusion summarizes the main points raised in the review.
Example 2:
A Critical Evaluation of the Concept of Human Security (2014), available at
http://www.e-ir.info/2014/07/05/a-critical-evaluation-of-the-concept-of-human-security/.
This review has been submitted by Luke Johns as part of a degree at the University of Kent, Canterbury, and critically appraises the concept of human security. A good aspect of this essay is that it starts by giving the reader an overview of the structure of the discussion and the main points that will be raised. Moreover, before analyzing the utility of this concept, the author provides a definition and overarching features of human security, while nonetheless recognising that it suffers from conceptual ambiguity. After clarifying this concept, the author addresses its criticisms and concludes by arguing that ultimately its numerous weaknesses prevent the concept from being useful theoretically and practically.
Examples of Dissertation Abstracts
The School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University provides a selection of abstracts of undergraduate dissertations in the field of politics between 2011 and 2015. The link can be found at http://as.tufts.edu/politicalscience/undergraduate/seniorthesis .
Example 1:
The World of 9/11 and Beyond: The Landscape of Congressional Commissions Proposed at the Turn of the Millennium (2015), available at http://as.tufts.edu/politicalscience/sites/all/themes/asbase/assets/documents/abstracts/2014-2015/frappolli.pdf
This abstract by Amelia Frappolli is well-structured and clear. It starts by providing a rational for the use of Congressional Commissions, a commentary on the limitations of existing studies that have used a similar data source, the data frame and methods of the research, the findings of the study, and its value.