Assignment NO 4

This assignment is worth 30 percent of your grade. So try to complete it with very carefully. Here is how the grades will be given:

(15*3=45%) Assignments NO 1,2,and 3
(30%) Assignment NO 4
(20%) Attendance and Participation
(5%) Experiment/Survey Participation

(100%) Total

Experiment Survey participation will take place on 3 january 2013 in room C203. This experiment takes about 35-40 minutes and verybody who participate will get 5 percent. There are no right or wrong answers or any performance criteria. All surveys will be anonymous, so there is no need to worry about your identity.

I will be in room C203 From 9:00 until 13:00. You can come and take the survey anytime in this period. Do not come later than 13:00.

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OK Here is the last assignment. The deadline for submission is January 11, 17:00. NO LATE SUBMISSIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED. As always, PDF, WORD, or ODT formats. Send the assignment to eser.sekercioglu@gmail.com

ASSIGNMENT 4 RESEARCH TOPIC: Write a 1.5 - 2 page literature review using at least 5 academic soruces (articles or books) on the following research topic. (Remember that I do not want you to actually answer the question. Just find the resources that will help you answer it and discuss these resources. If you have ideas and thoughts you are welcome to add them to your review but this is not a term or research paper. My evaluation will be based on your ability to find, organize and discuss relevant articles.)

"Is the Clash of Civilizations idea proven correct after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center?" 

Assignment NO:4 Guidelines

Here is a step by step instruction sheet for assignment 4

1. First do a general search based on your topic. For example if the topic is "Role of ideology in 2007 election in Turkey" do not start with the whole topic. That would be too specific. Do not start with "ideology" or "Turkey", this would be so general that you would not know what to do with the results. Try something like "ideology and elections" or "2007 elections Turkey".
2. A good idea in preparing literature review is to look at what other researchers have done before. So, try to find an article on your topic. For example a general article about "ideology and elections". There are many articles that are called review articles which make a general discussion of the literature. If you find an article like that look at the literature review part of this article. Which articles did the authors use? Most probably they will have used the most important pieces. So you can select your articles for your review based on what others did before you.
3. Another good idea is to start with a look at Wikipedia.org. You should never use wikipedia as a formal referenece but it is a good place to start researching a topic. Just read the wikipedia topic and have a sense of which important articles to find in scholar.google.com.
4. These three steps will give you many possible articles. How are you going to choose which ones to use? Do not start reading the articles. That would be too many. Read the abstracts first. The abstracts are always available. If the abstract is promising, that is, if the articles seems to be about something you can use, just write down the author and the name of the article . You will find these articles later.
5. Select about 15-20 articles (just reading the abstracts). About 10 should be general and about 10 should be about more specific points about your research question.
6. Do not read the articles in whole yet. Just read the introductions. Introductions are just 2 pagas long at most and will definietly give you an idea about whether you can use this article.
7. Of your 20 or so articles, select 5 to 8 most relevant based on their introductions. These 5-8 articles will be used in your literature review.
8. This is what you should do when you read these articles.
• Read the introduction very carefully. Understand what the paper is all about.
• Do not spend too much time on theory, data, data analysis or methods sections. 
• Read the findings/inferences/results sections very carefully.
• If there are explicitly written hypotheses make sure to read them.
9. Once you have read these articles. Order them from more general to more specific. Then here is how you will construct your literature review.
• Start with a general discussion of the topic. Use the most general articles here. 
• Gradually add more specific details about your research question based on your search.
• Make sure that your literature review does not look like disconnected summaries of articles. Construct your review such that you discuss ideas and findings and just give references to papers rather than directly summarizing papers.
• After you discuss the topic add an introduction paragraph on top. You should not start by writing an introduction because you may not know what you will be writing exactly.
• And finish with a conclusion. Conclusion should be about your thoughts on this topic. What is your personal thoughts on this research idea? What do you think will be found if we actually research this field?
• So the lit review will look like:
• 1 Paragraph introduction
• 5-7 Paragraphs article discussions
• 1 paragraph conclusion
10. I am not very interested in how you put citations. Do not try too hard to be academic. Just copy the style of one of the papers you read. Just make sure that you give me a list of Articles you read (Author name, year of publication, title of article, name of the journal). Also copy and paste the abstract of the articles you used at the very end of your paper.

Assignment No 3 Deadline Extended

Deadline for the assignment no 3 is extended to Monday, December 24, 17:00

No Late Submissions

Assignment NO 3 Tips and Notes

IREU  Assignment 3 Article Review Guidelines

Deadline for submission: DECEMBER 21, FRIDAY 2012 17:00

Send to eser.sekercioglu@gmail.com  Open Office, WORD or PDF attachments only.

Assignment article and instructions can be found at:

http://www.data-ist.com/ireu150/Assignments/Assignment3.pdf

In this assignment you will combine what we have learned in the semester so far.

I will post a research article about Turkish Politics. You will read this article and write a 1.5 - 2 page review.

 

In a typical journal article authors argue several points and try to support them with data analyses, historical documents, or with logical reasoning. In the article I will give you for review most arguments will be based on empirical data. When you are writing an article review you have to think about the following points very carefully.

•  What is the research question? (I.e. What is the topic/subject of the article?)
•  What are the main arguments made in the article? (There can be several)
•   How are these arguments supported with evidence?
•   Is the support for the arguments convincing?
•   What is the importance/value of the article? (what did we learn from this article that we did not know before and how does this article help us understand the political world)

Since IREU 150 is a general introductory course in International Relations I do not expect you to be expert article reviewers. Therefore, I will limit the scope of the article review to more specific points.

Here are the points I want to see in the article review:

-          What is this article about? (2-3 sentences)

-          What are the arguments made in the article? For each argument:

o   What is the argument (1-2 sentences)

o   How is this argument supported by the authors (data, anecdotes, charts, etc.) (1-3 sentences)

o   Do you find this argument convincing? Why or why not? (Give your reasons for finding the argument convincing or not) (1-3 sentences)

-     Some arguments will be supported by graphs and/or charts. Evaluate these charts the same way we evaluated charts for the second assignment.

o   Are there any problems with the chart? (2 sentences)

o   If yes, how does the chart misguide or mislead the reader? (1-3 sentences)

o   How could it be corrected? (1-2 sentences)

-     What is your general evaluation of the article? Did you learn anything? Do you agree or disagree with the authors generally? Why or why not? (3-5 sentences)

Notes and Tips

-          In the article I assigned there are some statistical methods you are not familiar with. Do not be worried about these. Focus on what the authors infer (çıkarım yapmak) from these analyses. I am aware that you are not experts on statistical analyses. So, assume that all statistical work is correct. Focus on the message.

-          How do I know which argument is about which chart or graph? Usually the name or number of the chart is given in the text. For example you can see a sentence like:

“In figure 3, it can be seen that….”

“Figure 2 illustrates the point that….”

“The resulting map (Figure 1) displays a vivid picture of trends along the survival/ self-expression and traditional/secular-rational values for Turkey and some EU member states.”

-          This is a 20 or so page article. Unlike the assignment 1, when claims were just one sentence long, in a journal article arguments can be explained in several paragraphs. So, when you think you found an argument do not jump in and start writing. First make sure that you read the whole argument and exactly know what it is.

-           

-          You have 1 week to complete this assignment. First read the article one or two times before writing anything. Take short notes as you read the article. If you try to do this assignment on the last minute you will not understand the article and write a very poor review. Use your time wisely, and please do not wait until the last minute.

Assignment 2

Here is the second assignment. Remember the Deadline for submission is 7 December 2012 Friday 17:00. No late submissions, no late submissions, no late submissions

The address for the assignment is:

http://www.data-ist.com/ireu150/Assignments/Assignment2.pdf

For a very short intro to excel graphics

http://spreadsheets.about.com/od/excelcharts/ss/Chart_wiz_step.htm

For pie charts

http://spreadsheets.about.com/od/excelcharts/ss/90216piechart03.htm

For bar charts/graphs

http://spreadsheets.about.com/od/excelcharts/ss/bar_graph.htm

This is the official microsoft tutorial

http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/excel-help/charts-i-how-to-create-a-chart-RZ001105505.aspx

This is for line charts and scatterplots

http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/excel-help/creating-xy-scatter-and-line-charts-HA001054840.aspx

http://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~pecklund/ExcelReview/2001_Documents/2001XLScatterPlotMono.pdf

Assignment NO:1

Here are the two arguments for which you are going to write responses. Make sure that you read very carefully and understand each argument. Remember how we analyzed arguments in class:

• Find the assumption
• Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the assumption. Remember, there is no right or wrong answers here. You can trust the assumption or not depending on your own interpretation.
• Discuss what happens if the assumption is wrong
• Find the warranted and unwarranted claims.
• Discuss what happens if unwarranted claims are incorrect and whether you have enough reason to be suspicious.
• Discuss what evidence you need to evaluate the argument, what evidence would prove this argument useless / wrong and what evidence would support the argument.
• Conclude with a general assessment of the argument.

TOPIC 1

According to the Worldbank statistics (Statistics yearbook, 2010) 50 wealthiest countries in the world are also among the most democratic. Apart from oil rich Arab countries all rich countries also tend to be democratic, respectful of human rights and freedom of speech. On the other hand, most of the poorer countries in the world, the so called third world, are also among the most authoritarian regimes including some dictatorships. In democratic countries some key indicators of human development such as life expectancy, education levels, violence against women are also better than non-democratic countries. These observations led some researchers to argue that there is a direct relationship between democracy and development. Therefore, the Worldbank and the United Nations should devote more resources promoting democracy in order to facilitate economic development in the world.

TOPIC 2

 "Several recent surveys indicate that home owners are increasingly eager to conserve energy. At the same time, manufacturers are now marketing many home appliances, such as refrigerators and air conditioners, that are almost twice as energy efficient as those sold a decade ago. Also, new technologies for better home insulation and passive solar heating are readily available to reduce the energy needed for home heating. Therefore, the total demand for electricity in our area will not increase—and may decline slightly. Since our three electric generating plants in operation for the past twenty years have always met our needs, construction of new generating plants will not be necessary."

No Class - 23 October 2012, Tuesday

IREU 150 Sections 1 and 2 will not meet on 23 October Tuesday. A make-up class will be arranged later in the semester.

I am sorry for informing you so late but it was decided only very recently.

Note: This applies only to IREU 150 and not other courses. University is open and classes will take place on Monday and Tuesday.

Week 3-4 Reading Links revised

I have changed the way I post readings. Now you can directly click on the links and the link will direct you to the files and not to a download website. This seems to be the easiest way.


Experimental Methodology in Political Science, by Rebecca Morton

This is an essential reading for all Political Science and International Relations students. Not many social scientists actually run experiments but all empirical methods are based on the logic behind experiments. So, read this as carefully as you can

Causation: A unified framework for social scientists, by John Gerring

This is the essential material for week 4. Gerring discusses different forms and shapes of causal relationships. This is a relatively hard reading. Do not try to memorize everything. Just read it once and try to grasp the main idea.

Week 3 Lecture Presentation

The presentation for Week 3 - Causal Inference can be downloaded from the following link:

Week 3 - Causal Inference I

This will not take you to a download site. It will directly take you to the PDF file.

Week 3-4 - Causal Inference - Finding Causes and Isolating Effects

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Week 2 - Induction vs Deduction

This week we are studying deductive and inductive reasoning and the role they play in Scientific research. I pasted the lecture notes below. This is going to be the only reading for this week. It is a very short reading so please do it. A PDF version is uploaded to filepost and the link to the file is:

Week2: Deduction_vs_Induction.pdf

They are the same, except for two graphs I put on the PDF version. You can use either version. That is, if you prefer to read the blog you do not have to download and print. However, it is a good idea to download the pdf file and archive it so that you can easily access it when you are working for the assignments later in the semester.

I will see you all next week.

IREU 150 Essential Academic Skills for International Relations

Fall 2012

Week 2 – Induction & Deduction

Notes prepared by Eser Sekercioğlu

In scicentific research, as in logic, we often refer to the two broad methods of reasoning as the deductive and inductive approaches. We will start with the way deduction and induction are defined in logic, then we will discuss how the scientific method relates to both reasoning methods.

Inductive reasoning

Common example:

Observation: All left-handed people I know are creative

Murtaza is left-handed

Generalization: Murtaza is creative.

This is the common structure of inductive reasoning about . If all left-handed people I have seen are creative then the next left-handed person I meet must be creative too. But, this conclusion about Murtaza can be applied to all left handed people that I have not met yet. So, the general form of the inductive reasoning becomes:

Observation: All left-handed people we have tested were found to be creative

Generalization: All-left handed people are creative.

Induction is based on regularities in experience and observation. If we observe and/or experience something with increasing regularity our brain tells us (even without our conscious mind noticing it) that this observation is likely to repeat itself. And when the observation is about a relationship between two concepts or events then whenever we observe one of the connected parts (a left handed person) we expect to observe the other connected part (being creative).

Inductive reasoning can be extended to include probabilistic statements as well.

Probabilistic statements might be about generalizations to a whole class/population, for example

                Observation: 85 % of people we interviewed were right-handed

                Generalization: 85 % of the population is right-handed

Or, observations can be used to make generalizations about a single case. (this is called statistical syllogism)

                Observation:  95 % of left-footed football players are also left-handed

                Murtaza is a left-footed football player.

Generalization: There is a 95% chance that

               

Induction is a bottom-up process. We start with gathering observations and when the regularity in our observations reach a certain level we generalize to the population/or class of things we are investigating. For a long time (and some philosophers still insist to believe in this) science was thought to be inductive. Because scientist collected data, analyzed data, made generalizations, classifications etc. many philosopher of science pictured the scientific research process as an inductive practice.

And because of this scientific method in general was criticized. We will discuss this a little later but we must first turn our attention to deduction.

Deduction

Deduction uses the reverse process as induction.  In the process of induction, you begin with some data, and then determine what general conclusion(s) can logically be derived from those data. Whereas  In the process of deduction, you begin with some statements, called 'premises', that are assumed to be true, you then determine what else would have to be true if the premises are true. In logic the most often given example to deductive reasoning is:

Premise: All men are mortal

Observation: Socrates is a man

Conclusion: Socrates is mortal

In the perfect world of logic premises are always true or they are unquestioned. Therefore conclusions based on deductive reasoning are also always true. Similarly in mathematics many theorems are derived from axioms which are accepted to be true. For example all of planar geometry (all geometry topics you studied in high school) are derived from Euclid’s five axioms. Deduction offers absolute proof. But everything depends on the truth of the promises. If, for example, Euclid’s axioms were wrong all geometry would collapse. If we were to find an immortal man, then we can no longer conclude that Socrates is mortal.

We can symbolize deduction in logic very simply as follows:

 P à Q (this reads: If P then Q)

P (P is observed)

àQ (reads: then Q. This means that Q must be observed as well)

In normal grammar: If a condition P is satisfied then the result Q must be observed. We observe that condition P is observed, then we must also observe Q.

Deductive arguments are evaluated for their validity and soundness. A deductive argument can be logically valid but not sound.

Every left-handed person is a genius.                                                                                    

                Murtaza is left-handed

                Murtaza is a genius.

This argument is valid. If the premise that all left-handed persons are geniuses is true than Murtaza must really be a genius. However, we know that the premise is not true. Therefore the conclusion may or may not be true. Therefore the argument above is not sound.

Applied to scientific inquiry, deduction is a top-down approach.  We might begin with thinking up a theory about our topic of interest. We then narrow that down into more specific hypotheses that we can test. We narrow down even further when we collect observations to address the hypotheses. This ultimately leads us to be able to test the hypotheses with specific data -- a confirmation (or not) of our original theories. In other words, deductive reasoning works from the more general to the more specific.

These two methods of reasoning have a very different "feel" to them when you're conducting research. Inductive reasoning, by its very nature, is more open-ended and exploratory, especially at the beginning. Deductive reasoning is more narrow in nature and is concerned with testing or confirming hypotheses. Even though a particular study may look like it's purely deductive (e.g., an experiment designed to test the hypothesized effects of some treatment on some outcome), most social research involves both inductive and deductive reasoning processes at some time in the project. In fact, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that we could assemble the two graphs above into a single circular one that continually cycles from theories down to observations and back up again to theories. Even in the most constrained experiment, the researchers may observe patterns in the data that lead them to develop new theories.

Welcome and First Message

Hi,

2012 Fall Semester is just a couple of days ahead. If you have reached this blog you probably have seen my message in your inbox.

This blog is going to be the main conduit through which I (Eser Şekercioğlu) will be posting links to readings, share interesting academic web pages with various resources, post information about assignments and supplementary course materials. So, following this blog is going to be essential for everybody who takes IREU 150. Most information that I will be posting here will be relevant for all three sections, therefore there is only one generic blog and not three blogs for all three sections. If, however, I need to post material for only one section, I will explicitly mention for whom the messages are posted. I hope there will be no confusion about the use of the blog.

Below is the syllabus. A permanent page is also created above as a link.

IREU 150-1-2-3 Essential Academic Skills for International Relations

Time: Tuesday 9:30 – 13:20 (Section 1) , Tuesday 14:30-18:20 (Section 2). Thursday 9:30 - 13-20 (Section 3)

Place: C-108 (1) , C-104 (2) , C-203 (3)

Instructor: Eser Şekercioğlu (eser.sekercioglu@gmail.com)

Course Description

The first decade of the 21^st century has shown that above everything else we are in the age of information utilization. With smartphones at every hand, google at your fingertips and increasing availability of broadband internet access it is no longer a challenge to have access to information. Similarly storing information by memorizing it has been unnecessary for some time now. What makes an individual distinctive in academic and professional life is how well he/she makes use of all the information s/he has access to.

The skills that you will learn in this course will first and foremost help you become better and more accomplished university students. But most of our discussions will be relevant for your professional life as well.

Course Requirements

Readings: There is not going to be a book or a reading package you need to purchase. Necessary material will be made available as needed (via e-mail, electronic depositories, online sources, etc.) Remember, this is a course that will focus on information utilization, not information storage. Instruction starts with how resources are handled.

Caution: The fact that there is no book or reading package does not mean that there will be no reading or writing in this course. There s going to be fair amount of reading and writing. More importantly, though, you will be forced to think and analyze a lot.

Course Requirements

Attendance: Attendance to this course is mandatory. Student attendance will be recorded every week. But just coming to class is not enough. Students are expected to be prepared and willing to contribute to discussions and activities. Attendance will account for 20% of your grade. (Attendance 10% + Participation 10%)

Assignments: There will be four assignments. These assignments will test your development in key skills. Some will be based on writing, others on application of skills and techniques (Excel, Powerpoint, Library Resources, etc.) Each assignment will be worth 15 % of your grade. In total, Assignments will account for 60 % of your grade. More information will be made available later in the semester as we approach assignment deadlines.

Group Presentation: Students will be divided into groups of 4 randomly.  Each group will prepare a 10 minute presentation based on a topic that will be assigned randomly in class by lottery. You will use all the techniques that you have learned in class. Presentations will be made orally in class using whatever necessary equipment is necessary (video, powerpoint, etc.). Also, each student is required to follow fellow students’ presentations carefully and critically. After each presentation there will be 10 minute discussion period. Students will be graded based on the questions they ask and/or comments they make and presenters will be judged based on the quality of their presentations and answers in the discussion sessions. Presentations 15% , Discussion performance 5 %

Attendance and Participation(10+10):                                                             20%

Assignments (4*15):                                                                                       60%

Presentation(15 +5) :                                                                                      20%

Total :                                                                                                           100 %

Academic Honesty: We will discuss this as a separate subject in class as well. Still, there are certain rules that you must observe even before we discuss these issues:

All forms of cheating and plagiarism are going to be reported to the disciplinary committees of the university.

Cheating includes: Copying somebody else’s work in an exam, homework, or quiz. Using any electronic device, dictionary, book, lecture notes, etc. when they are not allowed in an exam or quiz or class.

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is defined as using somebody else’s work without referencing it fully, claiming credit for intellectual property that is created by others, pretending to have produced a work that was created by someone else.  This includes copying your classmates homework and presenting it as your own, copying sentences and paragraphs from any print or electronic media without referencing it and this includes Wikipedia, search results from google and other search engines. Rule of thumb: If it is not your original thought then you must give proper reference to it.

E-mail and communications policy: I am generally very good with e-mail. Send me an e-mail anytime you want. However, because I suffered from this before, I will not answer any e-mails if :

a)  there is no subject (“urgent !!!” is not a proper subject. Something like “ Concerning the second assignment”, or “ A few questions about topic 3” are proper e-mail subjects)

  b) e-mail is written with no concern for grammar and vocabulary. You must learn how to write proper correspondence (not only communicating with your professors but with anybody. You will need this in professional life as well).

So, each e-mail must have a proper subject, and the text must have well formed grammatical sentences and no sms type abbreviations like,  off snne be slk.

Office hours: Anytime you can find me on campus or by appointment.

Course Structure

Week 1 

Introduction to the Course

Reading: No readings

Week 2 

Causality  - Induction vs Deduction

Reading: TBA (To Be Announced)

Week 3-4

Causal Inference – Finding causes and isolating effects

Readings:

McDermott, R. (Autumn, 2002). Experimental Methodology in Political Science. Political

Analysis 10 (4), 325-342.

 Gerring, John (2005). Causation: A Unified Framework for the Social Sciences. Journal of Theoretical Politics 17(2): 163-98.

Week 5 –

Causal Inference – Analyzing an Argument

***Assignment #1 Due date

Reading: TBA

Week 6 - Kurban Bayramı , No class

Week 7-8 

Theory, Concepts, Laws, Hypotheses, Nonsense

Readings:

Van Evera, Stephen (1997). Hypotheses, Laws, and Theories: A User’s Guide. In Guide to Methods for Students of Political Science, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, pp. 7-48.

Maoz, Zeey and Bruce Russett (1993). Normative and Structural Causes of Democratic Peace, 1946-1986. American Political Science Review 87(3): 624-38

Gerring, John (1999). What Makes a Concept Good? A Criterial Framework for Understanding Concept Formation in the Social sciences. Polity 3: 357-93.

Munck, Gerardo L. and Jay Verkuilen (2002). Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy: Evaluating Alternative Indices. Comparative Political Studies 35(1): 5-34.

Week 9 

Organizing and Presenting Data – Working with Spreadsheet Programs

Readings: Lecture notes will be provided

Week 10 

Fundamentals of presenting findings and reporting

Readings: Lecture notes will be provided

***Assignment #2 Due date

Week 11 

Tools of scholarly search – Jstor, Google Scholar, Abstract Databases, etc.

Library visit

Readings: Lecture notes will be provided

Week 12 

Research Design – Asking the right questions

Readings: Lecture notes will be provided

***Assignment #3 Due date

Week 13 

Academic Ethics – Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty

Reading: What is Plagiarism (and How to Avoid it) by Christopher N. Lawrence

Weeks 14 -15 

Student Presentations

***Assignment #4 Due date