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 21st 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
Weeks 14 -15
Student Presentations
***Assignment #4 Due
date
No comments:
Post a Comment