Research Project (6-8 pages)
Each student must complete a research project (6-8 pages) this does not include title and or/bibliography page. Standard font and font size) that is due at by the last night of class.
The project consists of a preliminary outline and bibliography to be submitted by week 5 and a completed paper that is due Week 7. Although you can hand in a hard copy, it must be emailed to me in MS Word format.
Find a topic of interest. Select a public administration topic that interests you. Avoid issues that are solely political or that are primarily the concern of the private sector. Use the textbook for acceptable topics. The instructor must approve the topic.
Apply to public administration. Find 4-6 recent peer-reviewed academic sources related to this topic. These sources should be directly related to a public administration concept or theory. The textbook cannot be substituted as a source in place of a journal article.
For the completed paper
1) Introduction (no more than 30% of paper length)
a. Brief description of the issue
b. Explain why the issue is important from a public administration perspective. This does not mean you should say "This is important to public administration because..." Instead, you should simply describe why the issue is important. Use an example from current events or your own experience to help illustrate this point.
c. Thesis statement-how are you relating the case to journal articles?
2) Describe the findings from the academic literature and relate those findings back to the thesis statement.
a. What lessons from the academic literature can be applied to the issue you are investigating?
3) Conclusion
a. Sum up your main points
b. Use references to back up your conclusions
4) References page
a. Use APA
b. Textbooks do not count as legitimate sources
c. You need 4-6 peer-reviewed public administration journal articles.
d. You may also use books to supplement your sources, but they cannot be substituted for the 4-6 journal articles.
e. References should be recent (within the last 5-6 years).