Writing a Research Article in an Introductory Course

How well can students exposed to political science for the first time write a research article? Previous research has introduced selected research article writing skills to students in introductory courses, but has not studied whether students in such courses can produce a full research article. I re-designed an Introduction to Comparative Politics course based on the research article writing process. I hypothesized that students would make major gains in article writing skills and develop proficiency comparable to experienced majors. Using a pre- and post-test design along with rubrics for each research article component, I found support for my hypotheses. Students reported large increases in confidence and ability to handle research article writing tasks as a result of the course and demonstrated proficiency comparable to majors on more than two-thirds of rubric items. I provide some suggestions for ways to implement parts of this course design in traditional introductory course settings.