DA4460 Research Design for Defense Analysis

The central goal of this course is the production of a thesis/capstone research proposal designed to meet the requirements of an M.S. Degree in the Department of Defense Analysis. This may be a difficult task, as you will have only 10 weeks to complete a process of writing and analysis that frequently takes a full year in a civilian graduate program. Achieving this goal will require moving quickly. As soon as possible, you should identify your primary academic advisor and schedule a meeting to discuss your thesis, if you have not done so already. With so little time, the process of choosing a research topic and acquiring relevant literature must begin immediately. To assist you in the process of developing your research proposal, this course has been designed as an advanced writing workshop. As the term progresses, we will move from short writing assignments to longer pieces, culminating in the production of your final proposal. Graded on Pass/Fail basis only. Prerequisites: None.

Lecture Hours

4

Lab Hours

0

Course Learning Outcomes

• The central goal of this course is the production of a thesis/capstone research proposal designed to meet the requirements of an M.S. Degree in the Department of Defense Analysis.
• Learn common principles underlying these diverse perspectives, which prioritize the role of argument, evidence, and analysis in all research projects.
• By introducing students to the fundamental principles of research design and analysis, which undergird inference in all the social sciences, this course seeks to develop an intuition for systematic argument that will allow students to more effectively judge what counts as good and bad evidence when faced with claims based on the purported "findings" of social science research.