Political Science Student Writer's Manual and Reader's Guide

The Political Science Student Writer's Manual and Reader's Guide is a practical guide to research, reading, and writing in political science.

The Political Science Student Writer’s Manual and Reader’s Guide, Eighth Edition, is a set of instructions and exercises that sequentially develop citizenship, academic, and professional skills while providing students with knowledge about a wide range of political and governmental concepts, phenomena, and information sources. It begins by teaching beginning students to engage newspapers and other political media sources critically and analytically. It focuses on the crafts of writing and scholarship by providing the basics of grammar, style, formats and source citation, and then introduces students to a variety of rich information resources including the Congressional Record, Federal Register, and the Library of Congress. Students actively apply their knowledge and skills by corresponding with their representatives and commenting on pending government regulations. Part 1 concludes with campaign management, policy analysis, legislation assessment, and similar exercises that develop student skilled-observation proficiency. Part 2 prepares students to research, read, write, review, and critique political science scholarship. Finally, Part 3 teaches advanced students how to investigate public opinion; analyze domestic and international public policies; author amicus briefs; and participate in the universal community that deliberates the continuing rich tradition of political philosophy.

Gregory M. Scott, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Central Oklahoma, is best known for his co-authored (with Stephen M. Garrison and others) thirty-three volumes of political science texts and readers published by Pearson Higher Education. He and Professor Garrison are now developing a series of ten writer’s manuals with Rowman & Littlefield. He holds a BA from Ohio Wesleyan University, an MDiv from Oral Roberts University, and an MA and PhD from the University of Virginia. Dr. Scott’s has also served for fifteen years as Editor of Pearson’s Choices: An American Government Reader. His text Foundations for a Fifth Millennium: The Discipline of Political Science (Prentice Hall 1996) casts academic political inquiry as creative activity.

Stephen M. Garrison, PhD, is Professor of English and Creative Writing, former Chair of the Department of English, and Director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO). He received a BA and an MA from Baylor University and a PhD from the University of South Carolina. Garrison teaches writing, creative writing, fiction, and poetry. Author of the novel Shoveling Smoke (Chronicle Books 2003), Garrison has co-authored seven writer’s manuals in separate disciplines with Gregory M. Scott and has published numerous scholarly works. Garrison served as Fulbright Lecturer at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (1989-90).