Imagine you were in your 4th year of a Canadian public affairs program with an emphasis on social science research, specifically the analysis of public opinion data. Now imagine you have to write an honours research essay. You need something that has not been done to death, but something that has some sort of publicly available raw survey data and at least some theory behind it. What would you do?
Completely hypothetical ofcourse. 
Well, if I remember correctly, when I was in a similar position at university many moons ago what I would have done would have been to repair immediately to the bar to contemplate the essay. On occasion, when I felt really committed, I’d spend almost two minutes in such contemplation. Glad to be of help. 
Steve
Wow, tough one. Maybe the guys in the political forum would have some ideas that could help you? They should be on top of some subjects that have had surveys done, I would think…
I think you should ask “What would you do if you were me?” Because I would have to shoot myself. But I don’t think that is what you should do. Was there some topic you found of particular interest? Is there a teacher who you can talk to, to help you start narrowing things down? How do you find out about what public surveys have been done? If that is a limiting factor, i.e. having the raw data from a survey, can you research recent surveys to get some ideas. Probably not. I do feel for you.
Thanks for the responses.
Steve, believe be, I’ve tried, it wasn’t successful. I’m on Plan B now, actually finding a topic.
Cynth, I started out looking at what influences opinions on Nuclear Energy but I could not find any publicly available data that would help me. Right now I’m cruising the journal databases using the keyword religion to see what might be done on religion and politics in Canada, but I dunno. I do have a supervisor and he is great but I uh… should of had a topic by (latest) mid-september, so I’m trying to spare myself much eye-rolling.
There is a good deal of data available from Universities, but it is all pretty much the same political questions. Personal info, opinions on a group of issues, voting behaviour, civic participation etc.
I’m having a tough time of it.
If your paper will be marked by a prof, then he must have published. If he has published you should be able to find out what he has written on in the past (the library should be able ot help). Once you know what he is keen on, write up something that is totally in agreement with whatever he seems to be in support of, no matter how wrong it is. 
djm
I take a purely pragmatic approach to these sorts of things. Rather than thinking about what I want to do and then seeing if it’s feasible, I find what’s feasible, look to see if it’s worthwhile, and then convince myself I want to do it.
I’d look at the publicly available raw survey data and see what’s there. Then, I’d see what of that has at least some theory behind it. Then, I’d see what of the data-with-theory hasn’t been done to death.
Of that, I’d go with the most unusual and/or interesting, or whatever showed some promise of revealing something new and fascinating. Or, just something that was a safe bet. And narrow the focus as far as possible.
From the way you phrased your problem, it looks like you’ve got it well in hand, but you may be overwhelmed with choices and/or trying to approach it from the wrong end. That is, you may be looking for the topic first, then trying to find something to support it.
I favor the reverse approach. Rather than think of a topic you want to do–nobody ever really knows what they want to do–find something to do out of what is available.
I could never find anything, either, and this was the method my major professor suggested in grad school. It has never failed me.
There is a good deal of data available from Universities, but it is all pretty much the same political questions. Personal info, opinions on a group of issues, voting behaviour, civic participation etc.
This is the data you have to work with? Then you have to find something in there. Can you look for an unusual correlation? Some connection that hasn’t been made yet?
Nah, didn’t work for me either to be honest. When I was at teacher-training college I was 15 essays behind schedule at one point. They couldn’t kick me out because budding science teachers were like rocking-horse sh*t in those days (1973). djm has the germ of an idea there. It sounds cynical but it’s roughly the ploy I used on several occasions at university and it worked (mucho paraphrasing needed!). Tickling egos usually pays off.
Hope your cold soon gets better… 
Steve
Well, you might have to bite the bullet and go talk to him. It seems like it would be better to get a topic you are interested in or at least a good topic, and he’s going to know the literature better than you. If you get a topic you find interesting or that is a good topic, your paper will be a lot better and that’s really the most important thing. So it might be worth eating humble pie now if you can end up with a better paper. I actually think maybe you’d really better go talk to him, and the sooner the better, so you can start working on the paper. He wants you to get a topic going too, believe me.
djm, good idea. Unfortunately, it seems as though most of his stuff is in french wouldn’t you know. Besides which, data analysis doesn’t lend itself well to BSing.
Yeah Lambchop, you’re right and that is what I’m doing now. The problem is finding something remotely exciting. I am interested in what influence organized religion has on politics, in Canada this is something that has a good deal of information. So right now I’m trying to figure out if this has been done to death and if it can be narrowed down enough. There is also another, practical problem. My paper should be a 50/50 split between advanced data analysis (not a big problem) and qualitative research (interviews, content analysis etc). I can’t figure out what I would do for the second half. Hopefully my supervisor will have a clue.
I definately do have to talk to him tomorrow, I think he is only on campus on Mondays, I just was desperately hoping I could go in and give him a definite topic.
Blah! It wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t know that this was the last bit of real school work I will have to do for, at least, 2 years.
Whew! Web boards are great tools for venting. Anyways, ideas are still very welcome if anyone out there, especially canuckians, have any burning questions about the relationship between something and something else.
You may find that, as you talk to him, a definite topic may form up in your mind. Presenting the options to someone often does this.
Easy. I’d fall on my sword.
That was the physicist in me talking. So is this: How about the disconnect between the reported “margin of error” (i. e., uncertainty), which is entirely based on sampling uncertainties (1/sqrt(sample)) and the ACTUAL uncertainty, which is what, say, an epidemiologist would calculate including her sampling error (which is a small contribution), and any other potential biases. I always laugh my ass off when I see polls in the newspaper, which always report a “sampling error of +/- 3 percentage points,” which only means they had a sample of about 1000 people. These people DO POLLS FOR A LIVING, they ought to know enough about statistics and sampling to come up with REAL uncertainties.
How about a synthesis of Boswell’s “Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe From the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century.” and his “Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe,”. Then you can do a Google for “John Boswell” +refute, and get sources and opposite opinion. You can then spin it to your liking.
You’re thesis could be, “Boswell and homosexuality in Western history: Fact or wishful thinking.”
It’s timely, and hasn’t been done to death.
Let me know if you decide not to. I might do it myself just for fun.
Hey, gettoff! I just had that idea! I wanna do it for fun too!
Steve
Look, if we’re the sort of people you turn to for help you’re in a worse position than you thought.
Oh, I dunno - I think we’ve been quite helpful, don’t you think so OnTheMoor?..OnTheMoor…? Where are you…?
Steve
Certainly Steve.
Okay I’ve narrowed down to two and I’ll be doing some reading and data mining over the coming Thanksgiving weekend. Ran them by my Prof and he said they sounded fine. Wish me luck. Thanks for the thoughts.
Maybe this is very old news to you Canuckians, but I was surprised to hear that Canada had abolished automatic citizenship by birthright. For a socialist type of state, it seemed weird that the US continues to offer it while Canada doesn’t.
I am not wanting to debate it here but I wonder if something about immigration by perception or fact is of interest …
On the Moor, how about this?
Canadian Diversity Post 9/11 and (my words) the muslim voting patterns in Canadian federal election(s). go here for story.
http://www.mcgill.ca/arts/development/diversity/
MarkB
What is a Canuckian? A Canadian? Is it a pejorative word? 
Steve