Sample Portfolio for PS601
Robert D. Duval
[Use as an example of how to do your PS601 Web Page Assignments!]
[Anything in brackets and italics is annotation to guide you in completing the portfolio. You do not need to replicate these remarks in your portfolio.]
Introduction
Politics is a fascinating field of study. It is my belief that the more carefully and clearly we present information, the better we can convey our beliefs and attitudes and eventually come to some common agreement on approaches to major policy decisions.[Disclaimer]
This portfolio is a rough attempt to collect some data that demonstarte the value of approaching political research from an empirical perspective.
Assignment #1
Political Data comes in a wide variety of types. Several represetative data sets are offered below
The Data Sets
(1) 50 State Data Set #1
(2) 50 State Data Set #2
(3) Time Series - Monetary Data
US Budget
(4) Small series of raw data
(5) Small series of % (parts of a whole)
Assignment #2
As a good liberal, I will conjecture that the policies of Democratic administrations offset some of the social pressures on lower income and therefore the criome crate will be lower at the end of the Clinton administration than it is in the Bush administration. In order to see if there is substantial variability in the crime rate in the 50 states, we can calculate the standard deviation. This lets us see how states vary in their underlying crime rate.
Spreadsheet with standard deviations for the crime rate in the 50 states for years ??, and ??.
Assignment #3
Frequency Histogram [Omit this Assignment]
Assignment #4
Pie Chart
Assignment #5
Bar Graph
Assignment #6 Line graph Exercise
Defense spending has always been a source of interest to liberals and conservatives alike. This graph diplays the pattern of defense spending since the Korean war.
Assignment #7
Converting nominal dollars to real dollars
Assignment #8
t-test
Assignment #9
Cross tabs
Assignment #10
Regression
The statements made on this web page are for instructional purposes only. They do not necessarily detail my own personal beliefs, and they certainly are not intended to represent the values of my parent institution - West Virginia University. These statements are provided here to create a greater sense of interest in an often dry subject. The assignments for which they are a sample are not graded on the ideological content of the material, only for whether the proper format and standards for data analysis and presentation have been followed. This document is thus a template - not a substantive treatment of the subject.