Teaching the Art Oe Economic Research in a Senior Seminar

In many academic settings, undergraduate economics majors are asked to do an independent project or thesis in their final year. Because doing research is very different from leaming economics in a classroom, students are frequently unprepared for this endeavor. This article describes a seminar course intended to ease this transition by preparing students to embark on such a project. The first goal of the course is to assist students in developing a sound economic research project. The second goal is to help them develop the research skills to execute their project. In essence, the course is an abbreviated and accelerated version of some of the leaming that takes place alongside the standard curriculum in graduate school. The article describes a course that has been designed for a liberal arts setting, and also discusses other possible variations.