Practicum 1

Data Wrangling and Visualization

Author

Prof. Jack Reilly

Published

F2025

The Task

Replicate Figures 1 and 2 from Bartels (2000), “Partisanship and Voting Behavior”, for the years 2006–2024 using the Cumulative CCES Dataset.

The Details

  • This Practicum is due Thursday, October 23, at 2 PM. As usual, we will cover the practicum in that class, so late work is not accepted.

  • Turn your exam in to Blackboard. You will need to turn in at least two things: an R script file (.R or .qmd) and a write-up Quarto document typeset as a .pdf. You may wish to have more than one R script file.

  • The practicum IS open-book, open-note, and open-internet, but it IS NOT open-human. In short: you can use any resource you want, so long as that resource does not involve asking another human a question. (The only exception is that you can ask the professor clarification questions.)

  • If you use AI, you must also turn in a record of your prompts as a plain-text .txt file. You MAY use AI, but only to ask questions as you design your own work. You MAY NOT feed the entire practicum itself into a chatbot or other AI tool.

  • Make sure your write-up document and code script files are cleanly formatted. You will be evaluated both for the accuracy of your output and the clarity of your code.

  • Follow all the data and style guidelines we have discussed in class. Your .R files — once I change the working directory — should properly execute all commands needed to reproduce the results of your practicum, and should do so without any errors. If your .R file does not do this, the relevant answers will be considered wrong.

  • You may find the cumulative CCES/CES files in the course drive.

  • In your write-up, make note of any particular challenges you encountered, as well as any significant differences from what you found when replicating Bartels with the ANES.

Good luck!