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Strategic Note-taking for Social Sciences Research: QRSTUV

Title/Author Question(s) Research Methods Summary of Findings Takeaway Message

Unfamiliar Vocabulary

List the full title and name of the author(s) If the piece comes from a textbook that contains many different selections, please use the author and title of the individual piece you read, NOT the author and title of the whole textbook If the piece is a film, just include the title

What is the main research question that the piece seems to be addressing? Please be sure to phrase this as the research question that the author is asking (not as a question that *you* have about the piece). For formal research articles, you’ll generally find a version of the research question in an article’s introduction. If the author does not explicitly state their research question, you can construct one by asking yourself, after you have read the entire selection, “Why did this author set out to write this piece? What question does it seem like they were trying to answer in writing it?”

What research method does the author use? Was their research based on interviews? Observation? Quantitative analysis? Documentary filmmaking? You can do your best to explain this in plain English terms. You can often find a description of the research methods used near the beginning of the article If there is no clear statement of method, you should do your best to identify what the author seems to be doing, i.e., “The author is interviewing people who have experienced similar kinds of workplace abuses,” or “the author is reviewing what other researchers have written in the past about the economy,” or “the author is theorizing (proposing) a

In this box, you should summarize the main points of the research. A good way to approach this is by seeing what the authors themselves highlight. Looking for cues like bold headings, words in italics, or points made repeatedly is a good strategy, as is paying special attention to any points made in the “Discussion” or “Conclusion” sections of a research article. This is typically where social scientists try to bring together all of the threads of their argument to highlight claims that they are making. This section should be 125-275 words (i.e., it should be a LOT longer than your takeaway message). Please write this section in prose as a paragraph, not in bullet points. Use your own words rather than quoting the author, and be sure to present the author’s research findings, not your opinion about their findings. (continued below) In thinking about what you would in include here, consider what you might say to a friend if you were

In this section, please write 1-2 sentences only. Imagine that you are trying to explain the main idea of what you just read to a person who knows nothing about Sociology but has casually asked what your reading is about. This should be in plain, easy-to- understand English, without the use of jargon. The point of this box is for you to come up with the takeaway from memory – this will show you what has most stuck out in your mind from your reading of the piece.

Please use this section to note down 4-5 words and definitions that the author used in ways that are unfamiliar to you or that are being used in ways that seem important or relevant to the piece. Many sociologists create new words or repurpose existing words to describe concepts or phenomena that they have uncovered in their research. They often appear in italics or bold within the text. Do your best to define them as you understand them. Please highlight each word in bold. Please note that you MUST include 4-5 vocabulary terms to get full credit for your entry. The words you choose for this section will depend on what words you are already familiar with coming into reading the piece. You can either choose words that are new to you, or you can identify and define words that you already know that seem like they are key words

If the piece is a film, journalistic piece, or essay, you should still attempt to state what the author or filmmaker wanted to find out when they set out to create it.

new way to think about justice.” If you have the sociological background to identify a research method by name, all you need here is the name, short and sweet.

walking into Sociology class IRL and your friend said, “I didn’t do that reading last night. What’s it about?” You want to give them enough detail that they can make sense of the conversation happening in class, and you can also assume that they have the background knowledge to understand a more sophisticated description.

(words that are important to the article’s central ideas).

“Global Woman” by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Hochschild

What are the factors that have increasingly led women from the global South to migrate to wealthier countries to work in domestic labor and childcare? How have these migration patterns affected the lives of the migrants and their families?

General theorizing (this piece is an introduction to a larger book, so it isn’t the result of a single, specific research project).

As the forces of economic globalization grow, women from poor countries have started to migrate in greater numbers to wealthy countries in search of work. Some of them are educated but cannot find work at home. They often end up doing domestic labor like housekeeping or childcare. Their labor is in demand in wealthy countries because women in those countries have entered the workforce but without getting much help with house or childcare from their men partners. The migrants’ labor remains mostly invisible because their wealthy employers do not display their financial privilege by showing off their domestic employees to others. The migrant women workers are able to support their families well financially by remitting most of their income home. However, they must be absent for long periods of time. This results in negative impacts associated with a “care” deficit

The forces of globalization create a strange situation in which children in wealthy countries benefit from the care of both their own parents and nannies while children in poor countries must be raised by people other than their migrant mothers.

Care deficit: the situation that results from Third World women leaving their own children to take care of wealthy people’s children in other countries. “Pull” factors: reasons why migrants are motivated to move TO certain places over other places in search of work. In other words, the factors that draw migrants to a specific place (e.g., increasing wealth and demand for immigrant labor). “Push” factors: reasons why migrants move FROM their home countries. In other words, the factors that “push” them elsewhere (e.g., poverty). Philippine divorce: the separation of spouses that occurs when a wife migrates for work, often leaving behind an unemployed husband.

since their children are left in the care of others for months or years without their parent.

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