Sociology

Soc 100 Literature Review Guidelines Packet

Table of Contents Grading Rubric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 2 Description: Provides a complete breakdown of what to include in the literature review and how it will be graded by your TA’s Literature Review Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 3 Description: Short checklist that aligns with the grading rubric to ensure that your paper has all of the required components Literature Review Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 4-5 Description: A visual guide to how to structure your literature review Writing Style Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 6-9 Description: Tips on writing to use for this (and future) papers ASA Citation Style Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 10-12 Description: guide for ASA citations for your reference list

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Grading Rubric

Introduction (15 points) ¨ The introduction should make the paper topic and scope clear (5 points).

Ex: This paper will examine how social class affects parenting practices. Or: I will examine the effect of parental incarceration on children.

¨ A justification for why it is important to study – including evidence (10 points). This justification should go beyond personal interest in the subject. Ex: This topic is important for understanding how parents pass advantages and disadvantages on to their children. Or: It is important to study parental incarceration because 1.5 million children in the US have a parent in prison (Mumola 2000).

Body (40 points)

¨ The body is the longest section of the paper and should provide a thorough review of the relevant literature. No 10-page paper will review all of the relevant literature, but the student should make a reasonable effort to cover the main themes (and major authors) of their chosen topic.

¨ 30 points for thoroughness of review. Does the paper reasonably cover the relevant research and major authors? Ideally, these should be clearly organized into themes (or in some other way).

¨ 10 points for synthesis and the extent to which the student puts the literature they review in conversation. The body paragraphs should not simply be a list of studies, where no connections are made between the different studies or ideas. Instead, the student should grapple with how the studies speak to one another (including where they support each other and where they contradict).

Conclusion (20 points)

¨ The conclusion should synthesize the overarching themes of the paper (10 points) ¨ And provide one suggestion of a way the form of inequality discussed in the paper might be

reduced. This could be a policy suggestion or something similar (10 points). Organization (5 points)

¨ 5 points for the overall organization of the paper. Are all components of the paper (intro, body sections, conclusion) clearly laid out? Do they flow well? Are the body paragraphs presented in an order than makes sense (i.e. grouped by theme)?

Citations (20 points)

¨ 1 point for each academic source used in the paper (for a total of 10 points) ¨ 5 points for in-text citations (are statements cited properly using in-text citations?) ¨ 5 points for the Reference page (following the appropriate ASA citation style) ¨ Quotes: If you quote directly from a book or article, be sure to put the statement in quotation

marks (and include page numbers). ¨ Note: See the “ASA Style Guide” for more details

Writing and Style (10 points)

¨ 10 points for overall writing and style of the paper. Is the paper clear, concise, and easy to understand? Does it reasonably follow the “Writing Tips” guide for things to avoid or be aware of? Does it make many unsubstantiated claims? Is the language used appropriate for an academic paper? Does the paper read more like a personal essay?

Formatting (10 points) ¨ 10 points for following the formatting guidelines (10 pages not including references; 12-point

font; 1” margins, title, page numbers, double-spaced, uploaded as a word document).

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Literature Review Checklist Intro

o Paper topic and scope is clear o Justification for why paper topic is worthy of study

Literature Review

o Thoroughly covers relevant literature o Synthesizes literature (puts studies in conversation with one another)

Conclusion

o Synthesizes overarching themes o Suggestion of one way to reduce inequality

Organization

o Paper includes intro, literature review (broken into thematic sections), and conclusion Citations

o Paper includes at least 10 citations from academic sources (books or peer-reviewed articles)

o Paper properly uses in-text citations (Mumola 2000) or (Mumola 2000; Smith and Jones 2010).

o Paper has a complete reference page using the “ASA Style Guide” o All direct quotes are in quotation marks with page numbers listed.

Writing and Style

o Paper is clear and concise o Follows the Writing Style Tips (below)

Formatting

o Paper is 10 pages long (not including references) o 12-point font o Times New Roman font o 1” margins o Double-spaced o Includes title o Includes page numbers o Uploaded as a word document

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Literature Review Template

Name Date Course and Section

Title

Introduction

Your introduction should clearly present your paper topic and the scope of your topic.

You should also justify why this topic is important to study. Here, statistics can be very useful!

For example, if you are writing about the effect of parental incarceration on children, you might

include statistics on the number of US children who have a parent in prison. For example, you

might say something like: 1.5 million children in the US have a parent in prison (Mumola 2000).

Be sure that your introduction is clearly linked to what follows in the literature review. It can

sometimes help to save the introduction until after you have written the main literature review

section of the paper.

Literature Review

As you might guess from the name, the “literature review” section of your paper should

be the longest part of your paper. In it, you should provide a thorough review of the relevant

literature. You won’t be able to cover everything about a topic in your literature review. Still,

you should strive to be as thorough as possible. Throughout, you should also be sure to put the

literature review in conversation with one another. That means that your paragraphs should not

simply summarize a list of studies, but should discuss how they relate to one another. Think

carefully about how the articles and books you read either support one another or contradict. To

do this, it is helpful here to organize your literature by themes.

Theme 1

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Review the relevant literature about your first theme.

Theme 2

Review the relevant literature about your second theme.

Theme 3

Review the relevant literature about your third theme.

Conclusion

Your conclusion should provide a synthesis of the overarching themes of the paper. For

the purposes of this literature review, you should also provide one suggestion of a way inequality

might be reduced (based on the literature you reviewed). This could be a policy suggestion or

something else.

References

Your reference section should provide complete citations for all in-text citations included

in your literature review. For the purposes of this paper, you should have at least 10 references.

Your reference list should be in ASA style. The list of citations should be in alphabetical order.

For ASA style, you should indent the second line (and any additional lines) 0.5”, as shown

below. See the “ASA Style Guide” (p. 10-12 of this packet) for more information.

Reference Examples:

Alba, Richard, and Philip Kasinitz. 2006. “Sophisticated Television, Sophisticated

Stereotypes.” Contexts 5(4):74-77.

Baltzell, E. Digby. 1964. The Protestant Establishment. New York: Random House.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. n.d. "Protect Yourself with Vaccination". Retrieved

Feb. 4, 2019 (https://www.cdc.gov/features/adultvaccinations/).

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Writing Style Tips

Below you will find some useful writing tips for writing academic papers (especially in sociology). Use vocabulary you know

¨ You may be tempted to throw in big words or to overuse the synonyms tool when you’re writing papers for class. I always advise sticking to words that you know and are comfortable with. Doing so will almost always make your writing clearer, which is a positive thing!

¨ That said, you might have to use new terminology when writing paper. If the literature you are reviewing mentions a new term like “adultification,” you will likely want to use that word as well. Just be sure to offer a definition for any new concepts your audience might not know so it is clear what you are talking about.

¨ Likewise, if you are going to mention an acronym, be sure to provide its full name the first time you use it. For example: “The Center for Disease Control (CDC) ...”

But keep your language formal

¨ Just because you are using vocabulary that you know doesn’t mean that you should write exactly as you talk.

¨ For most papers, your language should be more formal than they would be in conversation or email. Avoid colloquialisms and slang that are too casual for the setting.

¨ I usually also avoid contractions (ex: can’t, won’t, and isn’t) in academic writing. Use active voice

¨ Avoid passive voice in your papers! ¨ Passive voice not only makes sentences unclear (as it conceals who is doing the action),

but it can also make your writing sound somewhat boring. ¨ For example, instead of “The door was opened by Nancy” say “Nancy opened the door.”

Vary your sentence structure

¨ Instead of structuring all of your sentences in the same way, play around with different sentence structures and lengths of sentences.

¨ Do you have three long sentences in a row? Break one up so it’s a bit shorter. ¨ Similarly, avoid using the same word twice in the same sentence or multiple times in the

same paragraph (unless it’s really necessary to do so. For example, if you’re writing a paper about deportation, it’s okay to use that word multiple times rather than trying to find an imperfect synonym).

Try not to editorialize

¨ Although we often are passionate about the things we write about (or we probably wouldn’t be writing about them), I generally avoid editorializing in academic papers.

¨ That is not to say that we can’t have opinions about the things we write about. But it is often more persuasive to back claims up with concrete evidence than it is to simply voice your opinion on a situation.

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¨ Instead of saying something like “I believe mass incarceration is a sad and terrible problem.” Try a sentence like: “Between 1980 and 2000, the number of people incarcerated in the United States increased by 300 percent” (Beckett and Western 2001: 43). Statistics like these are a great way to back up your claims. You might also use examples, which are often more convincing than broad but generic claims.

¨ You might also be writing a paper on a topic you have direct experience with. For a formal paper, like a literature review, you will still want to back up your claims with published research. If you do want to incorporate some of your own experience into such papers, ask your professor or TA about how to best do so.

¨ That said, there are some assignments that directly ask for your opinion! A reflection paper, for example, might specifically for you to draw on your own experience. If that is the case, sharing your opinion or experience more directly is just fine.

A note on causation and certainty

¨ Many academic studies show a correlation or association between two things, but this does not always mean causation. When writing about such studies, be careful with the language you use. If the study says that divorce is associated with behavioral problems in children, you don’t want to say in your paper that divorce causes behavioral problems, because that is likely beyond what the study showed.

¨ Likewise, I usually like to use terms like “shows,” “demonstrates,” or “suggests” rather than words like “proves” when discussing a study. Most scientific research, including in the social sciences, is cumulative and builds on the work of others. Few, if any, researchers would say that their study is decisive proof of something, in part because pretty much all research has limitations. If a research does make these claims, you might want to be skeptical of that researcher!

Be careful when making sweeping claims about history

¨ I often find that students want to write statements like: “Since the beginning of time,” “Throughout history” or “In the past,” or use words like “Historically” or “Traditionally.”

¨ But there’s often a lot more variation going on that these statements conceal. History is long and varied, so statements like this can come across as vague. What was going on in 1750 is probably different from what was going on in 1970. Lumping all of time together is bound to be at least a bit inaccurate.

¨ Take this statement for example: “Throughout history, women have done housework while men have worked outside the home.” This might sound right, but often these sweeping statements don’t actually match up with history. In fact, before industrialization, most men and women worked on farms together. And while they might have done different tasks, we didn’t really see the firm division between housework/paid work until men started leaving homes to work in factories. This statement would be much more accurate (and compelling) if it started “Since industrialization” instead of “Throughout history.”

¨ If you want to use a word like “historically”, try to pin the trend you are talking about to a particular time period (think: did the trend start in the Victorian era, the 1950s, or some other moment?). This specificity will make your paper stronger!

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Be wary of overly deterministic language ¨ Similarly, use words like “naturally,” “inherently,” or “inevitably” carefully. Is the

phenomenon you are talking about truly inevitable? Is it only affected by natural forces (and not, say, social ones)? Could things play out another way?

¨ Things are often more complicated than words like these imply (especially in a sociology class where we talk a lot about social forces!).

Cite your sources!

¨ One of the biggest problems that students run into is not citing their sources! ¨ In sociology, we usually use in-text citations to cite sources. This means that after a

sentence where you include the idea of someone else, you should include the source’s name and year in parentheses. Ex: (Lastname year). You can cite the same source multiple times, even in sentences that are back-to-back.

¨ If you are going to quote from an article or book, be sure that you put the sentence (or even portion of the sentence) in quotation marks. Otherwise, the text will likely be flagged for plagiarism.

¨ At the end of your paper, provide a reference section with the full citation for all articles, books, or other sources used.

¨ Although a professor probably won’t fail you for the other tips on this list (like using passive voice or not varying your sentence structure), they might fail you for not properly citing your sources. So take this one seriously!

¨ While we’re on the topic of citations, if you are going to make a big statement like “One of the biggest contributors to children’s mental health is parental divorce” you’ll want to either a) back up this claim with a citation or other evidence or b) pose it as a question like “One factor that might affect children’s mental health is parental divorce.”

Edit and proofread your work

¨ Editing is an important part of writing! So much so that it can’t be neatly separated from the act of writing itself.

¨ You should always re-read your work before submitting, not only to catch mistakes, but to think through the points above. Are you varying your sentence structure? Did you use active voice? Should you rearrange anything to make the paper flow better? Did you cite all of your sources?

¨ This can help ensure that there is nothing in your paper to distract from the main points you are trying to make. (To give one example, I once wrote a whole paper where I said “angles” instead of “angels” multiple times, and I imagine it was quite confusing to the professor and probably detracted from the point I was trying to make...)

¨ If you have time, it’s always a great idea to get someone else to read your writing. Try trading papers with a friend or, if that’s not possible, try reading the paper out loud to yourself. You can even use Word’s “read aloud” feature (under “review”), if you’d prefer to have your computer read your paper to you. I always find that this helps catch things that you might not have while just staring at the page.

Double-check the instructions

¨ Finally, double-check the instructions for the assignment to be sure that your formatting and everything else is correct. Is your paper the right length? Do you stick to the prompt?

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Is the tone right for the type of assignment? Did you add page numbers if these are requested?

¨ Depending on the assignment, it’s possible that the instructions might contradict some of the advice offered here. For example, the extent to which you discuss your personal experience might depend on whether you’re writing a reflection memo or a formal literature review. Always defer to the instructions your professor gives you and ask questions if you are confused!

TL;DR ¨ Write actively, clearly, precisely, and concisely ¨ Cite your sources ¨ Edit your work

______________________________________________________________________________ For more tips see: https://slc.berkeley.edu/writing-worksheets-and-other-writing-resources/nine- basic-ways-improve-your-style-academic-writing

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ASA Style Guide

In-text Citations Basic Format: Text text text (Last Name Year). Summarizing or Paraphrasing: Paraphrasing or summarizing the main findings or takeaways from a research article is the preferred method of citing sources in an ASA paper. This involves putting these findings or key ideas in your own words. You should always strive to fully paraphrase into your own voice, rather than simply changing around a few words. Always include the last name of the author(s) and the year of the article, so your reader can find the full citation in the reference list. Example: According to Shavers (2007), limitations of studying socioeconomic status in research on health disparities include difficulties in collecting data on socioeconomic status and the complications of classifying women, children, and employment status, among others. Direct quotes: If you do want to include a direct quotation from a book or article, you must put it in quotation marks and include the page number. This is true even if you are only quoting part of a sentence. If you do not properly cite such material, you may be accused of plagiarism. Examples: According to Shavers (2007:71), "Direct quote". Shavers (2007:71) found that "Direct quote". [Some other introduction] "Direct quote" (Shavers 2007:1021). If you're directly quoting more than 40 words...

• Use a blockquote. Block quotes don't need quotation marks but are indented 1/2" as a visual cue of a citation.

Example: Shavers (2007:1021) found the following:

While research studies have established that socioeconomic status influences disease incidence, severity and access to healthcare, there has been relatively less study of the specific manner in which low SES influences receipt of quality care and consequent morbidity and mortality among patients with similar disease characteristics, particularly among those who have gained access to the healthcare system.

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References Basic Format:

Author, First N., and First Name Last Name. Year of publication. "Title of Article." Title of

Source Volume(Issue): page range.

Note: the second line (and any additional lines) are indented 0.5”

Journal Article

1. Author(s) [Last Name, First Name, Middle Initial., &. If there are more than 1 author, the other author names are not inverted and are separated by a comma].

2. Year xxxx. 3. "Title of the Article" [Capitalized and in quotation marks]. 4. Title of the journal [Capitalized and in italics], 5. Volume # of the journal 6. Issue # (if any): 7. Page range [xx-xx].

Example: Alba, Richard, and Philip Kasinitz. 2006. "Sophisticated Television, Sophisticated Stereotypes."

Sociological Forum 5(6): 408-428.

Book

1. Author(s) [Last Name, First Name]. 2. Year xxxx. 3. Title of the Book [Capitalized and in italics]. 4. City, State [Full name of city, abbreviation of state]: 5. Publisher.

Example: Lee, Harper. 1960. To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia, PA: J. B. Lippincott & Co. Book Chapter with Editors

1. Author(s) of the chapter [Last Name, First Name, Middle Initial]. 2. Year xxxx. 3. "Title of the Chapter" [Capitalized and in quotation marks]. 4. Page range Pp. xxx-xxx in 5. Title of the Book [Italicized], 6. Editor(s) of the bookedited by First Initial. Last Name. 7. City, State of Publication [Full name of city, abbreviation of state]: 8. Publisher.

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Example: Preheim, Gertrude. (2008). "Clinical Scholar Model." Pp. 457-514 in Annual Review of Nursing

Education, edited by M. H. Oermann. New York: Springer.

Note: Although your paper must include 10 books and peer-reviewed articles, you may also include citations from news articles or webpages in addition to the 10 academic source minimum. News/Magazine Article

1. Author(s) [Last Name, First Name., Middle Initial.] 2. Year of Publication xxxx. 3. "Title of the Article" Capitalized and in quotation marks. 4. Title of the Newspaper or Publication [Capitalized and in italics], 5. Month and day of publicationif applicable, 6. page range pp. (skip if unavailable) 7. URL Retrieved date (url).

Example Kennedy, Matt. 2018. "To Prevent Wildfires, PG&E Pre-emptively Cuts Power." NPR, Oct. 15,

pp.15-18. Retrieved (https://www.npr.org/2018/10/15/657468903/to-prevent-wildfires-

pg-e-preemptively-cuts-power-to-thousands-in-california).

Webpage

1. Author or organization [Full name of organization]. 2. Year xxxx. [or n.d. for no date.] 3. Title of page, section, or document [In quotation marks]. 4. URLRetrieved date (URL).

Example Center for Disease Control and Prevention. n.d. "Protect Yourself with Vaccination". Retrieved

Feb. 4, 2019 (https://www.cdc.gov/features/adultvaccinations/).

This handout is adapted from: https://libguides.csudh.edu/citation/asa For more information, see this website