Sociological Imagination Paper Part 2

Sociological Imagination Paper Part 2 (Due Date Updated to 03/31/19 by 11:59 PM) A sociological literature review shows what you have read, evaluated, and comprehended regarding your topic. While literature reviews are generally based on numerous readings, for this assignment you should find at least two external sources (strive for sociological sources) that capture key areas of research on your topic. Conducting this background research will sharpen your sociological imagination paper topics! Where can you find sources...? Our library subscribes to several journals that may be relevant for your paper. To access them, you need not be on campus, but log onto our library website and search the digital resources. Academic Search Premier includes a number of sociology journals, so you will likely have some luck there. Visit the following link: ​http://alameda.peralta.edu/library/article-databases/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Some ideas for sources are the American Sociological Review, Journal of Ethnic and Racial Studies, International Migration Review, Contexts, or any sociological research that pertains to your topic. You can also create an ​account​ with JSTOR and review up to three titles for a two week period. See the following link: http://about.jstor.org/rr (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Once you find two sources, read them carefully. Take notes on the research questions, methods, main points, and your critique. Think about how the articles relate to your specific research question(s). Then, compose a two to three page literature review that builds on part I of your term paper. Be sure to address if there are any holes of shortcomings in prior studies and how they should be remedied. It is best to organize your literature review and include section subheadings. (See the sample paper (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.​ for inspiration) and think of the following question -- how are you going to order your discussion of the research?

1. Chronologically (by time if you have a historical paper) 2. thematically (by key themes that your paper will cover [ex. if you are writing

on health & aging I would include ​health​ and inequality; aging by place; and empirical studies on aging and health),

3. conceptually (by key sociological concepts - ex. race, class, and gender) 4. methodologically (by the types of methods - quantitative or qualitative), or a

combination?

PLEASE USE APA FORMATTING What section headings will you use? [See the sample papers that I've uploaded] In Case you Need a Review the following discussion details what a literature review is (this is available under part I included an excerpt from ​A Guide to Writing Sociological Papers​ that includes a discussion of writing literature reviews): This is an example that might be useful for you: What is a literature review...? Writing a literature review is a critical step in composing a term paper. It is through the process of examining literature published on your topic that you are able to refine your research question(s) and find evidence to support the answer that you will propose. If I am writing a paper that explores the sociological significance of Barack Obama presidency, I would go to the library and look up some sociological sources on this topic. I would use the College of Alameda's electronic resources like the Article Databases. Visit the following link: ​http://alameda.peralta.edu/library/article-databases/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Look, I found the following appropriate sources:

● BARACK OBAMA AND THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN RACIAL POLITICS by Rogers M. Smith and Desmond S. King Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, Volume 6, Issue 01, March 2009, pp 25-35

● An article from Contexts on The Social Significance of Barack Obama's Presidency: ​http://contexts.org/obama/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

I will read each article and take notes on the central argument of the authors. For example, what are racial politics...? What do Smith and King suggest about Obama's role in the future of American Racial Politics..? Why did Contexts devote an entire issue to Barack Obama...? What do prominent sociologists who study race and ethnicity argue...? I will address how these articles answer my research question(s). What do the articles suggest about the sociological significance of Obama's presidency? I might even include some holes or issues the articles do not examine. For example, do these articles problematize Obama's racial assignment as black...? As you conduct your literature review, your research question(s) may sharpen and shift. Reviewing these two articles might push me to write about whether Obama's presidency signals that U.S. society is post racial. I might go back and reframe my introduction to

fit this ​direction​.