Challenges facing mature students during their first year of college.

SO4063 Introduction to Social Research Assessment 2: Design your own data collection instrument. Weighting 10% of your final grade. Deadline Monday 8th November 2010 at noon. Length Survey should be no longer than 2 pages (at the max). Interview guides, coding schemes, observation schedules etc should be no longer than a page. Feedback Grade and individualised feedback in week 12 through the Feedback tool in your SO4063 website. In this assignment, you are required to develop your data collection instrument as outlined in assignment one, your research proposal. You must pilot test your data collection instrument to ensure its validity. For research on humans, please test your data collection instrument on one family member of friend. Required structure 1. Sociology Submission Form 2. Title of your research and your name 3. Sampling: 1 sentence on each of the following; Population of interest Sample type Sample size 4. Mode of Delivery: 1 paragraph on; How and where you will find these people/documents/your data? For example, over the internet, on the phone, in the street, by email and what implications will this have on your sample? 5. Research Information Sheet (see lecture slides) � 6. Data Collection Instrument: Survey/Structured Interview: Bryman chapters 8/9. Observation: Bryman chapter 11. Content analysis: Bryman chapter 12. Focus groups : Bryman chapter 19. Others: Bryman chapter 2. 7. Pilot test: Brief note on anything you had to change or learned after piloting your data collection instrument. Don’t forget about informed consent. Recommended readings: Alan Bryman (2008) Social Research Methods. G. Nigel Gilbert (ed), 1993. Researching Social Life. General requirements Your assignment must begin with the official sociology submission form, which is available in the resources section of your SO4063 SULIS website. This cover page must be the first page of assignment. Submission You are required to submit your assignment electronically on the SULIS site for So4063 and in hard copy into the sociology box outside F1-003. All submitted papers are retained for the external examiner and will not be returned to students so keep a copy for your own records. All grades are provisional pending external examination. � Plagiarism Plagiarism is a serious academic offence which involves presenting other persons words, ideas or findings, for example, as one’s own. If you use other people’s words or ideas without adequately crediting them you leave yourself open to a charge of plagiarism. If you quote from another person’s work ensure that you use quotation marks to acknowledge that these are their words rather than your own. If you quote or paraphrase another persons work, or reproduce their statistics, diagrams, figures or graphs, ensure that you reference them in-text and in your bibliography. The University uses the software package ‘Turnitin’ to check for plagiarism. This software will be used to check all papers submitted in this course. Department of Sociology plagiarism policy All students are required to familiarise themselves with the Department of Sociology plagiarism policy which is available on the course SULIS site and from: http://www.ul.ie/sociology/index.php?pagid=11&useid=dgr2918274 Please note that all cases of plagiarism will be reported and penalised. Referencing and paraphrasing Plagiarism can be best avoided by appropriately referencing the authors that you draw on in your writings. It is also essential that you delineate quotes clearly and, where you choose to paraphrase their work, you do so adequately. Instruction on referencing and paraphrasing will be available from your tutor through your weekly tutorials. For this module you are required to employ the system of referencing elaborated in the UL library’s publication Cite it Right. Cite it Right is available electronically from: http://www.ul.ie/~library/pdf/citeitright.pdf � Wikipedia Please note that it is not permissible to cite Wikipedia as a source in your research proposal. Please also avoid electronic encyclopaedias and dictionaries, online question answering services and English language dictionaries. Department of Sociology, UL Policy on Late Submission of Assignments Students are required to submit assignments by the deadline set by the Department of Sociology, using the submission procedure specified for that assignment. What penalties are imposed if this deadline is missed? Where an extension has not been agreed in advance, or where a student submits an essay after the agreed extensions has expired, the Department will impose a penalty for late submission. For the first day that elapses between the expiration of the deadline and the receipt of the work by the Department, 5 percentage points will be deducted from the student’s mark for that assignment. Assignments received after the 24 hour period has lapsed will attract a mark of zero. How can students apply for an extension? The Department may at its discretion and for good cause sanction an extension to individual students. In order to be granted an extension, students will be required to present a medical certificate or other evidence of a compelling reason for late submission. This must be in writing. In the first instance, students seeking an extension should contact the staff member who is convenor of the relevant module. On submission of the assignment, the written authorisation for an extension should be attached to any such late assignments. When should students apply for an extension? Students can apply for an extension a minimum of 24 hours in advance of the deadline by submitting a written request by e-mail for such an extension. This is so that students can be informed in writing prior to the assignment deadline whether or not the extension has been granted. What about further extensions? � On a discretionary basis, the department may allow further extensions. �