ASSIGNMENTS ONLY FOR MATHGUY18

SOCIOLOGY 498

Senior Seminar in Sociology

Paper Topic, Research Question and Outline (5 points):

Due no later than 11:55p ET on Sunday of Week 2

Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to get you to start thinking about your research paper in terms of what you want to research. It enables me to see where you are headed and (when necessary) make suggestions for how you can better craft your topic and/or research question for a good and successful sociological analysis.

This is a 2-part assignment that will be 1-2 pages in total length. It should be submitted as ONE document.

1) Identify a Research Interest and Paper Topic

Purpose: The purpose of this step is to get you to start thinking about your research paper in terms of general topics about which you would be interested in learning more. The topic needs to be relevant to the study of society and geared towards a sociological perspective.

The completed (approx. 1pg) assignment should:

a) Identify your Topic

b) Describe why you are interested in this topic

c) Describe how your chosen topic is relevant to the study of society

Tips for identifying a research topic of interest:

1) Browse through the past textbooks – find a chapter and particular theme that jumps out at you (i.e. Medicine and Health), and then browse that chapter to help further identify a topic of interest (i.e. Social Inequality in Health)

2) Look around at your life … read the newspaper. What themes, institutions, theories, issues, etc. interest/concern you the most?

3) Go to the online library and use a database such as Academic Search Premier to type in different sociological themes and see which article topics appeal to you. See also: Finding Peer Reviewed Journals in Resources folder.

(note: this will return articles from a variety of disciplines; keep in mind you will ultimately need to ask a question that may be researched from a sociological perspective)

Example topics:

a) work & women (or gender)

b) media as an agent of socialization

c) marriage and sexuality

d) health (i.e the institution) and authority

Paper Topic Grading Rubric

	Excellent	Average	Needs Improvement
Topic	Topic clearly identified and relevant to the study of society	Topic difficult to find; needs to be refined for relevance	Topic not relevant to the study of society; missing
Reasoning for Topic	Included and clearly articulated	Included but needs some elaboration	Needs significant elaboration, or missing
Sociological Relevance	Includes clear description of relevance to the study of society	Description needs some elaboration	Description needs significant elaboration, or missing

2) Narrow Your Paper Topic into a Research Question

Purpose: The purpose of this step is to narrow your previously identified research interest and paper topic into a specific Research Question. The research question needs to be sufficiently specific and narrow enough to be addressed in a 12-17 page paper.

When developing your research question, keep in mind that it should be looking at the relationship between two social facts/variables/behaviors, and they should be more specific than what is identified in your topic. It is also often helpful to identify specific time periods – you will not be able to do a good job of exploring some social phenomena over 100 years in only 12 pages.

The completed (approx. 1-2pgs) assignment should:

a) Identify your Topic

b) Write your Research Question

c) Describe why you have settled on this research question

d) Identify what two specific variables/social facts/behavior your research question is addressing

a. (note: these should not be different terms from what is used in your research question; I just want to be sure you are clear on what the variables in your research Q are)

e) Describe at least 3 ways how the sociological perspective and methodologies may be used to examine this research question

a. (use concepts from the text book)

Tips for narrowing your topic to a research question:

1) Free Write: sit down in front of a computer or with a pen & paper and write about your topic for 5-10 minutes. The key is to NOT stop for a pre-set amount of time. Don’t worry about how related your thoughts are, spelling or grammar – just write everything down that comes to mind.

a. When you are done, go back through and read what you have written. Circle statements that really jump out at you, and any themes that you see. It is likely you have identified a working research question in this writing.

2) Ask Journalistic Questions: write out questions about your topic addressing Who, What, When, Where, Why and How

3) Go to the online library and use a database such as Academic Search Premier to type in your chosen topic and different terms. Browse the articles to see what research question(s) their research is addressing. which article topics appeal to you

a. (note: this will return articles from a variety of disciplines; keep in mind you will ultimately need to ask a question that has been researched from a sociological perspective)

Example research questions:

a) How has the economy affected the role of women in the work force since the 1980’s? How have changes in gender role attitudes affected the "mommy-track" for women in white collar positions?

b)How has the widespread use of the internet impacted socialization over the last 15 years? How have changes in print ad portrayal of females over the last 15 years affected gender socialization?

a. c) How has the media affected social acceptance of same-sex marriage over the last decade? d) How has the internet impacted the amount of authority health care providers have compared to patients?

Research Question Grading Rubric

	Excellent	Average	Needs Improvement
Topic	Topic clearly identified	Topic difficult to find	Topic missing
Research Q	Research Q clearly sufficiently narrow and includes all requirements	Research Q needs to be further refined; missing one requirement	Research Q needs to be significantly refined or missing
Reasoning for Research Q	Included and clearly articulated	Included but needs some elaboration	Needs significant elaboration, or missing
2 variables	Correctly identified; match research question	Need to be further refined; slightly different than what is included in research Q	Do not match research Q; missing
Sociological Perspective	Includes 3 ways soc. perspective and methodologies may be used to investigate research Q; included proper citations	Missing 1 concept; citations errors	Missing 2-3 concepts; no citations

ASSIGNMENT 2

IS ONLY 1 PAGE

The purpose of this assignment is for you to begin to organize your thoughts on your paper including location (and reading) of at least one peer-reviewed journal article. Think of this assignment as putting together a draft of your introduction paragraph.

ASSIGNMENT 3.

The completed assignment (2-4pgs) should include:

1) Statement of the thesis/research question in the article

2) Clear statement of how this article is relevant to your research project’s thesis/research statement/question

3) Brief description of:

a. Methodology and analysis used –

i. Quantitative: primary data analysis – from data collected by the researcher OR secondary data analysis – from a database; statistical model used

ii. Qualitative (e.g. interview, content analysis, observation)

iii. Level of analysis (micro, meso, macro)

b. Sample size and composition (i.e. n=2,500; 90% respondents white females ages 21-48 drawn from a national probability sample)

c. Identification of key variables and their measurement

i. Independent variable(s) and dependent variable(s)

ii. Measurement: e.g. gender role attitudes were measured on a Likert Scale (1-5) from very traditional to very egalitarian.

d. Hypotheses of the authors

4) Key findings

5) Analyze strengths and weaknesses of article

a. Should include at least 2 strengths and 2 weaknesses

6) Any paraphrased or quoted work must include APA formatted in-text citations and reference