The purpose of doing a sociology research paper is to familiarize yourself with sociological subjects and to learn how to do current and topical research and apply it in a paper format.
Your mysoclab has a TON of helpful items designed to make it easier to do your paper. I will be pointing these out on the message board so please watch for them. Feel free to explore the site to get going and share your findings with your fellow students!
Choose a topic that interests you that is a sociological issue, by that I mean an issue that is relevant to United States Group Culture. Examples include crime, family violence, social movements, counter culture groups, socialization issues, and so on. For example "Master Status and its implications for race and ethnicity" or "Mass Media Socialization and its affect on Gender in America". Or eating disorders and their rise among men in America. With one exception you are not limited except that it must be a group sociological issue that affects the United States. The one exception is that I will not accept a paper written about abortion. No matter how hard you try regardless of what side you are on you cannot be neutral about abortion, and since social research is supposed to be neutral you cannot pick that topic.
Research your topic. You may use all sources available to you including pop culture (i.e. television and radio); however you must have a variety of sources (not all from one thing like the internet). You must have a minimum of five sources (please note that I expect you will have way more than that, five is the minimum not the total) for example: a book, a journal article, a magazine article, and two Internet articles (you can have more). Be aware that having one book and seven Internet articles does not constitute a variety! Magazine articles from time and newsweek are more acceptable than reader's digest and sports illustrated, this doesn't mean you can't use them, you just can't rely on only those. Our library has fabulous online databases so you can do a great deal of research from home. Link to the library homepage at Hayden Library and click the "full text databases" link. I highly recommend Ebsco host and SIRS (devoted entirely to social research). Our mysoclab also has THOUSANDS of articles from journals ready to go. Although these articles are located over the Internet they are not Internet articles. These are scientific, peer-reviewed journals that happen to be copied online. You are welcome to use the Internet articles for your paper, but realize that an article about the effectiveness of the social movement of environmentalism written by the lumber companies of America is likely to be a bit biased for example. So its best to use the online database journal articles for your statistics and research and the others like the Internet, self-magazine etc. as a reflection of popular culture. Another really great source is your textbook. It comes with the free website that has TONS of sociology links etc. .
Writing your paper. Your paper must be a 8 to 10- pages long. That is 8-10 full pages of text (does not include bibliography and title page) with 12-point pitch or smaller, 1-inch margins, double spaced. Do not create a paper with huge type and four inch margins in order to make it seem longer I will take off for it. Make sure that you do not simply copy out of your sources. You may quote from them with proper referencing but simply copying from them without proper notation and bibliography is considered plagiarism which is cheating and I will flunk you for it. If you do not understand how to reference properly MAKE SURE you look it up. I can't emphasize how important this is, don't flunk just because you don't understand research paper standards. You will use APA referencing style. Truest me you will need this in future classes so you might as well figure out how now. MYSOCLAB has a help site on how to do it, so does microsoft word 2007 as do many websites. I will post about this on the board as well.
While writing your paper understand that the content of your paper is sociology. For example if you are writing about Child Abuse your paper might include: 1. A definition. 2. A history of the subject 3. Societies reaction to the problem currently and in the past. 4. Institutional reactions and answers to the problem and so on.
Papers must involve sociology and sociological terms. This is vital people. I can't tell you how many papers I get that are a fabulous description about something, but have literally NOTHING to do with group behavior. If you are having trouble picking out terms and concepts then I would recommend you discuss it on the message board. Your fellow students can help give you ideas, and the same time you can help them if they get stuck.
Referencing you paper. Make sure that you reference your quotes properly in your paper and include a bibliography of all references you used regardless of if you directly quoted them or not. IF YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO REFERENCE GET HELP EARLY!! Again there are a lot of help sites, I will direct you to them and help you but do not just avoid this! If you make boo boos its fine but not trying gets you an F.
See the weekly schedule link for the due date. I will not accept late papers for any reason whatsoever so PLAN AHEAD. All papers will be turned in as an attachment using either Microsoft Word or Microsoft Works as an .rtf file. If you cannot get the attachment to work, or you do not know how to do an attachment it is YOUR responsibility to get me the paper on time. If you want you may turn it into me in person. But by computer only attachments using those two programs are accceptable. If you try and turn it into me as an email I'll give it an F and send it back.
When you present your paper it will contain:
- A title page with your name, the date and title of your paper
- Eight to Ten pages of properly referenced text
- A bibliography
You will be graded on the following:
- eight to ten pages of text in the proper format 10 pts
- elegance of writing i.e. proper punctuation, spelling, and grammar 10 pts
- neutral point of view from the author (you may not put in your opinion)
- forming the paper in a sociological framework and use of sociological terminology (#3 and #4 together are 60 pts)
- proper referencing in the paper
- proper bibliography (#5 and #6 together are 10 pts but please note if you attempt to reference and provide a bibliography but make mistakes you can lose up to 10 points, BUT if you do not reference at all or provide a bibliography at all that will cause you to flunk the paper)
- appropriate coverage of the subject
- variety of sources (#7 and #8 together are 10 points)
GOOD LUCK AND DO NOT HESITATE TO ASK QUESTIONS.