SOCI 380

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SOCI 380 INSTRUCTIONS RE. RESEARCH PAPER DUE
DATE The research paper is due on the last day
of class You are required to write and submit a
detailed research paper. The research paper will
be based on your working group project, but will
also involve original work undertaken by
yourself. Your research proposal should be about
10 - 15 pages in length (typed, double spaced),
plus Appendices. Please use headings and
subheadings.
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Your research paper should include the following
sections C Title Page C Table of Contents C
Abstract PART 1 The Research Problem C
Introduction C Literature C Research Questions
and Hypotheses PART 2 METHODS C Sampling C
Data Collection C Operationalization of
Variables Ethical Issues
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PART 3 RESULTS C Analysis and Results PART 4
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS C Discussion
Conclusions ENDNOTES REFERENCES APPENDICES
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SOME DETAILS ON THE CONTENT Abstract You
should provide a concise summary of the contents
of your research paper. (If you are unsure what
an abstract involves, I would suggest that you
examine some journal abstracts and try to emulate
them. Some suggestions for journals to look at
include American Sociological Review, Canadian
Review of Sociology and Anthropology.)
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PART 1 The Research Problem Introduction You
should give an overview of your research topic,
state the objectives of your research project,
and describe what issues your research will
address. You may also provide a substantive
context for your research topic (e.g., what real
world issues or problems make this research
interesting).
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Literature In the literature section you should
provide an overview of theories and concepts that
are relevant to your topic and research problem,
and review past research. In particular, you
should organize your review of the literature
around providing a context for your research
question(s) and hypotheses. The literature
should provide some motivation for your
research. Note while someone in your group will
do some work identifying key references, and
perhaps providing a description of them, you are
free to expand upon this.
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Research Questions and Hypotheses You should
introduce the main research question(s) that your
paper will explore. You should provide a
context for your question(s) e.g., explain why
it is important and/or theoretically interesting
to answer. What justification is there for your
hypotheses? Note while the working group has
produced one or more research questions and
hypotheses you are free to go beyond these, and
produce some additional ones on your own. You
should distinguish between those developed by the
working group, and those that you have developed.
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PART 2 METHODS Sampling You should talk about
the population you are studying, and all of the
details of your sampling strategy e.g., what
kind of sample was undertaken and why? What are
the strengths and weakness of your sampling
procedure. Data Collection You should describe
the data collection technique(s), and discuss the
strengths and weaknesses of the procedure(s).
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Operationalization of Variables Identify the key
variables in your research questions and
hypotheses. Link these to the specific
questionnaire items e.g., you should make up a
table itemizing each variable and linking it to a
specific questionnaire or interview schedule item
(or items). Describe any composite variables
(e.g., indexes or scales) that you have created.
Describe control variables. (One of your
appendices should contain your questionnaire, and
any other materials distributed with the
questionnaire.)
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Ethics Discuss ethical considerations related
to your research and how you addressed them.
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PART 3 RESULTS Analysis and Results Using
spss, you are required to provide a quantitative
analysis of your data. You should 1) provide
some descriptive statistics for key variables,
and 2) provide analyses to examine your
hypotheses. You should provide tables and/or
graphs as appropriate. If you are unsure of how
to construct tables describing your results, then
you might look at some some journal articles to
see how other researchers have presented their
findings. (Some models for presenting findings
will also be available in examples provided in
class.)
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PART 4. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS Discussion In
a thesis or journal article, the discussion
section is one of the most important sections of
the document. Discuss the relevance of your
findings to your research questions and
hypotheses, and examine how your results relate
to the literature you presented earlier on.
Comment on the strengths and weaknesses of your
research design, and make suggestions on how you
might go about doing further research on this
topic. Discuss how your proposed research is
related to broader theoretical arguments, and
make suggestions for avenues of future research.
If applicable, discuss potential policy options
and policy recommendations that might arise from
your findings.
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ENDNOTES You may want to provide some endnotes
or footnotes for supplementary information that
does not fit within the text. REFERENCES You
must provide full bibliographic information using
ASR style. E.g. Gould, Roger V. 1991.
"Multiple Networks and Mobilization in the
Paris Commune, 1871. American Sociological
Review 56 716-729. Humphrey, C. and F. Buttel.
1982. Pp. 11-136 in "The Environmental
Movement Historical Roots and Current Trends"
in C. Humphrey and F. Buttel, Environment,
Energy, and Society. Belmont, California
Wadsworth.
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APPENDICES Include an appendix containing
your questionnaire (and any related
materials). Include an SPSS codebook for your
data.
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CLARIFICATION OF INDIVIDUAL VERSUS GROUP WORK
COMPONENTS You group will have developed one or
more research questions and hypotheses, developed
operationalizations for key variables, designed a
questionnaire, collected data using the
questionnaire, put the data into spss, and
undertaken some basic quantitative analyses of
the data. Someone in your group will also have
done some work on a literature review for your
topic. At the end of the term, your group may
also be asked to provide a brief presentation on
your project. The group mark will be based on
the quality of the above work.
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In the research paper there are a considerable
variety of opportunities for individuals to show
creativity and competence the majority of the
material in most of the sections will be written
by you as an individual. You will write your
own abstract, introduction, and literature
review. You may develop some additional
research questions and hypotheses. You will
provide your own descriptions of the methods,
including discussing their strengths and
weaknesses. You may develop some additional
analyses (and related tables and graphs). You
will write up your own results, discussion, and
conclusion.
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One key distinction between the group work and
individual work is that while everyone will be
using the same basic materials, I want you to
write it up in your own words.