The QHQ Format: Strategies for Sociology
Throughout this semester you will be reading chapters of the Meritocracy Myth that will provide a window on both theories of sociology as well as insight into the ways that sociologists use sociological methods to develop theories. Reading and discussion of these texts will comprise approximately a third of class time and a will represent a significant portion of your commitment to the class. To help you process your reading and to articulate any questions you may have about the readings, you will take turns doing a QHQ or Question-Hypothesis-Question paper, which you will post to the Discussion Board and use to guide our Friday discussions.
A QHQ is a short but structured response to issues raised in the materials that you have read. Each QHQ paper will be one to one-and-a-half single-spaced pages long and is designed to allow you to show your thinking about the topic. These are not intended to be highly structured five paragraph essays, but rather to give you space to present ideas, supported by the text of the reading for that particular day. These should represent your engagement with the concepts, theories and/or personal experiences raised by the reading.
The first element of the QHQ is your defining question. That question may cover a range of possibilities from something like “Does the way that the author’s interpretation of inheritance undercut the concept of meritocracy?” to a more personal reaction like “Why does the discussion of racism in this text bother me so much?” This first portion should be about a sentence or two and lead and frame the rest of your paper. The questions should not be yes/no but rather open-ended questions that lead to potential discussion.
The second portion of your paper is your hypothesis. This should be about three quarters of a page to a page in length and represent your effort to answer your question. This should be based on a close reading of the text. Your answer should use quotes from the text (using internal citation) to support your arguments. Even though you are only using a single source, you are welcome to suggest multiple possible answers or hypothesis to your questions. For example, the student who asked about inheritance might find examples that suggest that inheritance does undercut meritocracy in one instance while also finding contradictory evidence to counter that claim. Finally, your hypotheses should lead you to the final ‘Q’ in your paper- questions that have come to you as you wrote your response and that can spark discussion with your colleagues in class.
Your QHQ will be evaluated on the quality of your thinking. It needs to be structured and well-written. I will look for you to demonstrate critical thinking and personal engagement with these chapters (and it certainly does not matter whether you agree or disagree with me on a particular topic). These are not intended to be summaries, but rather are original thinking on your part.
