TERM PAPER RESEARCH PROJECT
The second semester long project in this course is the term research project for this course, and it is to be research on a particular human interaction, situation, or activity using existing sources and applying your sociological imagination. This is where students will actually practice sociological research by conducting their own investigation on a particular topic. There are three parts to the term paper; the research proposal, a one page statement of the particular human activity or endeavor to be investigated; the literature review, which should be roughly 3-4 pages and incorporate initial results of a review of literature relevant to the proposed research connected to the theoretical position and research orientation; and the final submission which should be 7-9 pages, with an 11 or 12 point font, one inch margins, and double spaced, and incorporate results of the research and discussion of the results connected to the theoretical paradigm(s) in APA format. Students will want to view the video on doing sociological research located in the Learning Activities folder inside Class Session 2 folder, and the videos on making sense of sociological theory and The Promise, located in the Learning Activities folder inside Class Session 1 folder.
Project Assignment Components
Research Proposal: This paper should be no more than 1-2 pages in length, double-spaced with an 11 or 12 point font, and should be a brief description of the proposed term paper research, including what is the hypothesis of the research paper, which theoretical approach the paper will employ, and which particular human activity or endeavor the student will be investigating. Another way of thinking about this is to make sure that there are several things included in this paper; what is the subject of the research, what is the expected finding, why is this subject important to research, and how is the data going to be gathered, i.e. what sources are to be used. The subject of the research has only one restriction; it must involve human activity of some type. Sociology studies numerous facets of human society and activity. Possible sources for research topics include hobbies, interests, social problems, career choices, etc. When the particular human interaction, activity, or situation is selected, there may be an expectation of what will be found. This is the potential hypothesis for the research paper. Connecting this hypothesis with one or more of the larger theoretical approaches, functionalism, conflict and interactionist, can be thought of as explaining why this subject is important to research and how this research contributes to a greater understanding of human society, activity, or interaction. This is the deductive process of research. Alternately, if there is no expectation of any results, data can be gathered and analyzed, and the explanatory theory can be developed out of the analysis. After gathering and analyzing data, an explanation is developed using one or more of the theoretical approaches. This is the inductive process, also known as the grounded theory approach to research. There are four videos in Class Session 2 Learning Activities folder,three of which have sociologists discussing their research, and the fourth, the paradox video, discusses the research cycle, and these videos contain helpful material regarding the research process. Students are encouraged to view these videos prior to creating the research proposal. This portion of the term paper research project is pass/fail; all students submitting the research proposal component of the term paper research project will receive the 10 points. General comments and guidelines from the instructor will be provided for each research proposal indicating the best way to proceed with the literature review and research.
Literature Review: This paper should be 3-4 pages long, although it may be longer, and should contain all of the elements discussed in the research proposal more fully developed, and also incorporating any relevant literature connected to the theoretical position or research method. The object of this paper is to find articles and books from respected sources that help to support the hypothesis. Another way to think about the literature review is as a process in which searches are conducted in databases for articles and books that contain support for the hypothesis, and can be used in constructing an explanation for the expectation presented in the hypothesis. Students should restrict themselves to scholarly sources for the literature review. During this part of the research project, students should also begin to develop a list of keywords they will use for gathering further data for the final submission. All students should read “Conducting Literature Reviews” in the required content for Class Session 7. Students conducting inductive research may also want to read “The Place of the Literature Review in Grounded Research” in the supplemental content for Class Session 7. This portion of the term paper research project is pass/fail; all students submitting the literature review component of the term paper research project will receive the 15 points. General guidelines and comments from the instructor will be returned for each literature review indicating how to proceed with the research.
