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Posted: September 24th, 2015

SOCI 1125              Introduction to Society: Processes and Structures

 

RESEARCH ESSAY

 

This assignment is worth 20% of your final grade. Due date:_____________________________________

 

BASIC REQUIREMENTS:

 

• Your aim for this project is to develop an informed view on a subject related to the course, grounded in and supported by sociological research and analysis. Choose an article provided by the instructor from the “General Resources” folder of the course website. Explore the topic of the article in greater depth, using material from relevant chapters in the course textbook and research from at least THREE (3) additional scholarly resources (library books or peer reviewed journal articles). Videos, websites, news and magazine articles may also be useful but they will not be counted among the 3 scholarly resources required.

 

• Your paper must be 6-7 pages in length (1,700 – 2,000 words), typed and double spaced. Use 11 or 12 point font and normal margins (using a large font and huge margins doesn’t make your paper longer!). Give your paper a title and indicate your name, student number, course and section, the instructor’s name, and date on the first page or cover page (optional). Staple pages together, include the criteria for grading sheet at the end of the paper. No plastic covers or folders, please!

 

• The bulk of your essay should be in your own words. Sentences copied directly from your sources must be enclosed in quotation marks. Use direct quotations sparingly and wisely. Do not use them to do the talking for you or as “filler”. Incorporate them smoothly into your writing.

 

• All sources must be indicated with proper citations and a Works Cited List using ASA style or APA style. See the handout: Guidelines for Citations and Works Cited Lists for instructions. Include citations any time you refer to ideas or facts from outside sources: i.e. BOTH when quoting directly AND when summarizing the material into your own words. Include ONLY those sources you read, used and cited in your paper in your Works Cited List. Note that failing to include citations or to list sources used, and including sources that were not actually used constitute a form of cheating!

 

OBJECTIVES AND CRITERIA FOR GRADING

 

Your paper should demonstrate your ability to:

• Conduct library research to locate scholarly resources that are appropriate for sociological study and relevant to the topic chosen
• Explain and evaluate sociological research and analysis fully, clearly, accurately and succinctly
• Use sociological perspectives and concepts in an analysis of social phenomena or issues
  • Synthesize information from various resources, recognizing how the research fits together or supports differing perspectives
  • Develop reasoned arguments supported by evidence from the research
  • Make inferences from the research, recognize the implications of issues raised and suggest recommendations for further research and/or solutions where applicable
• Express ideas clearly in writing, organize points into coherent paragraphs and maintain an academic or formal tone
• Include proper citations to indicate sources of ideas, information, facts, statistics, and analysis presented and provide a works cited list, formatted using ASA or APA citation style

PLAGIARISM AND CHEATING:

 

Plagiarism and other forms of cheating will be dealt with according to Kwantlen Polytechnic University Policy C.8. Forms of plagiarism and cheating include (but are not limited to):

 

• Submitting a paper you wrote for another course or what I call “double-dipping”
• Submitting a paper written by someone other than you (e.g. a paper downloaded from the internet or written by another student, a friend or family member, etc.)
• Submitting a paper that has been revised and edited by another person such as a tutor to the extent that it can no longer be considered your own writing
• Copying from another author’s work in whole or in part without using quotation marks
• Changing a few words of another author’s sentences with synonyms – the basic ideas and structure of the sentence remain too close to the original to be considered your own writing
• Not including citations to attribute authorship for information taken from an outside source
• Not including a Works Cited List and not including all of the sources you used
• Including sources in a Works Cited List that you did not actually read or use for your paper (this amounts to cheating as you are pretending you did more research than you actually did)

 

It is your responsibility to learn about plagiarism and cheating. Familiarize yourself with the resources on Academic Honesty on the library website. Read the handout: Guidelines for Citations and Works Cited Lists carefully!  Claiming you did not know the rules will not suffice as an excuse! Save your notes and rough drafts as you will be asked to present them to me if I have concerns about your paper.

 

TOPICS AND ARTICLES:

 

Note that articles will be added to the General Resources folder for these topics later in the course.

 

Culture, Socialization, Social Groups and Media (general)

• Bullying: Thornberg, “Distressed Bullies…” and Errante “Where in the World….?”
• Tattooing culture and women: Atkinson, “Pretty in Ink…”
• Disney (gender OR racial stereotyping): Giroux, “Teaching the Cultural with Disney”

• Advertising and children: Kilbourne, “Socialization and the Power of Advertising”

• Media, children, in-groups and violence: Errante, “Where in the World…?”

Deviance

• Gangs: Wolf, “The Rebels: A Brotherhood of Outlaw Bikers”

 

Social Inequality and Class in Canada / Global Inequality

• Poverty in Canada: Duffy and Mandell, “The Growth of Poverty and Social Inequality…”
• Exploitation and alienation in service work: Reiter, “Fast Food is not about Food…”
• Modern forms of slavery: Bales, “Introduction to A New Slavery”
• Sweatshops in the third world: Klein, “The Discarded Factory…”
• Global inequality: Eglitis, “The Uses of Global Poverty for the West”

Racial and Ethnic Inequality

• Racial and ethnic inequality in Canada: Galabuzi, “Emerging Realities and Old Problems”
• Residential schools and Aboriginal issues: Hookimaw-Wit, “Any Change since Residential School”
• Teen pregnancy and the African-American community: Kaplan, “Not Our Kind of Girl”

Gender and Sexuality

• Media, peers and appearance norms for women: Matthews, “The Body Beautiful…”
• Media and masculinity: Bertozzi, “Marking the Territory: Grand Theft Auto IV…”
• Masculinity and gender inequality: Kimmel, “Masculinity as Homophobia”
• Homosexuality and Discrimination: Adams, “Why Be Queer?” and Kimmel, “Masculinity…”

Family

• Divorce: Arendell, “Divorce and Remarriage”
• Arranged marriage: Netting, “Two Lives, One Partner: Indo-Canadian Youth…”

 

It is best to narrow the topic to a specific focus. For example, if you choose the Bales article, you might focus on domestic workers or the global sex trade; if you choose Disney, you could focus on racial stereotyping in Disney movies. You may also expand the scope of your paper beyond the article you chose. You may use more than one article, but you still need 3 additional library resources. Be sure to consult relevant sections of the Schaefer and Haaland book for material related to your topic.  If you would like to research a topic that is not listed above, please provide an article you have found on the topic for my approval at least 4 weeks in advance of the due date for the paper.

 

LOCATING RESOURCES:    

 

A key objective for this project is to conduct research to find at least THREE (3) scholarly resources to develop and support your points. This means you need to go beyond “Googling” and conduct a proper library search using the Kwantlen online library catalogue to find books and journal articles written by academics. Articles written by academics are published in professional journals that involve a peer review process, which means their credibility has been evaluated by other professionals or experts.

 

Once you have narrowed the focus for your topic, start with the “Summon Search” feature on the library home page.  Note that not all of the articles that come up will be scholarly so you will need to limit your search. Click on “peer reviewed articles”. This will filter out popular magazines and news articles which are not scholarly sources.

 

Your sources for this paper must be appropriate for sociological study (i.e. not psychology, criminology, history, business, health, etc.). So limit your search again by clicking “sociology” under subjects. Using keywords such as “social aspects” will also help ensure that your sources are appropriate. Also look at journal names carefully. For example, The Canadian Sociological Association Journal or Sex Roles would contain articles suitable for sociological study. However, journals with names such as Clinical Psychology or Marketing Research would not. Scan over the “abstract” of the article to check whether it is relevant to your topic and involves a sociological analysis.

 

Try a variety of keywords related to your topic. Also try going into the actual library catalogue to search for books as this will yield more results. Try finding articles by using the article indexes. These are databases such as Academic Search Premier, JSTOR or Social Sciences Full Text that index huge numbers of journal articles. Click on “article indexes”, choose a database, log in and conduct your search. Once you have found an article you want, click “Where can I find this?” and this should bring up the article in full-text on one of the databases. Google Scholar can be a good way to search for articles. If you are asked to pay for an article, go back and try to find it through the Kwantlen library website where you should be able to get it for free.

 

Websites such as Statistics Canada or Media Awareness Network are acceptable resources for this paper, but DO NOT base your paper on Wikipedia – this can be a good place to start, but the information is not always reliable or valid. Check the credibility of a web-based resource by looking for the author, the name of the association responsible, and the sources cited.  If you are in doubt about any of your sources, bring them in or e-mail me the links and I can provide you with guidance.

 

Carefully record the bibliographical information for your sources as soon as you get them. You will need this information for your citations and works cited list. For books, this information is given on the first couple of pages, and will be listed in library catalogue. For journal articles, look for the bibliographical information at the top of the article or in the article indexes.  For educational videos, you will find the information you need by doing a Video/DVD search through the Kwantlen library catalogue.

 

TIPS ON WRITING YOUR PAPER

 

Reading and Preparation:

 

• Be an “active reader”. Continually ask yourself questions as you read. What are the main points, central research findings or highlights of the discussion? What sociological concepts or perspectives are used in the analysis? How are the author’s arguments developed and what evidence is presented to support them? Think about how the research and analyses from various resources fit together. Do you see certain points repeated or patterns emerging in the work of various authors? Do the arguments support one another or are there differing views? Which view makes the most sense? Can points made by one author be expanded on using research or analysis presented by another author? What are the broader implications of the research findings or issues raised? How might we bring about social change? What are areas for further research?

 

• Take careful notes, recording ideas and facts from your sources in point-form in your own words. Don’t “cut and paste” material from online sources directly into your paper – it is easy to forget to change the material into your own words and inadvertently commit an act of plagiarism. Put quotation marks around sentences copied word for word from an outside resource. Write the author’s names, publication dates and page numbers beside each point in your notes as you’ll need this information for your citations and it may be hard to go back and figure this out later.

 

• Create an outline of the subtopics to be covered in your paper. I cannot stress this enough as it is essential to a good paper. An outline helps you to organize and develop your points systematically and logically.

 

Writing the Essay:

 

• Organize related points into paragraphs following your outline. You might start with the main points from the article you chose, then expand upon and extend the discussion, bringing in information from your other sources as needed to develop your points. If it makes more sense to start with another source, then by all means do so. Synthesize the information from your sources logically and coherently (i.e. this means points should ‘hang together’).

 

• The introductory paragraph should tell the reader exactly what your paper is about, so it should contain your “thesis statement”. This is the central point or argument you will be developing in your paper. Formulate this as a sentence that encapsulates the main ideas in your paper or answers your central questions, for example: “There is still considerable inequality among ethnic and racial groups in our society today, in spite of Canada’s policy on multiculturalism”. Your introduction should include some general information on the issues to be addressed in your paper, but do not go into details – save this for the body of the paper.

 

• The body paragraphs should expand upon and support your “thesis statement” or the controlling idea of the paper, and develop your points in an orderly, logical and systematic way. Use your outline to organize your points and include as many paragraphs as you need – when you move to a new point or subtopic then begin a new paragraph. Each paragraph should have its own main point, with all other points in the paragraph relating to this “controlling idea” of the paragraph.

 

• The concluding paragraph should briefly summarize the central points covered in the essay and leave the reader with something to think about. You might use this paragraph to make recommendations for social change or for further research on the subject.

 

• Write multiple rough drafts and make revisions! For the first draft, don’t get hung up on wording and “mechanics” ” (grammar, spelling etc.).  Just get your ideas down.  Then, go back and move sections around to improve coherence, add material to fully explain a point, omit irrelevant detail and unnecessary “wordiness”, adjust wording, and add transitions to improve the flow of ideas. Repeat this process as many times as needed.  If you you need more information to develop a point, go back to your sources, or go back to do another library search and find additional sources.

 

• Edit your paper, correcting writing errors and mistakes. It is best to print your paper in hard copy for proofreading and edit it using a pencil as it is easy to miss mistakes when looking at your paper on the computer screen. Be sure your points are succinct and that your sentences clearly convey the meanings you intend. Polish your essay by correcting errors in sentence structure, vocabulary usage and wording, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization. Choose your own title for the paper, one that encapsulates the main ideas.

 

Note: Be specific and avoid vague generalizations or universalizing statements that cannot be substantiated. For example, a statement such as: “Women have been treated unfairly since the beginning of time” cannot be supported (does this mean all women, everywhere in the world? When was the beginning of time – the prehistoric age?). Your paper should also maintain a scholarly or academic tone. Avoid references to personal experiences or views (e.g. “In my personal opinion…) – just state your points and back them up! Also avoid overly emotional responses or moralizing statements (e.g. “Teen pregnancy is shocking as teens should not be having sex at all”).

 

CITATIONS AND WORKS CITED LIST

 

Use ASA (American Sociological Association) or APA (American Psychological Association) citation style. In either case, you should follow the instructions on the handout: Guidelines for Citations and Works Cited Lists. Note that you are required to include PAGE NUMBERS in citations.

 

• Sentences copied word for word from any source must be enclosed with quotation marks.

 

• Include citations within the body of your paper to indicate sources of information used (whether you quoted directly or summarized the material in your words). Include the author’s LAST NAMES, the DATE of publication and the PAGE NUMBER within parentheses. For example if you took a fact from the course text on page 38, this would be your citation: (Schaefer and Haaland, 2011: 38).

 

• If you wish to include a quotation or citation from the article or textbook that comes from another author’s work, include both sources in the citation. For example, on p. 172 of the text, there is a quote by Masland regarding slavery. If you were to use this quote in your paper, your citation would look like this: (Masland, 1992: 30-32 in Schaefer and Haaland, 2011: 172).

 

• Include a Works Cited list at the end of your paper. This list should include only those sources that you actually read and took information from. In the example above, Schaefer and Haaland would be listed in your works cited list, but not Masland.

 

Note: several of the articles provided by the instructor are chapters from books that have been edited or put together by other scholars. To format this sort of resource, list the author of the article or chapter first, then the date, and article title (in inverted commas). Next, include the name(s) of the EDITOR(S), the date and title of the book (in italics), the place of publication (city and province or state) and the publisher’s name. This information is handwritten at the top of the article.

 

For example:

 

Wolf, Daniel. 1991. “The Rebels: A Brotherhood of Outlaw Bikers” in Bruce Ravelli (ed.). 2005. Exploring Canadian Sociology: A Reader. Toronto, ON: Pearson Education

 

For more information on citations, see the handout: GUIDELINES FOR CITATIONS AND WORKS CITED LISTS. This resource explains how to incorporate quotations into your writing effectively, how cite sources in various situations, and how to format different types of references (books, journal articles, websites, videos, etc.) in your Works Cited List.