Unit 2 Sociological Research Assessment

For this unit, I want you to demonstrate that you can find primary sociological research and make sense of it.  Once you have found a research article, I want you to review it.  I will provide separate questions for you to input your responses.

I recommend you use a separate app to write and save your responses (such as Word or Google Docs).  

Then, when you are finished, open this Google Form to input your responses.

This is due by the start of our class next thursday - one week from today.

Here are the questions along with explanations and guides to answering them:

1.  Cite your article.  

The American Sociological Association (ASA) has its own format and style guide, but they charge you for the book, so I will show you where to find out how to cite using ASA style below.  ASA style is used less so it is a little harder to find; for example, you can find general help about how to cite from  LUC's libraries here, but it does not include ASA style.  The format for journal articles like those we did in class looks like this: 

Author Last Name, Author First Name. Year Published. 'Title'. Publication Title Volume number(Issue number):Pages Used. Retrieved October 10, 2013 (http://Website URL).

If you need more detail than what is above, use one of these other guides:

• Cite This For Me will create citations for you with the citation generator but it also has numerous guides to citing.  https://www.citethisforme.com/citation-generator/asa/how-to-cite-journal
• Purdue Online Writing Lab is really useful.  It has a citation guide here, and the home page is here.
• Harvard has a guide to ASA style.
• UNK has a guide here.

Lastly, Pro Tip - if you use JSTOR for research, the database has a citation generator.  If you have a resource open like a journal and you click citation, it will generate it for you (but check on the format).

Please include a link to the article so that I can click on it.

2.  Explain the need for research.   

In our first lesson of this unit (2.1), I explained the need for research (as opposed to simply common sense).  Explain why research is necessary in general.  Then, explain why the authors want to do their research.  They usually state this in the introduction of the research article (use my structure guide to help you). Finally, explain why you were interested in this particular article.  What stood out to you that made you choose this particular article? 

3.  Explain the type of research.  

In our second lesson (2.2), we learned about both the general types and specific methods of research that sociologists use.  What general type(s) of research (qualitative, quantitative, longitudinal, cross sectional, etc...)does the author use and why/how do you know?  Then explain what particular method(s) the author uses.  How did they gather their data?  (HINT: Do not confuse the background literature review for the actual research)

4. Explain the conclusions of the research.

What groups/categories are the authors studying?  What conclusions/generalizations do they come to and why are these not stereotypes (explain the difference)? Finally, why should we be careful of how we view outgroups and what might this research shed light on to prevent either outgroup homogeneity or outgroup stereotypes?

5. Critically analyze the article.

What are some of the ways of being critical about research or statistics?  How can you be critical of this article?  And lastly, is this article (or its conclusions) interesting enough that I should use it in my regular lessons (if we cover the topic) for all students to see?