These are general guidelines. They are meant to help you construct the form of your paper. Your paper may not exactly conform to these guidelines.
I. Introduction
This section should contain one or two extremely well-crafted paragraphs
that succinctly state exactly what is the
purpose of your paper. These paragraphs are basically an outline
of your entire paper. Start your paper with some derivative of
the statement: "The purpose of this paper is---." Usually,
these paragraphs determine the level of organization of your
paper. If they are difficult to write, stop and rethink what
your are trying to say.
II. Theoretical importance of your research topic
This description usually is relatively short, less than six
paragraphs. You can present it as a singular theoretical issue
(i.e., "Functional theory argues such and such and therefore this
paper investigates the theoretical importance of ....") or as a
theoretical debate. For example, the debate could be framed as:
"The culture of poverty theory argues that racism is not central
to understanding Afro-American poverty. However, critical
theory, Bonanich (1979), argues that racial discrimination is a
relevant factor. In this section, each theoretical perspective
is elaborated and specific research hypotheses are generated.
Your data analysis will test these hypotheses.
III. Review of the literature
This section is a state of the art review of the theoretical
and empirical literature on your research topic. State of the
art means that you include a review of the most recent research
on your topic. An A paper includes an extensive and thorough
review of journal articles. Thorough means a complete coverage
of the different dimensions of your research problem. A clue for
when to stop doing further journal research is when you pick up a
journal article on your subject and your are relatively familiar
with 60% of the cited references. (Newsweek, etc. is not a
journal article.) This section must be well organized, succinct,
and thorough. It has no minimum or maximum page limit. Its
length reflects the extent of your library research. Your paper must
cite at least three referred journal aricles. This link will take you to
a list of sociologically relevant journals located here or at Tech.
IV. Description of your data
This section briefly describes your data. Where was it
collected? When was it collected? Who collected the data? Are
the data from a survey or from official sources? What kind of
survey was it? How many respondents are included in your
analysis?
V. Description of your variables
In this section, describe your independent and dependent
variables. What categories make up each of your variables (how
were they coded)?
VI. Results
In this section, describe the results from your analysis.
Include tables in an appendix that summarize the results from
your data analysis (frequencies and crosstabs). Describe each
variable's frequencies. Also, describe the results of your
crosstab analyses.
VII. Summary
In this section, restate your hypotheses. Also, state
whether your data analysis supports or rejects your hypotheses.
VIII. Conclusions
This section is directly related to your introduction and
your presentation of the theoretical importance of your research.
Statements such as: "In general, the research findings reported
here support the conclusion that racism (is or is not) related to
Afro-American poverty in the United States." This section should
be completed in no more than five or six paragraphs.
References
Do not footnote your references. The following is the proper
format for citing a reference: Sociologists argue that ".....
(Unnever, 1995:21)." (Author, data, page number). If you
paraphrase or cite someone's work you must cite your reference
(author's name and date). Each name that appears in the text of
your paper must be included in your list of references
(bibliography). Footnotes should be used when you want to
further elaborate a point made in your paper. These are
sequentially ordered and are included immediately after the last
page of the text and immediately before your bibliography. If
you do not properly cite your sources, I will take 25 points off
the grade of your research paper and you will have to rewrite it.
Your Student Handbook has a complete and thorough description of
what constitutes plagiarism. You must read this section of your
Student Handbook before you write the paper. Plagiarism is
against the law. After you have read the Student Handbook and if
you still have questions as to what is plagiarism or how to
properly cite your sources see me before you begin your paper.
Grading of the research paper
I will not accept late papers.
The minimum length of the paper is 5 typed pages. 10 points are
taken off for each page less than 5. If it is 4 1/2 pages then I
will take 5 points off the grade of your paper. These 5 pages
must be all text. That is, all tables must be included in an
appendix attached to the end of your paper. This appendix does
not count toward your 5 page minimum. You must reference at
least three journal articles. Each article less than three
results in 10 points off the final grade of your paper. The
left-hand margin of your paper must be set at 1 1/4".
The right-hand margin must be set at 1/2" (or
use the default settings of
your word processor). The top and bottom margins must be set at
11/2". This includes your first and last page. The five page
minimum does not include your bibliography. The paper must be
double-spaced, typed, and single-spaced between new headings. Do
not include titles of articles or books in the text of your
paper. 5 points are taken off for each included title.
Collaborative Team Work
Before you turn in your paper, you must give another team a typed
draft of your paper for them to review. They will review your
paper and give you suggestions on how it could be approved. This
means that you must have a complete draft to them at least five
days before you must turn it in.
Grammatical errors and spelling
You must proofread your paper before turning it in. 5 points are
taken off the grade of your paper for each five grammatical
and/or spelling errors.