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Sociology Research Paper

Assignment Description

Discuss how a sociological theory from your textbook applies to a topic of your choice.

Requirements:

  • Choosing a Topic tutorial quiz
  • 500 word summary of theory
  • Identifying Keywords tutorial quiz
  • 2 journal articles
  • Article Discussion (optional)
  • Paper outline
  • 6 to 8 page essay
  • APA reference list and citations

Follow the steps in this guide to complete your assignment.

 

Help!

Get help with researching, APA citing, and writing through the Library and Learning Curve.

Part 1: Choose a Topic

By the end of this section, students will be able to:

  • pick well-defined research topics
  • use pre-writing strategies, which help with generating and clarifying ideas.

1. Complete the tutorial linked below.

 

2. Brainstorm potential topics using a pre-writing strategy like concept mapping. Learn how to create a concept map by watching the video below.

 

3. Pick a topic that interests you.

Part 2: Choose a Sociological Theory and Relate it to Your Topic

By the end of this section, students will be able to:

  • create a reference list using NoodleTools
  • summarize information using NoodleTools Notecards.

1. Using your Sociology (Macionis & Gerbertextbook, pick a theory that relates to your topic.

Log into NoodleTools to create a reference list and add your textbook.

 

2. Write a 500 word summary of your topic.

Log into NoodleTools and create Notecards and use the summarizing tips handout, linked below, to help you write your summary (optional).


Tutorial: How to Create NoodleTools Notecards


For help with your writing, look at the tips, links, and tutorials on the following guides:

Part 3: Find Articles and Add Them to Your Reference List

By the end of this section, students will be able to:

  • identify keywords to create a research strategy
  • demonstrate research skills
  • identify articles that relate to their research topic
  • demonstrate critical thinking skills.

1. Complete the tutorial linked below.

 

2. Using the databases below, find two articles that discuss your topic. Keep your sociological theory in mind as you read through articles. You want to connect your sociological theory to your topic. 

 

EBSCOhost is a great place to start your search for articles. Type your keywords into the search box below.

Journal Article Search

 

ScienceDirect is another great place to search for articles. Type your keywords into the search box below.

 

ERIC is a great place to find articles on topics related to education.

 

PubMed Central is a great place to search for articles related to health care and medicine.

PubMed Logo

Search PubMed:     

 

3. Log into NoodleTools and:

  1.  add the two articles to your reference list
  2. create Notecards to help you organize/start your writing and to answer the optional Article Discussion questions in step 4.

 

4. Optional: Complete the three questions, for each article, in the Word document linked below. This activity will help you:

  • ensure that your articles answer or relate to your research question
  • understand how the articles relate to your chosen theory

Part 4: Create Your Paper Outline

By the end of this section, students will be able to:

  • identify similarities and differences between their topic and their chosen articles
  • create an outline using NoodleTools Outline or the Planning the Essay handout.

1. Using the research grid linked below, compare and contrast your articles with your topic.

 

2. Create an Outline.

Log into NoodleTools to create an Outline using Notecards, or use the Planning the Essay handout linked below.


Tutorial: How to Create an Outline in NoodleTools

Part 5: Write Your Paper

By the end of this section, students will be able to:

  • write a cohesive paper
  • demonstrate an understanding of their topic
  • demonstrate critical thinking skills.

Write a 6 to 8 page paper, using your work from the previous steps, to discuss how the sociological theory from your textbook applies to your topic.

 

For help with your writing, look at the tips, links, and tutorials on the following guides:

Example Assignment Process

Part 1: Choose a Topic

We're interested in learning more about how Indigenous peoples experience discrimination/prejudice in Canada. After completing the tutorial on choosing a topic, we decide our topic/research question is:

How does prejudice impact Indigenous peoples in Canada?


 

Part 2: Choose a Sociological Theory

After looking at various theories in the sociology textbook, we decide to apply theories of prejudice to our topic.

 

We create a reference list in NoodleTools and add the textobook to the list.

 

We use Notecards in NoodleTools to help write the basic information and ideas we want to include in our summary. We write a 500 word summary on how theories of prejudice apply to the experiences of Indigenous peoples in Canada.


 

Part 3: Find Articles

We complete the tutorial on identifying keywords and come up with the following keywords related to our research question, "How does prejudice impact Indigenous peoples in Canada?"

 

Our keywords are:

  • (aboriginal OR "first nations" OR native OR indigenous)
  • (prejudice OR attitude)
  • Canad* - this will return results related to Canada, Canadian, Canadians

 

We now move onto searching for articles in the library databases.

EBSCOhost is a great place to start our search for articles. Using the keywords from our research question, we write the following in the EBSCOhost search box: 

 

Looking through the results, we see there's a wide range of subject areas related to the prejudice that Indigenous peoples in Canada experience. These include education, health care, crime, and politics, to name a few. This can be overwhelming and makes it difficult to find two articles related to the same subject area. To make our search easier, we decide to narrow our focus to one of the subject areas: health care.

 

We need to update our research question to reflect our focus. Our research question now becomes:

How does prejudice impact Indigenous peoples in Canada's health care system?

 

We also need to update our keywords to reflect our focus.

  • (aboriginal OR "first nations" OR native OR indigenous)
  • (prejudice OR attitude)
  • Canad* - this will return results related to Canada, Canadian, Canadians
  • health

 

Our search phrase now looks like this:

 

Our new search finds us an article that will work for this assignment.

 

After finding an article in EBSCOhost, we decide to search ScienceDirect to see if we get different results. We use the same keywords we used in EBSCOhost and find a second article that will work for this assignment.

This article only seems to have the abstract - it isn't full text. We contact the library and request the full article. The library sends us the full text article and we can now use it for our assignment.

 

We add the two articles to our reference list in NoodleTools.

 

We answer the questions in the Article Discussion document.


 

Part 4: Create an Outline

We fill out the Compare and Contrast Research Grid.

We use the NoodleTools Notecards feature to create the outline for our paper.


 

Part 5: Write Your Paper

Piecing together all of the work we've done in steps 1 to 5, we write a 6 to 8 page paper on how the theories of prejudice apply to the experiences of Indigenous peoples in Canada's health care system.