Sociology of Family
Part A:
One paragraph summary of paper with 1 reference:
Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is for you to begin to organize your thoughts on your paper including location (and reading) of at least one relevant peer-reviewed journal article. The paragraph (a possible draft of your introduction) should include:
The completed (approx. 1pg) paragraph should include:
1) Clear, well-articulated, statement of your thesis (research question)
2) A statement on how this thesis is significant to the study of society
3) A statement on how this thesis is significant to the subfield(s) of sociology within which your paper topic falls
4) A brief summary (2-3 sentences) of 1 peer-reviewed article which you plan to use in your paper
a. This should clearly identify how this article helps to explore your research question
b. The summary should include the thesis of the article, any notable features (year published, methodology employed, sample size and/or composition), and a very brief summary of their findings
c. Any paraphrased or quoted work must include APA formatted in-text citations and reference
Part B:
Critique of One Peer-Reviewed Article (25 points):
Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is for you to critically read a peer-reviewed article relevant to your research question. You will be providing a sociological summary, analysis and critique. You should write it with intent to incorporate it into your paper, and to start to establish how you will organize your literature review.
The completed assignment (2-4pgs) should include:
1) Statement of the thesis/research question in the article
2) Clear statement of how this article is relevant to your research project's thesis/research statement/question
3) Brief description of:
a. Methodology and analysis used -
i. Quantitative: primary data analysis - from data collected by the researcher OR secondary data analysis - from a database; statistical model used
ii. Qualitative (e.g. interview, content analysis, observation)
iii. Level of analysis (micro, meso, macro)
b. Sample size and composition (i.e. n=2,500; 90% respondents white females ages 21-48 drawn from a national probability sample)
c. Identification of key variables and their measurement
i. Independent variable(s) and dependent variable(s)
ii. Measurement: e.g. gender role attitudes were measured on a Likert Scale (1-5) from very traditional to very egalitarian.
d. Hypotheses of the authors
4) Key findings
5) Analyze strengths and weaknesses of article
a. Should include at least 2 strengths and 2 weaknesses
6) Any paraphrased or quoted work must include APA formatted in-text citations and reference
Part C:
Annotated Bibliography (25 points):
Purpose: The purpose of this step is to analyze the relationship(s) between your sources and between your sources and your research question. This will be building on the critical reading done on 1 article completed during the last step.
For each source, briefly summarize what evidence it provides to answer your research question. (this may build on the relevance of the source, but it should not be an exact copy of that cell).