A Guide to Writing Sociology Papers

by Sociology Writing Group

• ISBN13: 9780716776260
• ISBN10: 071677626X
• Edition: 6th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-09-21
• Publisher: Worth Publishers

Summary

Ideal for instructors and students in a wide range of sociological courses, this guide makes the case that thinking and writing are integrally related and that writing, therefore, exercises the sociological imagination. Written in a clear and conversational style, A Guide to Writing Sociology Papers examines a wide range of writing assignments for sociology courses at all levels of the curriculum. Employing a variety of writing samples as a means to illustrate effective writing, this brief and inexpensive text teaches students how to deftly research and write about sociology.

Table of Contents

To the Instructor	p. vii
About the Authors	p. xi
To the Student	p. xiii
Essentials	p. 1
Getting Started	p. 3
What is Sociology?	p. 4
Framing a Question	p. 10
Terms and Strategies in Essay and Exam Assignments	p. 13
Developing an Argument: Logic and Structure	p. 16
The Proposal	p. 21
A Sample Student Proposal	p. 23
The Writing Process	p. 30
The Secret to Writing Is Rewriting	p. 30
Outlining	p. 32
Writing a First Draft	p. 35
Revising	p. 37
Writing Styles	p. 40
Working with Sources	p. 45
Taking Two Kinds of Notes	p. 45
Sample Annotated Bibliography	p. 47
Avoiding Plagiarism: When and What to Cite	p. 48
Identifying Your Borrowed Words or Ideas	p. 50
Citations in the Text	p. 52
Format	p. 53
Notes	p. 55
References and Bibliographies	p. 56
Bibliographic Software	p. 58
Writing from Various Data Sources	p. 61
The General Research Paper Based on Library or Internet Data	p. 64
Before You Start: Choosing a Topic	p. 65
Determining Your First Source(s)	p. 66
Advantages and Disadvantages of Library and Internet Sources	p. 68
Searching Online Information with Boolean Operators and Keywords	p. 70
Using the Library to Review the Sociological Literature	p. 73
Using the Library to Locate Specialized Sociological References	p. 74
General Bibliographic Sources	p. 82
Setting Up a Record-Keeping System	p. 86
Taking Notes	p. 87
A Sample Student Paper	p. 91
The Textual Analysis (or Article Critique) Paper	p. 118
Asking Questions about the Text	p. 119
Compare-Contrast Assignments	p. 123
How to Read the Text	p. 123
Taking Notes	p. 126
Organizing Your Paper	p. 126
Writing Your Textual Analysis	p. 128
A Sample Student Paper	p. 128
The Quantitative Research Paper	p. 142
Reviewing the Literature	p. 144
Developing a Methods and Analysis Plan	p. 146
Writing the Other Sections of Your Paper	p. 153
Suggested Readings	p. 158
A Sample Student Paper	p. 158
The Ethnographic Field Research Paper	p. 180
Goals and Methods of Ethnographic Field Research	p. 181
Asking an Appropriate Question	p. 181
Reviewing the Literature	p. 182
Collecting Your Data	p. 183
Example of Observational Field Notes	p. 187
Example of Interview Notes	p. 192
Organizing Your Data	p. 192
Writing Your Paper	p. 195
Suggested Readings	p. 196
A Sample Student Paper	p. 197
Finishing Up	p. 215
Polishing	p. 215
Editing	p. 216
Formatting	p. 217
A Final Checklist for Submitting Your Paper	p. 219
Thinking Big	p. 220
References	p. 223
Index	p. 225
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