The Sociology Student Writer's Manual

by Johnson, William A.; Rettig, Richard P.; Scott, Gregory M.; Garrison, Stephen M.

• ISBN13: 9780131928510
• ISBN10: 0131928511
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-01
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

The most comprehensive book available that dealsspecificallywith writing sociology papers, this updated reference/manual helps both beginning and advanced sociologists learn how to research and write in sociology, and how to improve their writing ability in general.Teaches the basic skills of writingformatting, source citations, grammar, sentence structure, research, and utilizing available sourcesin sociology.For practicing sociologists and those in training.

Table of Contents

TO THE STUDENT	ix
TO THE INSTRUCTOR	xi
INTRODUCTION: WELCOME TO THE STUDY OF SOCIOLOGY	1	(12)
What Is Sociology?	1	(2)
Different Kinds of Sociology	3	(1)
Some Fundamental Ideas of Sociology	3	(3)
A Brief History of Sociology	6	(3)
The Rise of American Sociology	9	(1)
Major Sociological Perspectives	10	(1)
A Final Note	11	(2)
PART I A HANDBOOK OF STYLE FOR SOCIOLOGY	13	(86)
CHAPTER 1 WRITING AS COMMUNICATION	14	(25)
1.1 Writing to Learn	14	(4)
1.2 The Writing Process	18	(19)
1.3 Levels of Academic Writing	37	(2)
CHAPTER 2 WRITING COMPETENTLY	39	(23)
2.1 Guidelines for the Competent Writer	39	(3)
2.2 Some Rules of Punctuation and Grammar	42	(16)
2.3 Spelling	58	(4)
CHAPTER 3 FORMATS	62	(17)
3.1 General Page Format	63	(1)
3.2 Title Page	63	(1)
3.3 Abstract	64	(1)
3.4 Executive Summary	64	(6)
3.5 Outline Page	70	(1)
3.6 Table of Contents	70	(1)
3.7 List of Tables and Figures	70	(4)
3.8 Tables	74	(1)
3.9 Illustrations and Figures	75	(1)
3.10 Text	76	(1)
3.11 Headings and Subheadings	76	(1)
3.12 References	76	(1)
3.13 Appendixes	77	(2)
CHAPTER 4 CITING SOURCES	79	(20)
4.1 Preliminary Considerations	79	(1)
4.2 Citing Sources in ASA Format	80	(19)
PART II CONDUCTING RESEARCH IN SOCIOLOGY	99	(56)
CHAPTER 5 ORGANIZING THE RESEARCH PROCESS	100	(11)
5.1 Gaining Control of the Research Process	100	(2)
5.2 Effective Research Methods	102	(6)
5.3 Ethical Use of Source Material	108	(3)
CHAPTER 6 SOURCES OF INFORMATION	111	(27)
6.1 Guides to Sociological Literature	112	(10)
6.2 General Periodicals and Newspapers	122	(2)
6.3 Academic Journals	124	(10)
6.4 Researching Books	134	(1)
6.5 U.S. Government Publications	135	(3)
CHAPTER 7 INTERNET RESOURCES AND DISTANCE LEARNING	138	(9)
7.1 Internet Resources for Writing Well	138	(1)
7.2 Sociology Resources on the Internet	139	(2)
7.3 A Guide to Distance Learning	141	(6)
CHAPTER 8 DOING SOCIAL RESEARCH	147	(8)
8.1 Thinking Scientifically	147	(1)
8.2 The Scientific Method	148	(6)
8.3 Common Quantitative Research Designs	154	(1)
PART III HOW TO WRITE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SOCIOLOGY PAPERS	155	(80)
CHAPTER 9 SOCIAL ISSUE PAPERS	156	(25)
9.1 Issue Reaction Papers	156	(7)
9.2 Social Issue Analysis Papers	163	(18)
CHAPTER 10 CRITICAL EVALUATION OF SOCIOLOGICAL LITERATURE	181	(23)
10.1 Book Reviews	181	(3)
10.2 Article Critiques	184	(7)
10.3 Literature Reviews	191	(6)
10.4 Annotated Bibliographies	197	(7)
CHAPTER 11 QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH PAPERS	204	(15)
11.1 Quantitative Research Designs	204	(4)
11.2 Survey-Based Quantitative Research Papers	208	(11)
CHAPTER 12 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH PAPERS	219	(16)
12.1 What Is Qualitative Research?	219	(1)
12.2 Comparing Quantitative and Qualitative Research	220	(1)
12.3 Case Studies as Qualitative Research	220	(3)
12.4 A Qualitative Case Study Paper	223	(12)
GLOSSARY	235	(13)
REFERENCES	248	(5)
INDEX	253