Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to get you to start thinking about your research paper in terms of what you want to research. It enables me to see where you are headed and (when necessary) make suggestions for how you can better craft your topic and/or research question for a good and successful sociological analysis.

This is a 2-part assignment that will be 1-2 pages in total length. It should be submitted as ONE document.

1) Identify a Research Interest and Paper Topic

Purpose: The purpose of this step is to get you to start thinking about your research paper in terms of general topics about which you would be interested in learning more. The topic needs to be relevant to the study of society and geared towards a sociological perspective.

The completed (approx. 1pg) assignment should:

a) Identify your Topic
b) Describe why you are interested in this topic
c) Describe how your chosen topic is relevant to the study of society

Tips for identifying a research topic of interest:

1) Browse through the past textbooks - find a chapter and particular theme that jumps out at you (i.e. Medicine and Health), and then browse that chapter to help further identify a topic of interest (i.e. Social Inequality in Health)

2) Look around at your life ... read the newspaper. What themes, institutions, theories, issues, etc. interest/concern you the most?

3) Go to the online library and use a database such as Academic Search Premier to type in different sociological themes and see which article topics appeal to you. See also: Finding Peer Reviewed Journals in Resources folder.
(note: this will return articles from a variety of disciplines; keep in mind you will ultimately need to ask a question that may be researched from a sociological perspective)

Example topics:
a) work & women (or gender)
b) media as an agent of socialization
c) marriage and sexuality
d) health (i.e the institution) and authority

When developing your research question, keep in mind that it should be looking at the relationship between two social facts/variables/behaviors, and they should be more specific than what is identified in your topic. It is also often helpful to identify specific time periods - you will not be able to do a good job of exploring some social phenomena over 100 years in only 12 pages.

The completed (approx. 1-2pgs) assignment should:

a) Identify your Topic
b) Write your Research Question
c) Describe why you have settled on this research question
d) Identify what two specific variables/social facts/behavior your research question is addressing
e) Describe at least 3 ways how the sociological perspective and methodologies may be used to examine this research question

Example research questions:

a) How has the economy affected the role of women in the work force since the 1980's? How have changes in gender role attitudes affected the "mommy-track" for women in white collar positions?

b) How has the widespread use of the internet impacted socialization over the last 15 years? How have changes in print ad portrayal of females over the last 15 years affected gender socialization?

c) How has the media affected social acceptance of same-sex marriage over the last decade?

d) How has the internet impacted the amount of authority health care providers have compared to patients?