Assignment 1 -
Part 1 - The Research Topic
One purpose of this first assignment is to formulate a research topic and question. The topic of your research question does not have to be related to your final thesis but it could be something you pursue later on. What are you most interested in studying? You should begin by stating the general topic of your research. In one or more sentences state the essence of your study. Finally you should state a specific research question. Your problem should give the reader an idea of the project you intend to undertake. Your research question should allow you to identify a dependent variable in your research. Review Chapter 2 in Creswell for a discussion about selecting a research topic and how a researcher determines whether the topic should be researched. Review Chapter 7 in Creswell for a discussion of the research question.
Part 2 - The Literature Review
In the second part of this assignment, you will review the literature related to the research topic and question which you formulated in part one. The literature will help determine whether the topic is worthy of further study and provides the scope of the project. You should first identify five key words related to your chosen topic and use these terms to do a database search for journal articles. Focus on journals and search computerized databases such as JSTOR, EBSCO, or ProQuest. You should initially try to find about 20-40 research articles related to the topic. Modify your search terms to achieve a successful search as necessary. Skim the initial group of articles and select the ones which relate to your topic. Create an annotated bibliography of 10-15 scholarly publications on the topic you are addressing in your thesis. You should use empirical studies. The bibliography should be an APA, AJS, or Chicago Manual of Style citation, followed by 1-2 sentences describing the core finding of the study about the outcome of interest. For this assignment, you can often read the abstracts and/or the introductions for your initial review to setup your categories you find in the literature.
By exploring the previous research, the researcher becomes aware of what has already been done and what is needed in a specific research area. A review of the literature serves many purposes including presenting the results of similar studies, providing a framework for comparing results with previous research and determining how the current research contributes to the body of knowledge on the topic. You should explain how your research question contributes to the literature. Examine the literature map (Figure 2.1 on page 39 of Creswell) and create a simplified version of a literature map for your research topic. Try to create 2-3 main theoretical groups with 5 or more articles in each group. In your literature map you should group your list of scholarly publications by their theoretical approach, basic arguments, and/or core findings.
Part 3 - The Hypothesis
In part 3 you will use your literature review to formulate1-5 hypotheses about your topic of interest. Be sure to use the standard format for doing this (see Chapter 7 in Creswell). These hypotheses should reflect your basic research question from part one. Refer to your literature map to provide some reasons why one would expect those relationships to hold up (or not). Your hypotheses should come from the literature. Write your hypotheses with the literature map in light of the kinds of questions your analysis can address.
Assignment 2 -
In this assignment you will produce some of the elements of a hypothetical research methods section. You will use the research question and literature review you have written so far to guide you in this assignment. Using your research question from the first assignment, you will briefly describe the specific data or data set you will be using, the outcome of interest, and how you will do the research.
You are going to create a hypothetical project and although you are not constrained by real world resources in this exercise, it should be a project that could be completed by university researchers and would pass an institutional review board (IRB). You will not actually perform the data collection in this assignment but you will write as if you are preparing to do so. Use Creswell's text and our class discussions to guide you in the writing process and format. All work must be typed, double-spaced, and proofread, with appropriate citations and references. In addition, you should use appropriate headings throughout your paper.
1. Select a Research Method Template
One goal of the course is to promote exposure to the diverse research methods used by sociologists. In this assignment you should consider the different articles from your literature map in the first assignment with a focus on the methodological issues around your selected research topic. Pick one article, preferably from major journals in sociology whenever possible that could serve as a model for your study. It should preferably use the same method or kinds of data you will use in your research. If you cannot find a template in your previous literature review, you can go outside of your topic of study to find a model for your research. The best case would be to find an article that is on your topic and using a dataset you plan on using.
In discussing the article there are several things you should consider including: (1) things you found praiseworthy about what the researchers did; (2) things you thought the researchers might/should have done differently; (3) things that you see as advantages and limitations to the kind of data the researchers used; (4) connections between the research discussed in the article and things discussed in class/other readings; (5) Finally you should compare the two approaches and determine which one you think is best for the given research topic.
2. Variables, Data, &Research Methods
In this assignment you must operationalize your variables. If your question is "Is job security related to job satisfaction?" you must tell what you mean by both job security and job satisfaction. Will these concepts be measured by a response to a question? What is that specific question? Do this for each variable involved in your research question(s). Create variable names for each variable you are measuring.
Finding a data set suitable for your research question, and getting into a format that you can use is an important step in the research process. Once you know what you want to measure, you must describe your sample. Will you look at one group once or on several different occasions? Will you look at more than one group? Will you be comparing different groups? Will you use a case study approach? How will you draw your sample and how many will be in your sample?
Building off of your template, you must determine which methodological approach you think is best for your given research topic. What is the method(s) you will employ and how will you actually gather the data that measures your variables? State your data gathering method and how you will actually gather the data that measures your variables? Will you use a survey? Will you interview people? Will you use existing data? Which data? Will you directly observe people or use existing observations? Will you use any archival or historical data? Finally you should also consider the ethical considerations of your research. What impact might your study have on your "subjects?" What risk, if any, might you impose on the population you study by conducting the research?