Sociology 498 is a capstone course for the Sociology major. The goal of this course is to guide you through the method of intensive interviewing and grounded theory to answer research questions related to Identity, Biography & Society. To do this, you will undertake several research exercises, staged so that you understand how sociologists use intensive interviewing and grounded theory to address a research question. Each stage of the research process will require two types of written components: (1) a demonstration of the specific stage of the process through a “deliverable” draft of that stage of the research project, and (2) reflection on the dilemmas, ethics, and politics related to research design and execution.
Instructions
This is the fourth research exercise that you will complete. This assignment requires you to identify the literature that is relevant to your research topic area and question and to write a literature review. You will use this literature NOT to answer your question but to help you to frame the conversation in which you will engage as you begin to answer your research question.
What are scholars saying about the topic area of interest to you? You may make use of 1-2 popular articles, but your literature review must rely on scholarly articles from peer-reviewed journals in the social sciences. This assignment requires you to create a polished draft of what will be the literature review section of your final research paper. Putting time and effort into this exercise and the feedback you receive will benefit you when you submit the final project for grading.
Be sure to provide ASA-style in-text citation and bibliographic referencing when using course materials or other publications. Please see Edwards (2015) Writing in Sociology for explicit guidelines.
YOUR PAPER WILL NOT BE GRADED IF IT DOES NOT MAKE USE OF ASA-STYLE FORMATTING FOR IN-TEXT AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES.
Purpose
The purpose of this exercise is to allow you the opportunity to develop a reasonable draft of the literature review that will frame your research investigation. See the Module ON WRITING, if you need to review seminar materials for this assignment.
Specific Content
Your literature review needs to use at approximately 12-15 sources, but you may have more. Sources need to be drawn from the existing social science (scholarly) literature related to your research topic. Use your annotated bibliography (Research Exercise 2) and my comments as a start for your literature review, adding and deleting sources as appropriate to how you have developed your understanding of your topic in the process of reading the literature and collecting data. Your review should be an analytic mapping of the literature from which your research draws and to which it contributes. Be sure that you include references with full citation information for all the sources you mention, listed alphabetically. (Note that the bibliographic references listed at the end of your paper do not require annotations.)
Structure and Organization
Typically, there are two broad categories of sources you might include in your literature review: studies related to the substantive area you are researching and studies related to the theoretical framework and concepts you intend to use in your analysis. Most sources will fall in the first category. A literature review maps the sociological understanding of the paper’s topic, AND IT FRAMES A CONVERSATION ABOUT YOUR TOPIC that helps to situate your research question.
It describes how the subject has been studied in the past, what those studies have concluded, and the theoretical perspectives/concepts they have used.
It notes the type of data collection techniques most frequently used in studies in the area, including how the use of those methods has influenced the questions asked and the conclusions reached.
It outlines the primary findings as well as the patterns and gaps you see in the literature in the topic area.
It discusses how your study fits into the existing literature. It also notes how your research has the potential to contribute new information to the current state of knowledge.
Your job is NOT to describe the findings of each study (each source) but to group the studies together to examine the themes and patterns you see within them. An example paragraph demonstrating how to do this can be found in the Module ON WRITING.
You might wish to devote slightly more space to discussions of studies or sources that are particularly relevant to your project. Do NOT simply cut-and-paste from article abstracts or from your annotated bibliography. Any direct quotations must be appropriately cited using in-text referencing; paraphrasing ideas must also be cited appropriately, so as not to be mistaken for plagiarism. See the Module ON WIRTING for assistance with how to cite the work of other writers.
Your review should be ~3-4 double-spaced pages, with standard 11- or 12-point font, and one-inch margins. You will be expected to demonstrate your understanding of the literature you cite and to explain its relationship to your research question. You will also be expected to use ASA-style citation for bibliographic and in-text referencing.
0 comments