1Summer 2002SOCIOLOGY 357METHODS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH8:55 - 11:30 a.m. Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs June 17-July 116102 Social ScienceInstructorPamela Oliver 2452 Social Science 262-6829 [email protected] Course web site: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~oliver/SOC357/SOC357.HTM (you can navigate to the course page from myhome page)Office Hours: Immediately after class every day, and after a lunch break afternoons when you are doing something that islikely to need assistance. (On the day you turn a major assignment in, I will head home to spend the afternoon grading.) Askme, and I will announce in class on a daily basis. I am readily available by email. This is an excellent way to get a quickquestion answered or to tell me about a problem. However, I get dozens of emails daily, and will not be able to engage inlengthy email discussions or debates with you. You are also welcome to call me at home at 829-3692, especially for those"quick questions" that can be answered in 2 minutes or if there is some kind of problem. Home calls are OK 7:00 am to 10PM weekdays, 10 am to 10 pm weekends. Home life is not always interruptible; please be prepared to leave a name andnumber if I am not available.There is an official email distribution list for this class which may be used for official announcements if necessary. Makesure you check your @students account every day, or forward it to an account you do check.This is a basic course in how to do social science research and how to evaluate the research of others. It assumes nobackground in research methods or statistics. It provides a general overview of the ways sociologists collect informationabout social phenomena with a special emphasis on what can be done to yield information that is trustworthy and useful forour theoretical understanding of social life. If you have had any other research methods courses you will probably find thiscourse to be too elementary and should discuss alternatives with me.My goals in this course are: (1) to introduce you to the elements of research design so that you will have a goodfoundation for future learning, (2) to teach you how to read a research report with a critical eye, so that you can know howtrustworthy its information is, (3) to convince you that research is not an esoteric or arcane activity that can be performedonly by slightly eccentric professors, but rather a relatively straightforward, systematic set of procedures by which you canget answers to questions you have, (4) to let you experience some of the limitations and problems of doing research intohuman behavior, and (5) to show you that doing research can be fun, in the same way that learning about the world was funfor you before they spoiled it by making you do it in school.There will be several blocks of lectures, but most of the class will be organized around discussions and workshops. Your active involvement will make this class better for you and others. This is a writing intensive course with a heavyworkload. Each class session in the summer term is the equivalent of a week in a regular semester. You should not beplanning any absences in a term this short. If you know you have to miss two classes or more, you should drop the class. Youwill need to do two to four hours of work outside of class most days, and will need blocks of time on the weekends for thelong papers. It will be extremely difficult if not impossible to do this course while also trying to do any other time-consuming activity. If you become ill or some other crisis arises after the term is underway, please communicate with me assoon as possible. Books and SuppliesYou will need to buy a Workbook packet which will be sold at a location to be announced in class. This includesdetailed instructions and examples for all methods projects, additional articles, and other important materials. Announcement will be made in class when the packet is ready for purchase. Bring the workbook to class every day, and theGolden reader when discussion of an article is on the agenda (or has been postponed from a previous class). It is also helpfulto bring the methods text when it is the assigned reading of the day.The following books have been ordered at University Bookstore and the Underground Textbook Exchange. Royce Singleton, Jr. and others, Approaches to Social Research. Third Edition. A text in research methods. It isrelatively sophisticated and explains the logic and significance of many important methodological practices. Patricia Golden. The Research Experience. A collection of sociological research reports coupled withbehind-the-scenes discussions of what really happened in the research. These articles are getting very old and dated, but theyare still excellent learning tools, and I hope you will bear with them, because there is so far nothing available to replace them. You will learn a lot about the 1960s.2(Recommended, not required): Paul C. Stern and Linda Kalof. Evaluating Social Science Research. SecondEdition. An excellent self-teaching guide to reading research reports. Also provides another treatment of basic methodsconcepts. You will also need paper or cards in the 3x5" size. This is the smallest size note card, and is also a standard sizenote pad. You will need 16 of these, one for each class session. You may also make them yourself, or recycle cards thathave been written on one side.Requirements and GradingThe largest share of your grade is based on three major data collection projects and an article analysis. The datacollection projects are a structured field observation, a field experiment, and a simple questionnaire; these are worth 20%each (for a total of 60%). These are explained in the workbook. An objective final exam on methodological concepts isworth 20%. Study questions will be distributed during the term. There will be frequent homework assignments which willbe worth a total of 18%. The last 2% is based on giving daily feedback on the class sessions. Homework is counted but not graded; if you do it you get credit. If you do 90% or more of the homework, you willreceive an A; if you do 50% or less, you will receive an F; totals between these extremes will receive intermediate grades. HOMEWORK MUST BE SUBMITTED ON TIME TO RECEIVE FULL CREDIT. Homework submitted by the next classsession will be given half credit; after that it will not be accepted at all. Missing class is not an excuse for late homework. The only exception is
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