Sociology 357 – Methods of Sociological Inquiry Fall 2006 Shamus Rahman Khan Office: 8111 Social Science Phone: 262-4866 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~skhan Office Hours: 3:45-5PM, MW Class: 495 Van Hise, 2:30-3:45, MW “‘Method’ has to do, first of all, with how to ask and answer questions with some assurance that the answers are more or less durable. ‘Theory’ has to do, above all, with paying close attention to the words one is using, especially their degree of generality and their logical relations. The primary purpose of both is clarity of conception and economy of procedure, and most importantly just now, the release rather than the restriction of the sociological imagination.” — C. Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination, 1959 Overview Sociology 357 is a required course for sociology majors; it teaches you the logic of research design and the basics of data collection. In this course you will both do sociological research (on a small scale), and evaluate the research of others. This is not a statistics course; I assume no background in methods. You will do a small amount of statistics in your projects, which will be easier if you have already had elementary statistics. However you can easily learn what you need to know for these projects in this course, and I will do what is necessary to help you with this. My goals in teaching you methods are: • To spark your interest in sociology; to encourage you to see sociology as a research enterprise, as a process of learning about our social world • To introduce you to the elements of research design, with a special emphasis on measurement (operationalization) and assessing relations between variables (causality and correlation) • To teach you how to read a research report with a critical eye, so that you can tell how trustworthy its information is • To learn first hand about the problems of research by trying out and evaluating several data collection methods on a small scale • To show you that research is a personal, human activity involving both your brain and your emotions, combining brilliant insights with spectacular failures, and invoking both dramatic visions and inescapable practical limitations This course is a broad overview. What that means is that you will not learn enough about any one methodology to actually do a serious research project using that method.However, what you lose in depth you gain in breadth; you will be introduced to a wide range of methods (experiment, survey, interview, ethnography, observation, comparative and historical) and taught the basic epistemological claims of each. Don’t know what an epistemological claim is? Well, you’re in luck. We’ll cover that on the first day (perhaps while you’re reading this sentence). The purpose of this overview is to allow you to evaluate the information provided in various studies that you are likely to encounter in your academic and nonacademic life, and to provide you with a beginning set of tools that will guide you in collecting meaningful information. Course Requirements There are five kinds of assignments in this course; in total you will be handing in ten pieces of work. They are: two quizzes, three projects, three article summaries, one literature review, and one book evaluation. Below I provide a brief explanation of each one of these. In addition, I will provide very detailed assignment sheets for each assignment as it approaches. These will also be available on-line. This course is a considerable amount of work. You will have about 6-8 hours of homework per week in this class. I am a teacher who rewards doing your work. Your projects, article summaries, book review and literature review do not have to be brilliant to receive a good grade. Rather, they need to be done on time and show that you’ve thoughtfully done your coursework. If you show up for class, do the reading, pay attention, are careful about your assignments and hand them in on time you should do very well in this course. Conversely, if you miss class, don’t do the reading, are distracted, hand in your work late, and are sloppy, you will not do well. My hope is that a course evaluation centered around steady work will both relieve stress and actually help you learn, remember, and use the concepts that are introduced to you in this class. Article Summaries and Literature Review Your final project in this class is to evaluate the methodology of a major sociological study. You may choose one of four books for this project (see the list of books below). In addition, for each book I have chosen four academic articles that relate to that book. Over the course of the semester you must hand in a summary of three of these articles. These summaries should be less than a page, single-spaced. The due dates are: • October 9 • November 15 • December 1 You may hand in article summaries at any time during the semester. If you’d like to work on them one weekend and get them all out of the way, I am happy to accept them all at once – or any time. Just know that you must hand in one article summary by October 9th, two by November 15th, and three by December 1st. Late summaries will not be accepted. On December 6 a literature review is due. This review combines your three summaries with the fourth article into a single document that both summarizes each reading andrelates them to one another. This should be approximately 2 pages, single-spaced. We shall spend class time learning exactly what such a literature review looks like. Each article summary is worth 3% of your grade (in total they are worth 9%). The literature review is worth 6% of your grade. Quizzes There are two quizzes in this course. The first is on September 18; the second is on November 20.. Both quizzes will cover the reading and lectures from one section of the course. The first quiz will be on the introductory concepts of the course (causality, ethics, variables, and sampling). The second quiz will be on comparative and historical methodology. Each quiz is worth 10% of your total grade. Quizzes will have some multiple choice, some short answer questions, and perhaps some essay questions. The first quiz will take about 30 minutes; the second quiz will take the entire class period. Quizzes must be taken in class on the day designated in this syllabus. Note that in course sections when you are quizzed you will have far more reading than
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