3rd draft (01‐20‐10) 1 Sociology 357 – Methods of Sociological Inquiry Lecture 7: 2:30 ~ 3: 45pm. Mon & Wed. 6109 Social Science Lecture 8: 4:00 ~ 5: 15pm. Mon & Wed. 6109 Social Science Instructor: SungIk Cho, [email protected]. Office: 7110 Social Science Office Hours: 2:30 ~ 4:30 pm, Fri., or by appointment. Course Description Sociology 357 is a basic course on how to do social science research and how to evaluate the research of others. This is a course where you will learn by doing. After an introduction to the elements of research, you will spend most of the semester working on a variety of projects, applying the concepts of we cover early on as you conduct your own research, and as we evaluate the research of others. Many heads are better than one when it comes to designing and evaluating social research, so the course will involve a lot of discussion and group activities. Coming prepared and being willing to participate are key prerequisites for joining the class. My goals in teaching this course are (1) to introduce you to the language and logic of research design in order to provide you with a good foundation for future learning, (2) to teach you how to read a research report with a critical eye, (3) to expose you to a variety of research methods that you may encounter in the future, (4) to have you learn first-hand about the successes and problems of research by trying out several data collection methods on a small scale. Soc 357 is not a statistics course and assumes 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 learn what you need to know for these projects in this course without much difficulty. If you have already taken any other research methods course, please talk to me, as this course will probably cover what you already know. In addition to keeping up with daily readings and assignments, you should plan NOW to set aside substantial blocks of time outside of class to work on projects during the semester. A detailed schedule of due dates is included below. And also along with our class schedule, I will send several assignment instructions to you through our classlist email and upload them to our LearnUW. Please keep regularly checking on your email. Course Materials There is one book for the course which you can buy at the University Bookstore. It is: 3rd draft (01‐20‐10) 2 Babbie, Earl. The Practice of Social Research. 12th edition. It’s quite expensive. You don’t have to buy this book. You can read or photocopy it in library. It is on reserve at College Library. There are also a few articles and book excerpts which you are required to read. They are available online. Go to http://learnuw.wisc.edu. See you course list. Click on Sociology 357. There are course syllabus and materials under Content. Course Requirements and Grading Your grade will be composed as follows. 10% Attendance & Participation 15% Reading response 15% One exam. 15% Field Observation Project 15% Questionnaire Project 15% Experiment Project 15% Article Analysis Project 1) Class Attendance & Participation I will take attendance every day during lecture. You will get 3 free absences before you are penalized. If you miss your class more than three times, you will get zero grades for your attendance and participation. As for participation, you will be graded on your contributions to class discussions and level of engagement with in-class activities. Basically, the more you participated, the better your participation grades. 2) Projects There are four projects about a field observation project, a questionnaire, a field experiment, and article analysis. These exercises in this course are not real research. As you will learn, real research is too much time consuming to fit into a course. You will be doing scaled-down projects that teach you important lessons about research without taking so much time. Everything you do in this class is solely for you education. Each exercise is worth 15 percent of your final grade. 3) Exams There will be one in-class, closed-book exam after we finish the first part of our course. The exam will consist of multiple choice and short answer questions covering material from both the readings and the lectures. Basically, it aims to test your knowledge about fundamental elements of sociological methods. 4) Reading Response Every class you are required to bring your half page long reading comments. You should write what you learn, don’t understand, or disagree on from readings. I do not expect you to 3rd draft (01‐20‐10) 3 summarize readings. Basically, your reading comments should be critical engagements with the readings. These reading comments are counted but not graded. If you submit mostly 90% of comments, you will get A. If you submit less than 50%, you will get F. Between these two extremes, you will receive an intermediate grade. But you cannot make up your missed reading response later. You can only submit your reading comment in class. I won’t accept on-line submit of your reading response. Procedural Matters You should submit your project assignments to the dropbox of LearnUw. Also, bring the paper copy of your assignments to class. I will not accept any delayed submits. There will be no exception. Please make sure of the deadline of each assignment and plan to submit it in advance. Your final project report is due May 15 by 1 pm. For our class, bring your assigned readings to class. Concerning your attendance, you are responsible for obtaining information you miss if you are absent. It is inappropriate to use office hours to compensate for instruction you missed more or less by choice, such as napping, staying warm, studying for other classes, or vacationing. But if you are attending regularly and making the effort to learn (or if your absence is for reasons beyond your control), I will do all that I can to help you. Plagiarism A clear definition of plagiarism as well as information about disciplinary sanctions for academic misconduct may be found at the Dean of Students web site http://www.wisc.edu/students/UWS14.htm. Knowledge of these rules is your responsibility, and lack of familiarity with the rules does not excuse misconduct. 3rd draft (01‐20‐10) 4 Course Schedule Week 1 W Jan 20 Introduction Part 1: The Logic and
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