Sociology 357: Methods of Sociological Inquiry University of Wisconsin – Madison Spring 2010 Instructor: Lauren Schudde Office: 3407 Sewell Social Science Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays from 1-2pm, and by appointment Email: [email protected] 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, we will spend most of the class time this semester applying the concepts in our readings. Coming prepared and being willing to participate are key prerequisites for joining the class. My goals in teaching this course are to have you learn firsthand about the successes and challenges of research by trying out data collection methods on a small scale. This course also encourages you to think critically about your research and the research of others. The assignments require you to develop clear and succinct explanations for your methodological choices and to evaluate the research choices made by yourself and others using your critical thinking skills. 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, but you can learn what you need to know for these projects in this course without much difficulty. Required Text: The following text is available for purchase at the University Bookstore and it is on reserve at College Library. You can also purchase the book online (the 11th edition is most likely fine as well). Babbie, Earl. 2010. The Practice of Social Research. Wadsworth Publishing; 12 edition. Attendance and Participation: You are expected to attend class regularly (attendance will be taken), to participate in class activities and discussions, and to complete the reading assignments prior to class. If you must miss class, please contact a classmate to find out what you missed. Record contact information from two classmates here: Name ______________________________________ Email ______________________________________ Phone ______________________________________ Name ______________________________________ Email ______________________________________ Phone ______________________________________ ---- 2011Assignments: You are expected to write one social science research paper for this class and to critically assess the methodology utilized by another student in their research paper. The combination of these activities will enable you to experience the research process and teach you to evaluate methodological choices made by yourself and others. In order to make your job easier, and to provide you with feedback every step of the way, your research project will be submitted in a series of small assignments, including an oral presentation. The written assignments include: 1) a human subjects protection tutorial, 2) a research proposal, 3) a method plan, 4) a final research report implementing the previous components, 5) a response to a classmates’ evaluation of your methodological choices. The oral presentation includes a brief presentation of your research findings and a critical assessment of your choice of methods. Detailed instructions for each assignment will be handed out in class. Pop Quizzes: There will be pop quizzes to ensure that you have done your reading. These quizzes will be straightforward and simple. They are not intended to cause you stress, but to encourage preparation. It is very important that you come to class prepared: I prefer not to spend all of our class time reviewing the reading material. Instead, we will be applying the material covered in the readings during in-class activities. The format of the pop quizzes will vary: short-answer, multiple choice, and fill-in-the-blank. If you do the reading, these quizzes will not be difficult. At the end of the semester, your lowest pop quiz score will be dropped. Grading Policies: Your final course grade will be based on the following: Human Subjects Protection Tutorial 5% Research Topic Proposal 5% Method Plan 15% Final Research Report 20% Evaluation of Classmates’ Methods 15% Self-evaluation and Response to Peer Evaluation 20% Oral Presentation 5% Attendance and Pop Quizzes 15% Total 100% Because conducting “real” research is a long and arduous task, I am more concerned with your ability to think critically about methodological choices than with the content of your brief research project. For this reason, 35% of your grade depends on your evaluation of the research conducted by yourself and others. Learning to critically assess research choices will be an ongoing part of this course and I will discuss my expectations for your self- and peer-evaluations later in the course.Grading for assignments: Assignments will be assigned letter grades unless explicitly stated on the assignment instructions. Penalty for late assignments: All assignments must be deposited in the dropbox on learn@uw by their 12pm deadline. Assignments received after 12pm will be docked one grade for anything received up to one day late, two letter grades for anything received between one to two days late, and so on. Please turn your assignment in on time!! *If you have a personal or family emergency that impacts your ability to turn an assignment in on time, you must notify me BEFORE the assignment deadline. Grades will be changed only in cases of computational error, and there is no extra credit in this course.* Due Dates: Human Subjects Protection Tutorial - Due Wednesday Jan 26 Research Proposal – Due Monday Feb 21 Method Plan – Due Wednesday March 9 Final Research Report - Due Wednesday April 13 Evaluation of Classmates’ Methods – Due Friday April 22 Self-evaluation and Response to Peer Evaluation – Due Wednesday May 4th Oral presentations will occur on Wednesday April 27th, Monday May 2nd, and Wednesday May 4th. Academic Misconduct (Cheating): Students who cheat or attempt to cheat will automatically receive an F for that assignment. In addition, the incident will be reported in writing to the Dean of your school or college as well as the Dean of Students so that he/she may decide whether further disciplinary action is needed. A clear definition of
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