Sociological Research

12 pt. font, times new roman, APA Format 1. Introduction The introduction will serve to introduce the topic and idea to your audience (i.e. me). In this case, you need to construct an introduction that motivates an interest in the topic as well as introduces the basic necessities of understanding to your reader. To that end, your introduction should focus primarily on your issue of interest (the pay gap, for example). Make sure there is a clear thesis of what your overall paper is as well as the research question you’re attempting to answer. It should give some insight into the components that underlie that issue 2. Literature Review The literature review serves to fine tune your point further and helps you to focus on where you are most specifically interested, namely the key independent variable(s) that you think influence the problem you are trying to understand. You need to work through your idea here about what you identify as happening. This works to take what you’re interested in and give insight into how it’s complex. So, make sure your literature review discusses what influences what you’re interested, with special focus on the primary independent variable you’re focused on. For example, say you were interested in the voting behaviors of people. Your literature review would note what influences people to vote and why. So, you’d most likely have some discussion of how and why race influences voter preference, as well as some discussion of some things like gender, income, etc. That way your reader understands the complexity of the issue, but keep in mind your major focus. 3. Hypotheses/Expectations These should clearly articulate what you are expecting to see in terms of your key independent variable(s) influencing your dependent variable, or at least the what you expect to see. For example: at this point I’d make the claim of what I expect to see in my own data as it flows from the literature review I just did. Note that these need to make sense with the literature you just reviewed! These are logically deduced from what you’ve read. 4. Proposed Methodology and Data Collection Strategy In this section, you will need to discuss the method and sampling approach that is best suited for what you want to do. Discuss the method in detail, with a major focus on its strengths and why it is well suited for what you’re trying to do. Basically, the why is the most important. For this you’ll be pulling from the readings and lectures in terms of defining and substantiating your approach. You’re not collecting the data, you’re saying that you will collect the data. Additionally, make sure that you discuss which sampling approach is best suited for obtaining your respondents and why you think it is well suited. Again, this should be discussed in detail. 5. Conclusion The conclusion reiterates your main research question and the points you’re expecting to address and why. Highlight how your research fits within and is useful for the broader area you’re arguing for. Additionally, note what you can’t address in this project but make sure you present how this gets us moving forward and basis for understanding and pursuing future research 6. References In addition to using in-text citations, you must also have a references list. Use whichever citation method you want but it must be uniform!