GUIDELINES FOR "PAPER TOPIC" PAPER: DUE

POINTS: Up to 30
LENGTH: about 5-6 pages (1,200 words)
DUE: Friday, September 28 at classtime (2 points per day deducted if late)

NOTE: Consider this paper the TENTATIVE start of your final paper. 
You will, of course, revise it as you move foward. The more you can
do, the more I can read and help you with. Starting this now will
help you focus and narrow in the coming weeks.

Like all papers, this should have three components:

1. Introduction
   **Introductory paragraph or two (also called the "organizing theme"
     lays out what you will do, why, and why it's important. Look at
     the paper like an upside-down funnel: Start with general overview,
     then taper down with increasing focus and precision. You should
     give an overview of the topic.
   
2. Body: This is where you develop ideas in your introduction. Put
in some subjections. For example, after the introduction, you can
have headers such as:
   **Methodology (where you explain in detail where you get data, why,
     and how). For the final paper, you go into great detail. For this
     paper, you just describe for a page or two the basics and
     explain what your data source will be, how you will obtain 
     access, and describe what you'll look for, or what broad issues
     you'll ask about. For this paper, you should also describe
     precisely WHO you will interview (if interviewing) or precisely
     what data sources you look at. Explain your method by
     justifying why it is appropriate, how you will deal with
     issues of validity and reliability, and what problems of
     any kind (ethical, logistical, accessibility) that you might
     encounter. THINK CAREFULLY ABOUT YOUR METHOD.

   **Review of the Literature: All papers at some point draw from other
     research on a similar topic. This is where you summarize the
     key points of what you've read as they relate to your study.
     Although your "review of the literature" paper (paper #3)
     won't be due for another few weeks, at this point: FIND
     AT LEAST TWO SCHOLARLY ARTICLES (jstor is a good source)
     to include in this paper.

3) Conclusion: "Bringing it all back home." A conclusion should NOT
     be more than a page, give or take a bit. You put nothing new
     in the conclusion. It's where you summarize and tie things 
     together. You obviously won't be able to conclude as you would
     a final paper, but you should have something that ties 
     together whatever you've written and doesn't just stop.

Basically, you will redo the intro, guided by any tips
I gave you. The key is to now frame your paper as a
"SOCIOLOGY" paper (not as a general essay, which many of
you did).

The ethics section should reflect RESEARCH ETHICS, not
vague ethics about whether it's ethical to have laws
against speeders. We have discussed ethics way beyond
normal, and the expectation is that people understand
research ethics (especially protection of human
subjects that include the three Belmont Principles)
and have read the readers for examples of things that
can go wrong.

You should start digging into Jstor to find a few articles
related to your study. Your topic is a window into the
social world, and concepts/themes are your tools
to help us see the sociology underlying your topic.

For example, you might not be able to find much on the
sociology of health clubs, football teams, or hangovers,
but you can find numerous articles on social solidarity,
social bonding, gender displays, identity management,
and literally hundreds of other concepts. These are what
most of you probably will be using.

And, PLEASE NUMBER YOUR PAGES - If I type out comments, it helps
identify what page I'm addressing.

Return to Jim Thomas's homepage