This essay will be due this Friday, July 13th. What is ...

Hi danny541
Expert Researcher,

Thanks for the accept! I have the research topic; which do you think it is the best one: www.HELENKELLER.ORG http://www.csdr-cde.ca.gov/ http://www.gallaudet.edu/ and I want to talking positive about this topic.

My teacher's NOTES:

Intro to Sociology

Research Proposal

Students will create a research proposal covering the major steps in the research design.

Students will NOT actually conduct a study rather they will propose or plan out a study for the instructor's review. It is unethical and against campus policies to conduct a research study involving humans or animals without written permission from the college.

Final research proposal will not be accepted via e-mail. But you can e-mail rough drafts for feedback.

There will be a loss of ten points for each week research proposal is turned in late.

Research proposal will be single spaced and stapled.

Research proposal will be sufficiently free of spelling and grammatical errors.

Each section of the research proposal will be clearly titled and begin on a new page.

Research proposal will be graded on how well student follows directions, understands chosen

sociological topic, social theory and social research. Students will have opportunities to discuss the research proposal with instructor, including e-mailing rough drafts to instructor throughout semester.

PREPARING TO WRITE THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL

1. Select a topic related to the study of sociology. Topic can be related to a social problem, social inequality, culture, or one of the social institutions.

2. Find three professional websites related to your topic. A professional website usually ends in .edu, .gov, or .org. Do not look at websites related to your topic that end in .com. These are commercial websites that may include incorrect or biased information.

a. To begin looking for professional websites type your topic into google or yahoo. If you need help, e-mail or speak to the instructor who will help you find the websites, seriously!

3. Find three research studies published in peer reviewed journals. If you need help, ask instructor! These articles cannot come from magazines or newspapers.

a. Go to: http://search.epnet.com/ (if you have problems logging in from a public computer station try: http://search.epnet.com/userlogin.asp)

b. User Id: student Password: data4you

c. Click on the link: Psychology and Behavioral Collection (towards the bottom)

d. Type in your topic into the box titled: Field

e. Make sure that you also check the Full Text box and Scholarly Journal box!!!!!

WRITING THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Introduction Section (Step #1 Research Topic and Step #2 Definition of Problem)

- Introduce your topic and discuss how it relates to the field of sociology.

- Define the topic for the reader. You are the expert, so write your proposal assuming that your reader knows nothing about this topic. This means that you will have to define the major terms and provide some of the relevant statistics and figures from your three professional websites.

- You must provide information in this section from your three professional websites and cite each website by putting them in parenthesis. For example: (www.census.gov).

- Think about this section as an attorney preparing a case for a jury. Why is this topic important to study and how will it advance the field of sociology?

- Remember to cite your source every time you quote or use information from the text or websites. For example: (Henslin, 2005, pg. 44).

- This section should be approximately one single spaced page.

- The more interesting you make this section and demonstrate why this sociological topic is important to study, the more likely your research proposal will get funded (in this case a better grade).

- Remember that you are a researcher so objectivity is important. Back up your opinions with data from professional websites. For example: Obesity is a social problem in the United States. Statistics show that approximately 30% of the population is obese (www.cdc.com).

Annotated Bibliography Section (Start a new page. Step #3 Literature Review)

- Summarize each of the three journal articles in your own words. See the end of this handout for an example on how to write a research study summary. Anytime you copy directly from the article, (even if it is just a couple of words) you must use quotes and cite the source (Greene, 2007, pg. 670), otherwise you're plagiarizing.

- Each summary must include the purpose of the study, any hypotheses, how study was conducted, number of research subjects, findings, and conclusion of study.

- Keep in mind when writing this part of the proposal that you are educating the reader about some of the key research studies that were conducted on this social topic.

- This section should be approximately one and a half single spaced pages in length.

Theory and Hypothesis Section (Start a new page. Step #4 Theory and Hypothesis)

Theory

- Choose and summarize one of the three sociological paradigms that is most applicable to your topic (structural functionalism, conflict, or symbolic interaction theory). Choose only one theory.

- Discuss whether you're applying a macroanalysis or microanalysis of your topic. Remember that if you're utilizing a macroanalysis than you will be either choosing structural functionalism theory or conflict theory (both macro theories). If you're utilizing microanalysis of your topic than there's only one theory, which is symbolic interaction.

- Summarize and define the theory. Summarize the major terms and concepts related to this theory from our lecture (see your lecture outlines). The textbook does not have all the concepts. You need your lecture notes to write this section.

- Discuss how your topic relates to your chosen theory.

Hypothesis

- Simply state in one or two sentences your research hypothesis.

- Explain to the reader your independent variable(s) and your dependent variable(s). Remember that an independent variable(s) causes a change to the dependent variable(s).

- Define each of the variables for the reader. As a researcher, you have the freedom of defining each of the variables how you like - just don't forget to define them because the reader may have a different definition. For example, if you're looking at the effects of the media on body image; define media and body image. By media do you mean television shows, movies, books, internet, or advertisements? By body image are you looking at girls or boys, what age group, culture, etc.

- This section should be approximately one single spaced page.

Method Section (Start a new page. Step #6 Research Method, Step #7 Collect Data, and Step #8 Data Analysis)

Method: You are not actually going out and doing the study just writing about how you would do it.

- Choose only one of the following research methods and discuss why you made this decision:

a. Survey (self administered questionnaire, telephone or in-person interview?)

b. Participant Observation (fieldwork- where and how long?)

c. Unobtrusive Measures (fieldwork such as complete observer - where and how long?)

d. Document (content analysis of what? - Documents, movies, mags, books, commercials, government documents, TV shows, etc.)

e. Secondary Analysis (analyze raw data collected by another researcher) This is different then looking up articles in the computer and writing a lit review.

f. Experiment (experimental group and control group)

Collect Data

- Discuss how you're proposing to conduct the study. This is just like writing a recipe for your favorite food dish. After reading this section, the reader should be able to replicate your study just by following your specific directions. This is the section you get to be creative!

- For example, if you're conducting a content analysis by examining dating websites and looking for gender differences in male and female profiles, then you have to let the reader know which websites you're going to be studying, how long, what geographical locations, age groups, etc.

Analyzing Data

- In about three sentences, let the reader know whether you will be using quantitative or qualitative analysis to analyze your data.

- Generally, surveys, experiments and secondary analysis research methods utilize quantitative analysis (statistics) and documents and fieldwork research methods utilize qualitative analysis (own interpretation of data).

- This methodology section should be approximately one single spaced page. You need your textbook (second part of Chapter One and lecture notes on social research) to write this method section, especially how you're going to collect the data.

Sharing Results Section (Start a new page. Step #8)

- This will be the conclusion of your research proposal.

- Devote approximately one paragraph discussing the strengths and weaknesses of your chosen research method. It might be a good idea to discuss reliability and validity issues (see lecture notes or look up concepts in your glossary and index sections of your textbook).

- In the second paragraph, discuss how you would make your study available to the public.

Reference Page (Start a new page)

- Include citations for your:

a. three professional websites

b. three research journal articles

c. Henslin textbook

d. any other sources you used to write this proposal such as lecture notes

Examples: Annotated Bibliography

Scheibel, D. (1995). Making Waves with Burke: Surf nazi culture and the rhetoric of localism. Western Journal of Communication, Volume 59, 253-260. www.proquest.com

This study researches how and why localism was developed in Southern California. Scheibel (1995) delved into the theoretical and philosophical ideas in which all surfers yearn for perfection. The author related religious ideals of perfection, in perfection and guilt, to the surfers ideals for the "perfect wave," "Unity with the Ocean," and eventually the development of localism. The author described how each surfer's searches for the "perfect wave," governed by the one man one wave ideal. However, these conditions are impossible, and therefore all surfers feel guilt for mistreating the unity with the ocean. Thus, each surfer, in order to protect their culture, develops a strong localist feeling in order to dissuade, ostracize and exclude new, inexperienced surfers.

The author's methods for interpretation and data gathering stemmed from numerous informal and unstructured interviews with surfers who practice localism, as well as participant observation and content analysis. Much of the conclusions and results came from six letters hand picked from 300 issues of "Surfer" in the past twenty years. Dean concluded that there are groups of surfers who advocate Localism by blaming novice surfers and using them as scapegoats. Terms such as "Vals," "Kooks," and "gremmies" are few examples of how the locals negatively label beginner surfers. By dissuading new comers locals can attempt to stop the overcrowding of the beaches. The locals strive for their "perfection," at the beach; however, this "perfection" is never attainable. The imperfection that is always present stems from such behaviors as "crass materialism" and mainstream values. On the other hand, there are groups of surfers who condemn localism. These surfers believe that one should not delve into selfish ways and whenever possible should support the growing sport and the help those who are learning. In order to stop overcrowding, surfers should share the waves, and share the beach, rather than exclude inexperienced surfers.

Bissell, K. L. (2006) Skinny like you: Visual literacy, digital manipulation and young women's drive to be thin. Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education, 6 (1). www.proquest.com

This study examined the relationship between college aged women's knowledge of technology's role in digitally manipulating images of women in entertainment media and their continuous desire to be thin. Research shows that that the standard for female body size, propagated by the media, has become increasingly thinner with the photo editors ability to digitally manipulate body image. Bissell's (2006) hypothesis was that "exposure to a visual literacy statement will be related to decreased levels of body image distortion in women." The hypothesis was formulated under the notion that there is a direct cause and effect relationship between entertainment media and distorted self-perception and suggests that education is capable of eliminating the detrimental effects of this relationship. Bissell wrote that "many scholars studying the social effects of mass media as it relates to body image distortion in women suggest the media are at least partially responsible for promoting thin-ideal body types as the norm for women." In the course of her study, Bissell presented a second hypothesis that stated that women who have less in common (physically) with models are more susceptible to personal misperceptions in relation to their body.
This research study consisted of 124 women ages 18-24 that comprised three randomly selected groups. Group one was the experimental groups while groups two and three were utilized as control groups. The experimental group was exposed a "visual literacy statement" and a photograph of a swimsuit model, they were then asked to answer a series of questions. The researcher's first hypothesis was found to be unsupported. The second hypothesis was supported using scales to measure desire for thinness, body dissatisfaction and anorexia. Bissell ultimately concluded that college aged women are experiencing increasing dissatisfaction with their body size and this dissatisfaction can lead to the development of harmful eating disorders.

Helpful Hints

- Write your annotated bibliography summaries in past tense. The research studies were already conducted so they are reported on in the past tense. For example: the authors conducted, the study showed, subjects were interviewed, etc.

- Write out numbers under ten. For example: three, four, 23, 11.

- When referring to authors only use their last names. For example: Smith and Lewiston (2004) examined...

- Et al. is used when there are three or more authors. For example: Gomez, et al. (2002) hypothesized that...

- It is best to summarize the article using your own words. But sometimes you just can't think of a way to summarize that one key sentence. Always quote and cite when copying words directly from article. For example: The authors concluded that "the subjects were more likely to view themselves as thin when they were involved in satisfactory intimate relationships" (Jones, et al., 2003, pg. 567). I made this up.

- Don't try to write more than one section in one setting.

- Research topic and hypothesis are due on October 6th.

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- Research articles will be due the last week of October. There will be other deadlines later in semester.

Otherwise, if you have any question or not sure. Please let me know what you need to know so i can contact my teacher what does she's excepting from me. Thanks!

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