SOCI 2003B: Sociological Methods

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SOCI 2003BSociological Methods
Research Design Proposal and Report Writing
October 5, 2006

• Colleen Anne Dell, Ph.D.
• Carleton University, Department of Sociology
  Anthropology
• Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse
  

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OUTLINE

• 1. Choosing a Research Problem
• 2. Purposes of Research 
• 3. What/Who You Are Researching The Unit of
  Analysis A.  Getting Started The Literature
  Review B.  Units of Analysis         - Common
  Errors
• 4. The Time Dimension of Research The Question
  of When
• 5. The Research Proposal
• 6. The Research Report A. Characteristics of
  Poor Report Writing B. 3 Basic Considerations in
  Report Writing C. Organization of the Report

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• WORKSHOP
• Distribute Research Project Assignment
• Guest Speaker Jane Fry Accessing the
  Carleton University Data Centre, 430, Room 235,
  MacOdrum Library

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1. Choosing a Research Problem
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2. Purpose of Research

• Exploratory
• Descriptive
• Explanatory
• Application

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What/Who are You Researching UNITS OF ANALYSIS

• A. Getting Started The Literature Review

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• Units of Analysis

• Those units or things we examine in order to
• create summary descriptions of all such units and
  
• to explain differences among them.
• 1. INDIVIDUAL 2. GROUPS 3. FORMAL
  POLICITCAL/SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS 4. SOCIAL
  ARTIFACTS

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What is the unit of analysis in the following
research projects?  (Individual group
organization social artifact)

• 1. Women watch TV more than men because they are
  likely to work fewer hours outside the home than
  men.
• 2. Of the 130 incorporated US cities with more
  than 100,000 inhabitants in 1960, 126 had at
  least two short-term nonproprietary general
  hospitals accredited by the American Hospital
  Association.
• 3. Though 667,000 out of 2 million farmers in the
  US are women, women historically have not been
  viewed as farmers, but rather, as the farmers
  wife.

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4. Some analysis during the 1960s predicted that
the rise of economic ambition and political
militancy among the residents would foster
discontent with the other main churches. 5. This
paper examines variations in job title structure
across work roles.  Analyzing 1, 367 job titles
in the US, we investigated how and why lines of
work vary by State.
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Common Errors

1. ECOLOGICAL FALACY
2. INDIVIDUALISTIC FALACY
3. REDUCTOINISM

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4. THE TIME DIMENSION OF RESEARCH THE
QUESTION OF WHEN

• Cross sectional
• Longitudinal (A) Trend studies (B) Cohort
  studies (C) Panel studies
• Retrospective 

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5. THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL

• Elements of a Research Proposal
• Problem or objective
• Literature review
• Subjects for study
• Measurement
• Data collection methods
• Analysis
• Schedule
• Budget

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6. THE RESEARCH REPORT

• 1. You are communicating data and ideas to an
  audience. This must be done clearly so the
  audience can evaluate for themselves.  Informed
  reader.
• 2. View your report as a contribution to social
  scientific knowledge.
• 3. Your report should serve the function of
  stimulating and directing further inquiry.
• However well designed and executed a research
  project
• is, its final impact will depend, above all, on
  the quality of
• the written report.

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Characteristics of Poor Report Writing

• Content
• Organization/structure
• Spelling, etc.

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3 Basic Considerations in Report Writing

• The audience
• The language/style
• People are judged on the basis of who they
• appear to be in their writing, and if what they
• write is pompous or fuzzy or disorganized, they
• will be perceived as all those things  William
  Zinsser
• 3. Types of reports

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c) Organization of the report

• Tell them what you are going to tell them
  tell them and them tell them what you told them
   

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• 1. Title Page 2. Acknowledgements 3. Summary
  4. Table of contents 5. Introduction Statement
  of problem to be
• investigated 6. Process of Discovery
  a. Inception of the research b. Researchers
  initial conceptual baggage 7. Theoretical
  framework 8. Review of the literature 9.
  Research Question (Identify the research
  interest)

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• 10. Methodology Research Design and Data
  Gathering
• The worth of all scientific findings are
  dependent on the manner in which the data were
  collected and analyzed
• 11. Methodology Analysis and Interpretation
• 12. Summary and conclusions
• 13. Dissemination
• 14. Researchers Reflection
• 15. Appendix
• 16. Bibliography
• 17. Conceptual baggage file