Sociology Question

The Bulk of the Classs Assignment

Students in this course will develop a qualitative media analysis project of their own design. This

includes everything from creating a literature review and research question to data collection and

analysis.

Your Literature Review and Research Question(s) will be a 3-5 page document where you overview

contemporary scholarship on a topic of your choice. There is no official number of sources,

however you should anticipate having at least 6-10 to demonstrate you have a somewhat sufficient

understanding of the material and to help you identify gaps in the literature.

Your Methodology is where you explain what your data source is going to be, why it is going to be

reliable data source, provide some basic background information on the data, and a bit about how

you plan to analyze it. It should be no more than 2 pages.

Your Data is your data. Show me your compiled dataset.

General Paper Guidelines

1. Formatting: Written assignments (so not data collection/preliminary coding) must be

in Calibri 11, Aptos 11, or Times New Roman 12 font, double spaced, and with standard

margins. Any paper not submitted in this format will not be approved.

2. All written assignments must have in-text citations and a reference sheet, both in proper

ASA format.

3. A formal academic writing style is expected. The degree to which this matters increases is

raised with each draft.

4. Full in-text citations and a reference sheet are expected with each draft. The reference

sheet does not count toward the page limit.

5. Anything past the page limit will not be read/not counted as submitted.

6. Doing a paper like this requires synthesizing, analytic skills, and the ability to write with

depth in a concise manner. This means finding where arguments and points overlap

between different pieces and linking them together in the same paragraph, sometimes the same sentence. It also means learning to boil down articles to a few key points and

arguments and learning how to line them all up in a logical order. This is the point of the

paper’s design. To teach you to develop your own ideas and process a large amount of

information, synthesize it, and present your own theory-based analysis in a clear and

concise manner.

7. Avoid the use of unanalyzed quotes.

8. I am always happy to look over rough drafts. However you need to email me your draft

beforehand and/or provide a hard copy in person. If you are unsure about something or

want feedback before submission, please visit my office hours.

9. To help you with both the assignments and the readings an additional reading and writing

guide has been posted to Canvas.

Above all else: BE BOLD. What matters here is the work you put into thinking big and making

connections between theory and the empirical world. It involves build reasoning skills above all

else. What matters to me is that you are taking the effort to build the analysis and explanations you

need. When it comes to theory there are some limits to this (ex: you can’t say that the class

domination theory of power posits that all groups engage in political action and have equal

chances for success) but we don’t all need identical readings. I will always favor creative and well

thought out theorizing over a cautious coverage of what is going on and not thinking about how it

connects to theory and/or everything and everyone else in the world.

No AI or Plagiarism

WRITE MY PAPER