Assignment: Reading Social Research

Read item 1--the first article-- from your theme reading list for the semester. These articles are available in Blackboard.

Briefly summarize the article in terms of

• What questions did the author(s) have when they started this research? What were they wondering about?
• According to the article, what have other researchers said about this topic?
• What hypothesis or hypotheses or research questions were there and what variables were used?
• What type of research was done?
• What were the basic findings?

Then give your response to the article:

• Did you agree or disagree with any hypotheses that were stated? Did you think the research questions were interesting? Do you think the conclusions were correct?
• Did the research seem to be done well? Did the researcher(s) make any of the errors of human inquiry that Babbie describes? How did the researcher(s) try to avoid such errors?
• Based on this article, in your opinion, what new research needs to be done on this topic?

This should be short, 3 double spaced pages or less, so you will have to write very concisely. The outline above would produce four to five paragraphs if you don't get bogged down in detail.

If there is something you are not sure about in the article, it is acceptable to say so. However, you should plan to read the article twice, first to get the general idea and then to pick up the details.

Make sure that your paragraphs have topic sentences and a logical structure. Avoid one sentence paragraphs. Check your spelling and grammar before you hand in the assignment.