sociology research help
PRICIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY
SOCL 151 10 of 16
Research Project Guidelines
80 Points
This research project will provide you with the opportunity to conduct a sociological analysis on
a topic of homeless of your choosing from one of the topics below. You will write a 5-7 page
paper. For this paper, you will need to do some outside research to explore your topic and use
course concepts to analyze and organize your findings. You will need at least 3 sources. You will
also need a reference page listing your sources. Sources should be from scholarly sources or peer
reviewed journal articles. The length of the paper requires you to condense a lot of material, be
sure to narrow your topic down to a workable paper.
Topics: Choose from one of these topics of homelessness (be creative and have fun with it):
• The Experience of Homeless and Popular Perceptions
• Homelessness: History and Overview
• Methods: Counting, Measuring, Investigating the Homeless
• Deinstitutionalization and Mental Illness and Homelessness
• Substance Abuse and the Homeless
• Health Care & AIDS Prevention
• Homeless Families, Children and Social Support
• Income and Employment
• Housing Issues
• Shelters, Staff, Case Management, and Other Services
• Service and Residential Preferences and Satisfaction
• Social Policies Related Homeless
Requirements:
• Papers must be turned in during the final week of class (See section XI of Syllabus). You
will need to upload your paper to blackboard, MS Word or Apple Pages Format.
• Your paper must be double-spaced, one-inch margins, 12 point Times New Roman or
Calibri font only.
• Your paper should be between 5 – 7 pages in length
• You must use scholarly articles for your 3 required sources, failure to do so will
significantly lower your grade.
• You must use and incorporate one of the major theories discussed in class (symbolic
interactionist, conflict, and structural functional theory).
• Format your citations and bibliography using APA (American Psychological Association)
style. The bibliography does not count toward your page requirement. Review
) for using APA format correctly.
• You do not need an abstract.
• You should be familiar with proper citation, as well as the appropriate use of quotations.
Papers that excessively use quotations will lose points. Your paper should be in your own
voice, which means using quotations selectively and only when necessary.
• You need a cover page for the paper.
• Proofread your paper.
• You should not wait until the last minute!
Forming a Research Question
Once you have selected a topic for your research paper, you need to focus and narrow, it into a
specific research question. Your question should be one that:
• Lends itself to sociological analysis
• Is not a “yes” or “no” question
• Has more than one plausible answer
• You can get information to answer
• Is answerable in the page length allotted
Answering the Research Question
• Questions to answer your topic selection and description
•
Name your topic: I am studying ________.
•
Imply your question: because I want to find out who/why/how ________.
•
State the rationale for the question and the project: in order to understand how/why
what________.
Further Information
• State how/which sociological theory provides insight to your topic.
• Identify how each article and source contributes to addressing your topic.
• Your paper should follow a general flow, give consideration to writing your introduction,
body and conclusion. Keep in mind that you may have subtopics within each. Be sure to
stay on topic and fully address your question.
• It is important that you do not write your paper as just a summary of the articles, for
example, do not organize your paper topic and talk about each article one by one.
In other words, your paper should include the following basics:
1. Define your question
2. Identify why your question is important
3. Outline what others have found out about your topic (gathered from your articles)
4. Which sociological theory applies to the topic and explain why
5. What your conclusions are based upon what you have read
