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You will choose a research article with some connection to sociology, identify and mark elements of that article, and answer some questions about it. You will be using the same printed article throughout — handing it in twice — so please keep track of it! For the same reason, you must choose the article carefully.
It must be at least six pages in length, and based on some kind of research meant to answer a specific question, with a number of references (a list of sources) at the end. A book review or editorial would not qualify. Neither would a “literature review” of research by others, which the author uses to support a proposed model or policy. And, of course, even if you don’t understand all of the article’s statistical methodology, you must understand the article, its aims and its gathering of evidence. If there are words you don’t know, especially in the abstract or the conclusion, look them up.
For step-by-step help in finding an article, check out the online guide: http://libguides.mercy.edu/soc101lib
Again, make sure that the article you choose is a report of the author’s own research (many articles are not), and that it allows you to answer the questions below. Then –
1. Print the article and show it to your instructor for approval.
2. On your article, circle and label the following statements or paragraphs:
the ABSTRACT summary of the article
the QUESTIONS or HYPOTHESIS the author wants to answer or test
the METHOD (survey, interviews, testing, etc.) used to answer the questions
the SAMPLE of people who were studied or questioned in the research
the CONCLUSIONS reached
Then go to the list of References at the end of the article and find two sources (books and/or journal articles) that are available through the Mercy Libraries. For each one, write where it is available next to its Reference entry (see below).
To see if Mercy subscribes to a particular journal, click on the “Journals” tab on the Mercy Libraries website and look up the name of the journal (not the name of the article!). Write the name of the database that includes that journal (there may be several covering different years).
To see if Mercy owns a particular book, click on the “Books” tab on the Mercy Libraries website and look up the title. Write the campus name and book’s call number (e.g. Dobbs Ferry HM742 .A54 2014). If it is an e-book simply write “e-book.”
3. After you get the article back, hand it in again with the answers to these questions stapled to it:
What are the article’s major conclusions? Write 70-100 words of your own (do not copy sentences/phrases from the article or abstract).
How might these conclusions provide an example, or hold any implications, for the sociological theories you have encountered in your textbook? Explain in one paragraph.
Could they have any consequences for society? Explain.
After your explanations, provide an APA or ASA style citation for your article, as if you were including it in a list of references. Remember this standard format for a journal article:
APA
Author’s Last Name, First and Middle Initials. (Year of Publication). Title of article. Journal Name, volume number(issue number), pages of entire article.
West, S. (2016). Coming of age on a shoestring budget: Financial capability and financial behaviors of lower-income millennials. Social Work, 61(4), 305-312.
ASA
Author’s Last Name, First Name. Year of Publication. “Title of Article.” Journal Name volume number (issue number):pages of entire article.
West, Stacia. 2016. “Coming of Age on a Shoestring Budget: Financial Capability and Financial Behaviors of Lower-Income Millennials.” Social Work 61(4):305-312.
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