Research Paper

 

A research paper is required for this class. It has to be at least 5 pages in length. In this paper, you will

 

a) identify a social problem, explaining why you think it is a social problem, (either any of the ones discussed in class, or one of your own choosing).

 

b) provide a description of the case study, summarizing the key issue (be sufficiently narrow) and the major competing view points.

 

c) and analyze the social problem using a constructionist perspective on understanding social problems (Loseke).

This means, present the perspectives of a few key claims makers.

·        How do these claims makers present their case?

·        Examine the content and characteristics of their claims packages:

·        Do different claims makers agree? Where do they disagree? How much do they disagree?

 

Make sure that at least half of your sources are from mass media sources (newspapers, news media, entertainment such as South Park, news shows such as Bill O’Reilly , CNN, etc) or other generally accessible sources. This will not only shorten the amount of readings you would have to get through for this assignment, but also make it that much clearer for you to present different view points.

Always be vigilant about providing references to any statements you are taking from any source. Unless you use verbatim quotes, you do not need to provide page numbers, though.

 

Use such phrases as

·        “According to this website (ref), the problem is presented as one of …..”

·        “This newspaper article (ref) emphasizes these aspects as the key cause of ….”

·        “This movie (ref) presents the problem of ….. in a glorified light, making heroes out of villains ……”

·        “According to O’Connell Davidson, child pornography is ….”

·        “South Park … presents NAMBLA as ….”

 

Or, to differentiate one claims maker from another, use phrases such as these

 

·        Unlike the previous claims makers discussed, who saw x as the main cause ….

·        A much more emotional appeal against abortion is made by X (ref), who argues that…..

·        At the other end of the debate ……………..

 

Your conclusion to the paper is based on a careful weighing of the different claims makers. Remember, what you will demonstrate in this paper is that you have become a critical analyst of how social problems are presented and an educated consumer or reader of claims makers. Your summarizing and contextualizing of different viewpoints allows you a better understanding of how the social problem is constructed, and why some claims makers might be making some specific claims rather than others.

 

Don’t forget to attach your revised abstract and the ten annotated bibiliographies.

 

 

 

 

Your paper will also include an abstract and a 10 item annotated bibliography.

 

Abstract:

An abstract is a brief explanation of your research question, why it is interesting, how it is relevant as a social problem, what you are going to look at in specific, which theoretical perspective you might be using (maybe not apparent until you know more about your project), and what hypothesis you are making at this point (it is the where, what, why, how, of your research question). It should be about 2-300 words long

Annotated Bibliography:

An annotated bibliography is a work in progress. As part of the fulfillment of the research paper requirement, you are asked to submit a 10 item annotated bibliography.

An annotated bibliography contains

a)      a reference

b)      an annotation (explanation)

 

a) The reference needs to have the complete bibliographic information listed.

  • For Books:       Author. Date. Title. Publisher. Place of Publication.
  • For Journals:     Author. Date. Title of Article. Name of Journal. Volume (Issue): Page numbers range.
  • Newspaper:      Name of Newspaper, date of publication, Author if available, Page number if available.
  • For other forms of publications (websites, chapters in edited volumes, etc, consult the Clarkson Library’s website)

           

b)      The annotation is a brief explanation and description of a particular reference. In this case, you are writing an annotation so that you remember how this annotation is useful to your own research. Indicate what kind of source it is (popular magazine, scholarly article, internet source, etc.) what you learnt from this source, how useful it is to your research, what new and interesting things you learnt from it, how it contradicts or affirms previous things you read, what new questions it raises, etc. Remember that it is a working document, and you take notes about it while you are reading it so that you later realize whether you want to use it and how and why. If there are particularly useful quotes, include them, verbatim, complete with page numbers. That way you can rely on your annotations instead of having to reread the reference again. Each annotation should be about 150-200 words.