Website: http://employees.oneonta.edu/thomasa/

Course Description & Objectives

This is the senior level capstone course for the Liberal Arts Sociology major.  By the end of this course, the student will have a full understanding of the application of sociological theory to contemporary issues.

Course Format & Policies

1.       You are expected to attend all classes and read all assigned materials.  Participation is mandatory.

2. In the event that you miss one of your presentations, you will be assigned a grade of zero (0), regardless of any circumstances or notification of the instructor.  Any changes to the seminar presentation schedule must be addressed in class at least one week prior to the class at issue.  This can be mitigated by finding a replacement to present your material, but full credit will not be granted.

3. Assignments are considered due at the beginning of class.  Late assignments are lowered a grade for every class period late.  Missing a class and turning in an assignment later the same day is still late. 

4. Always save a copy of any work submitted for your own records.

Grading

Required Materials

PACKET: Packet of Readings; HUXLEY: Brave New World; ORWELL: 1984

Class Presentations

Each member of the class will present material from two of the readings to the class and lead the discussion for both of those sessions.  Topics will be decided in class.  Visual aids are not necessary and presentations are to be informal.  However, each presenter should prepare an outline of the readings for each respective day and make photocopies (at their own expense) for each member of the class, including the instructor.  This assignment is worth a combined forty percent of the final grade (20% each presentation).

Schedule

Class Participation

This is a seminar class.  A seminar class is only as effective as it is lively.  As such, please note that participation is a sizable portion of the grade.  I will be keeping notes during each class.  The grade will be determined by your overall participation in class during the semester as well as your performance on weekly questions, as noted below.  As life is life, you can miss one week of assignments – that is, one class – before penalty.

            Weekly Questions:  Based on the reading, write a question that addresses one or more concepts discussed.  The question should have background information and/or an explanation of the relevant passages in the reading.  The question can also seek comparison or any other intellectual (and sociological) theme as discussed in the reading.  In other words, a question is not a sentence but is rather a paragraph.  The idea is to generate a series of questions that can be picked and address by the remainder of the class for discussion.  You should keep your name on the question when you submit it, but it will stripped from the question when they are all compiled into one class sheet.

            Submitting Questions:  Questions should be submitted via EMAIL to thomasa@oneonta.edu by 10:00 PM on the Sunday night prior to class.

            Grading Questions:  Questions will be graded on the three point scale: √ +, √, and √ -.  A √ + will be a question that is intellectually challenging and/or probing of the material, and may or may not reference past readings, current events, or other facets of social science theory.  A √ will be a decent question that simply does not warrant a √ +.  In order to receive these grades, the question must be turned in on time.  Questions deserving of the above grades turned in late will automatically receive a √ -.  An inferior (e.g., one or two sentences) question received late or not at all will receive no credit.

            Learning Question Grades:  Questions will not be returned.  If you want a grade, you must ask during office hours.  I will reply to late emailed questions with the word “late” in the body of the email. 

Research Paper

Each member of the class is required to conduct research on a topic of their own choice, but subject to approval of the instructor.  The research must be conducted on a sociological topic.  The paper must be written in a formal style.  As a college senior, the quality of research and writing should be of the same approximate quality that would be expected of a professional sociologist.  The paper will be reviewed in three stages, as shown below.  All papers must be typed or word processed, double-spaced, and stapled or otherwise secured.

Paper topic: Write a one to two page proposal of your research topic, including the methods you plan to use, ethical issues, sampling issues, and any other relevant information.  You are free to use any credible research method, but you should remember that you are going to be required to actually conduct this research.  As such, your project must be doable, and you must have a plan for finishing this research during the course of the semester.  It is recommended that you consider a historical-comparative, secondary data analysis, or content analysis study because they more readily lend themselves to the permitted timeframe, but it is your choice.

Due: Sept. 13, 2007 in class

Literature Review:  Conduct a thorough review of the research literature on your topic.  This should include a discussion of relevant theoretical issues, past research, and possible public policy/political debates centering on this topic.  You should cover all major angles and be as non-biased as possible.  Lengths will vary depending on your topic, but it is difficult to believe that a credible research topic will lend itself to a literature review and theoretical discussion of less than ten pages.  For certain research methods, such as Historical-Comparative research, this will comprise the largest single portion of the final paper.  For others, this section maybe shorter but that will be offset by the fact that the research itself must still be conducted.

Due: Oct. 18, 2007 in class

Methods Section:  This assignment is required of all students regardless of topic.  The methods section is a statement of how the research is to be conducted.  This includes provisions of sampling, sampling frames, database acquisition, and all other information relevant to other researchers in terms of replicating your study.  For research oriented projects, such as a content analysis or secondary data analysis, this section should be fairly detailed, including such factors as where the data was obtained, relative merits of the method over other methods, etc.  For historical-comparative research and theoretical papers, this should include a discussion of sources and viewpoints, but in practice the final paper may incorporate this material in a section other than a method section.

Due: Nov. 8, 2007 in class

Final Paper: This is the complete account of your research.  The paper should be structured as follows:

            Introduction: Describes the project, including any scientific, political, or policy debates surrounding the topic.

            Literature Review: Overview of relevant theories and past research regarding the topic.  In addition, debates taking place on empirical grounds should be discussed in the section.

            Method: This is required of papers that are neither historical-comparative nor theoretical in focus.  This section describes in detail the research methods utilized and the advantages or disadvantages.  This includes provisions of sampling, sampling frames, database acquisition, and all other information relevant to other researchers in terms of replicating your study.

            Findngs: Again, this section is most appropriate to research driven studies that are not historical-comparative.  This should include the basic findings of the study, including qualitative descriptions and quantitative testing where appropriate. 

            Discussion & Conclusion: This section should contain any conclusions from the study, such as interpretations of the significance of the data and ramifications for future research.  Policy ramifications and social implications can also be discussed here.  This is the one piece of the paper that can be used as a soapbox of sorts, but your remarks must be grounded in the research literature and/or the findings of this study.  Do not rely on “common sense” as the arbiter of your remarks as things are often not as obvious as we assume.

Due: Dec. 13, 2007 in class