Sociology 101 Section 13
J. Hammond
Assignment 2 due November 10 (note change of date)

      Choose a journal article that reports on a piece of original
empirical sociological research.  An article is based on empirical
sociological research if it uses evidence drawn from real-world
research to determine whether the author's hypothesis is true or not. 
The article must therefore not be a theoretical piece or a review of
past research, but rather an article reporting on a study done by the
authors.  Their evidence may take the form of quantitative
(statistical) data or non-quantitative, observational data, such as
questionnaires, interviews, case study, observation, content
analysis, or experiments.

      The article must have been published in 1990 or later in one of
the following journals:

American Journal of Sociology               Social Problems
American Sociological Review                Sociological Quarterly
Gender and                                  Sociological Forum
Journal of Health and Social Behavior            Sociology
Journal of Marriage and the Family          Sociology of Education
Sex Roles                                   Symbolic Interaction
Social Psychology Quarterly                 Work and Occupations       
Social Forces

      Write a two-page paper giving a clear, thorough, concise summary
of the article.  (Stick to the page limit.  One of the purposes of
this assignment is to be concise.)  Include information on the
following: general purpose of research, research questions or
hypotheses, theories, sample or subjects, method, variables and
measures, major result.  Include a xerox copy of the title and
abstract of the article.

      There are two important things to keep in mind when choosing an
article from one of these journals: it must be empirical, and you
must understand it.  Some of these articles require a graduate
education to understand.  Keep looking until you find something
comprehensible.  If you are uncertain whether the article you have
chosen is empirical or not, show me a copy of the abstract and first
page (in office hours, not after class).

      There are several further things to keep in mind when you write:

      1. Do not spend a lot of time summarizing the previous
literature the authors summarize.

      2. Don't be frightened by statistics.  Look for the explanation
in words of what the statistics say.

      3. Don't plagiarize: If you use a direct quote, even only part
of a sentence, you must use quotation marks and indicate the page
number in parenthesis following the quote.

      4. Don't quote too often.  Put the authors' meaning in your own
words.  Some articles are very heavily laden with technical terms and
jargon.  You should be careful to translate these into the terms of
ordinary language.

      5. When you finish your paper, read over the abstract and see if
you identified the same things the author did as the most important
points.

      6. Include a reference to the article in bibliography format at
the end.

      The following rules apply to all papers for this class, except
that the length may be different.  Papers must be typed, double-
spaced, maximum of two pages.  Give your paper a title which tells
what it is about (not "Assignment 2," not the title of the article
you are writing about).  Put your title at the top of the first page,
and in addition include a title page with the title of your paper,
the course and section number, the assignment number, the date due,
the date submitted, and your name and ID.  Number the pages, not
counting the title page.