Requirements
How your final grade is calculated
Special note
Academic accommodations are available for students with disabilities who are registered with the Office of Disability and Support Services. Students in need of disability accommodations should schedule an appointment with me early in the semester to discuss any accommodations for this course which have been approved by the Office of Disability and Support Services, as indicated in your DSS accommodation letter.
Attendance and class participation
Attendance in class is mandatory. Missing more than two classes will affect your final grade. Class participation involves (a) doing the readings by the day they're assigned, (b) joining in class discussions, and (c) bringing to class a set of empirical questions or interests that you'll refine and pursue through the assignments and class discussions.
A note about using technology in this course: I'm happy to let you use laptops and iPads to do the electronic readings and to take notes. Please be conscientious when using these technologies. If you find your reading comprehension suffers because you don't have a hard copy to write notes in, then print the electronic readings out. And please limit your use of laptops and iPads in the classroom to note-taking and internet browing of course materials only. If your use of these technologies distracts yourself, other students, or me, you may be asked to turn off your wi-fi or your device.
Student CHIP assignment
You'll select one of the chapter sub-sections after Chapter 1 (i.e., #4-29) in Carter's Doing Sociology with Student CHIP and answer all of its questions. Hand in a paper (or reprint the pages of the textbook) with final answers and all required crosstabulations and graphs.
Survey instrument evaluation
You'll propose an empirical hypothesis and write a set of survey questions to test it. You'll bring these to class, exchange them with another student, and evaluate their work by giving constructive criticism and writing alternate wordings on survey questions/responses that need it. You'll be graded for your evaluation of the other student's survey instrument.
Take-home midterm
A take-home midterm and accompanying research article will be handed out in class on March 3. You'll e-mail back your answers within 48 hours, by noon on Saturday, March 5 (the first day of spring break).
Poughkeepsie survey essay
You'll administer 25 surveys in the City of Poughkeepsie on one of the Survey Day weekends scheduled in March for the Building Bridges community food assessment. Using this experience, you'll write a 4-5 page essay discussing the effectiveness of structured surveys and the ethical issues raised by survey administration. Extra credit for taking part in more than one Survey Day weekend!
Fieldwork exercise
You'll conduct field research in an open public setting and turn in a report containing detailed field notes, several hypotheses based on your observations, and a discussion of Your fieldwork's sociological relevance. (Further instructions will be given out in class.)
Research proposal
In a 10-15 page paper, you'll propose an original research project. You'll briefly explain its sociological relevance; discuss the existing scholarship on your topic by finding and reviewing two sociology journal articles; formulate testable hypotheses; discuss questions of objectivity, ethics, and sampling; and design a measurement instrument (e.g., a survey, fieldwork methods, experiment, content analysis) that could actually be used to carry out the research.
For specific instructions on this assignment, click here.
Take-home final exam
A take-home exam will be distributed on the last day of class, May 3, to be turned in on May 11. |