LIBRARY EXERCISE AND RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Your task is to formulate a research hypothesis or proposition which you will investigate in your Sociology 371-372 Project. In this first step you will begin a review of the literature on that topic -- especially the dependent variable. You should proceed by the following steps listed below.

Steps:

1. State your proposition.

For example: Religious secularization is positively related to urbanization and industrialization or occupational prestige varies inversely with degree of participation in extended families among black college graduates.

2. Define all the sociological terms in your proposition--dependent variable and independent and control variables.

3. Find out something about the history and use of the concept which you have chosen as your dependent variable. Source: Encyclopedia of Sociology. (Use the Index in Volume 4 for access to an article related to your concept.) Give a one paragraph summary of the article. Also give the name of the author of the article.

4. Give three references on this concept from the Encyclopedia of Sociology article.

5. Using the computer catalog (PALS), find one book which relates to the concept.

6. Using the Expanded Academic Index available through PALS, find three references on this concept

7. Find three references on this concept in the Socioile and list them in proper form.

8. Find three references on this concept in the Social Science Citation Index and list them in proper form.

9. List three print or electronic resource (book, article, pamphlet, journal, etc.) found on the Internet (World Wide Web) which is relevant to your topic. At the end of your resource add the URL (World Wide Web address beginning with http://www.) of this listing. You might want to check out my website: http://www.stolaf.edu/people/leming/main.html.

10. Select one of the articles from your bibliography (now 16 references), and do the following:
a. Write a 100 word abstract of the article.
b. Generate three more references from its list of references (you will now have 16 references in your
bibliography)
c. Find 3 citations (if you can) from the Social Science Citation Index and list them in proper form (you will now
have 19 references in your bibliography).

Use the following format in listing your references:

Book: Author's Name (Last, First)
Year Title. Where Published: Publisher

Example: Berger, Peter
1967 The Sacred Canopy. New York: Doubleday and Company.

Article: Author's Name (Last, First)
Year "Title." Journal Name. Vol #, No #, (Month): Pages.

Example: Wuthnow, Robert
1976 "Recent patterns of secularization: A problem of
generations?" American Sociological Review, 41, 9
(October): 850-867.

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