Soc 2155, Introduction to Research Methods



Soc 2155, Introduction to Research Methods (Fall, 2009)

Exercise 2:—Academic research + APA style

PLEAE TYPE ALL ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS

Worth 20 Points

1. Find the following, and record the information you will need to create a reference page in APA format (Worth 10 points):

a. Any article in an academic journal where I (your professor for this class) was one of the authors using a “full text” data base. Print the first page of this article and staple it to the assignment.

b. A book about Vince Lombardi that is carried by the UMD library.

c. A newspaper article related to homelessness.

d. A peer reviewed journal (periodical) article related to your research interest (e.g.,

something you might use for your research proposal). Please make sure this article meets the following criteria:

• Please find a piece that was published within the past 10 years.

• Look for an article that reports empirical findings. In other words, the study must use or conduct data analysis and report these findings.

• Look for an article with well-defined sections including theory, hypotheses, data/sample, method/methodology, findings, discussions, and conclusions. Try to find an article that relates to one of your potential research project topics (i.e., that is INTERESTING and EXCITING to YOU!).

You will need to print a copy of this article for part 2 (see below) of this assignment.

Now, create a reference page using the APA style guidelines and the four sources that you located. Hint: An APA reference page has “References” in bold and centered at the top of the page and the articles are listed in alphabetical order based on the last name of the first author of the article. Also, look at the slide show about APA style that is linked to the soc/anth web page.

APA Slides:

2. Using the peer reviewed journal article from section “d” above, answer the following questions (10 Points). Please attach the article to this section.

a. What is/are the author(s) main research questions(s)? Cite the page number.

b. Does the article contain hypotheses? Are these hypotheses based on theory? Describe both hypotheses and theory and cite the page number(s).

c. How do you know the study is empirical (what data is used)?

d. How did they go about “getting” the data? Cite the page number

e. Name and describe at least one of the measures (key variables) described in the study. Be

succinct. Cite the page number.

f. Describe at least one major finding revealed by the study.

If you have any questions about this assignment or if you are not sure whether or not your article is an academic journal article, please feel free to email or stop by during my (or Dane’s) office hours.

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