Social Theory and Social Research

Abstract

This course will help students integrate and apply various aspects of the sociology major, as well as, culminate your students' undergraduate education more broadly. In this sense, this course is the capstone of college life. In another sense, this course is also a bridge to the future because students will act as mature, self-directed thinkers, just as they will as they begin their professional life. In this class, students will design, carry out, and write a senior research paper that is a minimum of 20 to 24 pages long. Based on some original data collection or analysis, this paper will not be a term paper that only reports on other people’s research. The reader should learn about some new information, or understand old information in a fresh way.This is the final required course for majors in sociology. It also fulfills the requirement of the College of Arts and Sciences for a Writing Intensive course in the major. Students in this course should be senior sociology majors who have completed Sociology 205 (Sociological Thought), Sociology 206 (Principles of Social Research), and Sociology 301 (Statistics for Social Research). In some cases, juniors who have completed the prerequisites may enroll.