In this course we will explore a range of topics studied by sociologists to help us better…

In this course we will explore a range of topics studied by sociologists to help us better
understand our social world and our place in it. Sociology allows us to connect our personal
experiences to a broader social context and to understand the larger social forces that impact our
lives. A sociological perspective illuminates how personal choices and individual destinies are
shaped by larger social forces and sometimes constrained by the broader societal context. This
course will engage and perhaps challenge your views on a wide range of issues that affect us all.
The course will provide you with the tools to critically evaluate ‘common-sense’ understandings
of society which are all too often rooted in myth and assumption rather than evidence. The
course aims to develop important academic skills including library research, effective writing,
critical thinking, and active reading. There are a range of topics covered in this course including
sociological theory, methods, culture, socialization, inequality, family, globalization, crime and
deviance, gender and sexuality, and work and the economy.
Learning Outcomes
The learning outcomes of this course are consistent with McMaster’s Undergraduate Degree
Level Expectations. (see
http://cll.mcmaster.ca/COU/pdf/Undergraduate%20Degree%20Level%20Expectations.pdf).
In this course students will develop a comparative and critical analysis of a topic using peer-reviewed sociological articles and present this analysis in both a written and oral format. This
connects to several of the undergraduate degree level expectations including developing a depth
and breadth of knowledge and development of communication skills.
Avenue-to-Learn
Please check Avenue-to-Learn regularly for: announcements, marks, lecture slides and podcasts,
practice multiple choice questions, and other resources. The Academic Integrity and Library
Quiz is on Avenue, as are links to the online library modules and turnitin.com. Instructions for
using turnitin.com are on Avenue. Please do not email the instructor from Avenue as the email
Required Readings
We are using the 7th Edition of these two textbooks; these two textbooks are sold as a package:
Brym, Robert J. 2014. New Society. 7th Edition. Thomson Nelson.
Brym, Robert J. 2014. Society in Question. 7th Edition. Thomson Nelson.
Additionally, you will need to buy:
Becker, Howard S. 2007. Writing for Social Scientists: How To Start and Finish Your Thesis,
Book, or Article. 2nd Edition. University of Chicago Press.
Evaluation
Presentations (one per term, done in tutorial)
Grading rubric posted on Avenue
6 Quizzes (Multiple choice and True or False questions)
Written during lecture time
Assignment #1: Grading rubric posted on Avenue
Includes:
1. Completion of online library modules that
provide instruction on searching Sociological
Abstracts database. We will provide a link to
these modules from Avenue. You must complete
these modules as some of this material will be
included on the Academic Integrity and Library
Quiz.
2. Receiving a mark of at least 80% on the
Academic Integrity and Library Quiz.
(Paper copy submitted in lecture; electronic copy
submitted to turnitin.com on Oct. 20)
Essay: Grading Rubric posted on Avenue (Paper copy
submitted in lecture; electronic copy submitted to
turnitin.com on March 5)
Late Penalties: 5% per day for assignment#1 and the final essay. There are no make-up
assignments to try to improve your mark in the event you do poorly on a quiz, assignment, or
essay.
Tutorial
Students will prepare two presentations (one each term; each presentation is worth 5%) and a
grading rubric will be posted on Avenue. The presentation is based on the student’s written work
(assignment #1 and essay).
Quizzes
Each quiz will be written during lecture time and will consist of multiple choice and true/false
questions. Each quiz is NOT cumulative. You will only be tested on material covered since the
previous quiz.
Assignment #1
Description: Select a topic that interests you and has been studied by sociologists. Find 5 peer-reviewed sociological articles. You will need to identify a specific issue or question to narrow
your scope. For example, the general topic of families is too broad a topic, however a more
specific topic of ‘boomerang’ children (adult children who return to live with their parents)
would be doable. The general topic of crime is too broad, however a more specific topic of the
overrepresentation of aboriginals in the Canadian criminal justice system is focused. The
assignment will be the basis for the final essay due in March.
Includes:
1. Receiving a mark of at least 80% on the Academic Integrity and Library Quiz. This is an
online quiz to help you learn about academic misconduct, plagiarism, and library
research. You will receive a penalty of 20% for Assignment #1 if you do not complete
the Academic Integrity and Library Quiz and receive a mark of 80%.
2. Submission of paper copy and electronic copy to turnitin.com. (If you require assistance
with turnitin.com please contact our Instructional Assistant Gerald Bierling). You will
receive a penalty of 20% for Assignment #1 if you do not submit to turnitin.com. If you
do not wish to submit to turnitin.com you must give Dr. Colavecchia a second paper copy
of your assignment.
Part A: Requirements for Selection of Sources (20 marks)
Requirement #1: All 5 articles must be closely-related reflecting a narrow focus. 10 marks
You must use Sociological Abstracts database to locate these articles.
Requirement #2: All 5 articles must be sociological. 10 marks
Not all articles within Sociological Abstracts database are sociological. There are various ways
of determining whether your article is sociological. First, check the journal name. Sometimes
these explicitly include “Sociology” or “Sociological”, however there are sociological journals
that don’t have “sociology” in their name (i.e. Journal of Marriage and Families). Additionally,
sometimes sociological research is published in related or interdisciplinary fields, such as
criminology. Thus you shouldn’t necessarily exclude an article because it is published in a non-sociological journal. A second way of determining whether the article is sociological is to check
the author’s institutional affiliation (whether they are working in a sociological department or
not). The best way of ensuring that the article is sociological is to read the article and make this
determination based on the content of the article. If you are uncertain about whether an article is
sociological meet with your Teaching Assistant during their office hours and bring your article.
Requirement #3: All 5 articles must be peer-reviewed
Deduction of 5 marks for each non peer-reviewed article included. To ensure that your articles
are peer-reviewed select the “peer-review” option when searching for articles.
Requirement #4: 2 out of the 5 articles must have been published after Jan 1 2006.
Deduction of 5 marks if one article is not recent. Deduction of an additional 5 marks if two
articles are not recent.
Requirement #5: Length of articles must be acceptable.
Deduction of 5 marks for each article that is deemed to be of insufficient length. Do not include
short research notes which tend to be less than 10 pages in length. Peer-reviewed articles tend to
be 10-30 pages in length.
Part B (50 marks)
For each article, answer questions 1 and 2 below.
Answer each of the following questions in your own words and in sentence format. No point
form is allowed. You are expected to paraphrase others’ words and are discouraged from using
any direct quotations in each of the following answers (with the exception of short phrases or
terms that may appear in quotations, ie., Colavecchia uses the term “moneywork” to describe the
labour involved in managing family finances).
Answer Questions 1 and 2 for each of your 5 articles (10 marks per article * 5 articles=50 marks)
1. In 2 or 3 sentences outline the key research questions of this study. (5 marks)
2. In 4 to 6 sentences describe the key findings of the study. (5 marks)
Format: Provide full bibliographic information for the article using APA (author, year of
publication, article title, journal name, volume number, page numbers) followed by your
answers.
Part C (30 marks)
3. In 6-10 sentences compare the research questions that are pursued in your 5 articles. You
need to make explicit connections across the 5 articles. You must use in-text citations to
indicate the specific articles you are referring to, or comparing. Be very precise in your
use of in-text citations. If you make a statement and the in-text citation lists 3 articles this
means that the statement you have made only applies to the 3 articles. The in-text
citations do not need to consistently include all 5 articles, however you need to show that
you are making comparisons across as many of your 5 articles as possible.
4. In 6-10 sentences draw connections between the findings of your studies. Again, you
must use in-text citations to indicate which articles you are referring to.
Please note: Questions 3 and 4 are asking you to draw connections across the articles in terms of
their research questions and findings. You are encouraged to use this comparative analysis for
your final essay and you are permitted to go beyond this and to draw connections across your
articles in relation to other issues, including but not limited to: theory, social policy, and
methodology.
Referencing: You must use APA (American Psychological Association) referencing format. It
is important that you are careful about your referencing in order to avoid plagiarism. We will be
using Turnitin.com to detect plagiarised assignments and essays. In the event that there is
plagiarism the student will receive a zero for the essay. Further consequences might also arise as
plagiarism constitutes academic misconduct at McMaster University. Presenting someone else’s
words as your own is plagiarism. Presenting someone else’s ideas as your own is also plagiarism.
When using someone else’s words, the student must put the words in quotation marks and cite
the source (author, year of publication, page reference). When using someone else’s ideas (and
the student’s own words) the student must cite the source (author and year of publication). If
you are unclear about what plagiarism is please speak to Professor Colavecchia.
Essay
Description: The essay will build on assignment #1 and will be a synthesis and critical and
comparative analysis of your 5 articles. Another way of saying this is that you are showing the
reader that you comprehend the complexity of the research and can engage with it in a thoughtful
manner. You need to develop connections across your 5 articles without resorting to merely
summarizing each article. The objective of the paper is to analyze the topic from a sociological
perspective by drawing on sociological research. What does sociological research have to say
about your topic? The following are suggestions for what you might want to discuss in your
paper.
Comparisons across 5 articles in relation to:
? Central research questions pursued by researchers and significance of the questions
? Key findings (Address complexity here; avoid temptation to simplify findings)
? Theoretical approaches (Differences in theoretical approaches taken by the various
researchers studying your topic)
? Methodological approaches (i.e., How might differences in methodology or sampling
impact the findings?)
? Policy Implications (i.e., How might you explain variation in policy suggestions made by
researchers studying the same topic?)
? Directions for future research (these should be grounded in the findings of your studies)
Format: 8 pages (excluding Title page and References). Do not exceed page limit.
Double-spaced, 12-point font, number your pages.
Thesis Statements: Many of you have written position papers where you take one side of a
debate and use selective evidence to support your position. This essay is NOT a position paper;
it is a synthesis and critical analysis of sociological research. Rather than a one-sentence thesis
where you take a position on an issue, the kind of thesis that you are writing for this essay is one
where you will take a few sentences and be very specific about what sociological research has to
say about your topic.
Here is an example of a thesis that is incorrect because it is based on opinion rather than being
informed by research on the topic: In this paper I will argue that divorce has negative
consequences for children’s emotional, physical, social, and academic well-being and I will use
sociological research to support this position.
Here is an example of a thesis that is correct, and the main reason that it is correct is that the
thesis has been informed by sociological research rather than being based on personal opinion or
experience: Research on the impact of divorce on children throughout the life course suggests
that there is no singular uniform outcome for children (cite specific source). This research
dispels the myth that divorce is devastating to all children. This essay will examine recent
sociological studies on the role of non custodial fathers. It examines the ways that involvement
with non-custodial fathers impact children’s adjustment to parental divorce.
Sources: Same 5 peer-reviewed sources as Assignment #1. If your TA indicated on Assignment
#1 that particular articles needed to be replaced you must do this for your essay.
Using Quotes:
? Do not use long quotations to fill space throughout your essay
? If you are going to use quotes, make sure they are short, be selective in what you decide
to quote, and ensure that you have integrated the quote into your discussion (need to
explicate quote).
? Do not just stick a quote into your essay without doing something with the quote.
? Limit the number of quotes you use by putting others’ work into your own words. You
must cite the original author’s ideas even if you have put it into your own words.
Writing and Organization: How you structure your essay is important. Organization is not
merely a reflection of writing style. An organized essay reflects clear logic and reasoning. Avoid
summarizing each article in sequence. This reflects poor organization and an underdeveloped
analysis. You must demonstrate that you have read and synthesized the research cited in your
bibliography. Your essay should be organized around major ideas, themes, findings, or
arguments, not by each individual article.
Many of you learned in high school that an essay has a one sentence thesis followed by three
points, or three body paragraphs. This rule is not appropriate for university academic papers and
should be disregarded. You will take several sentences to identify the specific issues that you
will examine in the paper. This takes the place of a one-sentence thesis statement. You can have
as many points as you want in the paper, keeping in mind that it is better to focus on fewer issues
in greater depth than to cover numerous points superficially.
Subheadings: The student can use subheadings, however the use of subheadings does not
necessarily mean that the paper is organized. Ensure that the material you have in each section
under the subheading is organized. Group similar ideas in the same paragraph and use
transitions when you are moving from one issue or idea to the next. The reader should know
where the writer is headed and it is the writer’s job to make this clear. Do not jump from one
point to the next without adequate discussion or analysis. It is better to focus on fewer issues, and
to examine them in greater depth, rather than touching on many issues in a superficial manner.
There is no singular way to organize this paper as it is dependent on the specific issues that each
student is addressing in their paper. Thus, no two papers will be organized in the same way.
Introduction: The essay must have an introduction where the student is explicit in highlighting
the issues that will be addressed in the paper. Be as specific as possible in this introduction:
what are you planning to address in your essay?
Conclusion: Include a conclusion at the end of the paper which highlights what was discussed.
You might also point out directions for future research (which connects to ideas that were raised
in the essay).
Common Areas of Weakness:
? Basing an essay on inappropriate sources (sources that are not sociological; or sources
that are not closely related)
? Inadequate critical reading and reflection of articles; poor comprehension of articles
? Summary of articles rather than synthesis and analysis of articles
? Clarity of expression (often tied to problems with sentence construction and paragraph
construction)
? Inappropriate use of quotes (too many/too long quotes that are not integrated into the
discussion)
? Inclusion of unnecessary bibliographic information within text of discussion (author
name and year of publication is sufficient, you do not need to include article title or
journal name as this information appears in the References)
? Inadequate editing of work
? Essays that are too short
? Poor organization, discussions that address each article sequentially rather than having
the discussion be organized by idea, theme, or finding
Suggestions:
? Go to the library for help if you need assistance with library research
? Write multiple drafts of your essay (as many as possible)
? Have others proofread and edit your work (i.e. to identify sentences/sections that are
unclear)
? Invest time at the beginning in selecting articles that address similar issues. Don’t just
pick the first few sources you find
? Go to the Student Success Centre for assistance with your writing
? If you are unclear about what constitutes plagiarism speak to the Professor
? Start early, don’t procrastinate!
Turnitin.com: In this course we will be using a web-based service (Turnitin.com) to reveal
plagiarism. Students will be expected to submit their work electronically to Turnitin.com and to
submit a paper copy in lecture. Students who do not wish to submit their work to Turnitin.com
must still submit a copy to the instructor. To see the Turnitin.com Policy, please go to
www.mcmaster.ca/academicintegrity. Instructions for using Turnitin.com will be provided.
Calendar of Topics and Readings
Date Topic Readings
Thursday Sep 4 Introduction No readings assigned
Monday Sep 8
Thursday Sep 11
Monday Sep 15
Thursday Sep 18
Monday Sep 22 Assignment #1 Assistance Ch 3 Becker
Thursday Sep 25
Monday Sep 29: Deadline for
Academic Integrity and
Library Quiz
Thursday Oct 2 Quiz #1
Monday Oct 6
Thursday Oct 9
Thursday Oct 16 Families Ch 10 NS
Monday Oct 20: Assignment
#1 Due in lecture
Thursday Oct 23
Monday Oct 27 Quiz#2
Monday Nov 3 Mass Media Ch 5 NS
Date Topic Readings
Thursday Nov 6
Monday Nov 10
Thursday Nov 13
Monday Nov 17
Thursday Nov 20
Monday Nov 24 Quiz #3
Thursday Nov 27
Monday Dec 1
Monday Jan 5
Thursday Jan 8
Monday Jan 12
Thursday Jan 15
Monday Jan 19 Essay Assistance No Readings
Thursday Jan 22
Monday Jan 26
Thursday Jan 29 Quiz #4
Monday Feb 2
Thursday Feb 5
Monday Feb 9
Thursday Feb 12
Feb 16-20 Reading Week
Monday Feb 23
Thursday Feb 26
Monday March 2 Quiz #5
Thursday March 5 Essays Due in Lecture
Monday March 9
Thursday March 12
Monday March 16
Thursday March 19
Date Topic Readings
Monday March 23
Thursday March 26
Monday March 30 Quiz #6
Thursday April 2 Course Wrap Up No readings
Monday April 6 Pick up of Graded Essays
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY:
Academic dishonesty consists of misrepresentation by deception or by other fraudulent means
and can result in serious consequences, e.g. the grade of zero on an assignment, loss of credit
with a notation on the transcript (notation reads: "Grade of F assigned for academic dishonesty"),
and/or suspension or expulsion from the university.
It is your responsibility to understand what constitutes academic dishonesty. For information on
the various kinds of academic dishonesty please refer to the Academic Integrity Policy,
specifically Appendix 3, located at http://www.mcmaster.ca/policy/Students-AcademicStudies/AcademicIntegrity.pdf
The following illustrates only three forms of academic dishonesty:
1. Plagiarism, e.g. the submission of work that is not one's own or for which other credit has
been obtained.
2. Improper collaboration in group work.
3. Copying or using unauthorized aids in tests and examinations.
In this course we will be using a software package designed to reveal plagiarism. Students will
be required to submit their work electronically and in hard copy so that it can be checked for
academic dishonesty.
DEPARTMENTAL/UNIVERSITY POLICIES:
Do NOT fax assignments. Please see your instructor for the most appropriate way to submit
assignments.
The Sociology staff do NOT date-stamp assignments, nor do they monitor the submission or
return of papers.
The McMaster Student Absence Form (http://www.mcmaster.ca/msaf/ is a self reporting tool for
Undergraduate Students to report absences that last up to 5 days and provides the ability to
request accommodation for any missed academic work. Please note, this tool cannot be used
during any final examination period.
You may submit a maximum of 1 Academic Work Missed request per term. It is YOUR
responsibility to follow up with your instructor immediately regarding the nature of the
accommodation.
If you are absent more than 5 days, exceed 1 request per term, or are absent for a reason other
than medical, you MUST visit your Associate Dean’s Office (Faculty Office). You may be
required to provide supporting documentation.
This form should be filled out when you are about to return to class after your absence.
Students should check the web, the white board and the Undergraduate Bulletin board outside
the Sociology office (KTH-627) for notices pertaining to Sociology classes or departmental
business (eg. class scheduling information, location of mailboxes and offices, tutorial
information, class cancellations, balloting, TA job postings, etc.).
Computer use in the classroom is intended to facilitate learning in that particular lecture or
tutorial. At the discretion of the instructor, students using a computer for any other purpose may
be required to turn the computer off for the remainder of the lecture or tutorial.
The instructor and university reserve the right to modify elements of the course during the term.
The university may change the dates and deadlines for any or all courses in extreme
circumstances. If either type of modification becomes necessary, reasonable notice and
communication with the students will be given with explanation and the opportunity to comment
on changes. It is the responsibility of the student to check his/her McMaster email and course
websites weekly during the term and to note any changes.
Effective September 1, 2010, it is the policy of the Faculty of Social Sciences that all e-mail
communication sent from students to instructors (including TAs), and from students to staff,
must originate from the student’s own McMaster University e-mail account. This policy protects
confidentiality and confirms the identity of the student. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure
that communication is sent to the university from a McMaster account. If an instructor becomes
aware that a communication has come from an alternate address, the instructor may not reply at
his or her discretion.