PROPOSED RESEARCH TOPIC
SOC 302
Qualitative Analysis
Due Date:
Weight:
Friday, January 23, 2015 at 12pm
5% of final grade
GOAL: Your goal is to propose a research topic for your independent research project in this course. INSTRUCTIONS:
Your assignment should be a maximum of 1-page long (250 words), double-spaced, using Times
New Roman 12pt font with 1” margins, MS Word file format (no PDF please).
Statement of Research Interest (100-150 words)
Provide a research statement explaining what you are interested in studying and why. The statement of interest might take the form of a research question you are looking to answer or it might be a more general inquiry into a particular area of social life.
Reflect on your reasons for choosing this research topic. Is this an interest that arises out of existing literature that you read in a previous course? Are you motivated by your own observations of the social world? Or are there other motivations for your choosing this research topic?
At this stage, which method do you anticipate using to investigate this topic? For this project, you will have the option of EITHER conducting two interviews (once ethics approval has been granted) OR conducting discourse analysis of 20-25 newspaper articles or the equivalent.
Research Justification (50-100 words)
Use the criteria discussed in class to provide a justification for your research topic. What makes your proposed research (a) interesting? (b) feasible? (c) sociological?
