Using the Library for Sociology Papers | Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Choosing a Topic

Choosing a topic or research question for your project can be a long and arduous task, and may be the hardest part of writing a research paper. Here are some questions that can help you through the process of finding a topic:

What class is the paper for?
What is your professor asking for?
What interests or appeals to you?
What topics do your lectures cover?
Did you have any guest speakers? If so, did they talk about anything of interest to you?

Some sources that may lead you to a topic or research question are:

Textbooks
Lecture Notes
Sociology Subject Guide
Periodicals
Sociology Journals

Initial Evaluation of Your Topic

Early on it is helpful to conduct some preliminary searches on your topic to ascertain if there are enough relevant and available resources you can use to complete your paper. Are there books relevant to your topic in the library? Search the TCNJ Library Catalog.

Do some searches in Sociological Abstracts or Social Sciences Abstracts using key concepts derived from your topic. Depending on your results, it may be necessary to modify or refine your topic.

Refining Your Topic

If your preliminary searches produced too many books and/or articles, you should consider narrowing your topic to something more specific. You can narrow by population, age group, gender, occupational group, race or ethnic group, theoretical approach, time period, or research method. For example, instead of writing about racism, focus on racism or racist violence between two age groups or nationalities. Broad topics are hard to write about because too much information is available.

If you find too few resources, consider broadening your topic. For example, instead of writing about the social impact of violence on television on children between the ages of two and four, write about the impact on elementary school children. Topics that are too obscure and specific can be just as hard to write about as topics that are too broad.

If you haven’t found anything at all in the library, consider choosing a new topic. Discuss your research question and preliminary searches with your professor. She will be able to provide guidance. It is better to change your topic early on than to scramble for a new one two days before your paper is due!

Researching Your Topic

You’ve chosen and, perhaps, refined your topic. Now it is time to do in depth research for your project. Below is a list of resources to use. Make sure to keep track of these, and in particular, note keywords you have used to search book and article databases. This will save you time if you need to backtrack later.

Books:

Search the TCNJ Library Catalog to see what we own. Be sure to do one of the keyword searches, the broadest type of search.
Do look at the Specialized Sociology Resources that the library owns. In particular, the Annual Review of Sociology contains critical reviews of important topics in sociology and each review has an extensive reference section that can be very useful to you.
Search Other Library Catalogs. Through Interlibrary Loan you can request books held by other libraries. Remember, however, that this can take from 10 days to two weeks (although many items come in a week), so place your requests early in the semester.

Articles:

An important aspect of writing a research paper is knowing the differences between scholarly journal articles and popular magazine articles. You need to ask your professor what type of article is required-research papers usually cite scholarly articles. Is This a Scholarly Journal? is a useful guide to distinguishing scholarly periodical sources from popular sources.

Scholarly Databases:

Interdisciplinary Databases:

These periodical databases cross disciplines and also provide access to both popular and scholarly articles.

If you do not know how to access/use any of the above databases, ask a reference librarian!!

Internet Sites:

Analyzing and Evaluating Your Resources

Critical thinking is an extremely important part of the research process. As you collect and read your sources, you might want to consider the following questions:

Is the source biased and in what way?
Is the source current, and is this an important consideration?
How extensively does the source cover my topic?
Who is the author?
Do my sources fit together?

Critically Analyzing Information Sources (Cornell University Libraries) is a useful guide to appraising your resources.

Additionally, evaluating what you find on the World Wide Web is extremely important. Anyone can publish on the Web, and you must critically evaluate information you find there, before including it in your paper.

Writing Your Paper

We each have our own approach to writing a paper. Below are steps you might want to follow and some general points to consider:

Outline-this can be a very useful step in the writing process. Outlining helps you to organize your thoughts and present them in a coherent form.
Your First Draft-get your ideas down and make sure you avoid plagiarizing from your sources.
Revise Your Paper-reread, proofread, revise! If possible, ask your professor to take a look at the paper and offer suggestions. Ask a friend to read for clarity and any spelling/grammar errors.
Final Draft – Make sure your citations fit the style format required by your professor. See Citation & Style Guide for help.

The following guides are also useful:

Books:

A Guide to Writing Sociology Papers edited by Judith Richlin-Klonsky and Ellen Strenski REF HM73 .G78
Tricks of the Trade : How to Think About Your Research While You’re Doing It by Howard S. Becker H91 .B38 1998
Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article by Howard S. Becker H91 .B4 1986

Internet Sites:

Purdue Online Writing Lab
Research Papers (via Purdue Online Writing Lab. Pay particular attention to sections on paraphrasing and plagiarism.)
Writing Resources: University of Michigan Sweetland Writing Center