The topic you select must be approached from a sociological perspective; that is

The topic you select must be approached from a sociological perspective; that
is, the topic is not to be approached from a medical, nursing, economic, natural science
or literary perspective, etc. If you find that most of your articles are coming from
journals like The Economist, Psychological Development, The Congressional Quarterly,
or The Hastings Center, your paper is probably not going to have a sociological focus.
You may not use more than one article from these sources.
2) Your term paper must focus on a social issue, social problem, or topic that
relate examines differences among people or groups. Examples: gun control, welfare
reform, , Black Lives Matter, abortion policy, immigration, undocumented persons,
DACA, race and mass incarceration, detention, helicopter parentis, sports, etc. The
analysis must be sociological and not a history of the issue.
3) Your paper must focus on the United States.
4) You must use a minimum of five journal articles that come from
appropriate sociological journals as the basis of your paper. This means that you may
not rely on reference books, textbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, monographs,
newspapers, news magazines, web sites, book reviews, conferences papers,
periodicals or popular magazines. In order to identify these appropriate sociological
journals, you must use the social science sorting device of the SocINDEX
(computer program in RVCC library) to get your references. You must use at least five
articles from this index. Failure to do so will result in a failing grade on your term paper.
Most community libraries do not have the SocIndex, therefore, plan to spend a couple of
hours in the RVCC library identifying appropriate articles for your research paper or
using the resources online. Articles retrieved through ProQuest or other on-line paper
sources may not necessarily be articles found in SocINDEX; therefore, it is essential
that you double check whether these articles are referenced here. If you are not sure,
ask me! You may not use Wikipedia.
5) Articles that are in journals that are not owned by RVCC may be ordered
through the RVCC Library’s Inter-Library loan program. Ask me or the Reference
Librarian to assist you in ordering the articles that you need. Because there may be a
delay in getting the articles through the Inter-Library loan service, it is necessary that
you begin to work on you term paper early in the semester. Lateness in receiving
articles is not an acceptable excuse for a late term paper.
6) Your paper should be pages in length; therefore, the topic cannot be
too broad or too narrow not including a cover page. As a rule of thumb, if there are
many books written about your topic, it is probably too broad to cover in a this term
paper. On the other hand, if there are less than ten journal references or if the articles
that you selected all very short, your topic is probably too narrow.
7) Your paper must be typed double-spaced, with 12-point type and margins of
1” around. It is to be submitted in CANVAS. Use ASA (American Sociological
Association) or APA referencing. This same style is usually found in the journal articles
that you will be using to write your paper. It is not the style usually used in English
classes. Do not use MLA. Any article referenced in the body of your paper should
also be referenced on the reference or citation page at the end of your paper and any
reference on the reference or citation page should be found in the body of the paper.
8) You will receive 5 points extra credit for turning your term paper topic and
your research sources. The first is due by the first examination and the latter, by the
second examination. They are to be submitted in CANVAS. I will give you feedback on
whether or not your paper topic and/or references are acceptable. Hopefully, this will
prevent you from embarking on the writing of a paper that is not acceptable to me.
You will not receive the credit after the due date. If you come to see me, we will discuss
your term paper and I will help with the library search. You will receive the extra credit
immediately and will not need to turn in the material in CANVAS. I will print out the
articles that we select from my office.
9) Plagiarism will result in a grade of “F” for the course and student will be
brought up on charges before the College administration. If I suspect that you have
plagiarized, I will ask you to bring copies of the articles that you used for the paper to
me. Make sure you keep these until your term paper is returned.
10) Papers must be grammatically correct and free from typing errors.
PROOFREAD your paper before you hand it in. If you need assistance, use the Writing
Center. If you want me to help with the writing of the term paper, you must go to the
Writing Center first