PROPOSAL FOR SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Your assignment is to write a 2-3 page (single spaced) proposal for a sociological research project focused on Baltimore City. Your paper should contain the following sections.

Section 1: Identify a Problem for Sociological Research
In the first part of your paper, choose one sociological problem present in Baltimore City today and explain why you believe it deserves further study. You can choose any problem or issue you like, but keep in mind that a definition of sociology is “people doing things together” (Ferris and Stein, p.9). The problem you select should be one that involves interactions between people or social institutions.

Section 2: Write a Research Question
Sociological research begins with questions. For instance, why do children drop out of school? What is the relationship between poverty and crime? Do men experience gender discrimination in the workplace? Write a research question based on the sociological problem you have chosen. This does not need to be a formal hypothesis, but simply an open-ended question.

Section 3: Apply Three Sociological Concepts to the Issue
Choose 3 of the sociological concepts you have learned about this semester and describe how those 3 concepts can be used to better understand the issue you have selected. For instance, unemployment is an issue facing Baltimore today. Three sociological concepts connected to unemployment are social class, education, and the economy. For inspiration about sociological concepts that could connect to the issue you have chosen, browse the table of contents of our textbook.

The most important part of this section is your description of how each of the three sociological concepts could be used to help understand the issue. In a research project about unemployment in Baltimore, for example, the sociological concept of social class could be used to understand the link between education and income and to understand how employment is linked to power and prestige. This section of your paper must incorporate specific information from the textbook about the 3 sociological concepts you have chosen.

Section 4: Explain How Your Research would be Useful
briefly explain how the results of your research could make a contribution to understanding or solving the problem. What would we know as a result of your research that we do not know now, for instance?

Section 5: Identify and Summarize Existing Research
Identify 3 academic journal articles or books (not newspaper or magazine articles) that contain information relevant to your project. The most relevant articles would be written by sociologists, but articles written by professionals working in related fields are acceptable. Using APA format, create a bibliography at the end of your paper with entries for each of the 3 information sources. For each entry, write 3-4 sentences explaining why the article would be helpful for your research project. You will need to read the articles and browse the books so that you can explain specifically how each information source would be useful for the project you have in mind. Do not simply paraphrase or copy the abstract available online.