Writing a Sociological Student Term Paper: Steps and Scheduling

Abstract

This article provides instructors with some useful tips for constructing an activity log which directs students from point to point in the process of writing a sociologically-oriented term paper. Papers written for courses must incorporate principles of sociological theory, concepts, and methodology. Therefore, in guiding students through a stepby-step developmental process for writing a sociological term paper, the following objectives are taken into consideration: 1) to engage students in exploring ideas and materials taught throughout the term, 2) to expose students to social reality, 3) to enhance students' familiarity with the application of sociological concepts, 4) to teach students how to apply the principles of sociological theory and methods to the social phenomena being explored, 5) to encourage students to formulate propositions that make sense of facts (Giddens 1987) and that can be applied to their own experiences, 6) to expand their knowledge beyond the frame of the assigned readings, and 7) to enhance their writing creativity. Requiring term papers, as partial or complete fulfillment of course requirements, is a widely used method of evaluating students' performance in courses. Often students start writing a term paper without any knowledge of how to begin or what to do. For many, writing a term paper is equivalent to extracting information from a few books or summarizing a book in an essay with an introduction stating, this paper, I am going to study.... Despite the clarity of their contents, these papers are neither original nor sociologically oriented. In order to mitigate such problems, six sequential steps lead students from choosing a topic to the completion of a viable sociological term paper. Together these steps constitute doing sociology since they aim to encourage and develop students' interest in the pragmatic aspects of through a type of selfengaging inquiry. This inquiry not only provides the means for achieving one or more objectives of the course (O'Connor 1985), but also offers students the grounds for knowing their community. The end result will alleviate the notion that courses are merely concept memorization (Wagenaar 1984).