miguel is doing a research paper

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• Authors: Heather Griffiths, Nathan Keirns
• Publisher/website: OpenStax
• Book title: Introduction to Sociology 2e
• Publication date: Apr 24, 2015
• Location: Houston, Texas
• Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology-2e/pages/1-introduction-to-sociology
• Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology-2e/pages/2-key-terms

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Sociology CH 2 Flashcards

Kyle is collecting newspaper clippings from his grandfather about the American public's perception of World War II. This is an example of ______.

Secondary data

What is the importance of interpretive framework?

It leads to in-depth knowledge of a participant's social world.

Reliability is defined by the text as:

A measure of a study's consistency that considers how likely results are to be replicated if a study is reproduced.

A class of third graders is told that the assistant principal will be visiting their class to confirm their teacher's reports of bad behavior. When the principal visits, the students behave perfectly. This is an example of ________.

The Hawthorne Effect

Miguel is doing a research paper on New York City's Stone Wall riots of 1969. He visits the scene of the riots, interviews people who were there, reads the police reports of the event, and watches video footage. Miguel is conducting a(n) ______.

In order to better understand the sorority pledging process at her university for her sociology thesis, Carmen pledges with a popular sorority. This is an example of _____.

Participant observation

Which of the following is NOT an example of a sociological hypothesis?

The more CDs Jamilla buys, the less money she has in her bank account

Quincia is studying how of the lack of comprehensive sex education is affecting a small, rural town in North Dakota. She spends two months in the town, observing and interviewing the townspeople. Quincia is conducting a(n) _____.

Ethnography

Kevin conducted a study on whether the length of the line at a local Starbucks affected how well the customers enjoyed their coffee after receiving it. Malcolm conducted the study at his local Starbucks, and found the same results. Kevin's study had a high level of _____.

Reliability

The term interpretive framework can be defined as:

A sociological research approach that seeks in-depth understanding of a topic or subject through observation or interaction; this approach is not based on hypothesis testing.

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Critical Writing Program Spring 2024 - Art and Crime: Researching the White Paper

• Getting started
• News and Opinion Sites
• Academic Sources
• Grey Literature
• Substantive News Sources
• What to Do When You Are Stuck
• Understanding a citation
• Examples of Quotation
• Examples of Paraphrase
• Chicago Manual of Style: Citing Images
• Researching the Op-Ed
• Researching Prospective Employers
• Resume Resources
• Cover Letter Resources

Research the White Paper

Researching the White Paper:

The process of researching and composing a white paper shares some similarities with the kind of research and writing one does for a high school or college research paper. What’s important for writers of white papers to grasp, however, is how much this genre differs from a research paper.  First, the author of a white paper already recognizes that there is a problem to be solved, a decision to be made, and the job of the author is to provide readers with substantive information to help them make some kind of decision--which may include a decision to do more research because major gaps remain. 

Thus, a white paper author would not “brainstorm” a topic. Instead, the white paper author would get busy figuring out how the problem is defined by those who are experiencing it as a problem. Typically that research begins in popular culture--social media, surveys, interviews, newspapers. Once the author has a handle on how the problem is being defined and experienced, its history and its impact, what people in the trenches believe might be the best or worst ways of addressing it, the author then will turn to academic scholarship as well as “grey” literature (more about that later).  Unlike a school research paper, the author does not set out to argue for or against a particular position, and then devote the majority of effort to finding sources to support the selected position.  Instead, the author sets out in good faith to do as much fact-finding as possible, and thus research is likely to present multiple, conflicting, and overlapping perspectives. When people research out of a genuine desire to understand and solve a problem, they listen to every source that may offer helpful information. They will thus have to do much more analysis, synthesis, and sorting of that information, which will often not fall neatly into a “pro” or “con” camp:  Solution A may, for example, solve one part of the problem but exacerbate another part of the problem. Solution C may sound like what everyone wants, but what if it’s built on a set of data that have been criticized by another reliable source?  And so it goes. 

For example, if you are trying to write a white paper on the opioid crisis, you may focus on the value of  providing free, sterilized needles--which do indeed reduce disease, and also provide an opportunity for the health care provider distributing them to offer addiction treatment to the user. However, the free needles are sometimes discarded on the ground, posing a danger to others; or they may be shared; or they may encourage more drug usage. All of those things can be true at once; a reader will want to know about all of these considerations in order to make an informed decision. That is the challenging job of the white paper author.     
 The research you do for your white paper will require that you identify a specific problem, seek popular culture sources to help define the problem, its history, its significance and impact for people affected by it.  You will then delve into academic and grey literature to learn about the way scholars and others with professional expertise answer these same questions. In this way, you will create creating a layered, complex portrait that provides readers with a substantive exploration useful for deliberating and decision-making. You will also likely need to find or create images, including tables, figures, illustrations or photographs, and you will document all of your sources. 

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