SOCI 305/325 Research Me thods

Importance of social research in the Social Sciences and Sociology; Proposal writing: statement of the problem, objectives, hypotheses, operationalization of key concepts, Literature Review; Types of research; quantitative and qualitative research paradigms, research design/plan; Sampling Procedures; Sources of data: primary and secondary; Methods of data collection: questionnaires and interview guides design, observation participant, observation, use of key informants, content analysis, focus-group discussions, advantages and disadvantages of the methods for data gathering, etc. Ethical considerations; Techniques for data presentation and analysis; Report writing: abstracts and executive summaries, referencing, sectioning, formatting, editing, etc.