Sociology Coursework

1
Sociology Coursework

• Some hints and tips

2
The dates.

• You MUST not hand it in late. If its late, you
  wont get it marked and will lose 30 of your
  grade this will mean you will fail the course!
• You will be given time to do this in lessons and
  will also be expected to work on it in your own
  time.

3
What do you have to do?

• Your job is to submit a research proposal on a
  topic of your choice.
• This needs to be based on a Sociological concept
  you have studied. This means something related to
  Education or the Family.
• It is a Sociological study so you need to ensure
  you use correct Sociological terminology. If your
  not sure how a word is spelt CHECK it in the
  book, it will cost you if you dont ( youd be
  surprised how often this happens )
• You will need to explain in detail how you would
  carry out your research proposal and what
  difficulties/problems you might expect to
  encounter

4
The word count

• The following is an extract from the markscheme.
• Appropriate, accurate and succinct reasons are
  offered and explained
• This means you are being assessed on how succinct
  you can be
• Your work must be as close to 1200 words as you
  can make it. You have a MAXIMUM of 5 leeway on
  the wordcount. If you dont stick to it you
  CANNOT get into the top band.
• I will NOT count it for you, so you need to put a
  wordcount at the bottom of each section. Dont
  lie or exaggerate because the examiners DO count
  the words.

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Hypothesis or Aim ( 100 words - 8 marks)

• This is probably the most important section of
  the whole coursework.
• It sets the tone for your entire coursework
• Although it is the first thing you write, it is
  actually the last thing that is marked. This is
  because the examiner is checking that you have
  followed through what you said in this section.
• Make sure you think really carefully about it,
  and after you have finished your coursework, go
  over it and read it again to check it is followed
  through

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What is it?

• It is your research proposal. What do you hope to
  find out?
• Choose one or the other, either
• Hypothesis this is a hunch that something is
  the case
• Aim - This is what you intend to try and find
  out about
• We will go over a number of options for topics

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Important points

• DONT write a title this is not requested and
  they will count the words.
• Launch straight into it with an explanation of
  what you are doing.
• Give a GOOD reason this is essential either a
  personal one or a sociological one
• Keep it simple you need to re-visit it in every
  section so make that possible. Dont attempt to
  be too ambitious if you cant follow it through

8
Context Concepts

• You need to find and discuss two pieces of
  research that already exist on your chosen topic.
  I suggest you use the following Textbook,
  Newspaper/magazine research ( look on the
  internet )
• Only use contexts that are RELEVANT dont just
  find something on the general topic and plonk it
  in. It MUST relate to your hypothesis.
• Use TWO pieces no more and no less.

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Concepts

• Here you have to define the concepts you are
  using. Try to relate your definitions to your
  hypothesis as dictionary definitions are not very
  personal and cant be followed through easily.
• Your answer will look better if you can integrate
  your concepts into discussion of your contexts,
  but this is not essential ( I will give an
  example of how this is done )

10
Main research methods and reasons

• Only pick ONE. Make it relevant to your topic
  dont just explain what it is from the textbook
• You need to provide a description of the main
  method of research you would employ to test your
  hypothesis.
• Think about the best ways of testing your
  hypothesis. What methods will you use. Be very
  specific on this.
• If you can follow on from your context it will be
  better.
• It needs to be very personal so think about how
  YOU as a person will do it, not somebody else.

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Potential problems

• You need to be thinking of these all the way
  through your coursework.
• It might even be an idea to choose a research
  topic that you know will generate some problems.
• Think of the types of problems you encountered
  when doing your questionnaires and your
  interviews etc.
• As with main methods make them relevant to your
  aim. If you just list the disadvantages of your
  method from the textbook you wont get many marks.
  Eg if your coursework involves interviewing black
  males and you are a white female you might
  suggest your presence could influence answers.

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General tips

• Select a topic that you understand and can follow
  through.
• Make sure there is enough research available on
  the topic you select.
• Dont waffle, 1200 words is not that much and you
  need to make sure every word counts.
• The examiner has a lot of these to mark so try
  and make it interesting.
• Remember you dont actually have to carry out
  your proposal but you do need to imagine you are
  carrying it out so it needs to be feasible.

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Using the markscheme provided, try and mark the
exemplar work youve been given. Agree on marks
with your table