TEACHSOC: Re: Suggestions for accessible article

[Del Thomas Ph. D.]

Denise and others, I suggest the use of Sherman, Lawrence W. and Richard A. Berk. 1984 "The Specific Deterrent Effects of Arrest for Domestic Assault." American Sociological Review 49:261-272. ... for analysis as it contains some very important methodological issues for applied sociology.  The issues are basic and linked to the value of sociology. Del Denise Copelton wrote: Teach-Soc'ers: In my Intro class next semester I am assigning a paper that requires students to "dissect" an academic journal article. One of the goals is to help students understand how to read journal articles, and also to identify hypotheses, independent variables, dependent variables, etc. I will use it early in the semester when we discuss research methods. I used this asignment last semester with much success, however, I want to change the article I require them to dissect. Last semester I used the following: Flynn, Clifton P. 1999. “Exploring the Link between Corporal Punishment and Children’s Cruelty to Animals,” Journal of Marriage & Family 61:971-981. While this article worked very well, I want to use something different this semester so that students aren't able to "recycle" assignments from former students. The catch is that the article: 1) needs to be accessible to undergrads (especially first year students) 2) based on quantitative research 3) should avoid using overly sophisticated statistics 4) should be fairly easy to discern the main independent and dependent variables, and 5) should spell out the limitations of the study. Given our tendency to produce highly sophisticated statistical analyses, I am having a hard time coming up with a suitable article. I was hoping folks on this list might be able to offer some helpful suggestions. Thanks in advance. -Denise Copelton -------------------------------- Denise A. Copelton, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Sociology SUNY Brockport 350 New Campus Drive Brockport, NY 14420 __________________________________________ Yahoo! DSL – Something to write home about. Just $16.99/mo. or less. dsl.yahoo.com