Touchstone 1: Developing a Research Plan

SCENARIO: Imagine that you work for a nonprofit organization that is focused on increasing diversity in community groups in your area. Your supervisor asks you to develop a sociological study concerning topics of diversity and collaboration in a specific community group of your choice. Eventually you will prepare to share your research with colleagues.

ASSIGNMENT: For this Touchstone, you will begin by formulating a question about diversity in a community group that you have access to. Then you will use the steps of the scientific method to prepare a research plan, including a bibliography for a literature review. As you learned, sociologists follow the scientific method so that their results are both scientifically valid and useful to the greater sociological community. A literature review allows researchers to learn from completed studies and to build upon their conclusions.

Use the following Touchstone template to fill in your research plan as you develop it. When you have finished, submit this template to move on to the next unit.

https://strayer.sophia.org/download/attachment/11939-SOCI1010%20Touchstone%201%20Template.docx

A. Directions

Step 1: Pick a Topic

Select a community group to study. Some examples of community groups you might explore include:

An activity-based group like a book club, a soccer team, or a community choir

A religious or ideological community such as a church congregation or a local political party

A community organization like a Parent Teacher Association (PTA), a neighborhood association, or the volunteer committee at a local soup kitchen

An identity-based organization such as a social club for veterans or a fraternal type organization

It should be a group in which membership is voluntary and recreational. Avoid:

Families

Workplaces

Ethnic or racial categories

Friend groups