Choose a U.S. societal issue that interests you, and then create an annotated bibliography of sources on that subject.
Choose a social problem that you want to study over the course of the term. Remember that we are defining social problems using a constructionist stance - meaning a social problem can be anything that groups of people consider to be an issue for society.
Begin by simply thinking about where you can find information on your condition. Consider media sources, research databases, government Web pages, and generalist Internet search engines. Be sure to look for different perspectives on the situation. Your issue must be sufficiently well established that you can find discussions of it in different settings. You should be able to find some scientific research, media coverage, and some political debate relating to your issue.
Your issue must be a U.S. social issue. (This course focuses on the SCU Diversity Core, which is concerned with U.S. social issues.)
If you are having trouble thinking of possible problems, or just need a little help narrowing an existing idea, here is a list of some ideas.
There are costs and benefits associated with both a broad and narrow focus. Looking at a problem like homelessness will allow you to see a very wide range of claims and solutions but would also require you to sort through a great deal of information and make difficult decisions about what are the most important parts of the issue. Narrowing the focus to homelessness among the children of drug addicts would help focus your ideas and look at more specific aspects of the problem but also creates problems in finding information. One solution: Begin with a broad topic for earlier assignments and narrow the topic to more specific elements of the condition in later assignments. For example, if you begin by working on homelessness, you might later focus only on local legislation regarding the homelessness in Assignment 7.
Write a 2-3 sentence description of your social issue on your homepage. This is just a preliminary description to help remind you of the boundaries of what you are thinking about studying. It is perfectly fine if this changes over time!
This homepage can also serve as a great place to put interesting figures, graphs, or facts about your social issue that you encounter throughout your research that don't seem to fit on any of the existing assignment pages. Feel free to make this page your own!
Your goal is to get a sense of what information exists about your topic. It is important that you know how to find information from a variety of sources and how to think critically about the differences in the types of information provided by each; this is a skill we will be working on throughout the quarter.
You might read only the abstracts of research papers or the welcome page of large Web sites so that you know what information will be available to you if you want to read the details later. As we move through the term you’ll make choices about which of these sources you will use, which you will look at very carefully, and which you might simply skim. You’ll be updating and modifying this list throughout the term.
Include references related to your social problem from government documents, media, researchers, and activists. You should start out with at least 7 sources that may be helpful to you in the future. Focus on finding a list of different types of sources and do not worry about reading each carefully at this point.
Compile a list of sources that you believe you will find useful as you research your topic and which answers the following questions:
■ Which groups in society are likely to see this as a problem, which groups aren’t, and why?
■ Is there more than one way to measure the harm associated with this condition?
■ How might objectivists and subjectivists see the problem differently?
You do not have to answer these questions right now, but thinking about them may be helpful in finding sources.
After you have compiled your sources, include an annotation for each (a one-sentence summary of what kinds of information the source provides).
Make a new page of your website titled “Bibliography.”
Start compiling an annotated bibliography that lists sources of information on your topic.
Organize your bibliography alphabetically. You may use any citation style you like (or are familiar with), but the style should be consistent. [If you are looking for one to use, or if you are a sociology major, you may consider using ASA style.] Feel free to take a bit of liberty with the inclusion of links - for example, you might hyperlink the title of a source, rather than including the full link text at the end of the citation, to take advantage of the online format. (See below for examples.)
I will use the example of climate change and environmental justice - since we are studying this in class, you cannot use it for your project:
Oreskes, Naomi. 2004. “The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change.” Science.
Academic article on current climate change science.
Warner, Keith Douglass and David DeCosse. “Lesson Five: Environmental Justice.” A Short Course in Environmental Ethics. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.
Web site lesson on environmental justice from an academic institute.
Strong assignments will:
Use a consistent citation format; and
Clearly explain using plain language.
These websites are useful for finding academic research on a topic:
It may be useful to review major scientific reports that summarize the best available current knowledge. A good place to start is with reports from the National Research Council (the operating arm of the National Academies). You can begin by going to the National Academies Press (www.nap.edu) and searching for reports in your area. Note that some NRC reports respond to government agency requests for policy advice, particularly advice about research opportunities and budgets. But many NRC reports summarize the best available scientific and technical information in a field and the policy implications of that information.
Look for websites of an advocacy group or social movement (or several) that is involved in debates about your social problem. Here are some examples:
Look for websites of an advocacy group or social movement (or several) that is involved in debates about your social problem. Some examples:
the American Civil Liberties Union,
National Right to Life,
Children’s Defense Fund,
Friends of the Earth,
National Rifle Association,
Center for Missing and Exploited Children,
National Organization of Women,
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP),
Focus on the Family, and
National Organization for the Repeal of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
You can find sites by accessing a search engine such as Google and typing in the name of a social problem, then examining the list of sites displayed.
Here are some resources for finding government documents related to your issue:
Check the White House to see if the Administration has taken a position on your issue.
To learn about the politics surrounding your topic, you should check the Web sites of relevant federal agencies; relevant Congressional committees to see if hearings have been held on your topic; and the Library of Congress’ Web site to see if members of Congress have introduced legislation on your topic. You can filter for Bill Type > Bills to look just at policy legislation. After you find a bill you think may be related, a web or news search may be a useful next step.
Searching on Google with the included filter "site:gov" will return only websites on .gov domains. Try a web search with this included to look for resources on government websites.
Instructions for peer review for this assignment are located here: