Writing in Sociology

Please keep in mind that these are only general guidelines; always defer to your professor’s specifications for a given assignment. If you have any questions about the content represented here, please contact the Writing Centers so that we can address them for you.

Sociology is the study of social norms, phenomena, and conditions. It seeks to explain how and why people do things that impact their culture and surroundings. Using a mixture of history, research, and theory, sociologists explore how communities interact with one another, deal with complex problems and policies, and express their cultural beliefs. They study a wide range of social topics, including the media and popular culture, trends in migration, immigration, and emigration, cultural values and beliefs, standards and access in medical care, or interactions and policies in large cities, among many other topics.

Good sociological writing sets a clear focus (thesis) and approach (methodology) to an issue and presents complex ideas clearly in an unbiased, analytical fashion that is well supported by verifiable evidence. It uses clear data and explanations to inform readers, and logical arguments, when appropriate, to persuade readers. Additionally, it is important that sociological writers demonstrate understanding and familiarity of key concepts, theories, and terminology in their writing, which is more than simply placing the terms in a paper. A good paper will fully explain the data using key terms, and apply theories to the issue at hand.

Preferred Bibliographic Style

ASA (American Sociological Association) is the style used by most sociologists, and is the one that students should use for most sociology papers. Students can also use APA style or the Chicago Manual of Style, if the professor allows.

Be sure to always clarify with your instructor what style you should be using for a given assignment, as they have the final word on what is acceptable for that course.

Common Writing Assignments

Below are some common writing assignments for Sociology courses. Students might also be interested in reading more about common style issues (pdf) used in writing Sociology papers, including citation use, common grammar and style, and footnote and endnote format.

Literature Review – This involves investigating the research that has been done on a given topic in the field, and then analyzing, synthesizing, or applying it to course material.
Research Project – This involves either the application of an idea, synthesizing and analyzing data, or the testing of a hypothesis. Larger research projects are often completed in conjunction with literature reviews to reflect the prior work and approach to a given topic of study.
Application and/or critical review of a theory or concept – This involves applying an idea, theory, or concept to a specific example or situation in order to demonstrate the possibility for change using theoretical models and the application of Sociological concepts.
Article Analysis (Sample from University of Wisconsin)—This involves finding and explaining the research done by others on a specific topic. It does not use purely theoretical applications of theory, but is instead real world data drawn using specific methods of data collection. These assignments

Key Terms

There are a few key terms that may help with you with sociological writing. The two main groups of sociological evidence are:

Quantitative data: information that is based on surveys and statistics.
Qualitative data: information that comes from participant observation, surveys, interviews, texts, and the researcher’s own interpretive framework.

Neither form of data is preferred over the other, so you should carefully consider the content of your study to determine which type of data will work best (or use a mixture of both!). This will help you to form the overall approach to your topic and begin crafting an outline that responds to your question or issue.

Helpful Resources

From Numbers to Words: Reporting Statistical Results for the Social
Sciences by Morgan, Reicher, and Harrison, published by Allyn and Bacon
The Sociology Student Writer’s Manual by Johnson, William A. and Rettig,
Scott, Garrison, published by Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Researching and Writing in the Social Sciences by Christine Hult, published
by Allyn and Bacon.
Chapter 9 of Writing a Research Report from Stephen Sweet and Karen
Grace-Martin, Data Analysis with SPSS, published by Allyn and Bacon
Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes from the University of Chicago Press by
Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw
ASA Style Guide, 2nd edition, 1997
Quick Reference: Modified ASA Style Sheet for Research Papers,
http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin/COURSES/SOC415/asastyle.htm (Middle Tennessee State)