SOCI 384 Naturalistic Analysis
Bethany Bryson, Spring 2009
Office Hours in 202 Sheldon Hall
Overview
Study of social life through the traditional paradigm of naturalistic science, including exploration of the role of values in science, the logic of scientific procedure and ethical questions surrounding scientific inquiry. Prerequisites: SOCI 200, 201, and 331.
Materials
Access to a computer for word processing, email, web browsing, and data analysis (using SPSS).
Optional Textbook: The Practice of Social Research. by Earl Babbie (online)
A small capacity USB flash drive (116 MB should do it)
Additional readings are available through Blackboard under assignments.
Requirements
The course demands a sustained engagement with the readings and computer work throughout the term.
Grades are based on both incremental and culminating accomplishments in three categories: class participation, homework assignments, and a final paper.
There is no opportunity to lag for a few weeks and catch up later. No course work can be made up, and I do not accept any late work. Equitable leniencies are built into the grading mechanisms described below.
Attendance, Preparation and Participation - Discretionary portion of final grade
Attendance, preparation and participation are expected and required in order to succeed at the other tasks we have set of ourselves this semester. If you do not accomplish this, you cannot pass the course. Each of you may miss three class meetings for any reason without penalty. After that, your ability to contribute your share of the work to the group project will be negatively affected and that will be reflected in your grade. The reason doesn't matter at that point. The problem is that you haven't been available to participate in the learning experience. I do not police excused versus unexcused absences.
In addition, I may use this discretionary power to reward exceptional performance. I expect you to take seriously the responsibility you have to your peers: to attend, to read, and to contribute to the intellectual environment in our meetings. I reward, not individual achievements, but your (individual) contributions to the group. This changes the game, somewhat. The challenge is to increase the sophistication of the whole conversation, not to use the group as a baseline from which to distinguish yourself. I value the content of your contributions rather than the quantity of them.
Weekly Homework Assignments - 75% of final grade - We drop three
Individual assignments are described on Blackboard and must be submitted by 9pm every Monday. Followup assignments are due by 9pm on Wednesdays. TO EARN A GOOD GRADE, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO THE ASSIGNED READINGS BEFORE YOU TURN IN YOUR ASSIGNMENT AND APPLY THE READINGS TO THE RESEARCH PLAN! You may skip two of these assignments, no questions asked, but this is your excused absence! I do not distinguish between excused and unexcused lapses, and I do not accept late work. I just forgive two for everyone. There are a couple of exceptions. You may not skip the first assignment, and you may not skip assignments in which your classmates depend on your timely work. The penalty for such a lapse will be steep.
Final Paper - 25% of final grade
Although the whole class will work together to choose a topic and prepare a dataset, you will each write your own research report and turn it in to me for an individual grade. You may collaborate if you tell me of your plan in advance.
Important Policies
Grading Policies: I will not average your grade for you before I turn them in on ecampus. Instead, here's what you need to know. I grade all assignments on an 8-poing scale, and I reserve those 8s for exceptional work. Students taking the condensed plan will normally receive 7's, 6's, and 4's in lieu of B's, C's, and F's. Performance that exactly fits the requirements of an assignment is worthy of a C (6 points), not a score of 100%. Semester grades are calculated by converting the 8-point scores into percentages (6/8 = 75), dropping the two lowest (if applicable) weighting them according to the chart above, averaging them and converting the result to letter grades by the following conventions: (Some of these numbers may not be relevant to your grading option.)
97-100 is an A+,
93-96 is an A,
90-92 is an A-,
87-89 is a B+,
and so on.
Attendance: Attendance is required at all scheduled class meetings, whether online or face-to-face, and attendance is incorporated into your grades as described above. I do not police excuses.
First-Week Attendance Policy At the instructor's discretion, any student registered for a class in the College of Arts and Letters who does not attend the first two (2) scheduled meetings of the class (or does not attend the first scheduled meeting of a class that meets once a week) may be administratively dropped from the class. For the purposes of online classes, it will be necessary to complete all assignments due during the first week in order to maintain enrolled status.
Registration Deadlines: The deadline for dropping and/or adding fall semester classes on e-campus is Tuesday, January 20, 2009. Dropping a class after these dates through the course adjustment deadlines result in a W grade on the transcript and tuition charges. The deadline for adding classes with instructor and academic unit head signatures is Thursday, January 29, 2009. The course adjustment deadline (to withdraw with a W grade or change credit options is Friday, March 20, 2009.
Enrollment Procedures: Students are responsible for registering for classes and for verifying their class schedules on e-campus.
Withdrawl: Please pay careful attention to the university's withdrawal policies, as well. Failing to withdraw from a course that you are not attending can be even more serious than taking a course in which you have not enrolled.
Blackboard and Computing Technology: It is your responsibility to save your work as you go, backup your files, submit your work on time, and confirm that all work submitted via Blackboard has been successfully uploaded in a virus-free readable format. (Word documents must be in Microsoft Word, not WordPerfect format.) All these conditions require EXTRA effort to save files, back them up, budget time for technical difficulties, and to click-through to and confirm your uploads. I do not accept corrupt files as evidence of completed assignments.
Honor: I take the JMU Honor Code very seriously and I expect you to follow it. We may also collaborate in this class and use the discussion boards to help each other complete assigned tasks. If you are unsure about the distinction between collaboration and plagiarism, please ask questions before you submit someone else's work as your own! All quizzes, texts and exams should represent your own unaided work. Plagiarism and cheating are grounds for immediate course failure in addition to the university proceedings and are not subject to informal reconsideration.
No Make-up Exams: Tests, exams and quizzes cannot be made up. I may, at my discretion, enter a grade other than zero for the missed exam based on your pervious work. You cannot pass the class if you miss more than one test.
Access and Learning Needs: If you have a letter from JMU's Office of Disability Services, please bring it to me during the first week of class. If you are not familiar with the center, but you have a concern about access, the Americans with Disabilities Act, or problems with recurrent depression or other illnesses that affect your schoolwork, I urge you to see your doctor and the ODS at the start of the semester to discuss your needs and options. (Of course, I'll be happy to talk to you before you go, if you like.) IF YOU FEEL YOU PERFORM WORSE WHEN YOU TAKE TESTS ONLINE THAN ON PAPER, PLEASE TELL ME THIS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEMESTER!
Special Circumstances: I am generally opposed to changing any of the rules described above for the special circumstances of individual students. The reason is only that there are so many other deserving candidates who haven't asked. As a result, you can expect me to reject most of your requests for individual exemptions, but you can also expect me to give serious consideration to bigger changes that might improve conditions for the whole class. Try to think sociologically (perhaps even collectively?) about your problem before you bring it to me, and you'll get better results. Read this ("The Promise") for help framing your argument.
Note: The conditions of this syllabus are subject to change as discussed in class.
|