Instructions:

Please write a thoughtful paper using paragraphs which includes the following sections: Introduction o Briefly describe your social issue or topic in an interesting way. o What is compelling about your issue or topic? What social problem or issue exists that you want to take a closer look at? o What is your research question? o Suggestion: “What is the relationship between [variable X] and [variable Y]?” or “Does X vary by Y?” o Clearly state your (strong) hypothesis – what do you think is the relationship between your two variables?. Why do you think this relationship exists?. Data o Describe your independent and dependent variables by including the following information: o

Explain how this variable operationalizes your topic and research question. How do they represent/measure/conceptualize your variable? How are they an indicator of a specific concept (i.e. race, class, gender, prejudice, civic engagement, attitude about gun control, etc.)? o GSS variable code name o Exact wording of the survey question o List of attributes o Level of measurement (i.e nominal, ordinal, etc.) [Consider having a paragraph that describes your IV and another paragraph describing your DV.] Results and Discussion o Using your IV and DV, create a bivariate cross-tabulation table.

Further guidelines

o Provide a “cleaned-up” table; do not simply “copy and paste” the GSS-website table. o Be sure to include: a title of the table, clearly labeled IV and DV variable, the attributes of each variable, percentages and number of responses in each cell, missing or invalid cases, and the source of the table. [See Babbie Chapter 14 for instructions on how to make a contingency table (p. 454).] o Provide a detailed analysis of your cross-tabulation table. o What patterns do you see between the variables? How do the dependent variable values change because of your independent variable? What trends do you see in the cells? o If table cells have fewer than 30 respondents, you do not have enough data to generalize about that group, and you should state this in your analysis.

o Was your hypothesis supported – why or why not? [Hint: Do you see at least a 10% difference across the columns?] Your response, which includes your table, should be 2-3 double-spaced pages (12-point, Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins).

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