Sociology of Work

  Coursework assignment Sprin" rel="nofollow">ing Term 2017 The assignment is to write a 1,000-word essay on one of the followin" rel="nofollow">ing topic areas: a. Skills/wages/technology/in" rel="nofollow">inequality/bad jobs b. Manufacturin" rel="nofollow">ing/in" rel="nofollow">industry/service/retail/fin" rel="nofollow">inance c. Labor/unions d. Professions e. Gender/Race The assignment requires you to base your paper on four academic journal articles: An academic or scholarly journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in" rel="nofollow">in which scholarship relatin" rel="nofollow">ing to a particular academic disciplin" rel="nofollow">ine is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the in" rel="nofollow">introduction and presentation of new theory or research, and the critique of existin" rel="nofollow">ing theory or research. Content typically takes the form of articles presentin" rel="nofollow">ing origin" rel="nofollow">inal research, review articles, theoretical articles and book reviews. You should fin" rel="nofollow">ind research articles or review articles (not book reviews, which are clearly labelled as such). The assignment requires you to fin" rel="nofollow">ind articles written by sociologists or organizational management scholars. You should not cite articles by economists or psychologists. This means you should focus on sociology or management journals. Here are lin" rel="nofollow">inks to lists of sociology journals and academic management journals. These lists are not exhaustive; there are other sociology and management journals. Details on where to search for journal articles are below. You should exclude journals that have the terms “economics” or “psychology” in" rel="nofollow">in them. Some sociology journals may have the word “economy” in" rel="nofollow">in them, but will also have a signifier such as “society” in" rel="nofollow">in them, for example “Economy and Society.” Industrial relations journals are also acceptable, in" rel="nofollow">includin" rel="nofollow">ing “Industrial Relations” and “Industrial and Labor Relations Review.” Economists and psychologists do publish in" rel="nofollow">in in" rel="nofollow">industrial relations journals. You should also check the author affiliation, which will typically state the department and be listed in" rel="nofollow">in an asterisk after their name in" rel="nofollow">in the title of the article, and exclude articles authored by anyone in" rel="nofollow">in an economics or psychology department. The assignment in" rel="nofollow">involves the followin" rel="nofollow">ing steps: 1. In order to figure out a specific topic to write about within" rel="nofollow">in the general topic areas above, read about a topic area on Work in" rel="nofollow">in Progress, a blog of the American Sociological Association on work and organizations. a. The majority of the blog posts are short, polished articles, typically around 800-1,500 words. There are a small number of shorter blog posts, which are brief commentaries rather than polished articles (here is an example). You should focus on the polished, 800-1,500 word articles. These are typically tagged as “research fin" rel="nofollow">indin" rel="nofollow">ings” (here is an example). 2. On the blog, search around a topic area usin" rel="nofollow">ing the above terms (e.g. “skill,” “wage,” “technology,” etc). Pick a blog article you like, and then fin" rel="nofollow">ind an academic journal article from that author on that topic. a. Look on the author’s webpage for a list of their publications or their CV; or search for their name (and possibly the topic) on Google Scholar b. In most – but not all – cases, the author of a blog article will have written a journal article or book chapter on the topic. If not, then you can fin" rel="nofollow">ind another published journal article on the topic. 3. Fin" rel="nofollow">ind three other academic journal articles that are on the same topic as the one you picked in" rel="nofollow">in step 3. Your essay must be based on a min" rel="nofollow">inimum of FOUR academic journal articles, one of which must be from the author of the blog article you picked (if a blog article has more than one author, you only need to cite a journal article by one of the authors). The other three journal articles should be from different authors, with a maximum of two articles per author. a. It will take some creativity in" rel="nofollow">in fin" rel="nofollow">indin" rel="nofollow">ing a coherent topic; you’ll often have to broaden your topic from the focus of the first article to a wider focus. i. Come up with your own title for the essay b. Make an argument about the topic, usin" rel="nofollow">ing the journal articles as the basis – evidence and theory – for your argument. c. In order to fin" rel="nofollow">ind the other three academic journal articles, search the Proquest Social Science Premium Collection i. If you have any questions about fin" rel="nofollow">indin" rel="nofollow">ing academic sources, ask a librarian! ii. You should not have to pay for journal articles; KCL has access to most of them through the library. In order to access journal articles from off campus, please see this page. d. You must in" rel="nofollow">include a citation of the blog article you based your search on. Example: i. “Cervantes, Andrea Gómez and ChangHwan Kim. 2016. “Male immigrants with darker skin" rel="nofollow">in have fewer job opportunities than women and those with lighter skin" rel="nofollow">in,” Work in" rel="nofollow">in Progress 26 Jan.” ii. The blog article does not count as one of your four journal articles. e. You may email Matt a sin" rel="nofollow">ingle time regardin" rel="nofollow">ing this coursework. In that email, you can ask him to (a) check your sources and (b) check your thesis statement. He will provide feedback on each. Sin" rel="nofollow">ince there are 430 students, Matt simply cannot answer more than one email on this topic. However, you will have many other opportunities for feedback and advice: i. Durin" rel="nofollow">ing two tutorials dedicated to the coursework ii. Durin" rel="nofollow">ing one of many coursework surgeries Matt will run iii. Talk to Matt around lectures (before, after, durin" rel="nofollow">ing break) iv. Talk to Matt durin" rel="nofollow">ing office hours v. Talk to your tutorial leaders around tutorials vi. Talk to your tutorial leaders durin" rel="nofollow">ing office hours General in" rel="nofollow">information – Read all of the followin" rel="nofollow">ing poin" rel="nofollow">ints closely. There are both substantive and stylistic issues below that may affect your mark. • One electronic copy of the assignment should be submitted via KEATS by 10 am on Thursday 23 March. • If you have never written an essay before, or if you want to brush up on your skills, I recommend that you read an in" rel="nofollow">introductory book on essay writin" rel="nofollow">ing. There are many types of these books, which can be found on amazon.co.uk, for example. I recommend the followin" rel="nofollow">ing: Peter Redman, Good Essay Writin" rel="nofollow">ing: A Social Sciences Guide, Sage (2005). But any book on essay writin" rel="nofollow">ing will be helpful. There is also a four-week course on Academic Writin" rel="nofollow">ing, and related topics, at the KCL English Language Centre, if you are in" rel="nofollow">interested: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/elc/support/in" rel="nofollow">in-sessionalsupport/in" rel="nofollow">index1.aspx. • Your min" rel="nofollow">inimum of four sources need to be journal articles or book chapters. You can cite reports from thin" rel="nofollow">ink tanks and the like, but you should not cite Wikipedia, blogs, or web pages (e.g., notes from a professor or on a particular topic do not count as a source). Encyclopaedia articles (excludin" rel="nofollow">ing user-generated sources like Wikipedia), newspaper, magazin" rel="nofollow">ine and blog articles are fin" rel="nofollow">ine to cite, but they do not count as academic references for purposes of your coursework. • Write in" rel="nofollow">in the first person. Avoidin" rel="nofollow">ing the first person in" rel="nofollow">in order to appear objective is an old stylistic convention that is in" rel="nofollow">increasin" rel="nofollow">ingly bein" rel="nofollow">ing discarded. Although it is still common in" rel="nofollow">in academic writin" rel="nofollow">ing for UK publishers, American publishers generally ask authors to use the first person. This more direct style can improve writin" rel="nofollow">ing by makin" rel="nofollow">ing it clearer (avoidin" rel="nofollow">ing the first person can lead to awkward constructions and vagueness). Whenever assertin" rel="nofollow">ing your own idea or argument, use “I” or “my.” For example: "In this essay I argue that ...” or “My argument is ....” • Your paper should be written as a coherent essay, with an in" rel="nofollow">introduction, a body of text and a conclusion. Write it like a blog article on Work in" rel="nofollow">in Progress. • Your paper must contain" rel="nofollow">in a thesis statement. For more on thesis statements, see my handout on “Coursework FAQs.” • Write your paper usin" rel="nofollow">ing black and white, 12 poin" rel="nofollow">int font, Times New Roman, with double spacin" rel="nofollow">ing. Do not use fancy formattin" rel="nofollow">ing or colour. I will deduct 5 poin" rel="nofollow">ints if you don’t follow this rule. • You must use the Harvard referencin" rel="nofollow">ing system. For essays in" rel="nofollow">in social science, proper referencin" rel="nofollow">ing is crucial. In this course we will use the Harvard system of referencin" rel="nofollow">ing. Please see the document entitled “Harvard referencin" rel="nofollow">ing quick guide” on KEATS for more in" rel="nofollow">information. If you are not familiar with the Harvard system, please review this document carefully. • You need to cite every article or book that you have either quoted directly or have drawn an idea from. If you do not do this, you are plagiarizin" rel="nofollow">ing, which is a serious problem. For serious plagiarism you can be expelled from the College. When in" rel="nofollow">in doubt, it’s better to err on the side of over-citin" rel="nofollow">ing. Each year I have a serious cases of plagiarism in" rel="nofollow">in which the students receive a zero for the coursework, up to ten cases of min" rel="nofollow">inor plagiarism in" rel="nofollow">in which the students received up to 50% deducted from their mark, and a dozen other cases of sloppy referencin" rel="nofollow">ing in" rel="nofollow">in which students received between 5 – 15 poin" rel="nofollow">ints deducted from their mark. • I will deduct up to a full letter grade (10 poin" rel="nofollow">ints) off your coursework for papers that do not use the Harvard style. If you are sloppy in" rel="nofollow">in referencin" rel="nofollow">ing, I may deduct up to 25% off your mark. This does not mean that you must obsessively get every sin" rel="nofollow">ingle aspect of the system correct – commas in" rel="nofollow">in the right place, periods in" rel="nofollow">in the right place, etc. I am flexible about that. What it does mean is that you must: (a) cite every reference in" rel="nofollow">in the text (Name date) and in" rel="nofollow">in the bibliography, and (b) the bibliography must in" rel="nofollow">include all the in" rel="nofollow">information for each reference as specified in" rel="nofollow">in the above document. Bibliographies also must be in" rel="nofollow">in alphabetical order, do not have bullet poin" rel="nofollow">ints, numbered references, or multiple citations of the same source. You do not in" rel="nofollow">include web lin" rel="nofollow">inks for journal articles or prin" rel="nofollow">int books; just in" rel="nofollow">include the full in" rel="nofollow">information with them, as in" rel="nofollow">indicated in" rel="nofollow">in the Quick Guide. • The word limit for the assignment is 1,000 words. Reasonable use of appendices is not normally in" rel="nofollow">included in" rel="nofollow">in the word count. An electronic word count must be noted on the front of all pieces of assessed work. Word limits apply to the main" rel="nofollow">in body of the text (title, text, in" rel="nofollow">in-text citations, footnotes and diagrams) only and not to endnotes or your bibliography. The penalties for exceedin" rel="nofollow">ing the stated word limit will be as follows: 5% penalty for exceedin" rel="nofollow">ing the word limit up to 10%, and a further 0.5% deduction for every 1% exceedin" rel="nofollow">ing the word limit.