Course Schedule and Assignments
Methods and Techniques of Social Research  -  Fall 2008
IMPORTANT:  This Schedule and Outline will be Modified Regularly.  Be sure to refresh or reload the page.
Links:  statistics formulas -- Video Tutorials - DATA SOURCES
 Instructor:  Michael Epstein.  email:  jjaepst@camden.rutgers.edu 
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Since many computers today lack floppy disk drives, the publisher has made the software and data sets that comes with the Ayers book available for download on their WEB site.  If you have a good Internet connection, it is quicker and easier to install it from the than to use the cd-rom and floppies.  You need to go to the WEB site for the Ayers textbook, then "Companion Site" and then on "Student Microcase Download."  The software is also available in the computer labs.  Computer problems are not accepted as an excuse for late assignments in this course, if your home computer doesn't work, you should use one at Rutgers.  The Babbie book has a Companion Site with practice tests and other useful material. 

The page and chapter numbers from "Babbie" refer to Earl Babbie, The Basics of Social Research, Fourth Edition.  I have also listed equivalent chapter and page number from the third edition which looks similar.

Weekly Schedule of Readings, Assignments, Quizzes and Examinations

Week One - Scientific Inquiry into Social Reality:  An Introduction.  - September 2 & 4
Reading:  Babbie:  Chapter One (chapter one in the third edition); Ayers, pages 1-15
Workbook Assignment:  Ayers, Exercise 1 (pages 17 to 28)-  This assignment is due on paper in class on September 11.  If you do not yet have the Ayers book you can open the exercise HERE in pdf format and print it out. 

On Tuesday, Sept 9 we will meet in BSB 117 for hands-on help with Microcase. 

Week Two:  Crosstabulation Analysis  - September 9 & 11
Reading:  Babbie:  Pages 45-63 (Deduction and Induction, Links Between Theory and Research) (42 to 58 in the third edition) and 459-469 (bivariate and multivariate analysis) (429-440 in the third edition); Ayers, pages 36-42
Workbook Assignment:  Ayers, Exercise 2, Part I (pages 43-50) - This assignment is due on paper in class on September 18.  If you do not yet have the Ayers book you can open the exercise HERE in pdf format and print it out.

Week Three:  Establishing Cause and Effect Relationships - September 16 & 18
Reading:  Babbie pages 95-103 (Exploration, Description, Explanation;  The Logic of Nomothetic Explanation) (85 to 103 in the third edition); Ayers Exercise Three
Workbook Assignment:   Ayers, Exercise 3

Week Four:  Designing Research  - September 23 & 25
Reading:  Babbie pages 104-117 (95 to 109 in the third edition); Ayers, pages 91-107.
Workbook Assignment:  Ayers, Exercise 4

Week Five:  Connecting Conceptualization and Measurement – September 30 & October 2
Reading:  Babbie, pages 156-163 (Criteria of Measurement Quality) (144 to 150 in the third edition); Ayers125-129.
Workbook Assignment:  Ayers, Exercise 5

Week Six: Measuring Social Reality - Levels of Measurement - October 7 & 9
Reading:  Babbie, pages 130-155 (Conceptualization and Operationalization) (120-144 in the third edition); Ayers, 145-154
Workbook Assignment:  Ayers, Exercise 6

Week Seven:  Midterm Examination - October 16
Reading:  review the readings for previous weeks.  The class notes and practice quizzes on the Companion Web Site for the Babbie book will also be useful.

Week Eight:  Constructing and Evaluating Indexes - October 21 & 23
Reading: Babbie, pages 169-188 (third edition 155-175);  Ayers, 177-178
Workbook Assignment:  Ayers, Exercise 7, Item 1.

Week Nine:  Sampling - October 28 & 30
Reading:  Babbie, Chapter 7 (chapter 7 in the third edition);  Ayers, pages 205-215
Workbook Assignment:  Ayers, Exercise 8

Week Ten:  Experiments and The Ethics of Social Research - November 4 & 6
Reading:  Babbie, Chapter 8 and Chapter 3 (chapters 8 and 3 in the third edition)
Homework Assignment:  Descriptive Statistics Assignment

Week Eleven:  Survey Research - November 11 & 13
Reading:  Babbie, Chapter 9 (chapter 9 in the third edition)
Workbook Assignment:  Ayers, Exercise 10

Week Twelve:  Unobtrusive Research  - November 18 &20
Reading:  Babbie, Chapter 11 (chapter 11 in the third edition);  Ayers, pages 309-320
Workbook Assignment:  Ayers, Exercise 12

Week Thirteen:  Evaluating Social Interventions - November 25 (November 27 is Thanksgiving)
Reading:  Babbie, Chapter 12 (chapter 12 in the third edition);  Ayers, pages 331-335
Workbook Assignment:  Ayers, Exercise 13

Week Fourteen:  TBA

Week Fifteen  Review for Final Exam – December 9

Final Examination:  Monday, December 15,  2 p.m.