Name:

Date:

SCENARIO: Your supervisor has approved your research question and plan for studying some
aspect of diversity and/or collaboration in a community group. Now it is time to conduct your
literature review and develop your hypothesis and research plan.

ASSIGNMENT: In the first Touchstone, you developed a research question and prepared a
preliminary bibliography for your literature review. You will now conduct your literature review,
formulate your hypothesis and research plan, and develop a set of notecards that summarize
your work.

SOCI1010 Unit 3 Touchstone Template

Complete the following template, including all parts, using complete sentences.

NOTECARD 1, Introduction: Your introduction card should introduce your audience to the
community group being studied. Remember, it should be a group in which membership is
voluntary and recreational.

In particular, be sure to answer the following questions:

● What is the community group?

● What are the attributes or characteristics of this community group? (e.g. What
activities does this group do together? What element of the members' interests or
identities brings them together? How is membership in the group defined, if at all?)
● Is there anything else listeners should know about this group that is relevant for your
research proposal?

● Name and description of your community group.

NOTECARD 2, Research Question:

● State your research question.

NOTECARD 3, Literature Review: Describe and analyze your source. Include the
bibliography information of author’s name(s); publisher and publication date; title of the
source, in quotation marks; page numbers (if applicable); and source's location for web-based
texts (URL).

Describe the source and how it is relevant to your research proposal. Questions you could
answer about your source include:
● Who wrote this article? Do they have an academic affiliation? Are the researchers
sociologists, or are they of a different discipline?
● Where was this article published?
● When was the research conducted?
● What question were the researchers attempting to answer?
● How does this question/topic relate to my question/topic?
● What methods did they use to study their question?
● What conclusions did they draw from their results?
● How do their conclusions relate to my research question, hypothesis, or research
plan?

● Bibliography information for your first source

● Description and analysis
NOTECARD 4, Literature Review: Describe and analyze your source. Include the
bibliography information of author’s name(s); publisher and publication date; title of the
source, in quotation marks; page numbers (if applicable); and source's location for web-based
texts (URL).

Describe the source and how it is relevant to your research proposal. Questions you could
answer about your source include:
● Who wrote this article? Do they have an academic affiliation? Are the researchers
sociologists, or are they of a different discipline?
● Where was this article published?
● When was the research conducted?
● What question were the researchers attempting to answer?
● How does this question/topic relate to my question/topic?
● What methods did they use to study their question?
● What conclusions did they draw from their results?
● How do their conclusions relate to my research question, hypothesis, or research
plan?

● Bibliography information for your second source

● Description and analysis

NOTECARD 5, Literature Review: Describe and analyze your source. Include the
bibliography information of author’s name(s); publisher and publication date; title of the
source, in quotation marks; page numbers (if applicable); and source's location for web-based
texts (URL).

Describe the source and how it is relevant to your research proposal. Questions you could
answer about your source include:
● Who wrote this article? Do they have an academic affiliation? Are the researchers
sociologists, or are they of a different discipline?
● Where was this article published?
● When was the research conducted?
● What question were the researchers attempting to answer?
● How does this question/topic relate to my question/topic?
● What methods did they use to study their question?
● What conclusions did they draw from their results?
● How do their conclusions relate to my research question, hypothesis, or research
plan?

● Bibliography information for your third source

● Description and analysis

NOTECARD 6, Literature Review: Describe and analyze your source. Include the
bibliography information of author’s name(s); publisher and publication date; title of the
source, in quotation marks; page numbers (if applicable); and source's location for web-based
texts (URL).

Describe the source and how it is relevant to your research proposal. Questions you could
answer about your source include:
● Who wrote this article? Do they have an academic affiliation? Are the researchers
sociologists, or are they of a different discipline?
● Where was this article published?
● When was the research conducted?
 ● What question were the researchers attempting to answer?
● How does this question/topic relate to my question/topic?
● What methods did they use to study their question?
● What conclusions did they draw from their results?
● How do their conclusions relate to my research question, hypothesis, or research
plan?

● Bibliography information for your fourth source

● Description and analysis

NOTECARD 7, Literature Review: Describe and analyze your source. Include the
bibliography information of author’s name(s); publisher and publication date; title of the
source, in quotation marks; page numbers (if applicable); and source's location for web-based
texts (URL).

Describe the source and how it is relevant to your research proposal. Questions you could
answer about your source include:
● Who wrote this article? Do they have an academic affiliation? Are the researchers
sociologists, or are they of a different discipline?
● Where was this article published?
● When was the research conducted?
● What question were the researchers attempting to answer?
● How does this question/topic relate to my question/topic?
● What methods did they use to study their question?
● What conclusions did they draw from their results?
● How do their conclusions relate to my research question, hypothesis, or research
plan?

Skip this card if you only have four sources.

● Bibliography information for your fifth source

 ● Description and analysis

NOTECARD 8, LIterature Review: Describe and analyze your source. Include the
bibliography information of author’s name(s); publisher and publication date; title of the
source, in quotation marks; page numbers (if applicable); and source's location for web-based
texts (URL).

Describe the source and how it is relevant to your research proposal. Questions you could
answer about your source include:
● Who wrote this article? Do they have an academic affiliation? Are the researchers
sociologists, or are they of a different discipline?
● Where was this article published?
● When was the research conducted?
● What question were the researchers attempting to answer?
● How does this question/topic relate to my question/topic?
● What methods did they use to study their question?
● What conclusions did they draw from their results?
● How do their conclusions relate to my research question, hypothesis, or research
plan?

Skip this card if you only have four sources.

● Bibliography information for your sixth source

● Description and analysis
NOTECARD 9, Hypothesis: State your hypothesis. Remember, a formal hypothesis states
the relationship between two variables—one is independent and one is dependent. It should
be formatted as an If/Then statement, for instance:
● If people eat chocolate (IV), then they will get pimples (DV).

● State your hypothesis

NOTECARD 10, Operational definitions: Include and explain any operational definitions you
developed for your study. Remember, operational definitions identify important concepts
related to the research. You may skip this card if you have none.

● Explanation of operational definitions

NOTECARD 11, Proposed Research Method: Introduce your proposed research method
and explain how you propose to conduct your research. Some questions about your research
method you might want to answer include:
● Will you use qualitative or quantitative research or a combination?
● How will you engage subjects or find your data?
● What kinds of tools and assessments will be used to gather the data?

● Description of your proposed research method

● Explanation of how you propose to conduct your research

Completion Checklist Complete?

Have you revised your research question and sources based on any
feedback you received on your first Touchstone?
𐄂

Have you read all of your sources and analyzed them for your
literature review, and identified how they might be relevant to your 𐄂
research proposal?

Have you included the basic bibliographic information for each

source, including author(s), publisher and publication date, title, and 𐄂
URL?
Have you filled out each relevant notecard fully and completely? 𐄂

Have you provided all of the information about your chosen

community group that your grader will need to know in order to 𐄂
understand your research proposal?

Have you reviewed the grading rubric to understand how your

Touchstone will be assessed?
𐄂

Have you proofread your work? 𐄂