Journal

Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about the journal as a written medium. For other uses, see Journal (disambiguation).

A journal (through French from late Latin diurnalis, daily) has several related meanings:

• a daily record of events or business; a private journal is usually referred to as a diary.

• a newspaper or other periodical, in the literal sense of one published each day;
• many publications issued at stated intervals, such as magazines, or scholarly academic journals, or the record of
the transactions of a society, are often called journals. Although journal is sometimes used as a synonym for
"magazine," in academic use, a journal refers to a serious, scholarly publication, most often peer-reviewed. A non-
scholarly magazine written for an educated audience about an industry or an area of professional activity is
usually called a professional magazine.

The word "journalist" for one whose business is writing for the public press has been in use since the end of the 17th
century.

Public journal

"Journal" is also applied to the record, day by day, of the business and proceedings of a public body:

• The journals of the British Houses of Parliament contain an official record of the business transacted day by day
in either house. The record does not take note of speeches, though some of the earlier volumes contain references
to them. The journals are a lengthened account written from the "Votes and Proceedings" (in the House of Lords
called "Minutes of Proceedings"), made day by day by the Clerks at the Table, and printed on the responsibility of
the Clerk of the House. In the Commons the Votes and Proceedings, but not the Journal, bear the Speaker's
signature in fulfilment of a former order that he should "peruse" them before publication. The journals of the
British House of Commons begin in the first year of the reign of Edward VI in 1547, and are complete, except for
a short interval under Elizabeth I. Those of the House of Lords date from the first year of Henry VIII in 1509.
Before that date the proceedings in parliament were entered in the rolls of parliament, which extend from 1278 to
1503. The journals of the Lords are "records" in the judicial sense, those of the Commons are not (see Erskine
May, Parliamentary Practice, 1906, pp. 201-202).
• Section 5 of Article I of the United States Constitution requires the Congress of the United States to keep a
journal of its proceedings. This journal, the Congressional Record is published by the Government Printing
Office.

Journals of this sort are also often referred to as minutes or gazettes.

In some countries, the publication in the official journal is a condition for the law to come into effect (know as publication
in the official journal) and it is released in the public domain.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How to Write a Sociological Research Methods Paper
v1.0
Donnell Butler
Princeton University
This document is simply a preliminary guide for those
who
feel completely lost regarding how to write a research
paper. It's preliminary because it is the first draft of
the first version of "How to Write a Research Methods
Paper", and so it by no means includes everything it
could.
Moreover, it is not as polished (grammatically,
stylistically, etc.) as it could be. It is a guide, because
you should feel free to (and may need to) deviate from
the
suggestions offered here in order to best present your
paper.
At the present time, this preliminary guide is meant
solely
as a guide for those students taking Sociology 301 with
preceptor Donnell Butler. Therefore, I will not be
discussing issues related to any audience (or reader)
other
than myself. If you are not using this guide as a student
taking Sociology 301 with preceptor Donnell Butler,
then
you may find that your target audience and expectations
differ from those addressed in this guide. I advise you to
read the book, "The Craft of Research" by Wayne Booth,
Gregory Colomb, and Joseph Williams for a more
general and
thorough guide to writing any type of research paper,
report, or book.
I The Format
• Font: Times New Roman 12 or Courier New 10 or
Arial 12
• Margins: 1" (inch) top and bottom, 1.25" (inches) left
and right
• From Edge Header and Footer: 0.5" (inch)
• Pages should be numbered (page # of pages preferred,
but not required)
• Section breaks, if desired, but not required.
• 15-20 pages of written text. All items in the
appendices are not included in the page totals.
• I strongly suggest that you make an appointment to the
writing center, get a draft down in time for your
appointment, and then take the draft to the writing
center for feedback.
II Sections – in general: Remember this is a guide, and
so certain section may not be relevant for you and
perhaps
others not stated here are relevant.
• Topic (Introduction)
• Research Problem (Research Question)
• Literature Review (Past Theoretical Explanations)
• Hypothesis (Hypotheses)
• Conceptualization
o Conceptual or Nominal Definitions of
Dependent Variable(s)
o Conceptual or Nominal Definitions of
Independent Variable(s)
• Operationalization
o Operational Definitions of Dependent
Variable(s)
o Operational Definitions of Independent (or
explanatory) Variable(s)
• Unit of Analysis
• Research Design (Research Methods)
o Time Dimension
o Mode of Observation
o Method for Establishing Causation
• Sample
• Findings (Analysis and Interpretation)
o Descriptive (or Univariate) Statistics
o Bivariate Statistics
o Multivariate Statistics
o Interpretation of Key Results
• Summary and Conclusions
• Bibliography (Reference List)
• Appendices
o Tables, Graphs, Charts
o Endnotes and other written text
o Printout of data
IV Final Thoughts: You now have a roadmap a toolkit to
writing a well-structured paper, that addresses all of the
pertinent questions that a reader of a research paper would
ask and should ask. You should consider using this when
judging papers research papers that you write and read. I
would also suggest reviewing Babbies's "Consumer's Guide to
Social Research on page 493. A well-written and
wellstructured
paper that addresses all of the aforementioned
questions can easily overcome bad or uninteresting data.
Show me that you have a breadth of understanding of what we
learned in this course. The conclusion is an excellent
opportunity to score points by intelligently describing to
me the flaws and weaknesses in the methods related to your
study, and how if given ample money and time, you could
design an even stronger methodologically sound research
project to address the original research question. Good
Luck, and an example of a research methods proposal using
the steps from TOPIC to SAMPLE can be found on our
blackboard course website in GROUPS -> Wednesday's
Precept
 Group Discussion Board ->
  The Sociological Research Methods Paper folder.
How to Write A Journal
I. Why Write A Good Journal?
The journal is probably the most important assignment.
Unfortunately, it is the assignment that people neglect
the most. The journal constitutes 20% of your grade; a
bad journal can have great impact. But the journal
influences your grade in many more subtle ways. The
better your journal, the easier your other assignments
will be and, in most cases, the higher your paper grades
will turn out.
Why does the journal have such a large impact of your
work?
(1) The journal lowers stress. The journal is important
because it is a rehearsal for your other papers. It allows
you to think about the material in advance and to begin
to develop an understanding, an interpretation, an
opinion, and a criticism of the material long before you
sit and write your papers. This will help to make the first
draft of your paper easier to write and as a result, it will
significantly lower your the stress-level. Philosophy
papers can be overwhelming, and not understanding the
material makes the assignment even more difficult. By
writing about the material in advance, you will have a
better idea of how to start.
(2) The journal increases sophistication. The "rehearsal"
aspect of the journal will allow you to present a better
discussion of the issues and arguments. It allows you to
become familiar with the texts and issues and this allows
you to look deeper into the philosophical issues. When
you think about interpretation and criticism in advance,
you already start to develop your own ideas even if you
are unaware of it. You can reference your journals in
order to remind you of your initial thoughts.
(3) The journal saves time. Many students regard the
journal as incredibly time-consuming. However, in
reality, the journal saves time because it provides a
library of summaries and criticism which you cash use to
start your papers. What are the major delays in paper
writing? First, many people have to re-read part or all of
the text because they don't remember the main points or
the argument. Second, people have to struggle to
understand that which they thought they could put on
paper. Third, often underestimate how difficult it is to
summarize and criticize. A journal cuts much of that
time. Since you can use your journal entries in your
papers, you can develop the framework of your first
draft with only minimal cutting and pasting. You can use
the journal summaries as the beginning of your paper
summaries, and use your criticism to jump-start your
paper as as well. Those students who are genuinely
conscientious about their journals have told me time and
time again that the papers are not nearly as difficult or
overwhelming as they would be had they not written
their journal.
II. What Are the Parts of the Journal?
The journal is divided into two parts: a summary and a
commentary. The minimum requirement for the journal
is one full page, but you will most likely discover that as
you progress in the course, the journals will become
longer. Many people regularly submit journals that are
between two and three pages pages long, but do keep in
mind that this is larger than required.
The summary section of the journal should answer
several important questions. First, what is the main point
of the essay? In other words, why is the philosopher
writing this particular piece? What problem is he or she
trying to solve? And, what conclusions did he or she
arrive at? This section is best placed in the opening
paragraph of the journal entry. Second, what is the
argument of the essay? The argument presented must be
different from the conclusion. the conclusion tells the
reader what the philosopher is trying to prove, but the
argument explains the reasons for the conclusion -- it is
that part of the essay in which the philosopher tries to
convince the reader that the essay's conclusion is correct.
The philosopher will cite evidence and put forth
explanations. In the journal, you should summarize the
main points in this section. The summary section should
contain one or two quotes from the text that you think
are important enough to represent the entire text. When
completing the summary, ask yourself: "Did I list the
main point of the essay?" and, "Is this enough
information that when I need to write a paper, the journal
will remind me of the essential information?" Keep in
mind, summaries are difficult and require practice. It
takes some time to learn how to condense large amounts
of information into a few paragraphs.
The commentary, or "opinion" section of the essay
should follow the summary section. It should contain
your evaluation of the conclusion and the argument. Do
you agree with the conclusion? Why or why not? Do you
think the argument presented supports the philosopher's
conclusion? Why or why not. It is very important that
you justify your opinion. It is not enough to indicate that
you agree or disagree with the philosopher, you must
explain why you agree or disagree.
The journal is that place in which you can explore
your ideas and initial thoughts regarding the essay. Don't
be afraid to be critical, and don't be afraid to try new
ideas. Feel free to include personal commentary. If an
example from your own life will help to explain your
feeling on the essay, include it. Remember, the more
interesting the journal is for you to write, the more
interesting it is for me to read.

III. Sample journals.

Below, you will find a sample journal. It is not based

on a philosophical text, but I think it will be helpful to
show you what I expect out of each entry. The right
column has the actual text, whereas the left column
describes what I am doing in the journal and why.