Topic:  Seminar in Social Stratification

This course is intended for students working on a research project in
social stratification, broadly conceived.  You are expected to have
in mind a project in this area that can be completed over the course
of the semester.  The product of the course is a paper suitable for
submission to a professional journal or meeting.  The course will be
run as a craft workshop in the practicalities of doing research,
writing up the results, and publishing. Issues related to study
design, sampling, measurement, methods of data analysis,
interpretation, and writing, as these apply to the specific projects
being worked on, will be discussed each week.  The substantive
content of the course will be determined by the topics on which
students in the class are working.  Readings, apart from those in the
literature being drawn upon in each project, will be minimal.  Some
class meetings will be devoted to evaluating and editing the writing
of sociologists, with the aim of improving your own writing.  We will
reserve time in each class meeting to discuss problems that you are
encountering in conducting your research and writing it up.  One week
will be reserved for independent work on your papers and individual
meetings with me to discuss your research.  (You are certainly
encouraged to meet with me other times as well to talk about your
paper, the readings, or anything else).  In the final weeks of the
course, each of you will distribute your paper to the rest of the
class for their comments and suggestions and we will meet together to
discuss how your paper might be improved.