The thesis option for the Sociology/Anthropology Senior Integrative Exercise (Comps), involves the execution of a major, individual project of sociological or anthropological research and analysis, culminating in a paper of professional article length, not to exceed 40 pages (ca. 12,000 words) The two goals of this project are (1) that you demonstrate competence in some aspect of sociology and/or anthropology, and (2) that you integrate skills and knowledge that you have gained over the course of your studies. Such a project may be an in depth study of a particular group or social situation; it can be a comparison of a social phenomenon across time or cultures; it can be a deliberate test of one or more theories or hypotheses; or it can be an analysis of theories themselves in a socio-anthropological framework. Possible sources of data include library research, existing data sets, and/or collection of your own data via fieldwork (e.g., participant and non-participant observation, interviews, focus groups) and/or survey. The methods you choose should be appropriate both to your research question and your data.

We assume that you have completed SOAN 240-Methods of Social Research before you begin the comps process. While the range of appropriate topics is broad, not all topics are feasible for a senior thesis. During the fall term, students wishing to write the thesis must develop a convincing proposal. Students must submit an initial proposal to the department no later than the end of the third week of fall term. A fully-developed research proposal must be submitted by the end of the eighth week of fall term. This proposal must be accepted by the department before students can proceed to write the thesis.

The bulk of the writing of the thesis should be completed by the middle of winter term, and a final version of the thesis must be submitted by the due date early in spring term. Students completing the thesis option will also be required to present their work in a talk open to the public, to be scheduled during spring term.

Students are expected to turn in all proposals, drafts, and the final thesis by the deadlines given below. Unless prior approval is obtained, failure to meet these deadlines will mean that your thesis will not be considered for distinction.

Guidelines for Preparing a Thesis

The main goal of the thesis is to give the student an educational experience of a different sort from any he/she is likely to have had before. Unlike most other projects you have undertaken, writing a thesis is not bounded by having to confirm to the goals of a course nor must it be completed in a few weeks’ time. Rather, it is meant above all to give each of you the opportunity to think up and work out the investigation of a topic that deeply interests or concerns you. In addition, with the length of time and the care you will be taking on the study, many of you will be able to produce an essay that can be fairly evaluated by the standards that practicing scholars in Sociology and Anthropology use to judge each other’s work.

Your comps experience will be most beneficial and successful if you keep the following concerns clearly in mind: (1) Seek guidance early and often. In addition to mandatory consultations with faculty that are built into the comps guidelines, it will be beneficial for you to seek out a topic on which a faculty member has some expertise to guide you appropriately. (2) Choose your topic carefully. Build upon your strengths and knowledge base; make sure the questions you pursue are compelling enough to sustain you over the entire year. (3) Remember that your comps thesis will not contain everything you have learned about Sociology and Anthropology. The most successful projects are well-focused. Nevertheless, you should approach this project as an opportunity to demonstrate (to yourself, to faculty, and to fellow students) what you have learned about some aspect of sociological and anthropological inquiry. (4) As with the rest of your educational opportunities, you will get approximately as much out of the comps process as the effort you put into it. This is a project that cannot be crammed. It is wise to be deliberate and conscientious about each phase of the work.

A thesis should not be thought of as just another paper, or a lengthy independent study. It places a greater responsibility on the students than that. While you will be working closely with your advisor, nonetheless you are the primary person responsible for conceiving the project, exploring its ramifications, and completing it in a way that both fulfills your goals and measures up to sociological and/or anthropological criteria applicable to the issues and data you are working with. Accomplishing such a task can benefit you in a number of ways. Perhaps the most important of these are that (1) you have the opportunity to carry out a major piece of research from start to finish; (2) you get the confidence of knowing you can do it; (3) you become an expert on something.

The thesis achieves these goals by two principal means: first, the freedom you have to choose your topic helps ensure that you will have the interest and excitement necessary to carry you through the inevitable hard times; second, it gives you enough time to make mistakes and false starts. Odd as it might seem at first, this is crucial.

Unfortunately, Carleton’s not-quite ten-week terms almost never give students a chance to learn from their mistakes, yet such learning is probably more meaningful and useful than any other kind. In doing papers you undoubtedly have had the experience of making mistakes – if only that of reading material that turned out not to be relevant – but you have rarely, if ever, had time to do more than patch it up somehow at the end. With comps, enough time is built into the process so that after discovering an inadequacy in your approach you have the opportunity to develop and use a more satisfactory one. Thus you learn by doing and also do objectively better work. Copies of recent theses are available from Jean Goss.

The point of professors (and fellow students)

Professors have been there before and can warn of dangers ahead, can make suggestions, and can help you find out how what you are attempting to do or study fits into the ongoing currents of research in sociology and anthropology. Both they and fellow students can, above all, question you – not to confuse you, but to strengthen your understanding of what you are doing and why you are doing it. Finally, they can offer moral support in the difficult times when you feel you are floundering around or nothing is going right.

Feel free to draw on any of the faculty – Soc/Anthro and others as well – for advice about your study. Remember, however, that what we professors generally do when asked for help is say what we would do in your place. After submitting your initial proposal (third week of fall term), you will be assigned a comps advisor. Since your advisor is the one who will be most familiar with what you are trying to do, you should also consult with him/her as to how best to utilize ideas and suggestions from other sources.

Students have often found it helpful to form writing groups. Students in a thesis writing group read and comment on each other’s drafts, provide encouragement and moral support, and help each other through those final revisions and proofreading. Your writing group members need not be working on topics similar to yours; in fact, it may be more interesting and fun if they aren’t!

Theoretical Orientations

The conceptualization and theoretical orientation of your thesis is crucial to its success. Theoretical orientations will help you interpret, describe, explain, measure, or otherwise approach your topic. For example, to study social movements you can use theories of resource mobilization, collective behavior, or frame alignment, among others. Or, to look at questions of ethnic identity you can follow primordial, constructed, or strategic models (each with several subtypes). These are only illustrations. Your thesis may be conceived as an application or test of a particular theory (e.g., strategic model of ethnic identity), or may draw upon several. You may focus on “mid-range” theories, or draw upon broader, foundational theoretical orientations (such as functionalism, conflict theory, etc, for more specific examples refer to the list on the Department’s web page).

Developing and defining the theoretical orientation constitutes the hard part of your thesis work. Indeed, it is the hardest part of doing any sociological or anthropological work, and the ability to do it well is what distinguishes prominent, creative scholars from others. Get a sense of it by thinking about how scholars have analyzed things in the courses you have taken, by further reading in the area of your thesis project (making full use of library sources, such as Annual Reviews, Sociological Abstracts, and other specialized bibliographic tools), and by talking with faculty and other students. Or, take your favorite, most inspiring article on your thesis topic and look at how explanation and interpretation, or some other kind of analysis emerges from and/or is supported by the data. These are invaluable aids and strategies, but there is no simple, cookbook guide for this sort of thing, nor can anyone else do it for you. In the final analysis you yourself must do the very hard work of thinking through and struggling with the analytical and theoretical issues your topic raises.

Manuscript style and style of citation and references

You should use one of the standard forms of citation used by anthropologists or sociologists in preparing your final project. The Department’s web page provides an overview of citation styles and links to more detailed guidelines. The Final Checklist provides an overview of manuscript preparation requirements. Refer also to the Citation Guide. It provides basic citation information and links to sites with more detailed citation and other formatting guidelines. The AAA (American Anthropological Association) guidelines include detailed information on use of block quotes, section headings, and other manuscript preparation issues, as well as citation guidelines. Copies of these guidelines are available in the Department lounge; they can also be accessed on the AAA web page, for which a link is given on the Department’s citation web page.

2007-2008 Schedule for the Thesis

Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - Initial Proposal Due for students planning summer research

Friday, September 28, 2007 - Initial Proposal Due for students not planning summer research

The initial thesis proposal of at least 3 pages must be submitted to the department chair no later than NOON ON FRIDAY, September 28th. Students who are off campus Fall Term must mail in their proposals soon enough to arrive by September 28.

If you are planning to do research over the summer before your senior year, this initial thesis proposal must be submitted by noon of the last day of classes in Spring Term 2007, Wednesday, May 30. Students planning summer research involving human subjects (such as interviews, surveys, or participant observation) must obtain approval for their research from the Institutional Review Board BEFORE UNDERTAKING ANY RESEARCH. For more information and application guidelines, see the links labeled "Human Subjects Research Application" on the Dean of the College web page.

Before submitting the initial proposal, you must discuss your intended project with at least one faculty member of the department. Guidelines for the initial proposal are provided below. You will be required to submit another proposal if the original one lacks sufficient promise or appears unfeasible. After your initial proposal has been accepted, you will be assigned to a faculty thesis advisor.

Friday, November 2, 2007 - Final Thesis Research Proposal Due

One copy of your final research proposal, with annotated bibliography, is due Friday, NOVEMBER 2nd, at 4:30 p.m. in your comps advisor's office. The final research proposal should be 12 to 15 pages in length, and should follow the guidelines provided below, under "Description of a Research Proposal."

In the case of any project involving original research on human subjects (e.g., surveys, participant observation, interviews), the proposal must be also be approved by the Institutional Review Board. For more information and application guidelines, see the links under "Human Subjects Research Application" on the Dean of the College web page.

If your proposal is not deemed sufficiently feasible by the department, you will have an opportunity to revise it for resubmission. The revised proposal must be turned in to your advisor by the first day of Winter Term, Thursday, January 3, 4:30 p.m. To proceed with the thesis option, your proposal must be accepted by the department no later than Friday, January 11th, 2008. That is also the deadline by which students who had initially elected to do the thesis option may switch to the exam option.

Friday, January 18, 2008 - First Draft of Thesis Due

A first draft of the comps will be due in your comps advisor's office in the third week of winter term, Friday, JANUARY 18th, at 4:30 p.m. This draft should also include an assessment of what needs to be done to complete the study. A bibliography of works read so far and of others that you intend to read should be appended.

Friday, February 22, 2008 - Abstract and Second Draft of Thesis Due

A complete second draft of the thesis is due in your comps advisor's office by Friday, FEBRUARY 22nd, at 4:30 p.m. This draft should include all elements of your final paper, including the abstract, full text of the body of your paper, any tables, charts, or figures, and the bibliography. The order of these elements is: title page, abstract, table of contents, list of figures, acknowledgements, full text of the body of your paper, appendices, list of references cited.

You should also turn in a copy of the abstract (labeled with your name and the title of your thesis) to the department chair, no later than 4:30 p.m., February 22nd. The American Anthropological Association describes an abstract as "an informative summary of a longer work and states the central topic at the beginning. It indicates the nature and extent of the data on which it is based; outlines the nature of the problem or issue and delineates the relevant scientific argument. Finally, it shows how the content relates to the existing literature. Where helpful, citations can be used. Your abstract should be typed and between 75 and 100 words.

Monday, April 7, 2008 - Final Thesis Due

Three copies of the final, finished version of your comps paper are due Monday, APRIL 7th, 4:30 p.m. Two paper copies of your thesis should be turned in to the chair's office. The third, archive copy should be submitted electronically, by copying your thesis to the SoAn Courses/Comps/SoAn/yourID/folder. Please be sure to include all parts (logically named) that correlate to what you printed and handed in.

Any submissions after 4:30 p.m. must be accompanied by a formal letter to the Department Faculty explaining in detail why the comps are late. If the explanation is unacceptable the paper will be evaluated the following Fall. No late comps will be considered for Distinction.

End of April to early May - Oral Presentations of Thesis Papers

Each student will orally present his or her thesis in a public forum open to any interested parties - other majors, faculty, friends. These oral presentations contribute to the final evaluation of the paper. Each senior will be paired with a junior, who will introduce the presenter and initiate discussion following the presentation.

2006-2007 Comps Theses

Testing Parents: The Connection Between Parent Involvement and Reading Ability
Sarah Cannon

Does An African-Centered Curricular Model Decrease the African American Achievement Gap?
Valerie Carter

Double Injustice: An Examination of the Relationship Between the Stigmatization of AIDS, Gender Inequality and Preventative Efforts in South Africa.
Sarah Graham

Holding Up the Mirror: African American Retention Rates and Discrimination at Carleton College
Elisha Hall

Conceptions and Misconceptions: Fertility, Contraception, and Abortion
Caroline Krafft

Civic Education and School-Community Relationships: The Achievement Gap in American Education
Rich Majerus

Hmong Civic Groups: A New Model for Community Empowerment in the Twin Cities Hmong Community
Mai Ka Moua

Gentrification in Chicago: Place-Based Community Organizations in the New Global Economy
Sarah Moberg

Third Culture Identity: The Construction, Maintenance, and Reconciliation of Multiple Cultural Identities
Peggy Moyer

Love, Truth, and the Holy Spirit: Latino Pentecostals and the Integration of Life and Faith
Andrea Parrott

Henceforth, You Shall Be Known as “Klunewagan”: Playing Indian in the Order of the Arrow
Joe Quick

Living Social Capital: Health Care and Social Networks Among Elderly Jews in Odessa, Ukraine
Jonathan Rodkin

Baseball, Basketball and Hip-Hoop Culture: An Assessment of Hip-Hop’s Influence on African-American Participation in Professional Basketball and Baseball Through Gidden’s Structuration Theory
Adam Rossow

"Movimiento de la Gente" Latino Newcomers and Community Formation in the Rural Midwest
Eberley Wedlake

Street Corners in Cyberspace: The Mara Salvatrucha Online
Roxanna Wilcox

Children’s Homes in Russia and Singapore: A Cross-Cultural Comparative
Nazish Zafar

Final Checklist for Comps

1. Number your pages.
2. Break up your essay into chapters, sections, or sub-sections, and list these in a table of contents. This makes it easier for your readers to keep track of where you're going.
3. Don't end a page with the title of the next section.
4. Consult the citation guide.
5. Write clear, simple, grammatically correct sentences; don't burden your work with mindless jargon. Howard Becker's Writing For Social Scientists is an excellent resource that you should consult.
6. Run your spell-checker BUT don't forget that it will not catch incorrect homophones (their/there, it's/its, to/too/two, etc.).
7. Clear up whatever doubts you may entertain about what faculty regard as first-rate work by consulting distinction comps from previous years on reserve in the library.
8. Include your abstract with your paper.
9. Be considerate of your aging faculty's eyesight and use a legible font.
10. The order of sections should be: Title Page, Abstract, Acknowledgements, Table of Contents, List of Figures/Illustrations, Body of Text, Bibliography, Appendix.

PROOFREAD WHAT YOU'VE WRITTEN BEFORE YOU TURN IT IN! Egregiously sloppy or careless comps will be returned to the writer for revisions before they are evaluated, and will not be considered for distinction.

Evaluation of Thesis

Each thesis will be read by at least two professors. The evaluation process takes about three weeks for the written comps. Final grades are given only after the oral presentation. Possible grades are Pass, Pass with Distinction, and Fail. The early deadline for final drafts allows enough leeway for a paper judges inadequate to be rewritten in time for another evaluation. Alternatively, if the faculty readers judge the comps paper inadequate, they may request that the student write an additional, shorter essay addressing in greater detail specific issues related to the paper, or may schedule an oral examination with the student to cover issues raised by the thesis. In this case, the student would not be required to rewrite the entire comps paper.

Theses that are turned in late without an acceptable explanation will not be considered for distinction. Thesis papers that are sloppily prepared-e.g., that are full of typos, grammatical errors, and so forth-indicate that the writer does not consider this a finished copy and/or does not take his/her work seriously. Such papers will not be considered for distinction and will not pass without revision. So. allow yourself enough time for final revisions and proofreading!

Oral presentations also enter into the final grade.

Criteria we use to evaluate theses include: clean preparation of the text, significance of the subject matter, grasp of relevant literature, thoroughness of the relevant data, thoroughness of analysis and appropriateness and convincingness of interpretation along with sound methodological approach, and strength of the theoretical discussion.

We require that the final, archived copies of your comps meet appropriate standards of presentation and clarity (including consistently using anthropological or sociological citations style), as well as of sociological/anthropological analysis.

Criteria for distinction include meeting all deadlines and requirements conscientiously, methodological sophistication, thoroughness of research, clear mastery of material, subtle and nuanced argument demonstrating intellectual creativity, exceptionally well written paper in graceful prose, and a highly polished and effective oral presentation.