Detailed assignment requirements
Requirements for your journal entries
- Every three weeks, find and critique a scholarly journal article on the assigned lecture topics
Requirements for sources for your paper
- Locate a minimum of 8 scholarly sources on the topic you selected;
see "Tips on negotiating your topic" below.
- All eight sources must be recent (defined as published from 2005 to date) scholarly sources;
use the most recent you can find.
- You may choose to cite additional sources beyond the required eight;
these sources may be older.
Tips on negotiating your topic
- The most productive mindset when approaching your topic is to think about what kind of
medical or psychological or social science research is likely to have been conducted on
the subject.
- For example, for the question "Is prostitution a victimless crime?," look for
research on the frequency or the consequences of HIV transmission between prostitutes and their
customers. How frequently do prostitutes transmit or become infected with HIV? What are the
medical, cultural, or psychological consequences? This seems like a reasonable topic for medical or
social science research. Certainly people who become HIV positive could be considered victims.
Articles reporting research on prostitution and HIV transmission address the question,
through the research data, of whether prostitution is a victimless crime.
4 February 2008 (moe)
Michael Engle, Mary Ochs and Tony Cosgrave
Olin & Uris Reference Department
