The week’s Doing Sociology has three parts: the first involves univariate analysis and the second bivariate analysis, the third is a journal article.

Part 1: Univariate Analysis

Analysis

The first group of tables are frequency distributions. Select any three (3) tables to analyze. You will need to describe the data in the tables. You don’t need to talk about every single number and percent; what you need to be able to do is describe the variable and the important values – the ones you want to make sure your readers should pay attention to. When conducting your univariate analyses make sure to focus on the "valid percent" column and not the "percent" or “cumulative percent” columns.

The standard practice for analyzing data in tables is to start with a brief introductory paragraph that describes what variables you will be using and the reasons, if any, for selecting those variables. After your introduction you will write a paragraph that describes the frequency distribution of your first variable, followed by the table. This may seem backwards but it really isn’t: it is better if you, the analyst, first describes the data for the reader and then provide the table. If you provide the table first, your reader may not know what to look for and or spend a lot of time looking at the different numbers and trying to figure out what they mean. You need to tell your readers what is important and then they can see how it all fits together.

Part 2: Bivariate Analysis

Analysis

The same document you downloaded from Doc Sharing for the first part of the assignment includes crosstabulations for bivariate analysis. Select any three (3) tables to analyze. The analysis will follow the same pattern as Part 1, with a brief introduction, followed by your analysis of the first crosstabulation, and then the tables. Please note: “tables.” Each crosstabulation includes two tables. The first is the crosstabulation of your DV and IV; the second table is the results of the chi-square test of significance. Your analysis, then, will include whether the relationship is significant and what explains that significance (what data in the table best describes this relationship).

Your paper will probably be about 5 pages, including tables – more is fine! After you complete the analyses in Part 1 and Part 2, write a brief concluding paragraph describing what you learned about 1) the variables you analyzed (your main focus should be the bivariate analyses; if you used the same variables in your univariate and bivariate analyses you might have comments from both parts of the assignment); and 2) analyzing data, especially crosstabulations. When and how is this procedure useful?