Sociology Journal Writing Style

Simon Grimard

Sociological research is an ever changing field of study. That is because of the fact that social norms, ideologies, and fundamental beliefs change over time. Within Sociology there are two defined and distinct schools of thought. These two groups either research though qualitative or quantitative research methods. The quantitative researchers use the scores of raw data and deduce their answer from what the numbers indicate. In contrast, the qualitative research method allows the researchers to form their own opinions on the specific subject.

O'Reilly, Dermot. “Dissonances in self-reported health and mortality across denominational groups in Northern Ireland” Social Science & Medicine Volume (71):1011-1017.

The article written by Dermot O’Reilly is a good example of Sociological journals because it clearly defines what the topic being studied is and what hypothesis the author had on the topic before completing their research. Furthermore O’Reilly uses a qualitative research method to formulate his findings. The article is a good example of qualitative research because it clearly shows how there are some topics, such as the one discussed in the article which cannot be researched or studied in a quantitative format. Also the article is an excellent example of the writing style that authors of sociological articles use. The style usually used is a fact based and dry in comparison to other subjects. The reason for a fact based styling is that the authors have to pass across a lot of information across to their readers and using more complex and extra language may cause the reader to miss interpret the point trying to be portrayed or lose interest in the article all together.

Miller, Peter G, and Anders Soenderlund. “Using the internet to research hidden populations of illicit drug users: a review” Addiction Volume(105):1557-1567.

In the case of the article the authors chose to complete research that would not in its self provide any valuable data towards sociology; however the research that they completed will help other sociology research in the future. The article is a prime example of how any subject can be researched within the field of sociology and be used to help further sociological research as a whole. The article provides a base for other researches to work off of when they want to do their own. Because the internet is still a fairly new tool for researchers, having an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the tool helps other researchers to feel more comfortable using it in their research.

Pagani, Camilla, Frrancesco Robustelli and Frank R. Ascione. 2010. "Investigating Animal Abuse: Some Theoretical and Methodological Issues." Anthrozoos 23(3):259-276.

The article discusses how in some instances it is vital for a researcher to look at a topic from both a qualitative and quantitative point of view. For instance the topic of animal abuse it is not only important to understand the number of reported animal abuse cases but also what the situation was surrounding the abusive situation for the animal. The article is a prime example of how two different research methods can be used on the same subject to provide a completely different view towards the same issue. Within the field of sociology the ability to discuss a topic from several different viewpoints is vital in discovering what is actually occurring and what the problem/solution is.