Justice

Students often have trouble discerning among types of sources, likely because general internet searches produce a wide range of sources. Use ASU Library databases to identify suitable sources for this assignment rather than a general google search. Explore additional resources located below these guidelines to help you complete the assignment. 

Please read these guidelines carefully, particularly the critical step described in #2 of identifying correct and complementary sources.

Identify a justice issue that you are curious or care about. You may use the same justice issue from earlier assignments.

Using ASU Libraries, find two sources of knowledge about your selected issue:  

a peer-reviewed social science scholarly journal article a study based on the authors original and empirical data analysis (e.g. based on primary data they collected from observations, interviews, surveys, or social experiments, etc.), not a position statement, theoretical argument, analysis of existing database (e.g. US Census data) or a literature review of other peoples research; and,

a substantive, news-reporting (not news analysis) newspaper article about current events not an Op-Ed, opinion column, letter to the editor, advertisement, blog entry, book review, magazine article, or other non-journalism-based news article. I recommend you use either the Arizona Republic or The New York Times for this component of the assignment. 

3. Here is an example of what you need to find using ASU Library databases in order to complete the assignment: 

Social science journal article: Adam Porton , Ashley Gromis & Matthew Desmond (2020): Inaccuracies in Eviction Records: Implications for Renters and Researchers, Housing Policy Debate, DOI: 10.1080/10511482.2020.1748084

Newspaper article: New York Times news article from July 4, 2020 (updated July 23, 2020) by Caitlin Dickerson. Sleeping outside in a pandemic: Vulnerable renters face evictions.

4. Read this blog entry by Karen Sternheimer from Everyday Sociology on What’s the Difference between Sociology and Journalism?

5. To help you analyze your sources, take notes as you compare and contrast each of your sources with the other. Consider how each is similar or different when it comes to aspects of the source including:

motivation for the analysis

sources of knowledge/voices included

level of detail or length of argument

funding sources

intended audience

mission or purpose of creating knowledge

authors ethical obligations

types of data collection and analysis

time required to collect evidence 

images or other media used to visualize the main argument

mode or platform for dissemination of findings, etc.

6. Now, drawing on your notes from Question # 5, and based on your understanding of your two selected sources as well as course materials, compose a 500-word double-spaced essay organized around the following questions:

What is the justice issue under analysis? Why should readers care about it?

How did the authors of the social research journal article make their argument (i.e. what claims did they make and what sorts of data did they collect or use in order to support their claims)? How did the authors of the newspaper article make their argument? Compare and contrast their approaches.

Explain which you consider to be more accurate? Comprehensive or in-depth? More compelling to read? Persuasive? 

Illustrate using examples drawn from your newspaper and journal articles what these two ways of knowing have in common (at least two factors) and what distinguishes them (at least two factors).

7. Include a complete citation using a writing style manual (either Chicago, MLA or APA) for each source in a references cited section & upload PDFs of each source along with your analysis.

Resources to Help You Complete the Assignment

Please be sure to consult ASU Library Online Resources and the ASU Library HELP! services, so that you may search and identify a suitable example of social science research.

Here is a resource to help you determine whether the article you are considering is peer-reviewed or not: What is Peer Review?

Please note that law review articles do not generally “count” as peer-reviewed social research because legal scholars rarely conduct their own research, and the journals are edited by law students. In short, to streamline the search process, avoid law review journals.

Please note that medical journal articles rarely “count” as peer-reviewed social research because medical researchers do not frequently conduct research “with people” but rather “on people” in terms of the effect of a particular therapeutic intervention. 

That said, justice studies is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary field of study. Therefore, you may identify an article in a journal classified as a law review or a medical journal that would be eligible for this assignment. I recommend you ask me to review your selection prior to the assignment deadline with sufficient time for me to respond and you to identify another article in the event the one you originally found is not eligible.

The same applies to the newspaper article you need for this assignment. Be sure that it is from the news section of the newspaper and not in one of the following sections: arts, sports, opinion, letters to the editor, comics, health, style, weather, etc.