The document provides information to students on conducting social science research for an assignment. It defines social science research as empirical and theory-based studies that gather data. It lists common topics of social science research and describes the typical structure of a social science research article. The document guides students through selecting a topic, refining their search terms, and addressing common citation errors.

1. Me waiting for my phone to stop
ringing so I can use it again.
COMM 200 Social Science

2. NOT FOR COMM 200
ONESEARCH
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4. The elements of the
record that you need to
create a reference list
Citation

5. Look for this button
to find out if the
item is full text
Get it @ CSULB

6. If the article is not full text,
we will get it for you- just
click on the link that says

7. IMPROVING YOUR GRADE

8. THE LISTYOU MUST USE TWO JOURNALS FROM
THE COMMUNICATION JOURNAL LIST.

9. 1. Find your article in the database and click on the title of
the article
2. Look at the SOURCE line of the record
3. Look at the COMM Journals
list (pdf.)to make sure your
article citation is there.
Journal Title
Journal Title

10. USE MEDO NOT GET FRUSTRATED. TRY IT
YOURSELF BUT CONTACT ME IF YOU
ARE NOT FINDING RESULTS. I WONT DO
YOUR RESEARCH FOR YOU BUT I WILL
SAVE YOU TIME AND FRUSTRATION.

11. WORKSHOPS
ATTEND A WORKSHOP FOR EXTRA
CREDIT AND TO ENSURE YOU DON’T
LOSE POINTS DUE TO COSTLY MISTAKES.

12. WORKSHOPS

13. ASSIGNMENT TAB
The tab entitled: COMM Assignments can help
you with your entire assignment. Learn what
parts of the article to use, common citing errors
and how to integrate your sources.

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15. SOCIAL SCIENCE
EMPIRICAL
THEORY BASED
STUDIES ARE
CONDUCTED
DATA IS
GATHERED

16. Organizational
Interpersonal
Family Communication
Gender Differences
Social media
Intercultural
Romantic Relationships
Computer mediated
Media studies
Athletes
Types of Social Science Research

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18. Social Science Articles
1 2 3 4 5
10-15
pages
long
Published
in an
academic
journal
Abstracts
contains words
like:
Data, Participants,
this study,
methodology,
further research
20-40
references
Written by
academics
with
university
affiliations

19. LITERATURE REVIEW
METHODOLOGY
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
FUTURE RESEARCH
ANATOMY OF AN EMPIRICAL
(SOCIAL SCIENCE) ARTICLE:

20. PICKING A TOPIC
Me waiting for my
phone to stop ringing
so I can text you and
ask what you want

21. Interpersonal
communication
Me waiting for my
phone to stop ringing
so I can text you and
ask what you want
PICKING A TOPIC
Avoidance
Modality
Preference
Choice
Disclosure
Cellphone
Face to face
Messaging
Electronic mediated
communication

22. YOUR TURN
SELECT A SOCIAL SCIENCE TOPIC

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24. NOT Social Science
1. You are looking at animal behavior
2. You do not have any
communication variables
3. It is not examining one of the main
areas listed in the previous slide

25. SAMPLE TOPICS
Emojis and interpersonal communication
Aggressive communication and workplace
Deception detection and law enforcement
Body Image and television viewing
First impression and face to face
Add a population, specific type of media, social situation
or profession to make your topic more narrow or unique!

26. Refining your topic
1. Your population group should be
common across articles. For
example: same age group, same
relationship type, same social situation.
2. Stay away from countries that
don’t have similar cultures to the
USA. Avoid countries in Asia, Africa,
Middle East or Developing countries. Use
countries with similar social norms and
freedoms.

27. Refining your topic
3. Baby steps: don’t be too complex!
4. Don’t be too generic! Narrow by
relationship, population, gender,
type of communication or media
5. If your topic has a lot published
about it think of an unexplored
angle.

28. YOUR TURN
THINK OF KEYWORDS, SYNONYMS,
RELATED RESEARCH

29. Use this to connect
different variables. For
example: black and
white
and

30. Place your terms in the
same search box for
Psycinfo and CMMC
romantic or interpersonal

31. Use this to look for root
endings. For example:
athlet* looks for athlete,
athletes, athletic

32. “ ”
Use this to search for
phrases. For example:
“social dating”

33. YOUR TURN
MODIFY YOUR SEARCH

34. Text* and jealousy and dating
Friends and benefits and gender
Athlete* and “verbal immediacy”

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42. Common Citation Errors.
1. Part of the citation is in ALL CAPS
2. Every Word Of The Article Title Is Capitalized (APA only)
3. The journal title is not italicized
4. The ending page number for your article is missing
5. There is no hanging indent
Before

43. Fixing the Errors.
1. Change any words that are all caps
2. Make the appropriate words lower case (APA)
3. Italicize the Journal Title
4. Look at the PDF of your document and find the
ending page number
5. Create a hanging indent
After

44. Ctrl + T *
Creates paragraphs
with hanging indents
in Microsoft Word.
Command for Mac
*