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This two semester sequence serves as what they call a "capstone" experience. They provide students an opportunity to consolidate their sociological knowledge and to demonstrate their skills by carrying out an empirical research project and writing a senior essay about it.

The goals of the proseminar are (1) to review skills that (should) have been encountered already, and (2) to lay the groundwork for timely and satisfactory completion of the senior essay during the fall semester.
Among the skills that we will work on are:

1. Data collection techniques (interviews, field work, surveys)
   

2. Writing (grammar & punctuation, wordsmithing and revision, incorporating data, citing sources and avoiding plagiarism, genres (literature reviews, abstracts, essays, annotations, memos, blog entries)
   

3. Document production (word processing, charts and diagrams, slide shows)
   

4. Source genre recognition (peer reviewed articles, monographs, trade publications, magazine articles, newspaper articles, reports, advocacy pieces)
   

5. Project planning skills (How to start, organize, and finish on time)
   

6. Information sleuthing (how to find, read, evaluate, collate, summarize)
   

The senior seminar is a continuation of the work begun during the previous semester in proseminar. The skills we will address are the same with an added emphasis on project management and meeting deadlines.