After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

• Why do sociologists do research?
• What are some of the different ways that sociologists collect data?
• How do sociologists analyze data?
• Think of a topic you might like to study. What would be the first steps in developing a research project on that topic?
• Think of a hypothesis you’d like to test. What are the variables you would use to test it, and what type of sample would you use?
• How do sociologists evaluate the quality of research?
• How do sociologists evaluate news articles and graphical presentations that use survey data?