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Social Work

This is a Social Work research guide. It offers a variety of information to help you with your research needs

Social Welfare Assignment Info.

This section of the Social Work guide generally follows your rubrics for the Social Welfare assignments for SW 2601 in hopes that access to library resources, research methods, and support will be more intuitive and helpful. Each class will have a different final product and approach, but the resources needed to reach that final product are similar.

Pay attention to the rubrics given to you in your course syllabus as this is a GUIDE based on those syllabi. If you have any questions or comments about this guide, please let Hanna know.

Suggested Topics/Programs for Paper

Policy Assignment Resources

Google search for searching several government websites at once, find government reports and laws

  • site:.gov (food stamps OR SNAP OR supplemental nutritional assistance program)
  • ourdocuments.gov

ArticlesPlus - first green tab on library's main page. Can search by topic and find books, newspapers, videos, articles, etc. on topic. You will get a lot of results, but you can narrow down to specific kinds of information.

Important questions to consider for a policy analysis and where to look to answer them:

Hint... the resources are above ;)

1. What is the social welfare problem? How much of a problem was it- did it affect a lot of people? Who?

  • Answer this question using books, research articles, news at the time, and government reports.

2. What was happening just prior to the passing of this law that tries to address the social welfare problem? What or who were the influencers? What biases are at play?

  • Answer this question using books, research articles, news at the time, and government reports.

3. How did the law try to address the social welfare problem? What were the goals of the law?

  • Find the original law using Smart Google or ProQuest Congressional or Lexis Uni. Research articles may also help.

4. Was the law effective? Did the law create programs that helped people? Did it have side effects? Who/what did it hurt?

  • Answer this by looking at research articles, books, and government reports. What are scholars saying about the ripple effects?

5. Has the law changed since being enacted? In what way? Why?

  • Look to current legislation to see if amendments have been made