The Changing Trend for Marriage and Age Over Time for Women in the US

about the topic : so basically i want to make paper about the changing trend for marriage and age for women in the us from 19th or 20th century until today. (example : women used to marry early in the 19th or early 20th century, but as time goes by, with other factor such as education, women tend to marry later.) we should find data from the legit source such as ipums, statictics, etc. you can only put the data/table 7 max.

Term Project Assignment for Economics C175/Demography C175: The term project gives you the opportunity to get hands-on experience doing research using demographic data to answer a question of your choosing. In the past, students have found it challenging, but very interesting and rewarding. Many find it their favorite part of the course. Those with statistical skills can use them in the project, but these skills are not necessary. While regression models are not necessary, cross- tabulations, charts, correlations, and other data analysis techniques are useful. The topic of the paper must involve demography, but it does not need to be closely related to any theory presented in class.
Unlike most other papers you may have written, this paper is not a literature review or critique. This is to be a brief paper based on an original analysis of primary data. Do not take your data from a published paper or report which has already analyzed it. You should draw your own conclusions from your own analysis of the data. If you are not clear on what we means by this, please ask us in class.
Choosing a Topic: There is a wide range of possible topics for your paper. If you are unsure that your topic is appropriate, you should ask a GSI or one of the professors for approval. Papers could focus on fertility, mortality, migration, education, occupation, marriage, divorce, labor force participation, earnings, wealth holdings, country of birth, or special sub- populations such as those of prisons, universities, or military bases; and so on. Be imaginative! The best papers are not formulaic; rather they are motivated by a question of interest to both the author and the reader. Here are titles of four of the best papers done last year: “Widening Income Inequality in the United States since the 1970s: Who is impacted the greatest,” “Analysis of SAT Scores in Relation to Racial Composition and Income,” “The Effect of the Head of the Household’s Education Level and Occupation Type on the Expected Proportion of Female Children in India,” “The Influence of Divorce on Juvenile Crime Rate in the United States.”
Finding and Analyzing Data: Once you have a broad research question in mind, it may be useful to examine datasets before narrowing your topic question. The population sampled and questions asked place many limitations on the kinds of narrow empirical questions you can answer. On the course website there are links to original datasets (under “Paper Resources”). There will also be special optional sections offered for those of you who would like to learn about data sets available on the Web.
At the Social Science Computer Lab (SSCL), you will be able to access the 2000 US Census in detail, down to the geographic level of groups of blocks. This is better than simply using the Census Web Site. Also, you can access the 1990 Census. In addition, you can access the Great American History Machine, which has data from all US censuses back to the first in 1790, at the geographic level of counties. This data set is best for looking at maps showing how the geographic distribution of variables you choose change from decade to decade over the past 200 years. Another useful data set is IPUMS, which has individual level data from US censuses going back to 1850 and similar data for many other industrial and Third World nations. Using the IPUMS requires a higher level of computer and analytic expertise (beyond spreadsheets), but some students might want to ask a GSI about it. There are also special data sets on time use, health, crime, and many other topics.
Before analyzing your data, it will be necessary to narrow your research topic to a specific empirical question (e.g. a broad topic might be racial segregation and health, whereas a specific empirical question would be “Do African-American children who live in racially homogenous neighborhoods of Chicago have better health outcomes than African-American children who live in integrated neighborhoods of Chicago, even after controlling for family income and health insurance?”). One or two problem sets early in the term will acquaint you with the data sources before you start your paper, as well as with some useful demographic methods.
Final Paper Format: Your paper should include an introduction in which you state the thesis clearly and motivate the topic (answer the “why should we care” question). You should also briefly describe what dataset you used, but the bulk of your paper should focus on your analysis of the data and explanation/interpretation of the results you obtained. The conclusion
should summarize concisely what you learned about your topic and what further analysis would be needed to answer more definitively the question of interest. Papers should be no more than five printed double-spaced pages, plus references (if any) and any figures and tables (maximum seven) you may want to add. The first draft of the paper is due on Friday, April 4th, 2013, by 12 noon in the Demography Building at 2232 Piedmont Ave., or it can be turned in earlier in class. This early due date will prevent the paper from interfering with other activities in the last weeks of term.
Grading the Paper: You will receive a grade on this first draft, which will count for half of the overall grade on the paper. If the first version is not submitted on time, your grade on the paper will automatically be reduced by one step for each day (or part thereof) that it is late, e.g., from B+ to B– if it is one day and two hours late. You will also get a separate grade on the revised version, which will ordinarily be no lower than the grade on the first draft and should be higher if you have improved it by revising. This grade on the revised version counts for the other half of the overall grade on the paper. Thus if you get a B– on the first draft and a B+ on the second draft, your overall grade for the paper would be a B, the average of B– and B+. You may choose not to revise your paper, in which case the grade received on your first draft will be your overall grade. (Note: The precise grading scheme used may differ somewhat from that just described.)
Revision of papers: Once the papers are returned to you, you will have one week to revise the papers in response to the comments of the graders. Graders will provide constructive feedback on how your paper could be strengthened. If you choose to revise your paper, the revision will be due Friday, May 2, by 5 p.m.
Submit the paper on the web and in hard copy: Unfortunately, a few students have submitted plagiarized papers in past years, including recycled term papers from previous years, papers copied from published articles, papers purchased on the web, and so on. In this case, students automatically receive a failing grade on the paper and may receive a failing grade in the course as a whole or be subject to other disciplinary action through the campus Office of Judicial Affairs. To avoid these problems, students are required to submit their papers on a special web site as well as in hard copy. The web site then compares the text to a vast data base, including previous term papers from this and other courses across the country to check for plagiarism.
Some examples of good term papers from previous classes will be posted on bSpace for your use. You can use them for general guidance and inspiration.
“Do”s and “Don’t”s for your term projects—Suggestions from a former Head GSI:
DO
• Hands-on analysis of demographic data.
• Be a critical thinker. This means not only being skeptical of whether conventional wisdom on your topic agrees with
empirical fact, but also being aware of the limitations of your dataset and your own analysis. For example, if you discover that African-American children who live in racially integrated neighborhoods are healthier than other African- American children, the obvious counter-explanation is that African-American parents who can afford to live in integrated neighborhoods can also afford better health insurance. You could then try limiting the sample to privately insured children or children whose families have high incomes to see how your results change.
• Label graphs and charts completely. Give a title that answers what/where/when; label axes; provide a legend if necessary; and include a source note at the bottom, telling where the data came from.
• Cite completely all data used (for websites, this means the complete URL, the date, the organization publishing it). Consult a style manual if you are not sure how to cite a source.
• Feel free to discuss your paper topic and whether your data are appropriate with the GSIs or graders. They can help you with data sources, analytical methods, and topic development. This can be done by e-mail or in person.
• Remember that “data” is plural and “datum” is singular.
• Be consistent with past and present voice when describing your analysis and results.
• Proofread your papers. Have a friend proofread your papers.
• Make sure you give your data the “common sense” test. It is possible to make a computing or data downloading mistake that gives you impossible results. (An example of this is showing a per capita annual income of $42. This is nonsense and is the result of a computing mistake somewhere. Also, many students make simple mistakes on population pyramids. Be careful and proofread!)
• Investigate interesting data sources such as IPUMS, state and local government agencies, companies, international sources, research organizations, etc.
• Think about the reader when making tables and graphs. Are they easy to read? Is there a better, clearer way to display the same information? Learning to do this well is an important skill that will help you throughout your career.

DON’T
• Don’t use secondary data presented in a published paper. Use original source data. (You can cite data in a published
paper as long as it is not your main data source.)
• Don’t write a boring and formulaic paper. This is your chance to investigate a topic of interest to you, and it will be much
more enjoyable to write (and thus to read) if you are interested in your own results.
• Don’t wait until the last minute to look for data. You may not be able to find what you need, and then you will be forced
to pick a topic based only on what data you can find. This is a recipe for a boring paper.