Fluent Essays

This is a sociology writing paper. Word count between 1200 to 1400. No plagiarism!!!!The detailed writing instruction is post in the attached file. Please check and choose ONE prompt to write. In the writing instruction, there are total 6 prompts, only need to choose one to write. paper_writing_prompts.docx Unformatted Attachment Preview Sociology 204 Writing Assignments You will upload your paper to Canvas using the VeriCite tool. Please be sure to put both your name, your section leader’s name, and your word count on your paper. As a rough guide, your papers should be between 1200 and 1400 words. The wordcount guidelines are general suggestions that indicate the average length it takes to fulfill the assignment’s requirements. Thus, it is okay if you write a little more or less than the suggested length. After all, your papers will be graded on how well you fulfill the assignment guidelines, not on how much (or how little) you wrote. Bear in mind that it will be very difficult to score a passing grade if you only write 500 words when the recommended length is 1100. Alternatively, just because you write 2000 words does not mean you stand to do better. The key to doing well is to be sure that you’ve fulfilled all of the assignment’s requirements in a clear and concise manner. These papers are not personal or opinion essays; they are intended to be analytic essays that reflect your understanding of sociological concepts and ideas and how they connect to various aspects of social life. That said, you may write in a “voice” that is comfortable for you, which means that using first person and a more casual tone is fine. But keep in mind that your essay needs to be successful as a tool for communicating an argument that is based on specific evidence and examples (rather than merely opinions about the world). You can find the grading guidelines and criteria are on the last page of this document. We won’t write a lot of comments on your papers but are happy to meet with you during office hours either before the due date to help you with your work or afterwards to go over your paper and grade in as much detail as you like. Writing Assignment Option #1 Stranging the Familiar Objective This exercise provides the opportunity to more fully explain the concept of the “sociological imagination” and how it helps us to understand our experiences and society. Description Developing a sociological analysis of society often involves developing the capacity to “strange the familiar” or look at the taken for granted world around us from a fresh perspective. One of the concepts that helps us do that is the “Sociological Imagination.” Please write an essay that includes the following components. 1) What the Sociological Imagination is. 2) What role it plays in sociological analysis. 3) Choose an everyday item (examples may be: a can of pet food, inserts for women’s high-heeled shoes, a bag of Halloween candy, a childs toy, bottled water, earbuds, anti-aging cream, Axe Body Spray, the list is endless…). 4) Use the concept of the sociological imagination to explain this item. What do you need to know about this particular society, this particular point in history and the individuals within this society to understand this item? What does this item tell us about this society? About ourselves? 5) Finally, your answer should include a description of sociological analysis differs from “common sense” ways of knowing. What sets it apart from informal conversations with friends, your opinion or interactions on talk radio? Your essay should reflect an understanding of sociological imagination by being able to place an everyday item within a broader social context. For example, perhaps you choose to focus on these pink and blue hangers. Or even gender reveal smoke bombs. You might first think, “Why do these exist? What do they tell us about society?” You could construct your essay around gender norms, and why we feel a need to distinguish between male and female. You can talk about gender socialization, or how we learn about the gender binary, and how these types of product reify those distinctions. *Adapted from Peter Kaufman.(1997). “Michael Jordan Meets C. Wright Mills: Illustrating the Sociological Imagination with Objects from Everyday Life.” Teaching Sociology, 25(4): 309-314. Writing Assignment Option #2 Theme Song Objective This exercise will provide an opportunity to relate sociological concepts to a song of your choosing. In doing so, it may enable you to understand a you like in a more developed way, and may help you to better understand sociological concepts that you are learning. Description Identify a song (with lyrics) that you think lends itself well to sociological analysis, and develop a thesis that explains the song’s perspective on social life by analyzing its meaning, resonance, lyrics, sound, history, and/or relevant parts of the biography of its creator(s). Note that you don’t have to focus on all of these things; these just offer some possibilities for what you can focus on. Your essay should answer these 3 closely related questions: 1. What is the point that the song makes about an aspect of social life that we have touched upon in this class? 2. How does it make that point? 3. What evidence from the song can you identify that tells us why the artist(s) responsible for the song thought that this was a point worth making? While your essay will involve some creative interpretation on your part, it is a sociological analysis. Therefore, it is important to make sure that your analysis is closely tied to some of the material that we have been talking about in class. If you do this paper include at the end a copy of the song’s lyrics (they do not count toward word count). For example, if my essay is on Cardi B’s “Best Life” I want to make sure that there is a tight connection between the song, its themes, and an area we have covered in class. My focus for this song, for instance, could be on gender (the song is about how Cardi B achieved professional and economic success), class (it is also how people discount those who don’t appear wealthy), culture and online social networks (there is a reference to internet bullying) and materialism. So, I would focus on how the song relates to ideas about those themes that we talked about in class or that are covered in the textbook or other readings. I might also talk about gender, sexuality, and hip-hop and how other artists in this genre address these dimensions of social life. You should be sure to fully define and explain all sociological concepts that you include in your analysis. In writing the paper I’d be sure to use lots of quotes from the song. I might also bring in some references to bios of the artist or perhaps an article where they talk about writing the song. You can also discuss the song’s context by writing about the song’s reception and popularity (or perhaps it was controversial). The reaction that the song receives to a wider audience might shed some insight for what the song is really about. However, you don’t have to include all of these details, but they are the kinds of things that you can connect to your sociological analysis. I hope this can be a thought-provoking exercise, but it is important not to make the mistake of focusing too much on the song and leaving out the sociology. You want to be sure your paper is grounded in one or several sociological concepts so the paper doesn’t just ramble about the song in an un-specified manner. Please chat with you GE if you have a question about the feasibility of a song, or if there is a poem you’d like to use instead. Soc 204 Writing Prompt Option #3 Photovoice. Objective: This exercise is designed to help you understand sociological concepts related to social class by looking at the world around you. Description: Take pictures in your immediate surroundings that relate to course concepts. In whatever setting you find yourself—campus, home, work, any place you pass through—look for opportunities to capture examples of social class, inequality, wealth and poverty. **When taking pictures in public space, it’s crucial to respect people. People may not want to be photographed without permission, so it’s best to not take pictures of people. Taking pictures of signs, objects, buildings, and places is the cautious – and best - way to proceed. Aim for at least three pictures to illustrate your analysis. Here are a few ideas to get you started, but you may take pictures of anything that inspires you:  Downtown (Photographs of the interior and exterior help reveal the quality of the library available to patrons.)  Convenience store (What products are advertised on the storefront? What services are available to customers? Whats the condition of the store? In the example above, we see a store that has gone out of business.)  Grocery store – comparing suburban groceries in wealthier areas with those in lowerincome areas reveals much about stratification processes.  You could compare two car dealerships in different parts of town (see above)  Neighborhoods: roads, sidewalks, landscaping of public land, etc. Your essay might be structured around understanding class privilege and how it functions through that which we buy. For example, what might the produce section look like in a grocery store that is located in a wealthier area? What products might be featured for sale? Or, what do the sidewalks look like in your neighborhood? When I did this project in college, I took lots of pictures of potholes on the street where I lived (in a lower-income neighborhood), and then compared it to roads in wealthier neighborhoods. I discussed the use of how tax dollars were distributed to prioritize the roads in wealthier neighborhoods. Soc 204 Writing Prompt Option #4 Gender Socialization Objective This exercise will aid students in analyzing the way in which gender is socially constructed. By analyzing children’s products (toys, clothes or other items) students will be able to highlight the ways in which messages are conveyed to children about what it means to be a boy or a girl in sometimes subtle or hard to see ways. Description Visit a department store, children’s clothing store or toy store. Because of the global pandemic and necessary physical isolation, this should be done by looking online. Observe the items offered for sale and answer the following questions: 1. What store (website) did you visit? How would you describe the store and the arrangement of the items for sale? 2. Make a list of items intended for boys, girls or both. How do you know if they are intended for boys, girls or both? Did you notice anything or unusual or unexpected? 3. What sort of messages do the items directed at boys, girls or both convey about what it means to be a boy or a girl? What sociological concepts are useful in helping to understand the arrangement of items in the store and the messages they are sending about gender? You may have some suspicions before you do this exercise about what you will find, but try to let your argument be guided as much as possible by what you actually see in the store that you visit. Please be sure that your essay tells us what store you visited and when, what you did in the store, and what your overall impression of the store in relation to gender socialization was. Your main argument should be your answer to the question posed above. Make sure that you include lots of specific examples of toys and images that you actually observed. If you want, you can include screen shots of the images and include them in your essay. Other questions that you may want to think about in figuring out what to say include patterns that you observe in toys for girls, toys for boys, and more gender-neutral toys; how the toy manufacturers make sure that you know that they are for girls or for boys or gender-neutral; things that seem positive to you and things that seem negative; anything that surprised you or caught your attention. Also keep in mind the concepts and ideas about socialization, norms, deviance, and the social construction of gender that we have/will cover in class as ways to develop your argument and talk about what you are observing. *Assignment based on “Gender Socialization” in Sociology Through Active Learning edited by Kathleen McKinney and Brabara S. Heyl. Los Angeles: Pine Forge Press. 2009. Soc 204 Writing Prompt Option #5 Sociology of Covid-19 and Deviance Objective: This goal of this paper is to help to refine your sociological imagination by using course concepts to better understand how outcomes related to the Covid-19 pandemic are shaped by the structural processes that shape our society. Description: Choose a news article, research finding, or event related to Covid-19 that reminds you of something we have discussed in this class. You have a lot of leeway here in what to choose and how to frame it. For example, you might choose to write about how the structure of the US healthcare system (based upon a profit-based, pay-to-play model) is leading to different outcomes for people based upon their access to healthcare (perhaps even comparing it to other countries’ systems that provide publicly-funded care). If you did this, you might discuss such factors as race, class, and power are connected to the healthcare industry. You might choose to write about how Covid-19 has shown us just how socially constructed deviance is, in that things we previous took for granted as normative (i.e., handshakes, parties, hugs, sporting events) are now considered deviant actions. If you choose this route, you can discuss the social construction of deviance (norms, contexts, interaction, punishment, power) by focusing on what happens when someone violates the unwritten “scripts” that guide our actions. You might choose to focus on how work-from-home mandates are easier to follow for people with upper-middle class jobs. Or how stay at home requirements can reveal differential expectations for child care in homes that are organized by traditional gender norms. Or about how homes that deviate from those models face unique challenges with regard to maintaining social distance norms and expectations. Depending on which way you chose to go, these essays would require you to discuss things like norms of gender, family, class, sexuality and paid and unpaid employment. The key here is to make sure your essay answers the question: What social processes that typically remain “hidden” has the Covid-19 pandemic brought to the light of day? If you’re unsure about your idea for this, please feel free to chat with us and we can workshop your idea together. It’s always a good idea to do this. Soc 204 Writing Prompt Option #6 Socialization into Yourselves Objective: The purpose of this exercise is to help you to understand how our sense of self is the product of socialization and social interaction. It can also help us to understand how much of a role other people have in shaping how we see ourselves – and behave – in different social contexts. Description: People inhabit multiple social worlds, and act differently in those different worlds. Socialization is one of the processes that allows this to happen, focusing on how we learn and internalize the norms, values, beliefs, habits, knowledge, behaviors, and modes of action that allow us to function in those different social worlds. In this essay, please identify two distinct social worlds that you inhabit and the ways that the differences between them are reflected in your different “selves” in those settings. The question that should be the focus of your essay is: why do these settings call for (or demand!) different selves? Your paper will have to accomplish several tasks. First, make sure to provide a thorough description of the settings and the “selves” that you adopt in them, focusing on differences between the two, as well as similarities, and whether you experience them as complementary or contradictory (although you should also note similarities). Second, you should provide an analysis of why you adopt different selves in these settings focusing both on how the setting enforces or demands it and on the different socialization processes in the two different settings (the lecture, slides, and textbook all talk about aspects of the socialization process and you should use those resources to guide your discussion of socialization – don’t just wing it, use the concepts and theories we have gone over). All of that work is the set up to allow you to answer the main question for this paper which is: why do these settings call for different selves? Does it have to do with what the settings are about? With power? With different cultures or social groups? Different goals or purposes within the setting? Different people or relationships? There are lots of other possibilities but those will hopefully get your thinking started down a useful road. Grading and General Guidelines Writing a paper should not be a mystery. You should have a clear idea of what is expected of you. If after reading these assignment descriptions you have any doubts about what the goal of a paper is, please come talk to us! We will focus on three main elements in assessing all papers: writing, structure, and argument. The key elements of each are described on the table below. Grades below “B” indicate some problem with the writing, structure, or argument of your paper. “B” papers are good in all respects. “A” papers distinguish themselves from “B” papers by their argument. That is to say, “A” papers have something distinctive to say and do an excellent job saying it. If you want to write an “A” paper, you need to develop a strong argument. This can be hard to do. A good piece of general advice is to start figuring out what you are going to write by asking a real question about the topic you are writing about. A real question is a question without an obvious answer. Your answer to that question is your argument that you develop and support through the structure and writing of the paper. Most of the assignments above provide the question for you. How you say it Writing Structure Are there spelling or grammar Does the paper have a clearly mistakes? stated thesis? (the thesis statement should normally be stated in the first paragraph, often as the last sentence of the first paragraph) Does the thesis actually govern the argument of the paper or does it fade away? Is the thesis appropriate to the assignment? Is the paper written in a way Does each paragraph have a that effectively and clearly clear purpose in advancing the communicates its meaning? Or argument of your paper? Does do we have to puzzle over what the paper “signpost” that you are trying to say? purpose by using effective transitional and clarifying language to alert the reader to what each part of the paper is doing? (One technique for doing this is to have the first sentence of each paragraph communicate the purpose of that paragraph). Are references (if any) properly Is the paper structured in a cited in a references section at logical way that contributes to the end of the paper? creating a clear, comprehensible argument? What you have to say Argument Is your thesis strong or weak? A strong thesis advances: 1) a clear argument that can be addressed using evidence; 2) a non-obvious (and therefore interesting) argument. A weak thesis may be unclear, it may be perfectly interesting but not amenable to evidence one way or the other (so who can say if it is right, or wrong?), or it may be so obvious that you really don’t need to write a paper or make an argument to know that your point is right. Does the paper develop its argument using appropriate evidence? This could be empirical evidence for some papers, quotes from the text for papers about another author’s arguments or point of view, an example or case that illustrates a certain point, and so on. The point is whether the evidence effectively supports your argument. This also means making sure not to argue that your evidence says or means more than it should. Given the requireme ... Purchase answer to see full attachment