This term paper is 10 to 15 pages (about 2500 to 3250 words) to adequately complete. Preliminary grading will be done by computer, but the final grade will be assigned by the instructor.
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One of the goals for this course is to help you see your own lives and your places in the world differently. For this term paper you are to use concepts and topics from different chapters to describe and interpret important parts of your own lives. Each time you submit a draft to SAGrader you should include all the earlier pieces along with the latest section. The program’s grading will be cumulative. After the program grades each assignment, you will have the opportunity to challenge the score, and we will review the program’s results. But you must leave adequate time for human review of a challenge (at least 48 hours). If you do not allow this window between drafts, then the challenge will not be considered.
Part I: Inequality How has inequality affected your own life? What is your own social class, gender, race and ethnicity?
Social Class. Several kinds of stratification are discussed in the chapter on stratification. Among those are Marx’s theory of class conflict based on two social classes, Wright’s typology of social classes including four classes, and the discussion of the American class structure based on six different classes. Briefly summarize each of these perspectives and distinguish the classes they contain. Which do you think best reflects important elements of today’s society? Where do you expect to be located in each of those classifications after you finish college and begin your career? There are many different kinds of social mobility. What kinds of social mobility do you expect to experience in your own lifetime? Give examples of your own social statuses and those of your parents to illustrate those kinds of social mobility. Be sure to mention at least four kinds of social mobility and to indicate which you believe you will experience.
Gender. What is your gender? What is the difference between gender, sex, and sexuality? How has gender helped or hurt you in your life so far? How do you expect it to help or hurt you in the future? What are some of the issues and concepts related to gender you expect will be important in your life? How are issues such as glass ceilings, second shift, pink-collar jobs, and patriarchy likely to affect you? Be sure to define each concept.
Race & Ethnicity. What is your own race and ethnicity? What is the difference between race and ethnicity? What are some of the differences between your own racial or ethnic group and at least two other common racial and ethnic groups in the United States today?
Part II: Work and Economy In this part of the paper you are to discuss some of the ways the economy and work are changing in today’s world, and how those changes have affected your parents and are likely to affect you in your own lifetime.
First, what kind of work do your parents do (you can substitute a single parent or guardian or someone in that generation if you prefer)? What sector of the economy would their job be in? How does that sector differ from the other sectors in modern economies? Would you say they are in the primary or the secondary labor market? What is the difference between the two, and which has the better jobs? How has their work been affected by rationalization? globalization? industrialization? Be sure to clearly define each of those as well as saying how it relates to their work. Include the important processes associated with the rationalization, including bureaucratization, mechanization, and scientific management.
Second, how do you think these same concepts and issues will affect the work you do in your own life? What kind of job do you hope to have for your career? In what sector of the economy? In what labor market? What are future changes you can expect to occur in work during the next decade or so? Cite arguments and examples from books or articles and Internet sources to justify your expectations.
Part III: Marriage and Family.
Marriage. The chapter discusses several factors that influence who you are likely to marry. If you are not already married, how do you think these factors will influence your own choice of marriage partner? If you are already married, then how did they influence your decision? If all of these factors influenced you, then what kind of person would you be most likely to marry? Be sure to mention some of the issues like the marriage squeeze, the marriage gradient endogamy, and exogamy. How do these various factors, and their relationship to marriage partner choices support or challenge our notion of romantic love? Feel free to reframe this question in terms of civil unions or gay marriage if you so desire.
Family. What are some of the ways families have changed during the last 100 years? Discuss some of the most important changes and indicate how well they are reflected in your own family. For example, you might compare your family of orientation to that of your parents or grandparents. How do they differ in size, in whether they are nuclear or extended family households, in the occurrence of divorce, in cohabitation rates, in whether the wife works outside the home (labor market participation), how childcare is handled, how household tasks are shared among husband and wife, common functions of the family, and so on? Be sure to use and define appropriate concepts and perspectives such as the concept of the “second shift.”
Remember that this paper will also be graded for how well it is written. You are expected to have a title that conveys the key features of your paper, an introductory paragraph, and a concluding paragraph. Your paper will be graded on how well it is organized. For example, an essay that devotes a paragraph to each major topic for families will get a better grade than one that jumps around from topic to topic in each paragraph and spreads coverage of a topic across paragraphs. Part III should also have a conclusion in which you give you an overview of how sociology helps you understand your own life. (Alternatively, you can argue that it does not help, but you’d better make a good case for it. After all, this IS a sociology course!) The final draft should include at least 5 library references to books or academic articles, and at least 5 web pages from the Internet.
