Social Stratification As Seen in
News
Sociological
analysis is most useful (and interesting) when it engages the real problems of
real people in society. Newspapers and
periodicals afford us an opportunity to see what’s going on in the social
world, and to form social scientific ideas about these happenings. By now, you should have a firm understanding
of the concept of social stratification and the different ways it relates to our
lives. For this assignment you will write
a 4-5 page analysis of a stratification-related social issue that
is found in a newspaper or magazine.
Your analysis must meet all of the criteria stated in this document. This assignment is worth 20% of your
final grade, and DUE THE LAST DAY OF REGULAR CLASSES: May 3rd.
Your
first step is to find a recent newspaper or magazine article about some social
issue that interests you, and that relates to social stratification (divisions
of money, status and power). The article
must be from 2018-2024. The article must
be from a major source, such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time
Magazine, U.S. News & World Report, among others. The article can be found online or in print. You may want to run the article by me first
before proceeding with this assignment.
The objective of this assignment is to provide students with an
opportunity to apply sociological perspectives on stratification to the actual social
world.
I. Background (1 page):
a. Briefly describe the social stratification event or
situation presented in the article by answering the following questions:
i.
What is the
event?
ii.
Who was
involved?
iii.
Where did
the event occur?
iv.
When did the
event happen?
v.
What data or
statistics, if any, are presented to help describe the situation?
b.
When you
describe the event, do not plagiarize – describe in your own words!
c.
Make
sure you include a well-developed thesis statement which informs the
reader in one sentence what is the argument of your paper. In other words, what
are you claiming in this paper? The
thesis should be placed at the end of the Background section. Go to this link for assistance:
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/resources/handouts-demos/writing-the-paper/thesis-statements.
II. Assessment
(3-4 pages): This is the “meat” of
your paper. Make sure this section is
well-developed and organized since your grade depends mainly on your
sociological analysis of the article.
Discuss why the social stratification event or situation
occurred by relating it to theories
we have covered in class, or that you have read about in your text. You need to include correct and
appropriate illustrations or examples to demonstrate your ability to apply
the theories to the real-life situation.
Include a discussion of any other concepts besides stratification
(e.g., gender, family, race) that are prominent in the article, and why
they are important
Include an engaging and stimulating conclusion paragraph that
summarizes your paper. Demonstrate
evidence that you can make connections between all of the main ideas.
Again, the paper
should be logically organized in well-constructed paragraphs/sentences, have
relevant content, and be easily understood.
There should be few or no errors in
format, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.
there is ZERO tolerance for
plagiarism, so always cite the original source if you are “borrowing”
information. If you are citing sources, there must always be in-text citations and a
References page in APA style. Sources must be in ABC order on the
References page.
