For the Final Paper, you will write three short essays that apply specific course concepts to real world scenarios.
In your paper, you are required to write an essay on four prompts.
Each prompt includes specific course concepts you must engage in your discussion. Write your essay as if you are talking to a student who has never taken a sociology course. This means you will need to define and explain the concepts you are using. You still must use your own words and paraphrase; you may not include quoted material. You should include an in-text citation when you paraphrase information related to the course concepts.
Start each essay by describing the event. Then, discuss specific aspects of the event and connect those to the required course concepts. Make sure you define, discuss, and correctly apply each concept. Additionally, use direct evidence from the scenario to illustrate each concept. For example, if you are discussing conformity, you should be clear on who is conforming, what they are conforming to, and how they are doing so.
Use this formatting for your essays:
Write as if you are talking to a student.
Treat each prompt as a separate essay.
Add a heading for each essay (Prompt 1, Prompt 2, Prompt 3, Prompt 4).
Address all three concepts identified in the prompt.
Bold each concept on its first use, so you can easily verify you have included them all.
Use your own words, i.e. paraphrase. Do not include quoted material.
You should include an in-text citation any time you are using a specific concept, example from a source, statistic, etc. Use the “Citing Sources” section below for specific details on citation formats. You must use the sources provided in this course.
Each essay should be ¾-1 page. Essays that are less than ½ page will earn a “0.” Your final submission should be at least 2 pages and should not exceed 6 pages.
Avoid adding your opinion to your essays. Focus on application of the concepts.
Your submission will earn a “0” if you include plagiarized or AI-generated content. Submissions will run through Turnitin. Other methods may also be used to examine the integrity of your submission.
Extra Credit
You may choose to write essays for all four prompts. If you do so, your final paper score will be made up of the three essays that scored the highest. You will also automatically receive five extra credit points.
The Four Prompts
Prompt 1
Concepts you must address:
Type of method: Qualitative or Quantitative [Is this a quantitative or qualitative study and why]
Interviews: Benefits of using this method
Which theory (Functionalism, Conflict Theory, Symbolic Interactionism) would you use to examine this data and why
Scenario [this is a report on a recent sociological research study]
Making Mom Proud (van Stee et al., 2024)
Prompt 2
Concepts you must address:
Material culture
Norms
Socialization
Scenario
Tokyo offers toilet tours amid flush of excitement over Wim Wenders’s Oscar hopeful (McCurry, 2024)
Prompt 3
Concepts you must address:
Digital Divide
Class stratification [this system will not be directly addressed, but explain the system and discuss how this scenario fits into that system]
Conflict theory
Scenario
Narrowing the digital divide for health care (Miller, 2023)
Prompt 4
Concepts you must address:
Race [in your discussion, identify two categories on the new census at are based on race using the sociological definition]
Ethnicity [in your discussion, identify two categories on the new census at are based on ethnicity using the sociological definition]
Social construction of race
Scenario
US changes how it categorizes people by race and ethnicity. It’s the first revision in 27 years (Schneider, 2024)
What Updates to OMB’s Race/Ethnicity Standards Mean for the Census Bureau (Marks et al., 2024) [Just look at Table 1]
Citing Sources
Citing sources allows us to give credit to the author of the material we are referencing. It also allows our reader to seek out the source if they are interested in reading more on the topic. Generally speaking, when you write papers for your college courses, you should expect to include in-text citations when you are referencing another source. Usually you will also be asked to include a Bibliography, References, or Works Cited section. In this course, you will need to include in-text citations, but you do NOT need to include a reference page. A reference page is not needed, because you will only be drawing information for your submissions from the course material. A reference listing is not needed for these items, because I can easily find them in the course.
