General guidelines for written assignments: All writing assignments in this class should be
typed, double spaced, Times New Roman 12pt type, and with no larger than 1” margins. Do
not leave blank lines between paragraphs. For the rough and final drafts there should be a title
page with the title, your name, and the course title on it. There should be a separate
bibliography page at the end of the paper. The title page and the bibliography do not count in
the 10 page required length.
You should assume an intelligent but uninformed reader for your paper, meaning the reader
knows something about sociology but not about the specific topic of your paper. The best way
to do this is to give the paper to a friend of yours and have them read it to see if it makes sense
to them. If it does not make sense to someone who has not been in class, you should clarify
your arguments.
Your task in this paper will be to look at a social problem or condition of your choice from each
of the three Sociological perspectives discussed in class. While you can choose almost any topic,
be aware that certain topics are very common. These include abortion, divorce, teen
pregnancy, legalization of drugs, capital punishment, video games and violence, and social
networking. Also, some common topics are difficult to discuss from a sociological perspective.
Eating disorders is an example. Papers on eating disorders tend to slip into a psychological
framework if the author is not very careful, and that will result in a reduction in the grade, since
the task is to take a sociological perspective.
Please note that due to changes in class size over time, there are limitations on what I can
grade and return in terms of feedback on the paper process. However, I promise you that I will
read your final paper very closely, and will give you feedback along the way during the process
to the extent that you individually ask for it.
You will be required to write a 10 page paper. This paper is worth 400 points. In addition, you
will turn in a paper proposal (worth 40 points) and a rough draft of your paper (worth 160
points). This means that your paper and related work are worth a total of 600 points.
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