Social justice and family policy

Instructions for the Concept Outline

Social Justice and Family Policy- Spring 2021

Instructor: Ashley Jackson-Patterson

The purpose of the concept outline is to provide a tentative draft concept of what your essay will look like. It’s highly recommended that before writing the concept outline, one reads through the instructional for the essay first, as the concept essentially prebuilds off the essay. For instance, the essay requires that students identify a policy and two corresponding issues (among other things). For the concept outline, you’re only notating what your chosen policy is and what your two corresponding issues are. There is an expectation of some citation (of scholarly/peer-reviewed sources) at this point as well, as students should have pulled some research by now about their chosen policy and arguments, but for this assignment close attention should be paid to those sources that would help to substantiate any arguments around one’s corresponding issues. Your submitted document can be any number of pages, but it should be comprehensive and lengthy enough to show that a good amount of thought and preparation has thus far gone into the construction of your essay (remember, students have had the entire semester to get to this point, so much is expected now). This document can be written in a semi-informal fashion, but citations must still be done appropriately. This instructional is foremost designed to provide clarity on how to structure the outline:

1. The structure of the paper should be broken down by sections:

a. The first section should respond to the chosen policy. Here students should articulate what their chosen policy is and why. There is no need at this very moment to cite here, but if you have sources and choose to cite you should do so appropriately and include these citations in a reference sheet at the end of the document with other references that will follow in the next sections.

b. The second section should speak to the first corresponding issue, and here, there is some expectation of citation although it doesn’t have to be to the level that you would normally see in a full essay. You’d want to ensure that you comprehensively and cogently explain some arguments here.

c. The third section should speak to the second corresponding issue, and here, there is some expectation of citation although it doesn’t have to be to the level that you would normally see in a full essay. You’d want to ensure that you comprehensively and cogently explain some arguments here.

d. You should close the document with a reference list that should be completed in APA style. Students are expected to have proper APA—and there is a link on the syllabus to a resource on APA.

Note: At this stage, what you submit for the concept is just a draft (you can change around what you submit here). This allows the instructor to see where you are in the writing/research process and to provide you with some feedback before the essay is fully completed. But grading of this assignment will be based on the comprehensiveness, APA, and normal writing competencies. There is no page minimum or maximum—just ensure that you’ve fully articulated what was asked of you to do, if you fail to do so, points will be deducted.

Note: Instructions for the essay are posted under Social Justice and Family Policy documents under modules in Canvas.

Suggested Topics:

· Fair Sentencing Act

· Detention and Deportation

· Immigration Laws

· Dream Act/DACA

· Illegal Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act

· Juvenile Justice Reform

· Criminal Justice Reform

· Bail Reform

· Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act

· The Second Chance Act

· Mass Incarceration

· Decriminalization of Marijuana

· Discrimination in Employment

· No Child Left Behind Act

· Federal Housing Assistance

· Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)

· Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

These topics are just suggestions. You can feel free to use any policy of your choosing, but you must be able to relate it to topics that were covered during the class.