Social Paper Essay（need be done in 10 hours）

“Applying Your Sociological Imagination”

The purpose of this paper is to encourage you to apply your sociological

imagination and to use some of the tools you have learned in this course to

explore your own experience. To start, I would like you to select a group to

write about. You need to be a member of this group. You can be a formal

card carrying member of the group, or simply a member through informal

association. I want you to think of a group that you know intimately enough

that you will be able to easily write about the history, characteristics,

relationships, etc. of the group. You should also consider picking a group

that is manageable to write able. For example, writing about being part of

‘college students’ would be much too broad. There is no way that you could

generalize enough information to discuss the group. You might, however, be a member of a study group ora group of classmates that have taken several classes together who have become very familiar with each other. Here is a list of potential groups that

might help to give you some ideas:

- Music group (band, choir, hip hop crew)

- Work (co-workers, people you spend a lot of time with, regular customers)

- Regulars (coffee shop, record store, shopping mall, arcade)

- Club (book club, card game, shooting range)

- Friends (group that hangs out on weekends, camping friends)

- Neighborhood parents that all hang out with kids at park

- Members of a particular religious/ideological organization (think in small

manageable terms: local individual ward, specific atheist reading group)

- Team (sports, dance, other competition)

The key is just to pick a group that you belong to and that you know very

well. I do not want you to have to struggle to come up with facts about the

group. Pick something that you know well enough that you can focus on the

sociology and have the rest flow easily. Pretend that I do not know anything

about your group, your culture, or your experience. Write this paper as if

your group were being introduced to the world for the first time. Keep it very

simple and straight forward.

I am leaving the rubric intentionally vague so that you can write about any

aspect that you are most interested in. For example, when telling me about

the group’s history you might write about the actual history of how the

group was formed or about your own experience becoming a part of the

group. The discussion about social context, norms, and history is just

intended to give the reader a sense of who your group is, what they do, and

basically why they exist. I am not looking for anything specific beyond that

general frame.

After describing the group, pick one of our main three theories to use to

explore your group. You might pick symbolic interactionism and talk about

the symbols that your group uses and the meaning behind those symbols

(ballet shoes, uniforms, hair styles, hand shakes/gestures, clothing, words,

etc.). You might use the conflict perspective to talk about who has access

to resources (such as attention from group leaders) and who does not have

access. You could also choose the functionalist perspective and talk about

what function your group fills in society or what role each individual plays in

the group. These are just quick examples. Please let me know if you would

like any more detail or help.

The next step of discussion at least 3 of the sociological concepts should

be straight forward. Again, you can write about any aspect that you like. For

example, you might write about the age characteristics of members of your

group or you might write about how different age groups in society respond

to your group.

Finally, you will use images to help ellaborate your points! I would like you

to be creative. You have complete free will with regard to what images you

use and how you use them. You can use photographs, drawings, things

taking from the internet, tables, graphs, or anything else. You might take a

straight forward shot of your group and say ‘this is my group’. You could

also talk about the macro perspective and show a picture of a mountain.

You could then talk about the micro perspective and show a zoomed in

image of an individual flower on the mountain. Be creative!

Please let me know if you would like clarification about anything or have

any questions at all about who/what to write about! Below you will find the

rubric that I will use to grade your paper. You are welcome to submit your

paper via the Canvas submission portal or to deliver a hard copy to me

(this might work best if you want to include images that are not easily

digitized).

Intro 1 2 3 4 5

Provide an overview of your paper.

Describe the group of which you are a member. 1 2 3 4 5

History of the group.

Social context of the group.

Discuss the norms associated with the group.

Discuss the theoretical perspective you have chosen. 1 2 3 4 5

(Functionalism, Symbolic Interactionism, Conflict Theory, etc.)

Provide an explanation of the theoretical perspective.

Why is this perspective appropriate to examine your group?

Apply the theoretical perspective. 1 2 3 4 5

Explain an aspect of your group through the theoretical lens.

Discuss at least 3 of the following concepts 1 2 3 4 5

(Within the context of your group.)

Stratification Gender Age

Race/Ethnicity Deviance Prejudice/Discrimination

Conclusion 1 2 3 4 5

Summarize your paper.

Images 1 2 3 4 5

You must use 3-5 images to highlight concepts/examples

being discussed in your paper. Think in terms of an

Intro to Sociology text book! (photos, drawings, etc.)

_____ / 35

7 categories X 5 possible points = 35 possible points.

Each score will be multiplied by 3 for your final score. X 3 = _____

35 X 3 = 105 (5 extra credit points possible)

I am more interested in quality than quantity. I do not want you to force writing

just to hit a certain page number. With that in mind, I expect that it will probably

take at least 5 pages to really explore your group.

*5 or so pages double-spaced, 12 pt. font. Please do not use images to simply fill

space.