*What’s In the News?
Find a recent newspaper or magazine article that illustrates a social class event that has occurred in the U.S. within the last year (i.e., 2011 or later). Choose an article that focuses on groups of people in conflict with one another as a result of the social hierarchy embedded in the U.S. class system. The article must be at least one page long, since a short article is harder to analyze. 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 the ability to apply sociological perspectives of social class to real-world situations.
I. Background (1 page):
- Briefly describe the social class event by answering the following questions:
- i. What is the event?
- ii. Who was involved?
- iii. Where did the event occur?
- iv. What caused the event to develop?
- b. When you describe the event, do not plagiarize – describe in your own words!
II. Assessment (2 to 3 pages): This is the meat of your paper. Make sure this section is very well-developed, well-organized, and well-written since your grade depends mainly on your sociological analysis of the article.
- Apply at least two sociological concepts/theories learned in class to explain why this social class event occurred. In your application of each concept/theory, use specific examples from the article to demonstrate your understanding of the concepts/theories.
- b. Underline the sociological concepts/theories you are applying. Include a well-written definition of each concept/theory in your own words. You must cite the source using APA style when you include definitions and other facts in your paper.
III. Implications (1 page):
- Discuss at least two recommendations that can be realistically utilized to alleviate the social class conflict described in your article. These recommendations can be at the local, state, or federal levels. Be very thorough in your response to demonstrate critical thinking at the college level.
- Attach the original or a photocopy of the article to your paper. Points will be deducted if you do not include the article on the same day as your paper submission!
Grading Rubric: This grading rubric is designed to help you understand what a college-level paper entails. This writing assignment is worth 100 points. Before submitting your assignment, go through this checklist to make sure you have adequately addressed the following criteria. I will use this Grading Rubric when grading your assignment, so please include this checklist when submitting your paper.
a) Background (10 points) – The paper should include demonstration of your knowledge of the social class conflict described in the article by thoroughly answering the appropriate questions outlined in Section I.
b) Knowledge (5 points) – The paper should include demonstration of your comprehensive knowledge of at least two sociological concepts/theories by paraphrasing the definitions. Do not include verbatim definitions, since doing so will not show whether or not you understand what these terms mean. Even if you paraphrase definitions, you must cite the textbook or the original source using APA style (see below for APA websites).
c) Assessment (50 points) – For each sociological concept/theory, there should be correct and appropriate examples to demonstrate your ability to apply these concepts/theories to your article. There should be detailed illustrations of the examples as evidence that you understand the relationship between the concepts/theories and the social class event.
d) Implications (15 points) – The paper should have a thorough discussion of at least two recommendations you suggest to improve the social class conflict illustrated in the article. Make sure that with each recommendation, you are detailing a plan of action.
e) Evidence (5 points) – All newspaper and/or magazine articles must be attached to your paper at the time of submission. They cannot be emailed or handed to me at a later date. If the articles are delivered at a later date, you will not receive credit for this category.
f) Organization (5 points) – The paper should be logically organized in well-constructed paragraphs/sentences, have relevant content, and be easily understood. Even if your paper is well-written, you will not receive credit for your work if it does not meet the objective(s) of the assignment.
g) Length (5 points) – The paper should not exceed the length or page limit. Your ability to articulate your ideas in the required length requirement demonstrates your ability to “tell your story” in a fairly brief manner.
h) Mechanics (5 points) – There should be few or no errors in format, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. These errors should not hinder comprehension of your writing. The paper should include elements of a standard college paper: computer-typed, double-spaced, 1” margins, 12-point font, Times New Roman, in-text citations, and a References page.
i) Documentation (deal breaker) – In accordance with the University of Maryland Code of Academic Integrity, 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. For assistance on APA style, refer to these websites:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/.
If you are unsure when to cite sources, refer to this website:
http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pub/integrity/pages/cite/.
** Having proper citation is the key to preventing academic “stealing” of ideas.
Failure to cite appropriately is a college-wide offense, and this may lead to
disciplinary action at the college level, including class failure! **
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