Social Class and Inequality

Select ONE of these topics from Parts Two and Three of the course: (a) social class and inequality; (b) global inequality; (c) race and ethnicity; (d) sociology of gender and family; (e) health and medicine; or (f) population, urbanization, and the environment. In an essay of at least three full double-spaced, typewritten pages, with normal margins and no more than 12-point font, with respect to your chosen topic: 1. succinctly summarize the central themes of the course materials (not just the textbook!). This part of the essay tests your ability to organize and condense information on your own. This can be difficult to do well but it is an important skill! 2. Discuss at least two things – ideas, findings, information – you learned about this topic that you didn’t know. These must be drawn from the course materials – readings, textbook, or lecture.

They may be things that you think are important, or which surprised you, or which challenged things you thought you knew, or even things you find hard to accept. This part of the social class  essay asks you to think about what you actually learned relative to what you knew before taking the course, and identify something noteworthy that you took from this section of the course.3. Finally, with respect to the ideas or information you identify in step 2, tell me in some detail about your response to this new information. If it changed or challenged your thinking on this subject, how so?. Or if it didn’t, why not? In this part of the essay, I am looking for thoughtful, honest, and serious reflection on what you learned.

Further Description

You won’t be graded on your opinion of what was taught, but rather on the thoughtfulness. Also  the  seriousness of your reflection on social class and inequality. In other words, “This whole topic was dumb” and “I loved learning about this” would get equally poor grades – but a serious reflection will earn full points. Notes: No formal bibliography is required since the assignment only involves your reaction to course materials. HOWEVER, if for some reason you find it necessary to bring in an outside source to comment on the course materials. THEN you must include a formal bibliography and cite outside sources properly. If quoting text from articles or textbook, make it clear in your text which source you are quoting, use quotation marks, and cite page numbers (if applicable).

If you are summarizing ideas and information from source, you need to do so in your own words. You can’t simply cut and paste sections of text from the sources and present these as your own work. The usual prohibitions against plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct obviously apply. Carmen has “originality checker” software that WILL detect and report the percentage of your paper that is ORIGINAL MATERIAL.

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