sociological concepts
Essay topic must involve a sociologically relevant issue, problem, or phenomenon by using or applying sociological concepts, questions, assumptions, and theories. Student submitting essays that focus on psychological variables or essays submitted that are not clearly sociological are not acceptable. If you have any questions as to whether the topic and your approach to developing it are properly ‘sociological’ in character, then consult with the instructor before you proceed with your research and writing efforts. The length of this paper is 1500-2000 words (6-8 pages) of ‘body text’ in standard university/college format: typewritten, 1” margins (top/bottom; left/right), 12 point type font, double-spacing, and separate pages for bibliography, appendices, and title page. The title page must contain the following information: essay title, course identification (including course name/number/section number), instructor’s name, student’s name, and date of submission. Failure to comply with these essay guidelines will result in a 2% deduction for each essay guideline violation. Students must use the APA style guide for the term essay written for this course (for more information on style guides, see the Douglas College Library webpage – at the Douglas College website, click on Library at the top of the page on the left side, then click on Citation and Style Guides under Research Help, then at the top of the page under APA Style click pdf format to access the APA Style guide). Topic options and strategies for writing the essay will be discussed in class. If students are unclear about the assignment they should seek further clarification from the instructor.
When writing in the essay format it is crucial that you give a clear statement of your essay’s purpose (what is the essay going to be about, what do you aim to achieve, what is your essay’s objective?), as well as a specification of how your essay purpose or aim will be achieved. Alternatively, students may wish to write the essay using a ‘thesis statement’ as a way to develop and organize their essay topic. Students opting for this approach should read background material concerning how to write a strong thesis statement as a basis for their essay. See the link posted at the MyDouglas coursepage for ‘A Sociological Tour Through Cyberspace’. Click on ‘Guide to Writing a Research Paper’, then ‘The Structure of a Research Paper’, to review a model of the structure/format of an academic essay in sociology. This model essay is much more detailed and elaborate than the essay to be written during the current semester, but does reflect the basic form that the essay should take..
Assignment (continued)
The following are the essay options students have to choose from for their essay. Choose one option only. Make sure you address all the requirements of the particular essay option you have chosen. Since many students will be addressing the same essay option the chances of plagiarism are greater. Students may help one another by sharing useful reference sources they have unearthed in the course of attempting to find relevant academic/scholarly sources for their essay. However, the danger exists that students will copy portions of others students’ essay narratives. This is not acceptable and will be treated as plagiarism, resulting in a failure on the essay. Should the plagiarism be particularly egregious then a grade of ‘0’ will be assigned to the essay that flagrantly plagiarizes another student’s essay content. Should students use the same sources and give evidence that these sources are being used in a manner similar to another student, then both essays exhibiting plagiarized materials will be failed pending clarification of the circumstances surrounding the sharing of essay source materials. Be aware that if you share your essay with another student, say in order to get feedback, you need to be assured by that other student that they will not copy parts of your narrative and pass it off as their own. Should such copying of even small portions of an essay occur, then both essays might potentially receive a failing grade or a ‘0’.
Also, students should ensure that their essay demonstrates their ability to understand and apply sociological concepts to a given topic. That means showing that you can apply sociological concepts, theories, and methods (that students are exposed to in the course) to address the key sociological questions/issues relating to the student’s chosen essay option. Students should clarify any questions they might have about the essay assignment early in the semester. Good essays do not generally get produced by students waiting until the week the essay is due before seeking guidance from the instructor. If you have questions about this assignment, please come to see me early in the semester to clarify your queries and get further guidance from me.
In writing their essays students should critically challenge the common sense knowledge that is employed to ‘explain’ the social issue or phenomenon in question (where such explanations lack valid empirical/scientific evidence to support those common sense claims). Any ‘factual claims’ (ideas or propositions you believe to be true) you make in the essay must be backed up or otherwise supported by acceptable empirical (i.e., observational) evidence (i.e., academic/scholarly evidence produced through the use of scientific principles and methods. Be prepared to bring that evidence forward in your essay and discuss it in a coherent way in relation to the essay topic you’ve chosen.
Students should steer clear of using unexamined assumptions, baseless claims (i.e., claims with no persuasive evidence giving them support), or treat their topic/issue/phenomenon too narrowly or too generally.
By way of example, many students addressing the sociological question of how divorce affects socialization outcomes or other social consequences relating to children’s experience of divorce , typically adopt unexamined common sense assumptions that reflect the dire predictions of functionalists defending the traditional family (see Chapter 9 discussion critically evaluating the functionalist assessment of the alleged effects of the demise of the ‘traditional nuclear family’ – the dominant breadwinner father, the domestically focused mother, and any children they produce). Students should critically evaluate rather than assume the authority of claims that offer no valid or reliable evidence to support them or that may have good evidence challenging traditional or conservative beliefs that are outdated or no longer functionally applicable.
One final note: this essay should be a sociological essay, requiring the student to understand and apply sociological concepts and perspectives; essays submitted whose main focus is on psychological attributes, questions, and analyses are not acceptable as submissions for a sociology course. Please, no essays with a substantial focus in another academic discipline (such as economics, history, psychology, archeology, biology, medicine, etc.). Your focus should be to apply recognizably sociological concepts and theories (e.g., those learned in the course) to the topic you have chosen to write an academic essay about. You will be held to standards of narrative clarity, coherence, logic, adequacy of argument and evidence brought to bear on your chosen essay topic/objective. Spelling errors may occur from time to time, but in the age of readily available spell checking, excessive spelling mistakes is not acceptable. Students submitting essays with more than 10 spelling errors will lose 5% for such neglect.
Assignment Options
1) Why do Canadians who are poor experience more adverse health outcomes compared to other persons of higher socio-economic status (SES)? Sociologists who investigate the social distribution and causes of disease/illness make up the sub-discipline of social epidemiology. It is the literature in social epidemiology that students will want to tap into in order to address this sociological research question. The student addressing this question should cite recent/current scholarly social research evidence (describing the social patterns of adverse health consequences affecting Canadians who are poor). The student should clearly identify how low SES (i.e., living in poverty) is associated with adverse health outcomes for the poor (i.e., what patterns of health consequences are associated with low SES or poverty. The student should cite scholarly literature for evidence and sociological concepts and theories that help explain the poverty/health outcomes relationship. What patterns of adverse health outcomes/consequences do poor people experience and how are the identified patterns related to social processes, forces, and conditions in contemporary Canadian society? In concluding consideration of this sociological research question, the student should address how this form of social inequality might be minimized through (effective) actions or policy interventions.
2) What relationship does the American NRA (National Rifle Association) – a prominent ‘gun lobby’ interest group – have with American gun manufacturers? One widespread view is that the ‘gun lobby’ (the various organized groups advancing ideas favorable to or justifying of easy access to the purchase/use of firearms [whether ‘hand guns’ or ‘long-barrel’ rifles]) is a social organization that advances ideas compatible with, and expressive of, the economic interests of American gun manufacturers. This essay option requires the student to critically assess this proposal: what is the evidence that the NRA (and other similar ‘gun lobby’ groups, of which there are many in the American context) is an ideological expression of gun manufacturers’ interests to expand gun sales in order to expand profitability of the market in guns? In order to address this essay question, the student will need to put forward evidence of the relationship between groups like the NRA and actual gun manufacturers. What financial relationship do NRA lobbyists (like President Wayne LaPierre) have with gun manufacturers? Do gun manufacturers financially subsidize groups like the NRA? Are gun manufacturers implicated in how gun lobby groups like the NRA are able to finance their ‘defense’ of ‘gun rights’? It is said that, as a lobby group, the NRA is one of the most powerful ‘interest’ or ‘lobby’ groups in Washington, and that it is powerful because it has managed to successfully ‘colonize’ the political process through capitol hill NRA lobbyists. Part of the essay should be given over to critically evaluating the NRA’s lobbying profile in Washington, DC politics and in assessing the extent to which the collective efforts of the gun lobbying groups have achieved hegemony (i.e., dominance) in the political process of ‘gun control’. Adam Winkler’s Gunfight: the battle over the right to bear arms in America
What role do interest groups (e.g., gun lobby groups like America’s NRA) and political ideologies (beliefs and cultural values concerning political governance) play in the shaping and formation of American gun control policy? This essay option should not be a review/analysis of American ‘gun culture’. Nor should this essay option adopt a review/analysis that focuses on assessing American gun control policy. The essay focus here should be on the question
The focus in this essay option should be analyzing how To adequately address this particular question the student will need to cull the current social research literature about this particular ‘interest group’ in the American cultural context. A subsidiary but related question would be: what accounts for the NRA’s ‘success’ in powerfully influencing American gun control policy? There is ample evidence supporting how powerful this particular institutional/political lobby is in advancing easy access to guns (which it frames, reverentially as a guaranteed civil right derived from the U.S. constitution. — the hallowed 2nd Amendment ‘right to bear arms’.. In addressing this question the student should focus on how the NRA has successfully ‘colonized’ the political process and has achieved legitimacy (and influence) over time in American culture/society. Marxian conflict theorists would likely draw attention to a significant and fundamental social contradiction that seems to be implicit in this social issue/problem, namely when the ‘interests’ of one social group (e.g., the ‘gun lobby’) in society takes priority or precedence over the larger collective interest to have satisfactory public safety. In this case the social contradiction is that gun ‘liberties’ and ‘rights’ appear to supersede public safety and ‘risk containment’. In other words, it appears that public policy around ‘gun control’ favours the interests of gun manufacturers to sell and profit from guns through their easy availability, over against the interests of the majority of citizens living in the wider communities of America seeking amendments to existing dysfunctional policies/practices of gun control. Any future amendments of gun control policy through state and federal legislative bodies must necessarily try to craft those policies in the face of the massive, entrenched power of the pro-gun lobby which will likely resist these profit-diminishing policies through whatever avenues of political influence that they can muster. The student addressing this question will be focusing on the social organizational factors helping this interest/lobby group to be so powerful that it could thwart the larger public interest in and will to achieve effective control of guns in the face of the well organized gun industry lobbying and resistance to stricter gun control practices/policies. (the institutionalized realization of it’s favoured policies). The NRA demonstrates Max Weber’s conception of power: one has power to the extent that one’s will prevails even in the face of resistance from other individuals/groups. How does the NRA and it’s political kindred spirits in America’s governing body (the U.S. Congress) manage to overcome the widespread resistance to it’s non-effective policy solutions (the most recently offered one being that every K-12 school in America have armed guards.). The student should consider and propose how as citizens, Americans might counter, undermine, or otherwise resist the well organized methods of this very sophisticated lobbying and industry social/political/economic force for industry-friendly gun control policy.
3) Two essay options are available here (3a: a focus on technologies of automation and 3b: a focus on the social consequences of integrating computers into workplace organization and management) Choose one or the other (but not both). 3a) How has the automation of work production processes altered social interaction and relationships in the workplace? In other words, what are the social consequences of workplace automation at the level of the individual and of the group? How has the ‘skill content’ of work changed with the adoption of new technologies (such as automation) and how have these changes affected the skills needed by workers (including necessary preparation and skill development through training/education processes)? In addressing this question the student should gather and cite sociological scholarship and research evidence that specifically addresses how social interaction and relationships in the workplace are affected by the technologies of automation. The student should cite specific examples from the sociological literature that bear on how automated technology affects social interaction and relationships in specific ways (see for example Manuel Castells and Shoshana Zuboff). 3b) How has the use of computer technology changed social interaction and relationships in the workplace as businesses and organizations have increasingly adopted these technologies to aid in workplace management and organization? How do technologies facilitate ‘efficiency’ in workplace activities and organization? What are some of the social consequences of adopting more efficient technologies (such as computers) to aid in the social organization and management of workplace activities and practices? Students selecting this option should address specific worksite examples such as: how has the integration of computers into policing affected the social practices and organization of police work itself? how has the integration of computers into educational settings affected the organization and practical management of the education process? how has the integration of computers into health care practices and settings affected the organization and delivery of health-related services and practices?
4) What are the social consequences of divorce in terms of its impact on children/youths in contemporary Canadian society? This research question can be given a more pointed focus as follows: are children and youths who experience divorce adversely affected in their life chances and future opportunities? The student addressing this essay option should cite contemporary research evidence and patterns of marital dissolution with the main question being how has marital dissolution (i.e., divorce) affected contemporary Canadian children in terms of their risk for: crime/delinquency, limited educational attainment (school dropout), problems relating to socialization, or other social problems (e.g., substance abuse/addictions)? This focus on assessing how divorce affects children and youth who experience it, will need to review research-based evidence that addresses how divorce impacts on children (including how children and youths’ life chances and opportunities are affected by the process of divorce). The student selecting this essay option should endeavor to bring forward valid scholarly evidence that will help in constructing a balanced picture of how divorce affects contemporary Canadian youth. A critical, balanced essay on this topic should avoid the simplistic assumption that children of divorced parents are doomed to social and personal deficits. Consider the possibility that divorce may actually result in positive consequences for some children. Empirical comparisons of intact and non-intact (i.e., divorced) families are to be preferred, and they should clearly describe the relative risks when comparing intact and non-intact families in terms of their social consequences for children who experience family change/dissolution due to parental divorce.
5) Mooney et al. (2001) state that ‘[s]ociologists who are epidemiologists are concerned with the social origins and distribution of health problems in a population and how patterns of illness and disease vary between and within societies’ (p. 33). Another relevant epidemiological idea that students will need to address in this essay option is the concept of morbidity. According to Mooney et al., ’morbidity refers to acute and chronic illnesses and diseases and the symptoms and impairments they produce’ (p. 33). Students selecting this essay option should identify a specific health issue/problem to subject to a social epidemiological examination/analysis. Background information on epidemiology can be found via the library (e.g., Sociology of Health and Illness texts) and key word searches via the library’s electronic catalogue. Possible diseases/illnesses as a focus for the essay might be: incidence/prevalence patterns of adult-onset (or Type 2) diabetes, adult or child obesity, cancer, and heart disease. In this particular essay option the student should examine significant social/sociological dimensions of the chosen disease/illness. For example, how do social class and/or lifestyle (both sociological variables/concepts) affect the incidence/prevalence patterns found for victims of adult on-set diabetes (Type 2 diabetes)? What other social variables may be consequential for elevated risk of developing adult onset diabetes? The student selecting this essay option should address the social conditions, processes, and forces that appear to be related to, or that underlie, elevated ‘risk’ levels for developing adult on-set diabetes (according to epidemiological studies).
6) Vancouver Sun journalist Kim Bolan’s (2009) article “Reformed UN gangster recalls glory, horror” (obtainable from the instructor) tells the story of 34 year old James Coulter, a young man who became involved with the local ‘UN gang’. This article constitutes a snapshot of this particular individual’s circumstances relating to gang involvement and gang life. Newspaper articles of this kind are generally not a good basis for writing an academic essay. However, Bolan’s article does provide a poignant case example of the various social conditions, processes, and forces that may be consequential in the development of gang organization. The Bolan article is to be treated only as a starting point in the development of an essay focusing on the social conditions, processes, and forces that may help to foster gang organization/development. The student selecting this essay option should address the following sociological question: what social conditions, processes, and forces underlie the formation of youth gangs and youth gang involvement? In addressing this question the student will need to identify acceptable scholarly sources (a minimum of five (5) scholarly sources) that examine how the following sociological variables facilitate gang formation/organization: social class, race/ethnicity, peer networks, and familial stability/instability. Other sociological variables should be sought that help the student explain what social conditions, processes, and forces are underlying gang formation/organization/development (e.g., how might the concept of socialization help us to explain youth gang involvement?).
7) Mooney et al. identify structural sexism (also known as institutional sexism) as “the ways in which the organization of society, and specifically its institutions, subordinate individuals and groups based on their sex classification” (2001, p. 205). The student selecting this essay option will address the following two research questions: a) what forms of gender inequality are evident in contemporary Canadian society? (this question requires that the student describe the patterns of gender inequality via research evidence corresponding to the areas/spheres of income, work, education, and political governance); b) does application of the concept of structural sexism (also known as institutional sexism) to the evident realities of gender inequality help to explain the evident forms of gender inequality described for the life spheres of income, work, education, and political governance? In the second question, the student should explain what the concept of structural sexism (also called institutional sexism) means and evaluate its usefulness as an explanation of gender inequality. The two objectives to be addressed in this essay option are, first to describe contemporary forms of gender inequality in Canadian society and second to assess whether and how the concept of institutional (or structural) sexism helps to explain the evident patterns of gender inequality for which there is empirical evidence.
8) Two essay options are available here. Students should choose only one option from the two available here (8a requires that students identify some forms of racial/ethnic discrimination in Canadian society, then examine the social consequences of these identified forms of racial/ethnic discrimination for racial/ethnic minority members’ life chances and opportunities; 8b requires that students use the concept of environmental racism to describe this form of racism in the Canadian context). The first essay option (8a) will require that students address two primary questions: What forms does racial/ethnic discrimination take in contemporary Canadian society? What are the social consequences of the identified forms of racial/ethnic discrimination in terms of their impact on the life chances and opportunities of affected racial/ethnic minority group members in Canadian society? The student selecting this essay option must first document how racial and/or ethnic discrimination is occurring in Canadian society (based on evidence from social research) and second, the student must identify the social consequences of the identified forms of racial/ethnic discrimination in terms of their effects for racial/ethnic minority members’ life chances and opportunities (based on evidence from social research in the Canadian context). In other words, how does racial/ethnic discrimination adversely affect minority group members by restricting or curtailing their social equality with other groups that do not face such discriminatory treatment? Students selecting this essay option should insure that they identify specific forms of racial discrimination (e.g., individual or institutional (systemic and systematic) discrimination) and how these forms of discrimination adversely affect the life chances and opportunities of racial/ethnic minority group members. After completing these two objectives in the essay, the student selecting this essay option should conclude the essay by addressing how these forms of discrimination might be reduced or eliminated by effective social policy responses/interventions (e.g., through social policies enforced by government bodies). The second essay option (8b) available here focuses on the concept of environmental racism. Students selecting this essay option must first explain what this concept means (or refers to) in the sociological discipline. Subsequent to defining this key concept, the student should identify how this form of racism is evident in the Canadian context by citing research-verified examples of environment racism and the social and physiological consequences that are produced as a result (how are life chances and opportunities limited as a consequence of this type of racism?). In concluding this essay option, the student should address how this particular form of racism might be reduced or eliminated by effective social policy responses/interventions.
9) One distinctive feature that is evident in modern social life is widespread use of ‘monitoring’ and ‘surveillance’ in a wide range of human activities. These newly emergent and rapidly diffusing technologically-based resources are increasingly being applied to human populations (as ‘regulative’ and social control mechanisms/practices) and are evident in public spaces with video surveillance (safety & risk management), in workplace environments as employers monitor employees and their physical workspaces through various technologies (for efficiency & authoritative command/control oversight), in commercial transactions accomplished via computer and electronic means (commercial transactions made efficient), and in social control practices of policing where the availability of vast data collections can significantly assist police inquiries and resolution of criminal cases (advances/facilitates criminal justice goals and practices of social control). The central question in this essay option is: how has the adoption of technologically-based surveillance and monitoring practices changed society (and particularly the ‘social relations’ constituting society)? Students should limit themselves to the four preceding areas of social life (public & private spaces using video surveillance, workplace monitoring, commercial transactions, and police and criminal justice system use of surveillance/monitoring technologies). Focusing on these areas the student should address how (employing your sociological imagination) surveillance/monitoring affects social structures, institutional arrangements, and routine social practices that have emerged over the last 40 years in Canadian and American society. John Thompson’s The Media and Modernity: a social theory of the media has been put on reserve in the library and is a good starting point to get sociological and theoretical bearings for this essay topic/focus. A good Canadian source would be any of the books and articles written by David Lyon (Queens University). Lyon’s Surveillance Society: monitoring everyday life is also on reserve. There is also a vast sociological literature available on this topic (e.g., Lyon’s recent edited book Surveillance as Social Sorting: privacy, risk and digital discrimination, which contains more up-to-date analyses and research reports on the use of technology for the purposes of surveillance/monitoring (our library doesn’t have this book, however it would be easy to obtain via interlibrary loan). Of course, access to scholarly sources via the electronic data bases that the library makes available can also be used to access scholarly sources for this essay. In writing this essay the student should seek to compare the common practices of social life prior to the widespread diffusion and adoption of surveillance/monitoring technologies (after the mid-1970s). Thus, the student should examine how American and Canadian society changed by comparing the 1945-1975 era in those societies with the post-1975 era of Canadian/American societies (i.e., 1975-2013) with a particular focus on the four (4) areas of social life indicated above.
10) Bullying is a widespread phenomenon (as well as being viewed as a social ‘issue’ or ‘problem’) in contemporary Canadian society. Olweus (1993) (Bullying at School) defines bullying as “a repeated negative action towards a student or students”. While bullying can take on many different social forms it appears to be more typically problematic among children and adolescents and the peer groups that form the associated networks where bullying occurs. In this essay option the student will restrict the focus to bullying that occurs towards gay and gay-identified youth. Based on research findings from recent, local evidence (Haskell and Burtch, 2010) (‘Get That Freak’, on reserve in the library) the authors describe how they investigated homophobic bullying in local schools. It has been put on reserve for students electing this essay option. It is a good point of departure for getting oriented to the question students should address when choosing this essay option and for getting started in developing/finding scholarly research materials to draw upon. While this research is quite recent, there is a growing literature on this particular social issue/problem. Students might ask themselves the question concerning homophobia as a much more general prejudice that is clearly visible in the wider culture. The following is the focal research question to be addressed in this essay option: Describe the social processes and forces that research evidence points to as operative when homophobic bullying occurs (as a deliberate and ‘ordered’ kind of social action). In other words, how is this kind of bullying in some sense ‘socially organized’ and by what ‘social processes’ (of interpersonal interaction) does bullying as a social process occur? While the main focus in this essay option is to describe the social processes (i.e., the interactional dimensions of the bullying/harassment problem) of bullying via research findings, the student should also address in the concluding section of their essay what options victimized youths might be able to develop or employ in order to better address their being isolation and victimization.
Referencing and citation:
Standard academic policy on quoting authors requires that you acknowledge that you’ve borrowed someone else’s ideas. Not crediting the source that you use in your own work is plagiarism. Plagiarism is the representation – whether unwittingly or by design – of someone else’s ideas as one’s own. Deliberate plagiarism can result in serious consequences. Typically in cases of flagrant plagiarism, students will receive 0% for their essay. In order to avoid this problem, students should visit the following website and complete the brief questionnaire to better acquaint themselves with what plagiarism consists of and how to avoid it:
http://www.lib.sfu.ca/researchhelp/tutorials/interactive/plagiarism/ tutorial/introduction.htm
For purposes of the present essay assignment, you should employ a minimum of 5 different academic or scholarly references. Magazines, newspapers, personal websites, as well as other materials not based on professional peer review, are not acceptable as adequate academic (i.e., scholarly) reference sources. Students will be penalized for failure to meet this basic criterion by a 2% demerit for failure to comply with this norm (i.e., if the student includes only two bona fide scholarly references for their essay, they will be penalized 6% for falling short of the essay guideline expectations by three references, i.e., falling short of the expected number of scholarly references by 3 multiplied by 2% = a penalty of 6% for failure to meet this basic criterion of an academic essay. Students will be penalized 15% per day late for handing essays in past the due date (including weekends). Extensions for essays will only be given in cases that have merit (e.g., acute illness that can be verified by a doctor’s certificate, theft of the laptop that contains the essay file (police file number will be required), etc. Unacceptable reasons may include the following: my cat/dog died, I got called into work on the day the essay was due (emailed essays are acceptable, however it is the student’s responsibility to ensure the emailed essay was actually received by the instructor; if you email your essay, but do not receive an email confirmation from the instructor that it has been received, assume that your attempt to email the essay was unsuccessful). If you leave the work necessary for this assignment until the last week of classes, then the likelihood of unacceptable excuses for late essays tends to increase.
Students should avoid the use of language that is ‘loose’ or casual; acceptable academic writing requires that students use focused, declarative sentences, with paragraphs containing only one idea or theme; use specific wording in the course of writing sentences and paragraphs making up the essay; avoid the use of ‘loaded’ or judgmental language in your essay; use the most recent references that you can find, especially where it is important to make use of current/recent data/information (sources that are 10 or more years old should be avoided, except where older sources are needed for historical background or are otherwise unavoidable).
Check with reference librarians at the D.C. library concerning your topic. Also, books and articles are obtainable from U.B.C. and S.F.U. libraries via Douglas College Library’s interlibrary loan service. Some of the sources cited in the course text are available in the library (check other libraries here in New Westminster or in Vancouver as well if it’s an important source).
Employ non-sexist language in your essay: make reference to both sexes (e.g., s/he) or employ a generic term of pronoun reference where appropriate (e.g., ‘server’ as opposed to ‘waiter’ or ‘waitress’). There are lots of manuals and essays available as models to use if you are unclear about how to proceed.
Some Guidelines for Doing the Essay Assignment
Marking will reflect an assessment of papers based on thought & detail and writing skills (which includes clarity of communication, effective organization of ideas (narrative coherence), appropriate use of argument & evidence, and good compositional practice (good grammar and syntax).
Marking is based on the following criteria:
1) Thought and Detail employed in treatment of chosen topic or subject matter. Some of the following questions arise: is the essay purpose/aim clearly stated? are reference materials employed in a creative manner? does the essay follow a planned course of development that works to meet the essay objective(s)? do the essay ‘parts’ (Introduction, essay ‘body’ or ‘core, and conclusion) contribute to a reasoned and coherent achievement of the essay’s objective(s)?
2) Writing Skills, refers specifically to the student’s ability to communicate effectively (i.e., clearly and concisely); that is, clarity in syntax & grammar and absence of disjointed or unclear description(s) or assessment(s); it is recommended that the essay be organized by sections with appropriate transitions between sections; ‘introduction’ and ‘conclusions’ sections do a good job of opening and closing the essay and should contribute to overall coherence.
3) In addition to ideas borrowed from course texts, the paper employs other supplemental sources to, for example, bolster descriptions, provide support or grounds for arguments made, or as a basis for assessment.
4) Use of logical argument as a basis for any ‘evaluation’ or ‘assessment’ that you do (here you can refer to the benefits and shortcomings of one or more of the sociological approaches you’ve been exposed to in the course).
5) Proper referencing or citation practices (see ‘referencing & citation’ section above).
What follows is a rough guideline for grading essays that students should be aware of:
Grade Range Attributes Essays Display
‘A’ – essay must reflect all of the above attributes at the level of ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’
‘B’ – essay reflects above attributes, but improvement in their form or execution is necessary; or, the paper accomplishes a ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ level in three or four attributes, but the remaining one or two represents a ‘poor’ job
‘C’ – essay needs significant improvement in two or more of the above attributes being assessed
‘P’ (pass) – essay reflects a barely adequate achievement of the above attributes (the student should seek help to improve shortcomings in written expression)
‘F’ (fail) – essay is inadequate and cannot be assessed as passable (I recommend the student seeks help to improve shortcomings in written expression); failing papers may be re-written, however are then only eligible for ‘P’ or ‘C’ range marks. Also, these rewritten papers must reach me 10 days prior to when I must forward completed course grades to registration (this doesn’t give the student alot of time to do the repair work).
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