Sociology Paper Assignment
Please make careful note of the instructions. Points will be deducted if you do not follow the instructions exactly, so follow the format as closely as possible.
The paper is due on the last day of class before the final. Papers will be accepted up to the day of the final, but with a significant penalty assessed, so try to get your work in on time. The paper should be at least three pages in length, although you might need more space to do a really good job. The paper should also be double spaced printed, and have a cover sheet with your name, the day and class time, and the title of the paper. Font size should be 12-14 pts. The cover sheet does not count towards the page requirement. If you use any outside sources they should be referenced on a works cited page. This also does not count towards the length requirement. The paper should be stapled or paper clipped. There should be no binders or any other type of folder. Keep it simple.
In the paper you will use your sociological imagination to create an alternate biography for yourself. C. Wright Mills defined sociological imagination as “the vivid awareness of the relationship between personal experience and the wider society”. Having a vivid sociological imagination means understanding that much of our experience is shaped by sociological forces beyond our control. Time and place of our birth, our birth date and birth year, gender, ethnicity, nationality, the type of family we are born into, social class, birth order, cultural inheritances, family inheritances, and the timing of our own personal biography with much larger historical processes all help determine the outcomes we experience later in life and whether we succeed or fail. In this assignment you will imagine that you control these factors and create an alternate biography for yourself in which you get to choose the time and place you are born, your gender, ethnicity, etc. You will also explain why you made the choices you made, exercising your sociological imagination to illustrate how our environment and birth circumstances shape our destiny. Include as much detail as you can imagine and use the paper to demonstrate that you understand the effects that sociological forces have on our lives. Try to have fun with the assignment.