SOCI 1101: Introduction to Sociology – Online Damarin REV 01/17 Writing Assignment 1: Theorizing the News Due: See Syllabus or Assignment Checklist for due date. Write your assignment as a .docx, .doc, or .pdf file and submit it through the iCollege Assignments tool. Points: This assignment is worth 10% of your course grade. Objectives: This assignment will give you practice in analyzing contemporary issues using sociology’s three major theoretical perspectives. Instructions: 1. Find and read a news article on a topic of interest to you. The article must come from an established news source (see list of examples on the next page), be fact- rather than opinionbased, and be substantial, meaning 250 words or more. (To count words, cut and paste article text into a word processing program and use the word count function.) 2. Think about how the topic covered in the article could be viewed from each of sociology’s major theoretical perspectives: functionalism, conflict theory, and interactionism. It will help to review the perspectives in the course lecture notes and textbook. Come up with at least one idea, claim, question, or hypothesis about the topic that reflects each perspective (a total of three). Keep in mind that there are many correct answers here—theorists from each perspective would have a lot of different things to say about any topic. 3. Write up your thoughts in a five paragraph essay with the following structure: Paragraph 1: Introduce your essay by describing the topic you will be discussing and why you think it is important or interesting. Remember to cite your news article using an intext citation when you refer to or quote from it. Paragraphs 2-4: Write a brief paragraph on each theoretical perspective, in any order. In each, start with a sentence or two describing the perspective in your own words (based on information from the lecture notes and textbook). Then write a few more sentences describing an idea, claim, question, or hypothesis about your topic that reflects the perspective. You may use first-person phrasing if you wish (e.g., “If I were studying this topic using the interactionist perspective, I would focus on…”) or not (e.g., “An interactionist might hypothesize that ….”). Then go to a new paragraph and perspective. Paragraph 5: Write a few sentences on the following: If you were going to do further research on this topic, which theoretical perspective would you use, and why? (Note that answering the “why” question is just as important as picking a perspective.) 4. Formatting: Write in prose (essay style), not a list or bullet points. I am expecting about 2 pages, but quality is what counts. Please use a 12 point font, double line spacing, and one inch margins. Cite your sources, including your news article and possibly the textbook and/or lecture notes—see further information below. Examples of established news sources: Newspapers, e.g., Atlanta Journal-Constitution, New York Times, USA Today Broadcast networks and their websites, e.g., CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, PBS News magazines and websites, e.g., Newsweek, American Spectator, Harpers, the Nation News services, e.g., Reuters, the Associated Press Citation information If you quote or paraphrase from any source (news article, textbook, website, etc.), you must cite it with an in-text citation and a bibliography entry. See the “Citation Guide” file in the Assignments folder for information on when and how to use in-text citations, and on the American Sociological Association (ASA) citation style. (I will also accept APA or MLA citations.) Here is an ASA-formatted bibliography entry for the lecture notes, with information you need to insert in blue: Damarin, Amanda. YEAR. “Title of Specific Lecture Note.” SOCI 1101: Introduction to Sociology course lecture notes. Retrieved Today’s Month Day, Year (full URL). Use of sources without acknowledgement is plagiarism. If I detect plagiarism, you will get an assignment grade of 50 (less than one paragraph) or 0 (a paragraph or more). Please let me know if you have questions about when or how to cite sources! Grading Rubric PERFORMANCE INDICATORS CRITERIA Very Weak 55 points Omits or barely addresses many requirements (15 points) Describes 1 or 0 perspectives correctly (13 pts) Applies 1 or 0 perspectives to topic correctly (13 points) Needs Improvement Column total 70 points Completeness: Omits or barely addresses all addresses some requirements requirements (18 points) Theoretical Describes 2 perspectives perspectives correctly (16 pts) Application of Applies 2 perspectives to perspectives to topic topic correctly, and/or lacks detail (16 points) Introduction and Description of Description of Conclusion topic (intro) and topic (intro) and reasons for chosen reasons for chosen perspective (concl) perspective (concl) missing lacks some detail (13 points) (16 points) Readability; Major errors; hard Errors harm clarity grammar, diction, to understand but assignment is formatting, mostly clear (1 point) citations (4 points) Minimum points for on-time, non-plagiarized assignment: 55 Meets Exceeds Expectations Expectations 85 points 100 points Addresses all Addresses all requirements requirements, adequately some detailed (21 points) responses (24 pts) Describes 2+ Describes all 3 perspectives perspectives correctly (19 pts) correctly (22 pts) Applies 2+ Applies all 3 perspectives to perspectives to topic correctly, topic correctly and some detail in detail (19 points) (22 points) Detailed Sophisticated description of description of topic (intro) and topic (intro) and reasons for chosen reasons for chosen perspective (concl) perspective (concl) (19 points) (22 points) Assignment has Assignment has at more than 3 errors most 3 errors and but is still clear is clear & polished (7 points) (10 points) Maximum total points: 100
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