Sociology 1021E-650 Essay #2
The purpose of the essay is build upon the essays skills you developed in the first half of the course and to more contemporary sociological theories to a current event. To complete this assignment, you must:
Select three newspaper articles on the same topic, dated January 1, 2021 or later. For this essay, you will be focusing on social movements, social change or development and underdevelopment. For example, you could select the topic of the differential global response to the COVID19 crisis, the protests to reopen economies in different parts of the world, the backlash to climate change initiatives, the pro-Trump insurrectionists, etc There’s a lot happening in the world right now, which will make for rich sociological research. If you need help picking a topic, please email me and I can help you figure something out. Your task here is to develop a more comprehensive understanding and presentation of an issue in the news than that which is provided in one newspaper article. Again, you will be using mainstream newspapers, such as The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, The National Post. You must include full copies of the articles as appendix items in the final copy of your essay (not the URL for the online version). Do not reuse the newspaper article you used for essay #1.
b) Summarize the topic/ issue presented in the newspaper articles. You are not merely summarizing each article—you are integrating the information from all three articles to present an overall picture of the topic or issue presented in the three articles. Think of this as a literature review.
c) Select any one theory discussed in chapters 9 and 15 of the Brym textbook. Review these chapters first as they will help to guide your newspaper article selections. These chapters broadly deal with change in the social structure. You are looking for a theory that you can use to help explain the topic/ issue/ event featured in your newspaper articles. You need to provide more detailed theoretical explanations and applications than you did for the term 1 paper.
d) Describe the theory you selected in detail, and then explain how the perspective can be used to evaluate the newspaper articles sociologically. You will then apply the theory to the topic and specifics of the newspaper articles.
e) Material taken from external sources must be referenced properly, with direct quotes placed in quotation marks. You should NOT cite lectures (you must locate the source).
f) In addition to your newspaper articles and textbook, you should incorporate at least two (2) “scholarly” journal articles in your essay and reference them properly. These may be used in any part of your essay. The goal of this assignment component is to have students locate appropriate secondary research and use them effectively. You may use additional research beyond the three articles.
Helpful Hints
– do not use slang; short forms, or conjunctions (i.e. don’t, can’t, etc.)
– organize your paper into 5 sections and label those with headings
– make sure you edit and spell-check your paper
– Essay file name should be your name–e.g my essay would be “SuzanneRicard2.doc”.
This is a formal paper that must be in proper essay format. Include the following sections:
a) Title Page
b) Introduction
· Explain what you plan to do in the paper and outline your arguments.
· What is your topic?
· Include the name of the authors who wrote the articles you have selected, the newspaper that they were published in and the dates of the publication.
· What is your thesis?
c) Summary of Articles*
· Explain the topic of the newspaper articles you have selected.
· Provide a summary of the articles.
· Identity the commonalities/ differences between the articles.
*This section of social science papers is usually dedicated to a literature review. The goal for this section of your paper is to develop research integration skills. In future papers, you will be expected to go beyond a few primary sources.
d) Explanation of Theoretical Perspective
· Explain the central tenets of the theory you decided to use in detail
e) Application of Theory to Newspaper Articles
· Link the newspaper articles to the theoretical perspective you selected
· Be specific and list precise aspects of the theory when linking to the articles.
· Include specifics from the newspaper articles.
· How/ why does the theory explain the newspaper article?
f) Conclusion
· Provide a summary of the main points you presented in your paper
· What is/are your conclusion(s)?
g) Appendix
· Include the newspaper articles here
h) Bibliography
· List all of your references, including your newspaper articles in proper bibliographic form.