Contrast, and compare the basic sociological assumptions of two of these theorists (Durkheim, Marx or Weber)

Theories of Society

Paper Guidelines

For the written component of the course students will write one short papers (five to seven pages of text). The paper will take a current event article and then highlight, contrast, and compare the basic sociological assumptions of two of these theorists (Durkheim, Marx or Weber) from the unit being studied and suggest how the assumptions of these theorists shapes our understanding of the topic and society in general. In sum, how would two contrasting theorists see, interpret, and try to understand the current event. The paper will count as 20% of your final grade.

Specific Requirements: The paper should be five to seven pages in length, typed double spaced Times New Roman, 12 point, page numbers, with margins no larger than one inch each side. All papers must include students’ full name, a title, as well as the course and section. Cite all sources and document materials on a separate reference page.

In terms of style, students are free to write how they see fit so long as the paper contains the following sections:

1)     
An introduction setting up the paper, introducing the topic and current event, and a hook—why the subject is important or why we should care.

2)     
A descriptive narrative about the current event including specific details and citations.

3)     
Review of the key assumptions and critical elements of the two theorists or paradigms you have chosen to highlight in the paper—what is the gist of the theory? What assumptions about people or society do they make? How do they explain social interaction?

4)     
Analysis of the current event using the review (3) above. How would each of these perspectives attempt to explain the current event sociologically (not personally)?

5)     
A conclusion summarizing the paper, pointing out any new insights, why the findings are sociologically significant, and pointing out possible future directions for subsequent research.

6)     
Bibliography/ Works Cited

Writing Tips (suggestions):

1) Read the assignment carefully.  Figure out what is being asked of you.  If you are uncertain about anything ask before it is too late!

2) Follow the suggested outline or format.

3) Spellcheck your paper and proof it both before and after printing. Be careful with spellcheck, it can fill in words that make your paper awkward if left unchecked. Do not rely on a thesaurus—it comes off as very artificial. Words were invented to expressed nuanced meanings, thus not all word choices are good ones. At the same time, mass repetition of words and phrases are a mistake. Look at page and section alignments. When using Grammarcheck, know that it is not perfect and is often wrong, particularly when dealing with complex sentences.

4) Have a peer review your paper and talk to you about its strengths and weakness after you have read it yourself out loud several times. Utilize the services of the writing center.

5) Be careful with your citations. If it is not your words or your idea, you need to cite where it came from; if it is a “quote” you must give page numbers. When citing use APA, ASA, or Chicago manuals of style if you are not sure what to do. The idea behind citing, outside of honor code violations, is to direct a reader to the exact source from which you got the information. A full works cited page should be provided at the end for the readers’ reference.

6) Do not use don’t and so on. Remove I from the papers as much as possible—you are writing the paper but when you talk about the importance of a subject or what we know about a subject, you are not alone! You are speaking through the theories and theorists. By limiting it to what you think is important sells the subject short—if it is important it will be important to many, if not all, and that is why we study it.

7) Paragraphs are important and so is indenting them after the first one or the subsequent first in each labeled section. Labeled section help set-up the paper. If you find yourself writing about a new topic or idea you may want to break the two into paragraphs?

8) Know when to use the proper syntax; simply throwing in an inadvertent comma, semi-colon or colon is not okay. Each thought gets a period and each continuing thought a semi-colon. A list is often preceded by a colon but if the list is short, simply separate it by first, second, and so on. A first, however, should be followed by a second.  And pages should be numbered…

9) Outline or think things through before you start to write and do not expect good results on the first draft particularly if it is the night before it is due.

Choose 2 of these 3 theorists: Durkheim, Marx and Weber