Civic Engagement Assignment
Research on your Socio-Political Problem
The first thing you need to do is to identify the problem you want to highlight. Below you will find a list of possible topics, but that list is not all-inclusive; meaning, you can choose a topic that is not on that list. Identifying the problem is not easy.
You should think about things you see around you that bother, concern, worry, or angers you. You could think to yourself, "If I were king or queen for a day, what would I change?" Or, "I want my community to be a better place to live and here's what I would improve."
You should start with a broad problem first; for example, you are not happy with the quality of women's rights. But then from there you will need to narrow the focus to think about SPECIFIC issues within women's rights, such as the unequal pay women receive, or the problems some women encounter in receiving adequate health care, or the lack of accessible abortion clinics in low-income areas, or the lack of punishment for sexual assault perpetrators.
The more specific your problem is, the easier the assignments will be. Remember, your ultimate goal is going to be a POLITICAL change to our existing laws and policies.
Additionally, I would STRONGLY recommend you talk to me about your paper topic as soon as possible. My office hours are a great time to do this. If you speak with me you can be more confident that you have an appropriate topic for this paper.
Section One:
Stating your problem/topic (this should be at least one paragraph long). Tell me again what problem you are highlighting and be sure to be as SPECIFIC as possible when describing your problem.
Section Two:
Research (AT LEAST 2 pages long). For this section you will need to do some research into your problem. Pretend you told someone your topic and they said "So what?" or "I don't believe this is a big problem in our society." How would you respond?
In this section you will need to produce facts and statistics that support your belief that this is an important socio-political problem. Think of this as building your argument to show why this is important and why other people should care about your problem. For doing research my recommendation is to look at major websites such as: CNN, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, PBS, and more locally The San Francisco Chronicle, and The East Bay Times.
You should also use Google Scholar (simply type "Google Scholar" in your browser and then type in your topic or problem). Google Scholar gives you academic resources and filters out the non-academic stuff. Additionally, you can look at the Laney library's website to browse academic journal articles. You can only use Wikipedia to see where the information on their page came from, but it should not be used as an actual source.
Additionally, you should include some discussion of what has previously been done, if anything, to address your problem. Meaning, have there been other attempts to solve the problem you are highlighting?
Section Three:
Why do you think your problem exists? (You should present at least a few reasons and as a result this section should be AT LEAST 2-3 paragraphs long.) For this section, you will use the information you gathered from the previous section to answer the question: why does your problem exist?
You should present at least a couple reasons why you think this problem exists and also why previous attempts to solve your problem have not worked. You do not need to think of a solution, you are still in the information-gathering phase of your work.
This paper should be AT LEAST 3 FULL pages long. This should be typed out (12 point Times New Roman font, 1 inch margins) and printed out. The due date is listed on Moodle. You must include a bibliography page (which DOES NOT count towards your page minimum) with the
sources you used for section two (you should have at least 3-4 sources).
Additionally, section two MUST have in-text citations; meaning, I need to see in the text of your paper where you used your sources. You may use MLA or APA citations and please consult the Purdue OWL
website at: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/ for more information on citations. You need to make sure you differentiate clearly between your research and your analysis of that research.
And of course, YOU CANNOT COPY AND PASTE things you find online into your paper without attribution and instead of copying and pasting, you should try to put what you read into your OWN words while still providing a citation for where that information came from.
Lastly,
please put your name, class date, class time, etc. on a separate title page and not on the first page of the actual text. Your paper should start at the top of the page after the title page. The title page DOES NOT count towards your 3-page minimum.
Some possible topics:
Women's rights
Lack of equal pay for equal work
Lack of female representation is certain fields of employment
Lack of sufficient maternity leave
Domestic abuse: the lack of resources or help for those that are victims of abuse
The epidemic of sexual assaults on college campuses around the country: lack of punishment for perpetrators of sexual assault and the lack of resources for the survivors of sexual assault Native-American rights Lack of resources and the general living conditions on most Native-Americans reservations Mass incarceration
Disproportionately large number of imprisoned minorities
Laws which seem to disproportionately punish certain crimes more than other crimes
The laws surrounding mandatory minimums
The presence of privately owned prisons
The lack of effective rehabilitation programs in prisons
Relationship between minority communities and the police
Police brutality
Education
Disparity between schools in upper-income areas and schools in lower-income areas
Difference in resources and quality of instruction in lower-income areas
Migrant workers/Immigration
Poor quality of life for migrant workers
Poor working conditions for migrant workers
Problems and consequences related to deportations
Religious rights
Discrimination faced by Muslim-Americans
Gay rights
Discrimination faced by transgender individuals
Media
Negative portrayal of minorities and women in the media
The prevalence of "fake news" in the media
Other civil rights issues
Homelessness
Difficulty of finding affordable housing in the Bay Area (gentrification-related problems)
Animal rights and animal cruelty-related problems
Gun-rights and recent gun-related violence
You do not have to choose any of these topics and feel free to choose something else.