Assignment
The general idea of your essay is to write about both of the following:
• Explain, with concrete examples from your sources, how inequality is an outcome of social institutional arrangements
• Explain, with concrete examples from your sources, how inequality is sociologically problematic and thus unsustainable.
Your thesis:
• Should reconstruct the above by way of honing in on specific institutional dynamics and a specific argument about why inequality is problematic and unsustainable. You will use your sources to direct these specifics (because you have to have citational support for your argument).
Sources and required citations:
• Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow
o Your essay must include at least three in text citations from the book, direct quotes or paraphrased. Include the authors last name and page number in your in text citation for both paraphrased and direct quote citations.
• Select a minimum of one of the following articles as your other required reference:
o Your essay must include at least one in text citation from the article you chose; direct quote or paraphrased. Include the authors last name and page number in your in text citation.
o Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Case for Reparations
o RyannPilgeram, Social Sustainabilty and the White Nuclear Family
o McCright and Dunlop, Cool Dudes
o Ellen Scott, Dangerous Dependencies
• Optional third sources can be:
o Juliet Schor, Prices and Quantities
o Laura Ann Minkoff-Zern, Knowing Good Food
o James Lull, Hegemony
Other guidelines:
• Your essay must reflect what you've learned about the sociological perspective.
• Your essay is not an opinion piece.
• Refrain from using personal narrative; only use the sources as examples to support your claims/arguments.
• You will be graded on the following criteria
o Sociological quality
o Use of citations
Not just whether they are present, but how they are used
o Writing coherence
Introduction with a thesis statement; paragraphs organized around one idea; and other elements of good writing structure.
Note about plagiarism:
• I will fail you if you plagiarize (not just the essay, but the class) and I will confer with my supervisor about any other institutional responses to your plagiarizing.
• Please understand that quoting without citations is plagiarizing. For example paraphrasing Wikipedia, or spark notes, or any other reference page that explains the ideas of The New Jim Crow or any of the other sources or concepts or ideas that you use in your paper WITHOUT including an in-text citation will result in a plagiarism charge and an F. I am very familiar with what these web sources say about the material, and I can recognize when they are being used in people's work.
Note that this is the NUMBER ONE FORM OF plagiarizing I've encountered as a teacher, and it is fairly easy to recognize at this point. IF YOU USE THESE SOURCES YOU MUST INCLUDE IN TEXT CITATIONS. But also note that they do not meet the requirements for sources.