This assignment is designed to give you practice at finding various types of articles and essays about a particular social issue. Reading these sources and writing the report will guide your thinking about sociological theories and how to apply them to explain an actual problem in society. All aspects of this report will give you practice at developing thinking and writing skills which you can use in any college class. General Education Objective: Students will write a clear, well-organized report. Course Objective: Students will demonstrate understanding of the topics that sociologists examine such as issues of deviance and control social, stratification, race, social class and/or gender (social problems). Step 1: Choose a topic Choose a social issue that interests you. An issue is a social situation that affects many people in adverse ways. Issues often present barriers to people’s success, health or personal fulfillment. An issue may also be something that is controversial and leaders in a society debate the best ways to deal with it. For Report #3, you can focus on the issues that are brought up in the article you read for Report #2. For example, if you read the article, “Life Course Dynamics and Affluence”, it discusses issues of income inequality and social mobility. You could study either one of these issues. You can choose another issue that is not discussed in the article you read for #2. However, if you do this, you must find a research article in an academic journal about the issue you choose. Step 2: Research To complete this report, you need at least 5 sources of information about the issue you chose: • 1 scholarly research article from an Academic Journal • 4 Viewpoint Essays, editorials or personal stories that discuss the issue from different perspectives Begin your research with the database, Opposing Viewpoints in Context or Academic Search Premier through the John E. Mayfield (NSCC) Library. When you are off campus, type in your user name and password for MyNSCC. • Go to this address to find a link to a database outside of the library: https://go.gale.com/ps/start.do?p=OVIC&u=tel_s_tsla. If it asks for a password, try elvis.Step 3: Read and take notes • Review the chapters in the textbook for information about the topic of this report. • Choose another chapter (10, 11, 13, 16, 17, 18) that might help explain the social issue that you will study for this report. • Read the article, the essays and other sources and refer to them in your report. Step 4: Answer the questions in this outline (sections A through D) Instructions: Because this is a report and not an essay, you can simply write your responses in the order of the questions. • It would be good to answer each question with a separate paragraph. • The answer to each question should include the following: o the underlined concepts from the questions o a sentence that answers the question directly o a sentence that describes evidence, quotes from a source or explains as requested A. Introduction (1 page, 15 points) Instructions: Skip this part and write sections B and C first. After you finish those, come back and write one sentence in response to each question in section A. 1. What is the social issue that you studied? Why did you study it? 2. What areas of sociological study are most closely related to this issue: social control, deviance, stratification, or inequality? How are they related? 3. What categories of people are most affected by this issue? What do they experience because of it? Categories of people may include different age groups, social classes (i.e. SES), genders, races, ethnicities, religions, institutional statuses, etc. 4. What actions, interactions or decisions of small groups of people may be causing this issue? 5. What social institutions are most affected by this issue? (institutions = the state, economy, family, mass media, etc.) How are they affected? 6. What laws, policies or actions of social institutions may be causing this issue? B. Microlevel Analysis (1 page, 20 points) Instructions: Refer to the textbook and/or the articles you found in your research on the issue. Use the underlined concepts in your responses to the questions. 1. Which articles or essays have the most helpful discussion about the causes of the issue on the microlevel by a small group of people? • Name the article and quote a sentence about the causes on a microlevel. • In your own words, describe what you learned about individual actions, interactions or decision-making by small groups of people that cause the issue? 2. Based on what you read in the articles or essays that you collected, how should small groups or individuals change to ameliorate problems with the issue? • What actions, interactions or decisions should they change? • Give specific examples from the articles you read and name the article.C. Macrolevel Analysis (1 page, 20 points) Instructions: Refer to the textbook and/or the articles you found in your research on the issue. Use the underlined concepts in your responses to the questions. 1. Which articles or essays have the most helpful discussion about the causes of the issue on the macrolevel? • Name the article and quote a sentence about the causes on a macrolevel. • In your own words, describe what you learned about the laws, policies or actions of social institutions may be causing this issue? (institutions = the state, economy, family, mass media, etc.) 2. Based on what you read in the articles or essays that you collected, which social institution could ameliorate the issue? • What social changes would the institution need to make? • Give specific examples from the articles you read and name the article. D. Conclusion (1 page, 20 points) Instructions: Summarize your arguments about the issue by answering this question – How has this report contributed to your sociological imagination? • Discuss what you conclude to be the most likely causes of the issue at the micro and macro levels. • Discuss what you conclude to be the best ameliorations of the issue at the micro and macro levels. • Describe how you connect the individual personal experiences of this social issue with social changes or social institutions on the macrolevel. Step 5: List References/Works Cited (25 points) For this report, cite all of the sources that you located in Opposing Viewpoints in Context, other sources and the textbook. The Opposing Viewpoints software gives you the tools to copy and paste the citations. This should be easy. When you use quotes from the book, an article, audio, or video, make sure you place the words in quotation marks and include internal references to the article. This means, at the end of the sentence with the quote, type the author’s name, the date of the publication and page number where you found the quote. Put parentheses around this information. It should look something like this (Conley 2017, p. 275). You need a bibliographic citation for these quotes at the end of the report. If you are not sure how to write a citation, please see the instructions at the library’s website. Click HERE to see a library guide for citations.Step 6: Format the Report • In the top left-hand corner of page 1, please type your full name, date, and title of the report. • Sections A-D should be typed in 4-6 pages. • Use double-spacing between the lines and 12-point font. • Save the document in a Word document (.doc) or .rtf. I cannot open Word Perfect documents. If I receive a document electronically, and cannot open it, I will notify you and it may be considered late. • When you save your document, be sure to label the file with your last name and the name of the assignment. Example: YourNameReport3.doc Step 7: Submit the Report • To submit your file in the dropbox, go to the dropbox with the instructions for the report. • Scroll down to “Add a File”. • Choose your file. • “Upload” it. • “Submit” it. Grading Rubric • I will evaluate your report and award points according to the answers you give to each question. If you answer half the questions, you may receive no more than half the points. The points assigned to each section are listed with the instructions for writing. • You must address each question fully to earn full points. • Because this is a report and not an essay, you can simply write your responses in the order of the questions. Each question can be a separate paragraph. • Demonstrate your understanding of sociology by including key concepts from the textbook, definitions and/or examples of them that show your understanding of the concepts and how to apply them to the topic of the report. If you include a definition of a concept, be sure to put quotation marks around the definition and cite the source (i.e. textbook). • Use college level grammar, expression, phrasing and organization. I do not look for fancy writin’, but clear writing is very important. Hint: Go to the Learning Center or have a friend listen to you read your paper to see if you clearly stated what you intended to express. • Use spell-check