Sociology Essay: Tammy’s Story, People Like Us
Writing
You will be given two possible essay topics to write about this next week. Choose one of them. The two possibilities are:
***ESSAY 5A***
In class on Wednesday, we watched Tammy’s Story:
As you watch this segment, I want you to think carefully about the following two questions:
What characteristics mark people as belonging to one class or another?
How does growing up in a particular social class affect one’s self image and expectations in life?
For this week’s essay, please write up your responses to those two questions while using evidence and examples from the video “Tammy’s Story”
On the document header, please clearly indicate that you are responding to “Essay 5A” or “Essay 5B” and make sure the file you submit is .doc, .docx, or .pdf.
Your response must be between 500-600 words.
***Essay 5B***
In class on Friday, we watched All You Need is Cash:
As you watch this segment, I want you to think carefully about the following two questions:
What characteristics mark people as belonging to one class or another?
How does growing up in a particular social class affect one’s self image and expectations in life?
For this week’s essay, please write up your responses to those two questions while using evidence and examples from the video “All You Need is Cash”
On the document header, please clearly indicate that you are responding to “Essay 5A” or “Essay 5B” and make sure the file you submit is .doc, .docx, or .pdf.
Your response must be between 500-600 words.
Below is a email from our professor about how to get higher paper grade:
I hope you are all doing well. I have gotten a couple emails asking how to improve papers in the future so I thought I would address the concerns here.
First off, sociological papers are a different genre from murder-mystery novels. As a reader and a grader, I am not in for a last minute jump scare and reveal of your argument. Tell me at the outset what your thesis and argument is. Your thesis is your answer to your prompt- be as specific and concise as possible in your answer. Beyond your thesis, your introduction should have a rough outline of the several smaller arguments you will need to defend in order for your main argument, your thesis, to be strong. Below is an example of how I like to outline my own papers, not that that is a requirement for all of you.
Thesis: Apples are better than oranges because they are sweeter and healthier.
Paragraph 1
Topic Sentence (Apples are sweet.)
Evidence: (According to study x, apples have x grams of sugar which is within the range of sugar that is considered “sweet.”)
Commentary: (Certain groups tend to enjoy sweeter fruit which might explain apples’ popularity.)
So what?: (Here is where you talk about why this argument matters).
Paragraph 2
Evidence: (According to study y, apples are rich in a, b, and c which are great u, o, and r bodily functions.)
Commentary: While nutrition is a complicated science, it seems that apples may have medicinal properities.
Conclusion: (Continue talking about the larger implications of your argument.)
The following documents are the paper rubric and some writing tips. Be sure to look through them. Thank you!
