Assignment 12: Aspects of studying sociology

For many of us, one of the most interesting and fun aspects of studying sociology is how relevant the discipline is to our everyday lives. This is even true of the methods we use to study sociology. Hardly a day goes by without reading or hearing about research that can help explain our lives: for example, we are learning that life expectancy in the U.S. is on the decline, which may seem counterintuitive. After all, we are the richest nation on earth with excellent medical care. But when we look a little deeper, we learn that for the wealthiest Americans, life expectancy is on the rise, while for those with the lowest socio-economic status (SES), it is on the decline. Since there are far more people of lower SES than the highest, the overall rate is pushed downward.

Describe a current, personal experience that is relevant to research methods. You can describe something that “passes for knowledge” that you observed at home, work, or the community; something you saw or heard in the media, or some other current event. Include a description of the information, how you think that information was created, and your own reaction to that information (to quote a scene from Freaky Friday, how does that make you feel? Do you trust that information and to what degree?).

The text of the answer should be at least 250 words in length to get into the kind of depth you need. Include the source(s) in APA style after the text of the post

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You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.