Reading Schedule: All reading should be done before class day
 All “chapters” refer to Anderson Book

Paper Guidelines and Descriptions:
ALL WRITTEN WORK WILL BE EMAILED TO ME: siuesoc308@gmail.com.  I will not accept any hard copies. Save the file in the following way:  First Name Last Name and Name of Paper:  

Example:  Naomi Klein Participation Paper

Please, feel free to email drafts of your paper prior to submitting it for a grade.  The learning process is greatly aided with feedback! However, in order to ensure I have time to read the draft, you must submit it to me at least 48 working hours BEFORE the paper is due.  

 

NOTE:  All homework assignments require that you read the material (be it textbook or articles) and that you think critically about the information.  When applying sociological concepts, you MUST cite any definition you provide from the readings.  Do not cite dictionaries or glossaries. After defining concepts, you  must apply the concept to whatever assignment is before you and provide evidence that your application is correct..  Each paragraph should define, apply and provide evidence for ONE concept!

If you do not know the difference between citations versus quoting versus plagiarizing, look at my website. “You didn’t tell me” is not an excuse.  My assumption is that you are trying to learn, understand and apply the material.  To that end, I cannot possibly guess all the different shortcuts you might take to avoid learning, understanding or applying.  Please understand, however, that your grade will reflect my perception that you are using shortcuts rather than thinking deeply about the papers.

1) DO NOT USE QUOTES and DO NOT PLAGIARIZE:  Each paper has a word minimum.  Any quotes that you use a) will be deducted from the number of words required (and hence points will be subtracted if the paper is not long enough) and b) will cause minus 2 points from the final grade for each sentence of the quote.  So, if you have a three sentence quote, subtract 6 points from your final grade.  If you plagiarize, you will receive a 0 on the paper at the very least (see section on plagiarism)

 

2) EMAIL ALL PAPERS TO:  siuesoc308@gmail.com

 

3) Each paper also requires a bibliography. I don’t care what the format is as long as I can find the source to see if you are completing the assignment correctly.

4) All papers must be double-spaced.

SHORT PAPER ONE:  Applying Analysis Rather than Morality
                       
1) Provide one moral proposition that you hold about gender (it can not be about abortion, given that we did that in class).  It could be anything from: women shouldn’t work to women and men should be treated equally.  Explain your moral belief for NO MORE THAN 200 words.  Now, for the remaining 500 words,  sociologically explain from where your belief comes  (for example, what experiences in your life have shaped your beliefs).  DO NOT USE PSYCHOLOGY OR RELIGION TO EXPLAIN YOUR BELIEF.   Thus, do not say that your belief comes from God or from low self‑esteem or because you rose above your circumstances.  Rather, look at the time period in which you grew up, the religious teachings you were surrounded by,  your parents beliefs, school teachings.
      
Be Careful: Common mistakes: 1) people only discuss their moral belief, ie. People only discuss how they believe in equality and they don’t know how since they were never taught men and women should be equal. 2) People only use their parents and their own personal experience to explain where their beliefs came from.  You must provide social contexts for your beliefs.  3) People claim that even though their parents and society taught them one thing, they hold exactly opposite beliefs.  If you are different from how your parents intended, what allowed you to become different?

SHORT PAPER TWO:  How does Gender Identity in the US Affect Workers in Other Countries.

Read at least 2 newspapers/news magazine articles about one of the following industries:  Chocolate, Diamonds, or Flowers.   ATTACH THE ARTICLES TO YOUR PAPER.  Do NOT use any trade magazines (articles written by members of the industry about which you are writing).

In this country, women like to be pampered by receiving some of the above gifts.  Discover the following: 1) Find out how work in the industry is organized at every stage of production, but especially the raw production stage. Who are more likely to be workers in this industry: gender, age, nationality, etc.  2) How are workers treated in this industry?   3) Which companies in the U.S support this industry and the way workers are treated?  4) How are the governments, in the countries where the industries exist, responsible for the conditions of workers?   5) Most importantly, How does gender in the United States contribute to the industries?  Make sure to cite the source from where you attained information and attach the article to your paper.

After you take notes about the above topics, write a paper in essay form that addresses the topic of the paper:  How Does Gender Identity in the US Affect Workers in Other Countries?

SHORT PAPER THREE: Deconstructing Popular Culture

Deconstruct your favorite television show or movie.  To do this assignment, you must watch your favorite show/movie again!  While you are watching, take notes about the following topics:

1. Who are the main characters?
2. Are they male/ female
3. What occupations doe the characters have? How do their occupations relate to their gender? 
4. What social roles are prominent or emphasized for each character?  Mother, father, sister, brother, friends?  Are these roles consistent with character’s gender? If the character is female, for example, are their actions as a mother stereotypical or astereotypical?
5. How do males and females interact?  Who has more power? 
6. How is conflict presented?
7. Are men and women presented as “opposites?”
8. How is the sexuality of the characters presented?  Are women presented as heterosexual?  Do heterosexual women define themselves for the male gaze?  How are gay men presented?
9. Is race/ethnicity considered important for the characters?  If race/ethnicity is ignored, why?

 

NOW, take your notes and write an analytical, essay paper about the television program that incorporates the evidence you collected while watching!

LONG PAPER:  Gender Atypical Act

Do something gender atypical (meaning something that you are NOT supposed to do given that you are a woman or man).  For men, this could be wearing a dress outdoors, wearing make-up, shaving legs or arms before swimming, wearing hair in barrets,  being emotional, etc.  For women this could be, not shaving, not doing hair or wearing make-up, opening doors for men, tell your lover that you have decided to keep your last name and give your children your name, not doing housework).   Whatever you decide, the act MUST be something  that society says you should not be doing if you are a man or something that society says you should not be doing  if you are a woman..    Now, engage in this non-gendered activity in public.  (Don’t choose anything that may harm yourself or any other person).   Be Careful: Common Mistakes: 1) People talk about breaking a norm, but did not actually do so.  2) People fail to analyze their own feelings about the difficulty in breaking the norm.

ESSAY Outline:
1) Introduction
2) Heading 1:  My Experiences (400 words)
                        In this section you will, in essay form, write about your experiences.  How did you feel?  How did other people treat you?  Were you looked at funny?  Did anyone say anything to you?  Be very reflective about your experiences.
3)Heading 2:  Gender Identity Theory (400 words)
                        In this section, I want you to use one of the theories we discussed about gender identity to make sense of your experiences.  Look up one scholarly article for this section which defines and applies the theory.  Cite this article when you discuss and explain the theory you have chosen.  You will first explain the theory in your own words.    Next, you will use the theory to explain such things as:  Why you chose the behavior you chose, why you chose to enact the behavior where you did, Why you told people what you were doing or why you hid from people what you did.  The intent of this section if for you to ANALYTICALLY understand your gender behaviors.
4) Heading 3: Feminist Theory (400 words)
                        In this section, I want you to use one of the feminist theories described in chapters 12 and 13 to understand the ramifications of people who conform to gender dichotomies.  Again, read a scholarly article about the theory you have chosen and then reflect on how gender conformity perpetuates gender oppression.
5) Conclusion
6) References

                                                           

 

 

Application Day:   Morality Versus Analysis

MAJOR POINT:  Reduce your moral understanding of the world and convey to the professor that you understand how to analyze (socially understand) why you have the moral position of abortion.  Analysis should appear 4 times as much as any discussion of your moral position in the final paper.

1) Take a moment to reflect on all your moral positions about abortion.  Write these moral beliefs here.

 

 

 

 

 

2) STOP!  No, more moralizing.  I want you to think of what social factors contributes to WHY you have your moral beliefs.

Remember, the goal is not to convince me of your moral position by using facts or experiences.  Rather, you are trying to be self-reflective.  What about my social position has led me to the conclusion about abortion.

 

Provide at least FIVE different social characteristics that has led to your moral belief and explain them in detail.

Application Day:  What you Know vs. What you Think you Know:

Major Point:   Use sociological theories discussed in class to make sense of the social queues we use to discover someone’s gender identity.  Further, to uncover what social factors explain how make sense of these social queues.  

 Look at the photo on the screen. 

1. As a group, write everything you know as fact. 

 

 

 

 

1. Now,  I want you to think about what you think you know.  Given the genders of the kids, what do they like to do?  What colors are their bedrooms?  Who cries more?  What television shows do they like?  Tell me what social cues you used to help you create these stories?

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. How may these stories shape the gender identities of the children in the photo?

 

 

 

1. How may these stories shape your own gender identities?

 

 

1. Which theories help you understand your stories?  Apply at least 2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Application Day: Applying theory to the issue of welfare,

Major Point:  To adeptly apply at least one theory and how it would explain the existence of social welfare.

What would liberal feminist theory say about WHY welfare exists.

 

 

 

Marxist and socialist feminist theories?

 

 

 

 

Radical feminist theory?

 

 

 

 

Multi-Cultural Feminist Theory?

 

 

 

 

Post-Structural Feminist Theory?

 

Application Day: The pursuit of Beauty

Major Point: Use Morgan’s three paradoxes to understand why your pursue beauty.

 

1) Start off thinking about all the things you do for BEAUTY (not health).  Write all the things you all do down.

 

 

 

2) How much do the products you use to pursue beauty cost you per year?

 

 

 

 

3)  Morgan argues that three paradoxes exist among women who pursue plastic surgery.  How true are these paradoxes for the beauty you pursue each day?

A) Choice of Conformity – explain what it is and how your beauty pursuits are affected by this paradox.

 

 

 

B) Liberation into Colonization –  explain what it is and how your beauty pursuits are affected by this paradox.

 

 

 

C) Coerced voluntariness and the technological imperative —  explain what it is and how your beauty pursuits are affected by this paradox.

 

 

                               

 

Plagiarism and Misuse of Quotes

The purpose of the senior assignment is to measure students’ abilities at applying sociological analysis to original projects.

In order to do so, students must avoid plagiarism and misuse of quotes.   Both plagiarism and misuse of quotes occur when students are reluctant to think about the meaning of the material they are reading.  Rather, to finish quickly, they simply use the words of someone else.

Plagiarism --Plagiarism is defined by the University Handbook as, “the act of representing the work of another as one’s own and may consist of copying, paraphrasing, or otherwise using written or oral work of another without proper acknowledgment of the source or presenting oral or written material prepared by another as one’s own”(p. 220).

The University, as well as the Department of Sociology, takes plagiarism seriously.  The minimum punishment of this offense is failure of the assignment or class. However, students could also get discharged from the University without the potential to graduate.

There are three types of plagiarism that I will now discuss in more detail.

A) Plagiarism exists if a student uses a passage from the author of a published/unpublished document and does not give her credit for writing the passage.

Here is an example:

Russell Schutt of Investigating the Social World defines a survey as, “Research in which information is obtained from a sample of individuals through their responses to questions about themselves or others” (p. 592: 1996).

A student would be plagiarizing if they did either of the following in a paper:

1.    According to Russell Schutt a survey is research in which information is obtained from a sample (p. 592).  I did a survey on University Faculty in 1999.  I asked the faculty whether they use the Vadalebene Center............

This is plagiarism because the student did not put quotes around the passage that was used in her paper.

2.         According to Russell Schutt a survey is research in which data are acquired from a sample.   I did a survey on University Faculty in 1999  I asked the faculty whether they use the Vadalebene Center............

 

This is plagiarism.  Even though the student used her thesaurus to change several words, the gist of the author’s passage is still in tact.

B) Plagiarism exists if a student paraphrases a passage from a book without giving the author credit for writing the passage;

Let’s use the same passage as above to illustrate paraphrasing.

A survey is research that is gathered from a sample in which people are asked questions and their responses are recorded.  I did a survey on University Faculty in 1999  I asked the faculty whether they use the Vadalebene Center............

Here, the student did not use the exact words of the authors, thus, she does not need quotes.  However, the spirit of Schutt’s definition is still intact, thus, she does need to put the page number of the passage.

C) Plagiarism exists if a student has someone else write the paper or passages of the paper and presents the work as her own.

Thus, if you purchase a paper, this is plagiarism.  If you have a friend/lover/spouse/enemy/fraternity
sorority/family member write a sentence, paragraph or the whole paper, this is plagiarism.  

 

Plagiarism is fairly recognizable.  This is because the passages that are plagiarized are written in a different voice than the rest of the paper or the paper is written in a language that clearly exceeds the ability of the student.

 

Cites

Schutt, Russel.  1996.  Investigating the Social World.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press

Undergraduate Catalog. 1995-1997.  Southern Illinois University

 

Misuse of Quotes

Most people use quotes when they would rather not think about how to put differently what a published author has already said.  So, if an author discusses statistics, students simply place the sentence that discusses the statistics in quotes.  Or if the author provides a definition of a concept, the student will simply quote the definition rather than finding a different way of saying the same thing.    Unfortunately, these are all not appropriate reasons to use quotes.

Quotes should be used to support some claim you are trying to make.  They are not supposed to be used to say something that you could just as easily say yourself.  

Thus, the following is an example of incorrectly using quotes.

Reskin claims that women “are likely to be ignored for promotions even when they are qualified for a position, though men are often given the benefit of the doubt.”  Furthermore, Jenkins says that, “women are often paid less for the same work as men.”

Instead you could say:
Researchers show that men and women are given different opportunities in the workplace when it comes to promotions and pay (Reskin 1985; Jenkins 1976).

Also note that quotes should NEVER stand alone as a sentence.

WRONG:   Raymond argues that sugar causes hyperactivity.  "Sugar leads to energetic children"

Instead, quotes should always appear inside a sentence.

CORRECT:  Raymond claims that "sugar leads to energetic children (p. 133: 1999).
 

Furthermore, always put the author's last name, year and page number when quoting.

For example.  Sugar is believed to lead "hyperactivity and other mood disorder"  (Raymond 1999: 133).

Lastly,  When a quote is three sentences or longer than put in BLOCK form.

I urge you all to shy away from quotes.   It’s best you prove to your readers that you understand the material and do not have to rely on the words of other authors