Social Stratification Paper
Guide – Spring 2003 – Prof. Willard
Uncapher
Topic: An
Extended Analysis of a case of social stratification, either locally, in
another culture, or in a larger scale institution. Look at a program or institution in the context
of social stratification. Use notions like access, legitimation, mobility,
perhaps ‘achievement/ascription,’ status, class, and ‘party.’ Look at the
institution from a variety of scales and theoretical perspectives. Topics can include literacy programs, artistic
programs, poverty programs, penal programs.
The ‘larger’ or more general the scope of the topic, the more careful
you will have to be succinct and to the point! Identify the strata, the
players, the forces involved, etc. This is a course and paper about
stratification, not specifically about your pet institution! I once wrote such
a paper on the politics of a particular literacy program in Iran.
Paper body is 12 pages
Advice. You are in College with limited amount of
time. So don’t over-research your
paper. Research will not replace the time you will need to
have to think through your research
essay. So, do preliminary research, and then plan and sketch your paper. Attempt to figure out ahead of time how many
pages you expect a section to be, in terms of the 12 page total. Secondly, do
some research. That is, spend some time
getting and providing background material for your paper. Finally, visualize
the ‘strata’ so that you can imagine who is where, when, when, how much, under
what conditions, how this might change, how according to you this should
change, what other outcomes might be, or perhaps what kind of resources should
be provided to this problem/possibility.
Format
– 5%
1.
Title- please
include a title!
a. This
way people can refer to you work, and can have a sense of what it is about.
2.
No need for special cover sheet.
a. You
can provide one, particularly if you want to include some groovy graphic, but
generally there is no need to waste paper.
A typed, stapled, page numbered document without a cover sheet is fine!
3.
Number your pages. And staple or connect them together.
a. They
do get separated! You don’t have to
number the first page.
Content – 50%
1.
Follow the
topical instructions.
a. Did
you properly investigate a specific case of stratification? It can exist in some other society if you
wish.
b. Did
you look at how a variety of perspectives and theories of how it developed?
Please include a functionalist and critical perspective
c. Did
you identify some/all of the key or different strata?
d. Did
you explain how ideology might serve to legitimate inequality? How does legitimacy take place? How might
your topic fit into a more global perspective, or a more regional or local
perspective?
e. Did
you explain how inequality might be resolved, perhaps through some mechanism of
social mobility or special support (eg. welfare).
f. Did
you distinguish or investigate what could or could not be easily resolved?
2.
Do some
research
a. Did
you actually research and look into this matter, or did you simply provide your
own ‘perspective’?
b. Do
some research – other than course books!
Don’t be afraid to include footnotes to topics that you don’t cover, or
which don’t fit exactly into the body of your work. You can do primary research
General Organization – 40%
1.
Present a Thesis/Overview/Key
question near the beginning of your work.
a. This
tells your reader what you are going to discuss. It gets them interested and focused.
2.
Present Both/
More than one side.
a. You
should credible present the views of people who will disagree with your
points. If you do not give a credible
voice to people who disagree, then they will not pay attention to your
argument. You will not be able to
convince them of anything.
3.
Questions
without answers are OK.
a. These
are known are rhetorical questions. Feel
free to ask more questions than you answer!
Part of the point of education is to alert you, and for you in turn to
alert you readers to what the important issues are, so that they and you can
think about it.
4.
Properly
document your quotes and research materials.
a. Footnotes
and references help the reader not only assess your material, they help the
reader find new ways to look at your subject.
If you document your reading well, then the ideas that you present that
are all your own will be clearer- they will be the ones with no references!
5.
Consider
documenting your ‘secondary’ points.
a. You
can guide your reader to more material that you think will be useful to your
presentation.
6.
Draw a
conclusion.
a. Don’t
forget to spend adequate amount of time assessing your evidence and drawing
your own conclusions. This generally
takes more than a (final) paragraph!
7.
Don’t just use books and articles taught in
the course.
a. You
can use them, and they were chosen because they should be useful, but doing
some outside research is important as well.
Surprise your audience!
Grammatical Points – 5%
1.
Spelling and
grammar- these do count.
a. Don’t
just use a spell checker. Give yourself
enough time to read over your paper. A
key point of good grammar is clarity.
2.
Avoid large
generalizations.
a. Yes
we know that ‘people in Colorado
believe… ’ People tend to use large
generalizations since it helps the writer feel that she or he is on to
something important. However, if the
writer keeps suggesting vague things that the reader already knows, the reader
will lose confidence in the writer. Instead of generalizations, consider asking
more questions!
3.
Avoid using the
word ‘it’ too much.
a. Yes
it is useful to use the word it to
avoid redundancy. But see if you can
find another word. The word ‘it’ often hides vague thinking. Writing and thinking are hard, and part of
the struggle of writing is converting vague writing into something focused,
evocative, and informative. Getting rid
of as many ‘its’ as possible is usually part of the final rewrite.
4.
Avoid the
‘passive tense.’
a. Another
struggle in good writing is trying to convert the passive tense into something
active, trying to name the ‘agent’ in an action, trying to give a name to the
group or individual doing something.
5.
Avoid clichés:
Like ‘everyone knows that’