I want everybody to be thinking right away about topics for the final paper.  The subject matter for this course shouldn’t be a big mystery; I believe we all have a feel for our basic course topics:

• Social Forces
• Social Organizations
• Social Interaction
• Social Institutions
• Family
• Religion
• Government
• Theory
• Methods

You will learn throughout the course how to do better academic research on these topics.  In other words, you’ll progress from talking loosely about what you “think” sociology means to eventually being able to do collegiate-level research on the theory, methods, and sociological history of [choose any topic] and society.  Your products (the term I use to call what you do, be it write papers, blog, etc.) will go from having one source reference – you – to having multiple citations.  This is how you grow as a student in college, becoming more academic in thought and practice.

For your third essay, I want you to clearly convey to the class what you plan to do your final paper on.  You can be as loose as you want to.  Your intended topic might change completely by the end of the course.  That’s fine.  But, it is necessary for you to start somewhere!  And, there is no better time to start than right now.  I’ll post a sample essay below so you can get an idea of the length that I’m looking for and the approach.  You can actually copy the approach (that’s not plagiarism, COPYING CONTENT AND IDEAS – without proper citations – IS PLAGIARISM, but using somebody’s framework isn’t really plagiarism).  I’ll talk more about that in a screencast later on.  But, for now, please submit your essay by the assigned due date and outline what your intended final paper topic might be.  I’m looking forward to seeing where your interests lie!

PLEASE NOTE: When you submit, make sure you put a cover page with your First Name / Last Name and then the Subject you are interested in.  Use mine as an example.  If you don’t use that format, I’ll assume that you are not following instructions and that would be detrimental to the grade you receive for your journal entry.  Thank you.

[You can also find the list of all the audio lecture podcasts here http://johngirdwood.com/podcasts/index.xml]

Sample Essay

My main interest is wealth as it is conveyed from generation to generation.  I will use that model as a representation of other social assets that could potentially be passed down from parent to child.  For example, there are many college athletes right now whose parents were also high-level athletes.  This trend is propagated somehow, either the athletic parents are natual athletes (DNA) or they are teaching their children how to perform better (nurture) or maybe the children just have better access to the things necessary to become great athletes (like open gym time and training).

Using the material we will cover in class during the American Dream, Parenthood, and Family Wealth sections, I will focus on obtaining resources, references, and tools to help me discover why “the rich get richer and the poor are getting poorer.”  I will focus on things like:

• Transfer of wealth from parents to children
• Opportunities for wealthy children like access to college
• Barriers for poor children like no money for higher education
• [Note to SOC 111 students: Notice how I am looking at both sides, rich and poor.  I'm showing opportunities AND barriers.  This is important for YOUR research.  You cannot just show one way things happen.  You need to should the counter, either counter argument or alternative approach.]
• Attitudes about wealth
• Social networks of the wealthy that enable them to accumulate more wealth for their children
• Social networks of the poor that disable them from showing their children how to get out of poverty

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Note to SOC 111 students: Here comes the real payoff of the post…

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

With all of these possible subjects in mind, I will make sure to refine my final paper to answer the following research question:

How do children of wealthy parents have more opportunities than poor children to becoming wealthy in America?

Assignment Notes

This is not a typical “essay” per se.  Don’t worry about the length of your submission or even using paragraphs.  However, follow my example!  If you make bullet points, as I have, then you will be very successful as we progress through the semester.  Contact me [link here] with any questions!