Posted: April 8th, 2015

Feel free to choose one based on the guidelines i pasted in the “paper requirements” section below

Feel free to choose one based on the guidelines i pasted in the “paper requirements” section below

Order Description

CONTEXT OF THE PROJECT
The paper is an opportunity relatively independently to explore a limited topic in the history of social thought. The papers are library research papers that require ongoing work. You should plan for extensive, continuing bibliographic searches as you proceed.
The requirements of the paper may be somewhat more structured than you are accustomed to writing. My purpose is not to stifle intellectual creativity, but to overcome common shortcomings of term Papers. I encourage you to look at this endeavor as a chance to write your best paper to date.

THE WRITING PROCESS
I shall have much to say about sociological writing as we proceed. Here, a few comments are in order. Plan to discard much of what you write. Produce numerous drafts. I am prepared to read drafts, with a reasonable turn-around time (not the day before the paper is due!). You also should let other students read and comment on your progress.

PRIOR WORK ON THE TOPIC
Under certain conditions, you may write the paper as part of a larger endeavor that you have underway, e.g., as an extension of a previous paper. Such papers must be arranged in consultation with me. Under no circumstances may prior work that is not approved be submitted for credit. Penalties for such actions will be severe.

TOPICS
Choosing a topic needs to be more than a matter of saying, “I’ll write on ‘this’.” In order to avoid later difficulties, you will need to spend a great deal of time and energy assessing the feasibility of various topics.
For this paper, you need to choose a substantive issue that is dealt with in significant measure in classical and contemporary social theory, and provide an historical review of treatment of the topic. An example might be ‘charismatic leadership,” as dealt with in Weber, and it more current analyses of events such as the Jonestown mass suicide. Another example could be the concept of fashion as covered in classical works of Simmel,

COURSE PAPER GUIDELINES (continued)

Veblen, and recent writers on fashion in cultural theory. The objective is to show how social theorists have evolved in their thoughts about a given substantive topic.
The range of phenomena covered in the history of social thought is staggering. Find something that can sustain your enthusiasm and curiosity. You also will need to find a topic that has had sufficient prior research done on it to be the basis of a library research paper.
Even though sociology is quite an interdisciplinary undertaking, the papers should focus as much as possible on sociological theorists, rather than on topics and issues that are distant from the central concerns of sociologists who have worked on a given topic. I will try to help you decipher the sociological import of literature as you report on sources that you have found.
It also will be necessary to limit your topic to workable proportions. “Inequality and Social Theory,” for example, is hopelessly broad for a short paper. The limitation of the topic should unfold as you proceed (i.e., as you discover just how much research exists in successive limitations of the topic).

SOU RCES
The place to start your search for sources is not the Internet, but the library. For academic sources, and overall efficiency iii finding nested bodies of research, the Internet remains a cumbersome tool that is not designed for such purposes.
The Library has a variety of useful indexes that you should consult. Sociological Abstracts and the Social Science index are two primary’ sources. Within these indexes, look for articles that are clearly sociological in origin and character—articles published in major sociology journals (e.g., ASR, AJS, Social Forces, etc.) are obvious indicators of such character.
For books, use the on-line catalogue, and go to the stacks to see the work (and those works that are assembled near it in the stacks). Certain publishers also have strong traditions of publication in this area, and I can share with you some of their recent catalogues.
Once you have found good sources, check their references to begin a chain of sources. Of course, this method presupposed that the first sources are in fact the types that you need! You will know that you have honed in on an active research problem when you begin to see the same works (i.e., “classics”) referenced in multiple sources.
Finally, see me for additional sources. Bring in what you have found, and I’ll try to help in identification of sources that I believe will be useful.

FORMAT

Length: 7-10 pages of text (numbered), excluding title page, references, notes, etc.
Font/Margins: 12 pt easily read font, with 1 inch margins on all sides
Subheadings: Use topical subheadings to organize the paper Referencing Style: ASA or Chicago (I’ll provide examples) General Style: The tone of the paper should be that of an academic journal article, rather than that of an “opinion” or “position” paper. Given the fact that most papers will not involve original research, it may be a sensible and legitimate strategy to write the paper as a literature review essay on a given area of research. Articles contained in Annual Review of Sociology offer excellent models for this type of writing.