Sociological perspective’s relevance

Paper Goal: Identify and analyze ideas related to social problems, identify why something is considered a social problem, consider a sociological perspective’s relevance and its possible explanations.

For this paper, students will need to do the following:

1) Identify a social problem to explore. This can be any social problem, as long as you can meet the criteria of the paper.

2) Seek out and link to at least two online sources that discusses the social problem. Examples would include a discussion board, research paper, news article, YouTube video, or opinion piece. This will not require proper ASA or APA citation (although that is advised), but links must be provided at the end of the paper or in a references section.

For the paper itself: Answer the following questions related to the social problem:

1. a) Identify your social problem and why you selected it. Then identify the argument used by at least one of your sources as to why something is a social problem. Ideally use quotes or summarize the main argument(s).
2. b) Identify at least one of the major sociological frameworks, and describe what it might propose is the cause of the social problem.
3. c) What, if any, solutions do yours sources propose (or you independently find) about the problem? Optional: What might your chosen perspective propose as a problem?

Because this is a fairly short paper, do not feel a need to be exhaustive, but I do expect each element of the paper to be done for full credit.

RUBRIC

Does the paper identify and describe why something is a social problem? [2 pts]

Does the paper properly identify and summarize a sociological theory in respect to the problem? [4 pts]

Does the paper discuss (at least briefly) causes and solutions of the problem? [2 pts]

Is the paper properly formatted? (e.g. No major spelling/grammar errors, two and a half pages in length ignoring heading/references) [2 pts]