Overview
The Mid-Term Prompt will be posted March 1st. DO NOT USE ANY FORM OF AI.
Mid-Term Comprehensive Essay: 30% of your total course grade .
You must carefully read the instructions. Start right away. Do not procrastinate. You will need to write several drafts in order to do well. This is a take-home essay exam (6 to 7 pages, typed, double-spaced, Times 12-font).
Due March 22nd before 11:59 pm and may not be submitted before March 13th.
Late mid-terms will be accepted up until June 1st. 5-points will be deducted for every 24 hours it is late, starting March 23rd. Late submissions will not be graded in a timely manner so students who submit late will have to wait. No email submissions will be accepted. Submit on CANVAS through the Turnitin feature.
*The mid-term may be submitted late. Each day that the paper is late, students will be deducted 5 points.
*Students must submit their paper through "Turn-it-in" or have 20 points deducted.
*Students should not use any AI-powered or AI-generating tools for writing, editing, spelling, translating, organizing, etc. You will receive severe point deduction. Papers with 50% or more AI detection will earn an F for the assignment.
All Writing Assignments will be based on the following Principle of the C's:
Grading Rubric: Principle of the C's Writing System. Prof TWL will provide minimal comments on your papers. The rubric will indicate which areas are outstanding adequate, inadequate, or missing.
All writing assignments will be graded based on the following rubric:
1) COMPOSITION (20 points): thoughtful and mindful writing in which sentence structure enhances meaning, well written grammar, punctuation syntax, spelling, mechanics, & organization of the overall paper. Consider how you are using nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs in developing a more informative and even sophisticated essay.
2) CONTENT (20 points): how insightful issues and questions the paper raises, how well the paper provides evidence, examples from lectures, discussion posts, and readings, using the course materials (required readings, lectures, and discussions posts) to support the thesis (main ideas of the paper), and how the paper addresses all of the points and questions from the prompt. The essay must demonstrate students' knowledge of the course content and course materials (lectures, discussion posts, and readings).
3) CREATIVITY (20 points): how well does the paper demonstrate originality of approach and ideas, how well does the paper articulate an interesting, original style and voice; how well does the essay illustrate selection of specific & relevant quotes & passages, as well as integration of all of the class materials (from required readings, discussion posts, remote lectures, syllabus, video clips, etc.).
4) CRITICAL ANALYSIS (20 points): does the paper provide sociohistorical, political, legal context and incorporate structural conditions and historical events from the class materials? does the writer question his/her/their "taken-for-granted" assumptions when asking "how" and "why?" (Demonstrate how well do you apply sociological critical thinking tools).
5) CITATIONS (20 points): Students are being evaluated for their knowledge of course content and course materials. Students are required to make references of all of the required readings, each film clip, online Canvas posts, class lectures/discussion, and include a bibliography/works cited -page. Choose one format (MLA, APA, Chicago-style, etc.) and be consistent. Please do your own research on how to properly and formally cite published and unpublished materials. While you may use outside sources, you will be graded primarily on the knowledge of the course materials (course readings).
PROMPT:
What are the three main paradigms in sociology? How do they inform the scientific understanding of society, people, groups, and social interaction?Using your sociological imagination, explain and critically analyze what makes sociology a science. How is sociology different from "beliefs" and "opinions?" What roles do "taken-for-granted assumptions" play in being able to understand the differences between "opinions" and "science?" How would you incorporate distinguish between stereotypes versus social patterns into the perspective of sociology as a science?