Assignment 2: Current Event

Suspense is Sunday November 7th. Need to complete before 10pm est.

The Week 5 Homework 2 Assignment meets the following course objectives:

• Apply a sociological perspective to the social world. Analyze contemporary social issues using the sociological imagination and use sociological theories and concepts to analyze everyday life. Demonstrate the ability to identify, locate, and retrieve information related to the topics in the course. Develop written communication skills and critical thinking skills.
• Apply American Psychological Association formatting and citation style when completing course assignments.

Purpose:

The primary goal of this exercise is to apply your developing sociological knowledge and skills to the analysis of a current event.

Directions and Suggestions:

Choosing a Current Event. A current event refers to something that is happening in the world at present (i.e. the war, the presidential inauguration, 1:4 teenage girls contracting an STD, etc), and they are usually described on the news and in mass media. You must choose a report (written, from the radio, or televised) of an event that has been reported on within 3 months of the assignment deadline. Remember, the event you choose must have some relevance to the study of society, and you must properly cite the source from which you got your report.

Describe the Current Event. Second, you will need to provide a brief summary of the current event. This should include details such as location, timing (i.e is this an ongoing event, does it appear to be a one time event, is this an example of an event that happens frequently), people involved, and any analysis offered by the report(er).

Analyzing the Current Event. The final step in the process is conducting an analysis of the current event using knowledge you have gained from the course to-date. The most important thing here is that the analysis should not just be your opinion about the current event, but grounded in sociological theory and prior research. You will need to use at least 6 sociological concepts covered in this course to analyze the current event (i.e. social construction, stratification, social control, crime, deviance). (hint: sociological concepts should be clearly identified, defined AND then applied; ANY paraphrasing or direct quotes used from another source should include APA formatted in-text citations and a full citation at the end of the essay)

References. Remember you must cite the source from which you found your current event report as well as any of the readings you directly or partly referenced.

Proper APA citation style for a TV episode is:

Director. (Year originally aired.) Episode Title. Series Title. Production Company. Date aired when you saw it.

Example: Frankonovic, F. 2008. The War in Iraq. The Evening News. WPIX New Jersey. February 20, 2008.

Proper APA Citation style for a magazine or newspaper article (not a journal) is:

1- Author's last name, followed by a comma and the first initial and

middle initial, ending with a period. 2- Year of publication followed by a period. 3-Title of

article ending with a period. 4- Name of newspaper/magazine in italics 5-date of publication followed by a comma 6- page number of article within the publication ending with a period.

Examples:

-Magazine

Jana, Reena. 2000. Preventing culture clashes - As the IT workforce grows more diverse, managers must improve awareness without creating inconsistency. InfoWorld, April 24, 95.

-Newspaper

Rimland, Bernard. 2000. Do children's shots invite autism? Los Angeles Times, April 26, A13.

Proper APA citation style for an electronic resource is:

Author. Year. Title of page. Title of Source/website. Retrieved on [Date accessed] from: complete url.

You must provide the date accessed as electronic sources change frequently. The page title is for the specific page you used, while the source title is the broader set of pages. The date is the copyright date, which is often found at the bottom of the page (a good place to find the author, as well).

Example: Ng, Maya. 2005. Doing Sociological Research. Guides for Sociology Students. Retrieved on February 21, 2008 from: mc.maricopa.edu/mymcc/1423.html.


If the author does not appear, replace the author with the page title. If the date does not appear, replace it with n.d. If you can't figure out the difference between the page title and the source title, they may be the same.
Example: "Great Titles for Papers." n.d. Great Titles for Papers. WEBSITE accessed April 2, 2005.
http://www.greattitlesforpapers.com

More detail on APA citation style may be found under Materials and Resources in the Resources folder.

Format and Grading. This should be 2.5-4 pages long, double-spaced, 11pt font (arial or times new roman), with 1" margins. Your essay will be graded based upon (1) the clarity of your presentation of your chosen current event and its relevance to the study of society; (2) the insightfulness of your general analysis of the current event from a sociological perspective, and (3) your usage of ideas and examples from the class to frame and develop your analysis.