Sociology Case

Dear all,

The long-awaited moment has finally come. No, it's not the unveiling of the new iPad, but something much better: Here are the essay prompts for the final paper.

As you can see, you have three topics to choose from, and each of the three gives you considerable intellectual room for interpretive maneuver, though the general scope and theme are predefined. That is, you will need to move partly beyond the issues discussed in class, which also means that you will need to think over whichever prompt you end up choosing very-very carefully. And, of course, you will need to combine your analytical interpretation of the relevant texts (all from the syllabus) with succinct syntheses and comparative insight. It will be hard work, though you still have plenty of time for it. But the hardest part will be the initial moment of decision itself, so let me just give you a word of advice. There is not need to make a snap decision: take as much as a day to mull over which of the three essays you'd like to work on. They are equally difficult (or equally easy :) ). While the third prompt (on Marx and Weber) may seem intuitively appealing to some, given that you have already written an essay on Marx, it would require at least as much work and thinking as the other two (and there isn't much to be "recycled" here from the midterm!). Each prompt has a lot of potential for a stellar essay, but that outcome depends ultimately on your efforts.

As I've promised, I'm happy to hold extra office hours this week, in case you'd like to share your anxieties, creative sparks, and other related ideas.

I wish you good luck with this,