Term Paper

Choose ONE of the following options for your term paper:

Option 1:

Service Learning Project (this option earns you 10 extra credit points toward this assignment):

Choose a service organization and spend a minimum of eight hours serving as a volunteer. After your service time is complete, you will write a paper summarizing and evaluating your experience. You will briefly describe your service involvement and express your feelings about what you did with the organization. Then, your paper should focus on how this service organization relates to sociology and society. How does this organization affect people's lives from a sociological perspective? Lastly, you will apply one of the three main theories to your organization or the social topic it represents.

Requirements for this option: a) your service time must be completed between September and November of 2013; b) provide verification of your volunteer hours with a note from a director or supervisor that I may contact; c) if you choose an organization not listed below, you must email me to receive permission to volunteer at your chosen organization.

Possible service areas: local classroom volunteer (K- 12 grade), soup kitchen, homeless shelter, Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts, church programs for community service, church youth groups, domestic violence shelter, crisis line, Habitat for Humanity, tutoring programs, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, etc.

Option 2:

Discuss how sociology is a part of YOUR everyday life.

Include each of the following in your paper:

A. Choose two social situations from your own life and examine them using a sociological perspective. For example, you could discuss how your marriage and religion are shaped by social forces. Other possible social situations: work, crime, socio-economic status, gender, education, race/ethnicity, age, etc. (check out the textbook chapter titles for other ideas)

B. Apply at least one sociological theory to at least one of your social situations in your paper. (functional analysis, symbolic interactionism, or conflict theory). I am looking to see that you can correctly apply one of the theories, so please do a thorough job.

C. I will also be looking for the use and