Read/review the following resources for this activity:
- Textbook: Chapters 1-12, 14
- Lesson: Weeks 1-7
- 1 student chosen scholarly source
Instructions
In the discipline of sociology, there is a strong tradition of exploring a person’s life from a sociological point of view.
For this assignment, you will reflect on your own life story, making connections between your everyday experiences and sociological concepts/theories we have learned about in class. To begin this assignment, consider your own life as you review concepts/theories from our textbook readings and weekly lessons. Next, decide which four sociological concepts/theories you wish to explain and analyze in connection to a part or parts of your own life story.
In 2–3 pages, write an essay that uses these headings and provides this information:
Section 1: Introduction and Concept Identification
In this section, briefly introduce yourself and identify the four concepts you will focus on in your paper by bolding and/or underlining the four concepts in your paper.
Section 2: Concept Analysis
In this section, explain how each concept relates to a specific example or experience in your life.
Your paper must contain scholarly support in the form of paraphrases *only* with respective citations from the assigned reading (the textbook/lesson) and the outside scholarly source that you identify on your own. Do not directly quote from sources for this paper, but instead, paraphrase in your own words from source material and cite the sources with parenthetical in-text citations and with full APA-style references on a reference page at the end of your essay.
Special note: You do not need to include, and should not include, intimate or sensitive information about your background in this assignment. There are many very general sociological concepts that apply to each person’s life. If you have an extenuating circumstance, please contact your instructor for additional guidance.
Writing Tip: Focus
As Kanagy and Kraybill (1999) wrote in their book, The Riddles of Human Society, the socioautobiography is “not a diary” or a “point-by-point account” of life since birth (p. 287). Feel free to focus on only a part or parts of your life story.
Requirements (APA Format)
- Length: 2-3 pages (not including the reference page)
- 1-inch margins
- Double spaced
- 12-point Times New Roman font
- Page number in the upper right of all pages
- Parenthetical in-text citations and a reference page formatted in APA style
- Title page not required
- Acceptable file type: .doc, .docx, or PDF
