Article Analysis and Class Presentation and Facilitation

Article Analysis and Class Presentation and Facilitation

There are two parts to this assignment:

1. Article Analysis
2. Class Presentation and Facilitation

For your analysis, you must make use of the following three sources:

1. A sociological journal article from a peer-reviewed academic source published in the last 20 years. This article should serve as the primary basis for your assignment. (The following are examples of peer-reviewed sociology(ish) journals: Journal of Health and Social Behavior; Journal of Consumer Culture; Social Networks; American Sociological Review; Social Forces; Social Problems; Canadian Journal of Sociology; Gender & Society; Information, Communication & Society; Socio-Economic Review; Behavior and Social Issues; Culture Machine; Sociological Theory; Critical Inquiry; Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies; Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics; Equality, Diversity and Inclusion; Sexualities; Journal of Gender Studies, etc.).
2. Your textbook (and class lectures) as it will provide you with the sociological concepts and theories that you will need to engage with while writing your paper.
3. A piece of media; for example, from mainstream news media, social media, a video, a meme, an advertisement, an image, a movie, a book, etc..

Students must select one of the following research questions to guide their analysis:

1. Sexuality (Chapter 6): In what ways does discrimination based on sexual orientation remain a significant social problem in Canada? [Due Date & Facilitation: Feb. 7][unique_solution]
2. Gender (Chapter 10): In what ways does discrimination based on gender identity or gender performance remain a significant social problem in Canada? [Due Date & Facilitation: Feb. 14]
3. Deviance (Chapter 7): Identify a behavior that is defined as deviant in a particular social context. Why has it been defined as deviant and what are the sociological implications? [Due Date & Facilitation: Feb. 28]
4. Class (Chapter 8): What social, economic, historical or political factors that contribute to the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in poverty in Canada? [Due Date & Facilitation: Mar. 6]
5. Race (Chapter 11): What social challenges do racialized newcomers to Canada (or racialized Canadians generally) face? What are some of the sociological outcomes of this racialization? [Due Date & Facilitation: Mar. 13]

The length of your paper must be between 1,000-1,250 words (approximately 4-5 double-spaced pages, 12-point, Times New Roman font—excluding the title page and References). If your paper is more than 1,250 words, you will get a 0. If your paper is less than 1,000 words, you will get a 0. These strict limitations are meant to ensure that your paper remains concise and pointed at the requirements of the assignment. In those pages you should consider the following:

1. Summarize ONE sociological journal article (shouldn’t be more than 1 page; show that you have carefully read the article):

• What was the purpose (the question, inquiry or reason) that guided the article?
• What are the main arguments from the article?

2. Critically analyze the sociological journal article (use Chapter 1 and the Chapter associated with your question; show that you can make links between the textbook, class content, your article and your question):

• Describe the “research orientation” being used in the article.
• What is the “level of analysis” used in the article? How do you know?
• What “theoretical approach” is being used in the article? How do you know? What are the limitations and the assumptions of this approach?
• Use sociological concepts and theories to help you make sense of the article and its relationship to your question.
• In particular, keep in mind the following questions: How are individuals shaped by your topic? What are the social, political, and cultural effects of your topic?

3. Connect the article with your piece of media (this is a chance to be creative and apply what you’ve learned to some media of interest to you; show that you can sociologically analyze something from your own life and relate it to your assignment).

• Demonstrate your understanding of the social issue represented in your research question and article by connecting it to your piece of media.
• In what ways does your piece of media relate to your research question? Use your sociological imagination.
• What assumptions are being made? Is there an implied understanding of how the social world should operate in your piece of media? What effects might this piece of media have on social attitudes?

4. Pose at least one critical sociological question (show that you have been thoughtful about this issue by formulating a question (and potential answer) that expands on the topic; this might involve looking at the issue from another angle, asking a further specific question, or asking a more general question).

• Pose at least one sociological question (more than one is welcome) near the end of your paper (which will also be asked in class to encourage further discussion of your question). The question should not be a yes/no question, such as: “do you like sociology?” or “are Indigenous people marginalized in Canada?” (Unless you expand on the question to challenge our thinking, such as: “is competitiveness natural for men? Is being competitive written into male biology, DNA, genetics, etc. or can we explain it in another way?”).
• You must include some general ideas about possible answers to the question in your paper; don’t just pose a random question, give some insight into why that question is important, why it’s worth asking and what you think some potential answers might be.
• For example, if your article concludes that “women are more likely to experience domestic violence than men,” further critical sociological questions could look like the following: “Are homeless women included in this conclusion? How might a particular (racial, economic, etc.) understanding of “women” obscure others kinds of violence?” or “Are women’s experiences with domestic violence similar despite differences in gender identity, gender performance, citizenship status, race, or ability, or are their distinct experiences that are dependent on various identities?” or “If transwomen were excluded from this study, what would that say about how the researchers conceptualized gender and sex?”

5. Presentation and Facilitation (your presentation is only the first part; the second part of your task is to facilitate a sociological discussion about your topic; you will be an expert on the topic and I expect that you will contribute to the learning of other students).

• Give an individual presentation in class along with other classmates who have addressed the same question. This presentation should be 2-4 minutes in length. 1 minute is too short. 5 minutes is too long.
• Your presentation is an oral summary of your written assignment. Tell us something interesting, something that stood out to you about your research. Bringing some level of excitement will encourage others to do the same and will result in a mutually beneficial class discussion.
• You should be prepared to answer questions from your instructor and/or your classmates.
• You should be prepared to ask your critical question(s) and be prepared to reformulate (or provide some general ideas about an answer to) it if there is any confusion.

6. Use APA citation style (in-text citations and a reference page) throughout your assignment. If you use the words or ideas of another source, you need to give credit; use direct quotations for an exact replication of a source’s words; use a paraphrase (your own words, with a citation) for a summary of a source’s ideas). If you have any doubts about how you are using citations, paraphrases, quotations, etc., please visit the Learning Café for assistance.

Things not to do in your paper:

• Do not moralize the issue (don’t tell me how terrible our society is and how we should be better people (that is not sociological!); instead, identify what the social and cultural problems are specifically and suggest why they still remain with us).
• Do not make normative claims without sociological explanation (don’t tell me the way society ought to be and pose simple fixes like: “We should treat everyone with respect and love each other equally; if we are kind to each other, all our problems will disappear.” This kind of discourse is nice and inspirational but it is not sociological, it is not critical, and it is not helpful—nor is it part of your assignment; instead, if you want to pose a possible solution to a social problem (which you are NOT required to do), ensure that it is sociologically informed—remember, many of the problems that we discuss in sociology are not new, nor easy to ‘fix’; if they were, we wouldn’t be discussing them).
• Do not summarize or analyze more than one article (if you spend too much of your paper summarizing—more than one page—your grade for analysis will likely suffer; summary is the least important part of this assignment; it needs to be short, concise, and clear; it is meant only to set the stage for the analysis. If it is at all unclear what article you are summarizing and analyzing, your grade will likely suffer. I recommend that you only cite and focus on one academic article. I want to hear more about the analysis of the article than the article itself).

Submissions

1. Your paper must be submitted no later than 11:59pm on the day you present. If you submit it at 12:00am the next day, you will get a 0. It must be submitted electronically (using the drop box on Canvas – go to ‘assignments’ (left side of the page), click on the ‘Academic Journal Article Assignment’, ‘upload’ the file and press ‘submit’).

If you experience any difficulty submitting this assignment, please submit it instead via email to tanner.layton@lethbridgecollege.ca.

It is entirely possible to receive 0% for this assignment. Some examples include:

• Having a word-count outside 1,000-1,250 words (excluding title page and references)
• Not including a reference page or in-text citations
• Plagiarizing (ASK IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT THIS IS)
• Not submitting the assignment on the day you present
• Not participating in the class facilitation or having critical questions prepared
• Not showing up for your presentation

Please utilize the Learning Café on campus if you need help with research, APA citation style, or writing generally: https://lethbridgecollege.ca/departments/learning-cafe