Sociology 201 Paper Guidelines

The course paper must be a minimum of six pages, double spaced type with one-inch margins in APA, MLA, or ASA format. The paper should be designed so that you can demonstrate your understanding of statistical concepts as applied to social research and should include at least one chart and one graph. You must cite within the body of your paper, at least 5 sources (journal articles, books, etc.) and include a reference or bibliography. Your text provides a wealth of information and ideas to get you started and is a good source to use in your 'initial' search for references. You may use the articles in your text as references if appropriate. Please refer to your syllabus and the notes taken during our in class paper discussion for additional information.

Grading Criteria:

The grade "A" represents an outstanding essay that:

develops and presents creative, perceptive, thoughtful and well-organized ideas; 

develops and presents well-chosen and sociologically/psychologically appropriate concepts, explanations, and supporting evidence for the ideas and theme(s) of the report;

creates an essay that contains no mechanical errors, is written in clear, smooth language and is free of colloquial phrases, slang and incomplete sentences.

The grade "B" represents a very good essay that:

develops and presents a perceptive, thoughtful, and well organized set of ideas; 

has clear, smooth writing which is mostly free of colloquial slang, incomplete sentences and mechanical/punctuation errors; 

is developed with better-than-average choice and development of sociologically /psychologically relevant/applicable concepts, themes and supporting ideas.

The grade "C' represents an adequate essay that:

responds to a topic in a routine way; does the minimum requirements; 

shows some evidence of thought and planning;

is developed with adequate, supporting material, sociologically /psychologically relevant concepts and organization of thought; 

has average writing with few colloquial phrases or slang; 

contains few distracting errors in usage, logic or mechanics (complete sentences, etc.). 

The grade "D" represents a less than adequate essay that:

responds to a topic in a routine, superficial way; 

 shows some evidence of thought and planning; 

is developed with less than adequate supporting material, choice of concepts and application/organization of thought;

 has writing which is not vigorous and contains colloquial phrases or slang and, incomplete, poorly punctuated sentences;

contains several distracting errors in usage or mechanics.

The grade of "F" represents an inferior and weak essay that:

responds to a topic in a routine, superficial way;

can only be followed and understood with some difficulty;

may contain platitudes or mistakes in word choice, application of concepts and organization of thought;

contains major distracting errors;

does not state a topic or main idea or show evidence of thought, organization or planning;

has enough errors in mechanics and choice/application of concepts to seriously distract the reader;

contains vague, ambiguous diction and phrasing;

contains incomplete sentences that make it difficult to understand the content.