GENERAL NOTES
The Core Assessment assignment for this class will be a major essay that integrates, analyzes, applies, and critiques several sociological concepts and research findings from this course individually, together, and with additional sources from your own literature review and archival study.
You must incorporate the findings from at least five outside sources of original academic research in this essay. You may also include additional sources for examples or background information, but only reputable, peer-reviewed academic sources will count toward the reference requirements of your essays. This means that magazines, newspapers, professional periodicals, or internet sources are only appropriate for examples and illustrations in this project - if you have any questions as to whether a specific source is acceptable for your essay, you should ask your instructor rather than guess. Also, focus on articles or books presenting original research or theories, not on those reviewing others' works or editorializing about opposing approaches. Reference works, textbooks, and literature reviews are all excellent places to begin your search, but you must find and read the original in order to develop your own reaction. Ask your instructor for source approval if in doubt.
You should also consider incorporating relevant and reputable statistical and other social scientific data collected by researchers, governments, and other agencies and organizations. A wealth of such archived data is publicly accessible through the Internet, and their use can help you better understand your issue and develop a stronger analysis and critique. Again, if in doubt, ask your instructor for approval of your data source.
If you do not properly cite those external sources that contributed to your work, then you are guilty of plagiarism. This will not be tolerated and may result in immediate and serious academic penalties. If you have any questions as to when and how to use citations and references in you essays, please contact your instructor. Your final essay will also be formatted according to the relevant portions of the American Psychological Association Style Guide. The main text of your essay will consist of no more than 3,500 words (or about fifteen pages). While it possible to construct a successful essay in fewer words, this assignment is comprehensive and detailed enough that most students will find it a challenge to successfully address all of its points in the allotted space. Begin work on your essay early and leave plenty of time for revision to assure the best possible grade.
SO315 CORE ASSESSMENT
Select one identity group that is now or has historically been a minority or subordinated group in the United States. Your group may be a "minority" based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, culture, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual identity or preference, or some other characteristic or combination of characteristics (but you must receive your instructor's permission before beginning your project).
Briefly summarize the history of that group in this country, and the dominant group's response to their presence. Compare and contrast that group's characteristics and sense of identity with those ascribed to them by the mainstream. Describe the group's primary strategy or strategies for carving their niche in American society (i.e., assimilation, accommodation, separatism, or radicalism), and the dominant group's responses to those strategies. Discuss the degree to which the minority group has (and had) a cohesive identity. Analyze how and why the subordinated and dominant groups adopted these particular strategies. What inaccurate stereotypes does the dominant group tend to have about the minority, and vice versa? Use the conceptual and theoretical tools of the course and your outside sources to clarify and enrich your analysis.
Discuss and evaluate the personal and group consequences of this minority status for both the subordinated and dominant groups. Discuss specific types of prejudice and discrimination directed toward the minority group. Examine and evaluate the minority group's strategy for advancing within the larger society's opportunity structure. Evaluate the relative success of these strategies, compare and contrast them with other appropriate groups, and argue whether another approach might be more successful, especially given the possible differences in culture, ethics, and goals between the minority and majority groups. Justify and support your conclusions. Explain how specific social scientific theories and research helps you to draw these conclusions. Why?
Now that you have a clearer and more defensible understanding of the evidence and the mechanisms at work, discuss the prospects for this group over the next two decades. Defend and justify your conclusions. What shared strategies and individual decisions would help guide this group in the most generally useful and beneficial direction? Defend and justify your conclusions.
15 page APA with abstract opener and the topic will be on Asian Americans with 5 refferances