Need help with a sociology paper

[zfinger]

So the question is: What are the two greatest challanges facing society today and how will the dicipline of sociology handle these?

This is for my college Sociology101 class.

I'm thinking one of my paper will be on immigration, balancing people who immigrate illegally for work, making the US crack down on the rules, and inevitably making it harder for people looking to immigrate legally to escape religous persecution and genocide.

And the other peper I have no idea what I'll do it on. I'm thinking crime and punishment. Mandatory minnimumsfor rapists and molesters.

Any thought or ideas on these? I'm going wheeling tonight, so I only have this afternoon and tomorrow to write 6 pages (Not too hard, but a stretch for guy who would rather be in the garage then deal with the "problems of society")

[Beej]

So the question is: What are the two greatest challenges facing society today and how will the discipline of sociology handle these?

This is for my college Sociology101 class.

I'm thinking one of my papers will be on immigration, balancing people who emigrate illegally for work, making the US crack down on the rules, and inevitably making it harder for people looking to immigrate legally to escape religious persecution and genocide.

And as for the other paper I have no idea what I'll do it on. I'm thinking crime and punishment. Mandatory minimums for rapists and molesters.

Any thought or ideas on these? I'm going wheeling tonight, so I only have this afternoon and tomorrow to write 6 pages (Not too hard, but a stretch for guy who would rather be in the garage then deal with the "problems of society") First off, make sure you have a decent editor... ;)

Next, I would toss the first idea altogether, unless you plan to really simplify it. You have too many issues to cover in a 6 page paper. There are many factors involved when considering immigration issues, each of which could easily be made into a paper on its own.

My suggestion would be to decide which two major problems you are interested in working on and then simplifying the issues. Remember that its a two part question, and that the second part is a HUGE part, that being: "How will the discipline of Sociology handle these?" Remember that there are no real practical aspects of Sociology. Sociology is all about research and theorizing. So no matter what you study, 'Sociology' will only be able to handle the problems by contributing to research and understanding of the issue; it cannot solve the issue alone.

If you still are interested in those two issues, try working on simple aspects of them, for example:
2 Greatest challenges facing society today:
1. Immigration laws failing to cover the scope of immigration practice
2. Rape: criminal punishment fails to fit the crime

Then you have something a bit simpler to lay out before covering how Sociology will handle the issues.

I feel I need to caveat what I have written somewhat. First off, I did not attend your course, and so only you will know what it is that your prof wants you to write and how, and secondly, what I have written for you here can only be a recommendation, not writing advice. I emphasize that, because this is how I interpret your assignment based on the information you have provided. For all I know, your prof may have told you three months ago what s/he thinks the two greatest challenges facing society are and you could have missed it. So think back and think hard on what s/he actually wants you to do. If there is any way to run your ideas past your prof, I highly recommend you do that before writing your paper. On the other hand, its a 100 level course so his/her focus could be entirely on how you coherently put together an argument and focus your writing rather than on evaluating your content. In my case, at the 100 level, exams test your knowledge, writing assignments test how well you write about what you know, not whether what you know is accurate or not...

Good luck and feel free to PM me if you have questions. (My minor was sociology and my wife is a sociology professor and researcher).

[woody]

LOL I'll x2 the good editor part. Speel Chucker is your buddeye!

Consider "globalization" and how to integrate the world's "have-not" nations beyond a sustenance agrarian / starvation mode into one where they can more fully participate in the global economy. The more folks (and nations) we can get "off the dole" and into productive existences/economies, the less there will be need for armed intervention.

Examining "crime" & "punishment" is just one aspect of it... as is the development/adoptation of certain 'standards' that have utility for most all societies.

[zfinger]

Thanks for the input guys. The paper was assigned last Monday, and I've been woring on other finals all week long, plus working full time. Finals week is always the most stressful, I dread it every year. I really do need to narrow the scope of the topics so I dont come across as being to vague. Very good point

And yes, I love spell check. Unfortunatly, forums dont have it. And I'm not about to type in word and copy/paste here, as much as we all would appreciate it, mostly frum da newbeez who spell like dis

[WB9YZU]

And yes, I love spell check. Unfortunatly, forums dont have it. And I'm not about to type in word and copy/paste here, as much as we all would appreciate it, mostly frum da newbeez who spell like dis

Spell check is one of the most harmful programs on the market. It does not read for content, so it does not know whether you have used a synonym or a homonym for the desired word; only that it is spelled correctly. People who do not know english use it as an assistant and still end up looking as stupid as they really are.

Use a book. :read: , you will retain more.
Two fine references:
Thesaurus
Dictionary

Here's a different idea for a sociology paper:
Discuss the affects of computers and computer programs on the ability of Students to process higher language skills, like spelling ;)

[XJGrl]

:farmer: Population growth and lack of resources

[zfinger]

:farmer: Population growth and lack of resources
Well this is random, but I just read your profile, and we have the same birthday. So happy one-month belated birthday!

[XJGrl]

Well this is random, but I just read your profile, and we have the same birthday. So happy one-month belated birthday!

Yes -- Happy belated bday to you too! Good luck with the paper and school! I just finished up my first grad class this semester -- I got a 101%!!! Now, why couldnt I do that in undergrad?!

[Ironmen77]

How about the American people's growing dependence on their goverment to smooth out all of life's little bumps, at the expense of their freedoms.

[zfinger]

Well the paper is almost done, I wrote about rape and molestation, and how the punishments aren't severe enough. It's about dirty old men, and I used a lot of info from the recent Dateline Specials on their internet stings.

The other one was on the lower class and their inability to overcome social stratification and more up in class. I focused on some drug use and deviance. That was very generalized and based directly on my high school experiances working for minimum wage at a pizza shop. People I worked with were late 20's to early 50's, got a ton of money from the gov't, always complained how they couldn't make thier bills, yet never hesitated to buy a bag of weed, a 30 rack of beer, or a carton on cigarettes. They never lasted more then a month either, always no-call no-shows never to be seen again.

All in all, it's not my best essay ever. But I know very almost nothing about sociology, and nore do I care to. I'm in the machine tool program, so lets get to cutting some metal!