General Instructions 

Over the semester, I will hand out seven sets of questions – roughly one every other week.  You need to write a minimum of five essays, and may only write one essay per set.  If you write more than five, I will drop the lowest grade or grades.  All essays (except the last set) may be rewritten as long as they were handed in on time.  Late essays will be accepted, but will be penalized (See the syllabus).

 All of the essay topics will be based on the required readings and class discussion.  I do not require you to use additional resources, but scholarship is always encouraged and rewarded.  The essay questions are intended to get you thinking about the text. You will find many of the readings are challenging.  I expect that you will need to reread parts of the readings, and will have to struggle sometimes to capture the author’s intent and meaning.  One way to approach the essays is to put them together by quoting particularly relevant sentences or short passages (not entire paragraphs), and then explaining the meaning or the importance of the author's words.  In this way, you can build by presenting pieces of your argument that lead to the underlying conclusion or intent of your essay.  The word "essay" means "a try," as in an attempt to understand.  The best essays present an idea in a unique, creative and interesting way. 

 Your essays should be about four to five double-spaced typed pages (not tripled-spaced with huge margins, and large fonts).  These are relatively short essays, but they still provide you with enough opportunity to develop ideas and offer your own examples.  I expect you to proofread your work carefully so that the essays are free of spelling errors and grammatical mistakes.  Also, your essays should constitute a completed whole.  Your paragraphs should be interrelated and work toward the completion of a single, but complex idea or thesis.  Essays deserving of an A will always have a clear and identifiable thesis.

 A thesis is the main point you are trying to get across.  A good thesis is specific, arguable (not everyone would agree before reading your work), incisive, and is usually stated toward the beginning of an essay so as to establish a basis for how the parts are to be integrated.  Examples: A weak thesis: “Marx describes four types of alienation.”  A better thesis would suggest how or why the concept of alienation is important: “The four types of alienation described by Marx identify features of the social relationships in which people lose control over their own activity.”  (The subsequent essay would describe the four types of alienation and link alienation with class exploitation).  A weak thesis:  “The concept of social facts is important in the development of Durkheim’s theory.”  A better thesis would specifically identify how Durkheim uses the concept of social facts: “Durkheim uses the term social facts to refer to all the social forces that link individuals to groups, collectives and societies.”

 Avoid using the pronouns for the second person (you or your), unless you are referring to me specifically.  If you are referring to your self (use I or me) and if you are referring to unknown others use “people” or “one” or “a person,” etc.

 Do not plagiarize.  Plagiarism is using other people's work and passing it off as your own.   You are certainly free, and indeed, it is expected, that you will use other people’s ideas, but you need to use quotes around the material you are using and to identify the source.  Please use references to identify your sources.  If the text of your paper, identify your sources with the name of the author, the year of publication (from the source you are using) and the page number in the text, i.e. (Durkheim 1999, p. 73) and a full reference at the end (Note: if you are quoting material from Kivisto’s book, you should identify the author of the passage, not Kivisto who is the editor).  See this website for more information on proper references.  As long as you do not plagiarize, I will not penalize you if you deviate from the form, but I will correct it, so please try to do it correctly.