Introductory Sociology

Final Assignment – Research Interview Assignment

Assignment Guidelines

Interview someone (a friend or acquaintance, but preferably not a family member) about his or her understanding of one critical sociological concept. Then, compose a 6 – 8 page, paper describing and analyzing what this person told you based upon the ideas, concepts and facts we have covered in class.

The goal of this exercise is to test your understanding of one of the critical theoretical concepts presented in this course by having you analyze how someone who is not an expert on these topics understands them. Critical concepts include class, culture, race, gender and social reproduction, social change, and deviance.

All papers (including interview questions) are due, in class, on Friday, April 4, 2014.

Directions and Suggestions:

Choosing a Subject: First, you will need to find someone who will agree to talk with you about his or her attitudes about and experiences with your selected topic (e.g., class, gender, culture, race, or deviance). It doesn’t matter whether this person’s views and experiences are typical or exceptional, only that they are willing to talk with you about them. Tell them the conversation will last no more than an hour and that you will not disclose their identity in your project.

Preparing for the Interview: Second, you will need to prepare for the interview by figuring out what topics you want to cover and how you will get your interviewee to start talking about them. Some of the themes you might want to cover include: how they characterize their own background, how typical they think their experience is (and in relation to whom); how they think a person’s class, for example, is determined or decided, how important is race, for example, in Canada. There will probably be other topics you want to raise as well. Some of these topics may be best posed as direct questions. Others, however, might require you to be more creative.

Conducting the Interview: As you conduct your interview, keep two points in mind. The first is to let the exchange develop or flow as naturally as possible, as a kind of focused-conversation. Don’t worry if topics come up in a different order than you planned or if your respondent is unable or unwilling to answer some of your questions. Just try to make sure that all the points you want to cover are touched on in one way or the other. The second point is to take careful notes during the interview. If your interviewee is willing, you might even consider tape-recording it. You will need to refer back to these records during the course of writing up your analysis (especially if you use direct quotes in your writing) and have them available in case there are any later questions about your project.

Writing the Analysis: The final step in the process is writing up a brief description and analysis of your findings. The most important thing here is that the paper should not be just a report of what your respondent said, but rather an analysis of how your respondent understood your topic (that is, class, gender, deviance, race, or culture). Your goal, in other words, is to make some kind of an argument about your respondent’s views, comparing and contrasting them to what you have learned in class. Relevant concerns for class might include: statistics about income inequality and social mobility, different definitions of class, and concepts such as social reproduction and achievement ideology. Also, keep in mind that what your respondent didn’t discuss might be as revealing as what she or he did discuss.

Assessment: I will grade your essay based upon (1) the clarity of your presentation of your respondent’s views; (2) the insightfulness of your general analysis of these views, and (3) your usage of ideas and examples from class to frame and develop your argument (4) the quality of your interview questions. A detailed grading rubric is attached to the assignment and posted on Web CT.

Final Thoughts: Use a pseudonym (a made-up name) to protect the privacy of your interviewee. Please do not hesitate to consult with me if you have any problems or questions with this assignment.

Introductory Sociology

Assignment 2 – Research Interview

Assessment Rubric

(80 – 100%)

• Content is well researched and contains all required information
• Expresses and organizes ideas and information with a high degree of effectiveness
• Uses subject specific vocabulary, and terminology with a high degree of effectiveness
• Demonstrates a thorough knowledge and/or understanding of concept
• Highly detailed and accurate analysis of interview findings
• Uses appropriate and consistent academic referencing including publisher, volume
• Variety of question types were used
• Questions were clear, creative, logically sequenced and on-topic
• Almost no errors in conventions (e.g., grammar spelling, punctuation)

(70 – 79%)

• Content is adequately researched and contains most of the required information
• Expresses and organizes ideas and information with considerable effectiveness
• Uses subject specific vocabulary, and terminology with considerable effectiveness
• Demonstrates considerable knowledge and/or understanding of concept
• Detailed and mostly accurate analysis of interview findings
• Usually uses appropriate academic referencing
• Questions were clear, logically sequenced, and appropriate to the concept
• Few minor errors in conventions (e.g., grammar spelling, punctuation)

(60 – 69%)

• Content is partially researched and contains some of the required information
• Expresses and organizes ideas and information with some effectiveness (some parts have to be reread to clarify ideas)
• Uses subject specific vocabulary, and terminology with some effectiveness
• Demonstrates some knowledge and/or understanding of concept
• Somewhat detailed analysis of interview findings that may have minor errors
• Interview questions were mostly clear, some were logically sequenced and usually appropriate
• Attempts to cite some resources

(50 – 59%)

• Content is superficially researched and contains only basic information
• Expresses and organizes information with limited effectiveness
• Uses subject specific vocabulary and terminology with limited effectiveness
• Demonstrates limited knowledge and/or understanding of concept
• Limited or incomplete analysis of interview findings
• Interview questions were unclear, randomly sequenced and related to the topic
• Resources are not cited