Type: Essay (any type) Topic: Sociobiography Examining political differences (make up your own title) Please use my roommate as that person. We are classmates from high school to college and his name is Mark. We are both international student from China. He has his unique political views. Pedagogy: A ‘sociobiography’ is a type of essay that is based on the concept of the Sociological Imagination, or the ability to see how individual biographies are tied to histories, and how personal troubles are entangled with public issues. In other words, a sociobiography is an essay that describes and explains how an individual’s thoughts, feelings, actions, behavior, and/or words are shaped by the social conditions under which they live. This paper is fundamentally reflective in nature, meaning that you will need to bring yourself into your writing: use “I” when talking about yourself and your feelings, and do not hesitate to reference emotions and feelings. Details of the Assignment: Your first sociobiography will be written about a person with whom you disagree politically. Step 1 Pick a person in your life who you know has distinctly different political views from your own. This should be a person that you know. Explain how you know this person and give the reader some sense of the context of your relationship. Please assign a pseudonym to this person and use the pseudonym throughout your paper to respect their privacy, even if you think they will not care about their real name being used. For best results, choose someone whose beliefs are dramatically different from yours, not just slightly different. You do not absolutely *have* to talk to them in order to write this paper, but I do strongly recommend that you to get in touch and ask a few clarifying questions so that you can most accurately represent their beliefs on paper. After the conversation, thank them for their time and willingness to share (even if you do not like their beliefs!) Step 2 Introduce your paper in an engaging introductory paragraph that includes a thesis statement that more or less describes the point and arc of your submission. Step 3 Explain in clear terms what this person’s general political position is, what yours is, and how they are different. Describe 2-3 particular moments from your own history with this person. How did you come to realize that they held different political beliefs? In what ways did that affect your relationship? In what ways did it not affect your relationship? What has happened in the past with them when/if you have ever tried having open discussions about politics? How have you dealt with conflict? Your description should include particular words they used, thoughts they had, feelings they expressed, experiences they had, or actions and behaviors they engaged in. Knowing that your reader will likely never meet this person, your job is to provide enough detail that the reader has a mental image of the person you are describing. Step 4 Analyze your person in terms of meaningful social categories and distinctions (i.e., race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, documentation status, employment status, political affiliations, etc.).’Deconstruct’ the person’s political views and explain how they were socially constructed experiences rather than idiosyncrasies or exercises of free will. To do so, allow your lens to zoom out from the individual person and search for the broader social conditions that shaped that person’s life (i.e., the political, economic, and sociocultural factors). Then, put the pieces back together to demonstrate how those social conditions shaped the choices the person had or the conclusions they came to. Step 5 Do a briefer but similar analysis of yourself, demonstrating through the use of clear and explicit examples of how you and your person might have come to view the political world so differently. Step 6 To aid you in analyzing and explaining those social conditions, you should refer to at least 3 distinct readings from our class (anything that is NOT in YMA, i.e., only the readings that you could to logs on), as well as 5 different sociological concepts from lecture and/or YMA. Please highlight the concepts you choose in bold, using them in ways that demonstrate your understanding of them, and include a Works Cited list at the end of your paper. Your reading references can be paraphrased or directly quoted, but either way, both readings and lecture material should be cited parenthetically in the text. An example of a proper parenthetical citation for paraphrased material is (Hochschild 2016) and quoted text from page 46 is (Hochschild 2016:46). For lectures, cite as: (McNamara, lecture, and the date of the lecture). Please refer to the ASA style (Links to an external site.) guidelines for help. For direct quotes, if you choose to conduct a brief interview or conversation, cite as: (Pseudonym, interview, and the date of the interview). Step 7 Conclude with a brief discussion about the ways that the Sociological Imagination could help both you and your person be more understanding about your ideological differences, and perhaps to even build bridges across those differences. What is at stake in your relationship with them (whether or not you actually like them)? How can a more compassionate reading of their views make a difference to both of you, and to the world at large? The fine print: Your total paper length should be between 1000-1200 words (4-5 pages) and use 11- or 12-point font and the standard 1-inch margins. Use guidelines for strong sociological explanations at the sentence level. Make sure each paragraph serves a distinct and clear purpose. Give your written work a professional appearance. Ask a friend to review it for you; other people’s brains will see errors that our own brains cannot. Edit silently, using spell check and grammar check. Then, read it aloud again to check for typos and grammatical issues that your eyes may have missed. A few things to triple-check before posting your submission to Canvas: • • • • • • Each sentence should make sense on its own. Each paragraph has a topic sentence and logical body sentences. You should have smooth transitions between paragraphs. Your first paragraph should be introductory in nature, setting the scene and attracting the reader’s attention. Make sure that the conclusion feels and reads like a conclusion, rather than simply stopping in the middle of an idea. Make sure that your name and word count are at the top of the essay before posting it on Canvas. Pages should also be numbered. Rubric Sociobiography Rubric Sociobiography Rubric Criteria Ratings Pts This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeCompletion of Assignment The assignment submitted meets the guidelines for minimum required length and does not exceed maximum length by more than a page. 10.0 pts This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeFollowing Instructions The assignment generally follows instructions on content, formatting, font size and margins, citations, bolded concepts, and required components. Page numbers and word count are included. 10.0 pts This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeGrammar, Writing Mechanics, Organization of Sentences and Paragraphs The submission is carefully edited for grammar, spelling, sentence fluidity, organization of paragraphs, smooth transitions between sentences, and paragraph length (i.e., paragraphs should be 1/2 to 2/3 pages in length; not 2 sentences or a page and a half). 20.0 pts Sociobiography Rubric Criteria Ratings Pts This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeEffective Engagement with Course Concepts and Theories The submission meets the guidelines for content as set out in the prompt, discussing each request topic in sufficient detail and showing effective engagement with ideas and concepts from course readings and lectures. A minimum of 5 course concepts and three course readings/lecture references are used. Selected concepts are employed accurately with understanding of their meaning either explicitly defined or demonstrated through appropriate use of the terms in context. 30.0 pts This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeCoherence of Narrative; Invocation of the Sociological Imagination Narrative is well organized and compelling. Writing is used to bring the subject of the essay to life. The reader walks away with the impression that the writer has used their Sociological Imagination to good effect. The subject of the essay is humanized. Writing is evocative and lively, with strong descriptive prose. A catchy introduction and satisfying conclusion create a set of narrative bookends for the paper. 30.0 pts Total Points: 100.0 Purchase answer to see full attachment User generated content is uploaded by users for the purposes of learning and should be used following Studypool’s honor code & terms of service.

MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics

Guidelines for referring to the works of others in your text using MLA style are covered throughout the MLA Handbook and in chapter 7 of the MLA Style Manual. Both books provide extensive examples, so it’s a good idea to consult them if you want to become even more familiar with MLA guidelines or if you have a particular reference question.

BASIC IN-TEXT CITATION RULES

In MLA Style, referring to the works of others in your text is done using parenthetical citations. This method involves providing relevant source information in parentheses whenever a sentence uses a quotation or paraphrase. Usually, the simplest way to do this is to put all of the source information in parentheses at the end of the sentence (i.e., just before the period). However, as the examples below will illustrate, there are situations where it makes sense to put the parenthetical elsewhere in the sentence, or even to leave information out.

General Guidelines

• The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends (1) upon the source medium (e.g. print, web, DVD) and (2) upon the source’s entry on the Works Cited page.
• Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source information on the Works Cited page. More specifically, whatever signal word or phrase you provide to your readers in the text must be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of the corresponding entry on the Works Cited page.

IN-TEXT CITATIONS: AUTHOR-PAGE STYLE

MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author’s last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author’s name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example:

Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (263).

Romantic poetry is characterized by the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (Wordsworth 263).

Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).

Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads. Oxford UP, 1967.

IN-TEXT CITATIONS FOR PRINT SOURCES WITH KNOWN AUTHOR

For print sources like books, magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide a signal word or phrase (usually the author’s last name) and a page number. If you provide the signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the parenthetical citation.

Human beings have been described by Kenneth Burke as “symbol-using animals” (3).

Human beings have been described as “symbol-using animals” (Burke 3).

These examples must correspond to an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of an entry on the Works Cited page:

Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method. University of California Press, 1966.