Homework answers / question archive / Southern New Hampshire University SOC 317 Final Project Guidelines and Rubric Overview The final project for this course is the creation of a magazine article

Southern New Hampshire University SOC 317 Final Project Guidelines and Rubric Overview The final project for this course is the creation of a magazine article

Sociology

Share With

---

Southern New Hampshire University

SOC 317 Final Project Guidelines and Rubric

Overview

The final project for this course is the creation of a magazine article.

From policy to culture to economics, the family structure in America and across the globe is consistently in the middle of debate and discourse. Questions are routinely asked around what family means, why the definition keeps changing, and who defines “family.” Sociologists use sociological theories and perspectives to study these questions and inform their future studies, policies, and social strategies. Studying the construct and the data picture of families can also be beneficial to both personal and professional lives, aiding individuals in group and interpersonal relationships.

In this final project, you will write an article for a parenting magazine about a familial trend affecting a population. You will base your article on the analysis of the specific trend and its influences, impacts, and presence in diverse cultures using key sociological perspectives. You will then discuss the value of sociological theories and perspectives in approaching social problems. In concluding the article, you will propose an evidence?based response for minimizing the potential negative impacts of the trend.

Some examples of familial trends could include:

· Families waiting longer to have children

· Adult children returning or staying home after graduation

· Aging of the family

· The changing family meal experience

· Technology, social media’s influence on parenting

· Growth of cohabiting couples

· Elder abuse

This assessment addresses the following course outcomes:

· SOC?317?01: Analyze the reciprocal relationship between familial trends and social institutions for identifying the impact on social dynamics

· SOC?317?02: Analyze the changing structure of modern families through the application of sociological perspectives

· SOC?317?03: Compare and contrast traditional and nontraditional family structures across diverse cultures

· SOC?317?04: Propose evidence?based responses for minimizing negative impacts of familial trends · SOC?317?05: Articulate the value of sociological theories and perspectives in limiting biases and assumptions when analyzing real?world, familial problems

The project is divided into four milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules One, Two, Four, and Five. The final magazine article will be submitted in Module Seven.

Prompt

You have been asked to write an article for a parenting magazine on a familial trend negatively affecting a population. You will first select a familial trend from your own idea or from the provided list as the focus of your article. If you are unsure whether your topic is suitable for this project, consult with your instructor for guidance. You will then conduct research on the trend and provide a sociological analysis, identifying influences and impacts and utilizing theoretical perspectives. To conclude, you will propose an evidence?based recommendation to address the negative impacts of the trend.

Specifically the following critical elements must be addressed:

I. Introduction: You will begin your article by setting the stage for the audience, providing some context around the familial trend.

A. Explain the familial trend you selected and provide an overview of its specific influences on the family dynamics.

B. Provide historical context for your familial trend. How has this trend progressed historically in the United States? What used to be the norm?

II. Comparative Perspectives: In this section you will begin by looking at the familial trend on a global scale. You will then narrow your focus to the United States, examining the influences on the trend, the impact of the trend on society, and how the trend manifests itself within diverse cultures in the United States.

A. Select a country outside the United States and describe the norm in this country around your previously selected familial trend.

B. Compare the presence of your selected familial trend in the United States to the presence in the other country. Is this specific trend present in the other country? Substantiate your determinations with research.

1. If the trend is present, how is the presence similar to or different from how it manifests itself in the United States, and why do you think these similarities and differences exist?

2. If the trend is not present in the other country, why do you think it is not?

C. Looking at the issue inside the United States, identify the relevant social variables and disparities influencing this familial trend and explain how they influence this trend.

D. Explain how the familial trend negatively impacts modern families, providing specific examples and substantiating your response with resources.

E. Explain the influence of the familial trend on other social institutions, providing specific examples and substantiating your response with resources. For example, specifically how does the trend influence education, employment, or healthcare?

F. Compare the presence of this familial trend between cultures in the United States. Substantiate your determinations with research. How does the trend manifest itself similarly or differently in different cultures? Is the trend as present in some cultures as it is in others?

III. Sociological Analysis: You will now analyze your chosen familial trend, using the three relevant sociological perspectives: conflict perspective, functionalism perspective, and symbolic interactionism perspective

A. Apply the conflict perspective to explain why the familial trend affects families differently. Apply this perspective specifically to your previous comparisons to explain any differences in how the trend affects cultures. If there were not any differences, use the perspective to explain generally why different families have different experiences.

B. Apply the functionalist perspective to explain the benefit of the familial trend on society. How does the familial trend influence the family dynamic and therefore positively influence other social institutions and society as a whole?

C. Apply the symbolic interactionist perspective to analyze how families define their meaning and how this definition changes. How does symbolic interactionist theory explain the ways that families define themselves and how this definition evolves?

IV. Value of Sociology

A. Identify personal and societal biases and assumptions around the familial trend. What are your personal biases and preconceived notions based on your life experiences? What are some societal biases and assumptions that the audience might have around the trend?

B. Explain to the audience how using sociological theories and perspectives to analyze the familial trend can help limit biases and challenge assumptions. Provide a specific example related to your analysis of the trend.

C. Explain to the audience the value of sociological theories and perspectives when addressing real?world familial problems. How can the use of these theories and perspectives help address familial problems faced in personal and professional lives?

V. Evidence?Based Response

A. Describe attempted responses that have been successful in addressing negative impact(s) of the specific familial trend and identify some best practices based on the successes.

B. Based on your research, propose a response to address negative impact(s) of the familial trend.

C. Explain why your proposed response is likely to be successful, substantiating your explanation with research. In other words, explain how the response takes into account your previous research of attempted responses, identified best practices, and influences and impacts of the trend.

Milestones

Milestone One: Journal – Topic Exploration

In Module One, you will choose a topic for your magazine article and provide some contextual and historical background about your topic. This first milestone will help you practice writing about the context and impact for your familial topic. Specifically, you will discuss the background issues about your familial topic. Explain the familial trend you selected and provide a brief overview of its specific influences on the family dynamics. What impact (economic, conflict, mental health, etc.) does the trend have upon families? Provide historical context for your familial trend. How has this trend progressed historically in the United States? What used to be the norm? Be sure to reflect on pertinent real?world familial examples. Use the final project’s Introduction (section I) to guide your writing. This milestone is graded with the Milestone One Rubric.

Milestone Two: Research Plan and Comparative Perspectives Outline

In Module Two, you will create a research plan for the topic you chose in Milestone One and an outline for the Comparative Perspectives section (II) of the final project. For this milestone, you will first map out your topic, identify key search terms that you will use to find resources and pertinent information, and sketch out the potential impacts of the trend you chose. Then you will identify which country you would like to use to compare perspectives and why you chose that country. Sociologists serve to create greater understanding about a topic by locating specific social problems within a particular culture and comparing it against another culture. By being able to draw a contrast to another culture’s treatment of and/or experience with the familial topic, you can help clarify its distinction and relevance. For example, elders in America are treated differently than in families across the globe because aging is more greatly revered in other cultures. Or, consider how in other parts of the world, it is customary for men to marry girls younger than the age of 18. In this milestone, you will begin to identify the global, national, and local dimensions and distinctions of your familial trend. As you reflect on your selected topic, note issues of distinction and relevance, and outline which ones you think would be most important to write about in your final submission. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Two Rubric.

Milestone Three: Blog– Sociological Lenses

In Module Four, you will write a blog post analyzing your chosen scenario using the three relevant sociological perspectives: conflict perspective, functionalism perspective, and symbolic interactionism perspective. Sociologists use paradigms, or sociological theories, to help explain social life. For example, a functionalism theorist might look at the changing meal time experience in purely structural terms. Quite simply, a family may be unable to coordinate its schedule to allow for time together at a common meal because of work, technology, and other commitments. However, a symbolic interactionist may analyze this changing family dynamic by asking how families have come to define food and communication. Or, a conflict theorist might point to disparities and hunger as core reasons families are not eating meals together. This blog post will serve to help you look at your familial topic from the three core sociological perspectives and be useful to you as you compose your magazine article’s section on theory. Use the final project’s Sociological Analysis (section III) to guide your writing. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Three Rubric.

Milestone Four: Blog– Assumptions and Best Practices

In Module Five, you will write another blog post. Share two to three commonly held assumptions about the familial trend you have selected and explain how a sociologist can use data to clarify understandings. Sociologists are able to demystify long?held and sometimes harmful assumptions about the family by introducing data. For example, in families trapped in poverty, college education is a topic that is difficult to discuss, let alone promote. When parents and grandparents have not had a college education or potentially have never been on a college campus, children in these families do not aspire to this level of educational attainment. The myth in culture could be that families and children living in poverty just do not care about advancing themselves. But, research shows that when families and children are simply exposed to a college campus, the likelihood of a college education increases. Also touch on some best practices and interventions that have been successful in mitigating any negative impacts of the familial trend you have identified. For example, if you are focused on the aging of the family, you may present how companies have adopted caregiver?friendly practices for their employees. Or, if you are focused on child abuse in families, you may share how nonprofit organizations have promoted their services to families who are at risk of family violence. Use the final project’s Evidence? Based Response (section V) and Value of Sociology (section IV) to guide your writing. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Four Rubric.

Final Submission: Magazine Article

In Module Seven, you will submit your completed magazine article. Your instructor will have provided you feedback along the path for milestone submissions. The final project should be a complete, polished artifact containing all of the critical elements of the final product. It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course. The final submission is graded using the Final Product Rubric.

Deliverables

Milestone	Deliverable	Module Due	Grading
1	Journal – Topic Exploration	One	Graded separately; Milestone One Rubric
2	Research plan and Comparative Perspectives outline	Two	Graded separately; Milestone Two Rubric
3	Blog – Sociological Lenses	Four	Graded separately; Milestone Three Rubric
4	Blog – Assumptions and best Practices	Five	Graded separately; Milestone Four Rubric
	Final Submission: Magazine Article	Seven	Graded separately; Milestone Final Rubric

 

Final Product Rubric

Guidelines for Submission: Your magazine article must be 4–6 pages in length (plus a cover page and references) and must be written in APA format. Use double spacing, 12?point Times New Roman font, and one?inch margins. Include at least three references cited in APA format.

Critical Elements	Exemplary (100%)	Proficient (85%)	Needs Improvement (55%)	Not Evident (0%)	Value
Introduction: Familial Trend	Meets “Proficient” criteria and explanation is especially clear and detailed	Explains the selected familial trend and provides an overview of its specific influences on the family dynamics	Explains the selected familial trend and provides an overview of its specific influences on the family dynamics, but explanation has gaps in detail or accuracy	Does not explain the selected familial trend and does not provide an overview of its specific influences on the family dynamics	4
Introduction: Historical Context	Meets “Proficient” criteria and context provides keen insight into the changing structure of the family	Provides historical context for the trend	Provides historical context for the trend, but context has gaps in detail or accuracy	Does not provide historical context for the trend	6.13
Comparative Perspectives: Country Norm	Meets “Proficient” criteria and description provides keen insight into the family structure in the country	Selects a country outside the United States and describes the norm around the selected familial trend	Selects a country outside the United States and describes the norm around the selected familial trend, but description has gaps in detail or accuracy	Does not select a country outside the United States and does not describe the norm around the selected familial trend	6.13
Comparative Perspectives: Familial Trend	Meets “Proficient” criteria and comparison demonstrates keen insight into the family structures across diverse cultures	Compares the presence of the familial trend in the United States to the presence in the selected country	Compares the presence of the familial trend in the United States to the presence in the selected country, but response or reasoning is cursory or illogical	Does not compare the presence of the familial trend in the United States to the presence in the selected country	6.13
Comparative Perspectives: Social Variables and Disparities	Meets “Proficient” criteria and explanation demonstrates keen insight into the relationship between social variables and disparities and familial trends	Identifies the relevant social variables and disparities influencing the familial trend and explains how the variables are influential	Identifies the social variables and disparities influencing the familial trend and explains how they are influential, but response is cursory or illogical, or variables are irrelevant	Does not identify the social variables and disparities influencing the familial trend	4.6
Comparative Perspectives: Negative Impacts	Meets “Proficient” criteria and explanation demonstrates keen insight into the relationship between familial trends and modern families	Explains how the familial trend negatively impacts modern families, providing specific examples and substantiating with resources	Explains how the familial trend negatively impacts modern families, but does not provide specific examples or substantiate with resources, or explanation has gaps in detail or accuracy	Does not explain how the familial trend negatively impacts modern families	4.6
Comparative Perspectives: Social Institutions	Meets “Proficient” criteria and explanation demonstrates keen insight into the relationship between familial trends and social institutions	Explains the influence of the familial trend on social institutions, providing specific examples and substantiating with resources	Explains the influence of the familial trend on social institutions, but does not provide specific examples or substantiate with resources, or explanation has gaps in detail or accuracy	Does not explain the influence of the familial trend on social institutions	4.6
Comparative Perspectives: Cultures in the United States	Meets “Proficient” criteria and comparison demonstrates keen insight into the family structures across diverse cultures	Compares the presence of the familial trend between cultures in the United States, substantiating determinations with research	Compares the presence of the familial trend between cultures in the United States, but does not substantiate with research, or response or reasoning is cursory or illogical	Does not compare the presence of the familial trend between cultures in the United States	6.14
Sociological Analysis: Conflict	Meets “Proficient” criteria and application of the perspective demonstrates keen insight into the use of theoretical perspectives in analyzing the family structure	Applies the conflict perspective to explain why the familial trend affects families differently	Applies the conflict perspective to explain why the familial trend affects families differently, but response is cursory or illogical	Does not apply the conflict perspective to explain why the familial trend affects families differently	6.13
Sociological Analysis: Functionalist	Meets “Proficient” criteria and application of the perspective demonstrates keen insight into the use of theoretical perspectives in analyzing the relationship between familial trends and social institutions	Applies the functionalist perspective to explain the benefit of the familial trend on society	Applies the functionalist perspective to explain the benefit of the familial trend on society, but response is cursory or illogical	Does not apply the functionalist perspective to explain the benefit of the familial trend on society	4.6
Sociological Analysis: Symbolic Interactionist	Meets “Proficient” criteria and application of the perspective demonstrates keen insight into the use of theoretical perspectives in analyzing the family structure	Applies the symbolic interactionist perspective to analyze how families define their meaning and how this definition changes	Applies the symbolic interactionist perspective to analyze how families define their meaning and how this definition changes, but response is cursory or illogical	Does not apply the symbolic interactionist perspective to analyze how families define their meaning and how this definition changes	6.14
Value of Sociology: Biases	Meets “Proficient” criteria and identifications demonstrate keen insight into existing personal and societal biases and assumptions	Identifies personal and societal biases and assumptions around the familial trend	Identifies personal and societal biases and assumptions around the familial trend, but identification is illogical	Does not identify personal and societal biases and assumptions around the familial trend	6.13
Value of Sociology: Theories and Perspectives	Meets “Proficient” criteria and explanation demonstrates keen insight into the value of sociological theories and perspectives in limiting biases and assumptions in analyses	Explains how using sociological theories and perspectives to analyze the familial trend can help limit biases and challenge assumptions, providing a specific example related to the previous analysis	Explains how using sociological theories and perspectives to analyze the familial trend can help limit biases and challenge assumptions, but does not provide a specific example related to the previous analysis, or explanation is cursory or illogical	Does not explain how using sociological theories and perspectives to analyze the familial trend can help limit biases and challenge assumptions	6.13
Value of Sociology: Personal and Professional Lives	Meets “Proficient” criteria and explanation demonstrates keen insight into the value of sociological theories and perspectives when approaching real?world familial problems	Explains the value of sociological theories and perspectives when approaching real?world familial problems	Explains the value of sociological theories and perspectives when approaching real?world familial problems, but explanation is cursory or illogical	Does not explain the value of sociological theories and perspectives when approaching real?world familial problems	6.14
Evidence?Based Response: Best Practices	Meets “Proficient” criteria and description demonstrates keen insight into successful responses for approaching negative impacts of familial trends	Describes attempted responses that have been successful in addressing negative impact(s) of the familial trend, identifying best practices based on successes	Describes attempted responses that have been successful in addressing negative impacts of the familial trend, but does not identify best practices based on successes, or response is cursory or illogical	Does not describe attempted responses that have been successful in addressing negative impacts of the familial trend	6.13
Evidence?Based Response: Response	Meets “Proficient” criteria and response is especially well aligned with previous research	Proposes a response to address a negative impact(s) of the familial trend, based on previous research	Proposes a response to address a negative impact(s) of the familial trend, but response is not based on previous research, or response is cursory or illogical	Does not propose a response to address a negative impact(s) of the familial trend	6.13
Evidence?Based Response: Successful	Meets “Proficient” criteria and explanation is especially well aligned with previous research and previously identified best practices	Explains why the response is likely to be successful, substantiating with research	Explains why the response is likely to be successful, but does not substantiate with research or explanation is cursory or illogical	Does not explain why the response is likely to be successful	6.14
Articulation of Response	Submission is free of errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, and organization and is presented in a professional and easy?to?read format	Submission has no major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization	Submission has major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that negatively impact readability and articulation of main ideas	Submission has critical errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that prevent understanding of ideas	4
Earned Total					100%