Sociology involves a long tradition of writing both sociologically-informed biographies and sociologically-informed autobiographies. For your final paper, you will do both and compare/contrast your findings
You will write a socio-autobiography (a sociologically-informed autobiography) to reflect on your own life story: drawing connections between your everyday life, your life story, and the many broader social structures within which you live.
To flex your sociological imagination even further, you will also interview someone you know with the goal of writing a socio-biography (a sociologically-informed biography) about their life story: a systematic exploration of another person’s life from a sociological perspective.
In your final paper, you analyze each individually, and you will compare and contrast your socio-autobiography with the socio-biography.
The ultimate goal is to write a sociological analysis (final paper) that includes all three parts: socio-autobiography, socio-biography, compare/contrast.
Required Resources:
YMAY & Other Course Texts
Minimum of 3 outside scholarly sources
One personal interview of another person
Final Paper
In a paper, compare and contrast your sociological observations about yourself with your sociological observations of the person you interview. Address the following 3 important sections:
Explore the interconnections between your life story and the larger social structure or culture.
Explore the interconnections between the life story of a person you interview and the larger social structure or culture.
Compare and contrast the sociological themes and concepts related to your own personal story with the sociological themes and concepts related to the story of the person you interviewed.
Apply your sociological imagination and a sociological perspective throughout your paper.
Include the following in your analysis:
Include paraphrases and citations from both outside scholarly sources and course texts to support your observations in all three (3) required sections.
Minimum of 6 sources: 3 outside scholarly sources and 3 course texts
Six (6) different concepts or key words from Chapters 1-4, 6-10, or 18 in your analysis and observations.
Include headings for each of the three main sections of the paper:
Socio-Autobiography
Socio-Biography
Compare/Contrast
Each of the three main sections of your paper must contain scholarly support in the form of paraphrases with respective citations from assigned reading and/or the outside scholarly sources that you identify on your own.
Format & Citation Requirements (APA format):
Length: 5-7 pages (not including references & interview questions pages)
1-inch margins
Double spaced
12-point Times New Roman font
Minimum of 3 Headings (socio-autobiography, socio-biography, and compare/contrast)
Parenthetical in-text citations included and formatted in APA style
Reference page (minimum of 3 outside scholarly sources, and 3 course texts)
You can use the same sources you used for your socio-autobiography, but this assignment requires additional sources as well
Interview questions
Sample Paper Outline:
Page 1: Introduction where you introduce your project and interviewee (1 paragraph)
Pages 1-3: Socio-autobiography (2 concepts, 2 sources)
Pages 3-5: Socio-biography (2 concepts, 2 sources)
Pages 5-7: Compare/Contrast (2 concepts, 2 sources)
Page 7: Conclusion (1 paragraph)
Page 8: References Cited (6 minimum)