Course Paper Prep: Interview Planning Assignments Submit Assignment

1. You will prepare a course paper prep document that you will need to turn in by November 4th, and your final paper is due online on the last day of class (December 4th – one month later). (That is what you are turning in here!)


2. You will report your results in a 6 – 10 page paper in ASA formatting, using a provided course template. Your final paper will review your interviewees’ experiences and whether they illustrate, or contradict, the sociological generalizations presented in the lectures and readings.  To earn an A, you will work to connect 25+ course concepts to the data you gather from your interview material.  You should cite our course textbook, our course readings, and your lecture notes, but you don’t need to cite any other outside material.

COURSE PAPER PREP DOCUMENT: Turn in using a file upload on Canvas.

• Using our course’s writing prompt word document template (ASA formatting) available on Canvas, write a short three-paragraph paper identifying the 3 individuals you intend to interview and how they are related to you.


• Remember, you want to span age groups (and possibly other demographic groups - gender, class, race, etc).


• Confirm that they have agreed to be interviewed and what method you plan to interview them using.


• Describe their basic demographic details, and identify some of the course concepts and/or questions you anticipate you will discuss in your in-depth interview.


• Please proofread and write in complete sentences.

Example of one paragraph that would earn full credit (remember, you need three paragraphs like this):

            The first person I will interview is my mother, Mary. I confirmed that she is comfortable completing an interview with me, and we will do an hour interview on Zoom on Saturday, November 7.  She is in her early 60s, is White, and grew up in a large Catholic household with over ten brothers and sisters. I anticipate that her experience will counter many of the Nuclear-Era ideals of childhood because her large, lower-income family experienced poverty and divorce. I would like to ask about her marriage and whether she thinks her marriage fit with Nuclear era family ideals and what the gender breakdown was in managing housework and work for pay. I plan to ask questions like, “Who was responsible for which chores, like laundry, dishes, and cooking - you or Dad?” and “Walk me through a typical weekday as a mother raising me and my brother.”