Suggested Final Paper Guide
Education does not have to be the main focus of the inequality or of the policy, but education will likely play some role at least as a cause or consequence of the inequality you focus on (let me know if you have questions about this).
The framework below might help you organize your paper. You should include all of these components, but if you wanted to organize things differently, that is fine.
You should come up with your own section titles (for example, instead of “Background” you could say “Facts about Racial Wealth Inequality”.
*Note that page lengths are rough suggestions and assume double-spacing. Overall, I expect the paper to be somewhere around 12-15 pages double-paced before including citations.
I’m not picky about citation format, but you should pick a style and stick with it. So if you are comfortable with one already, you can use it (APA, MLA, etc.). If not, this is a sociology class, so you could use the American Sociological Association format. Here are a couple of links with info on ASA style.
- https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/asa_style/references_page_formatting.html
- https://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/savvy/documents/teaching/pdfs/Quick_Tips_for_ASA_Style.pdf
Here are the different sections and components for your paper.
[Introduction (about 1 page)]
This should briefly describe the form of inequality you are focusing on, emphasize its importance and make it seem interesting. Briefly preview how you will use some sort of social science theories and empirical evidence to identify a potential policy solution.
[Background descriptive information (about 2-3 pages)]
Describe important facts about the form of inequality you are focusing on. Include statistics, facts, quotes, etc., from government agencies, media, reports, or research papers/books. This is the place for basic information and context.
This section might also provide information related to potential causes or consequences of that inequality, but this isn’t the place to evaluate the evidence of those causes/consequences. For example, if you are interested in gender inequality in higher education, you could describe trends in college completion over time. You might also include trends for labor force participation and wages/earnings, gender differences in academic achievement during K-12 schooling, and possibly social attitudes about gender roles from survey data, since these other aspects of gender inequality provide useful contextual information and might be related to your focus in college completion.
*This is a good place for graphs or tables. You could make them yourself using information from your sources, or you could copy/adapt them from the sources, but be sure to acknowledge and cite them.
[Theoretical framework (about 2 pages)]
You should be able to incorporate (probably with a few changes) your theoretical framework assignment here.
Describe in general terms the theories you will use, discuss how it would explain the form of inequality you are focusing on, and discuss how those ideas help us think of ways to reduce inequality/increase mobility. You might refer back to some of the facts from the previous section and mention how they align with the theoretical ideas.
[Evidence: Causes (& Consequences) of Inequality (about 2-3 pages)]
Describe what we know about what causes or contributes to the form of inequality you are interested in. This should be based on empirical research (using some sort of real-world data, not just theoretical ideas). This will most likely involve interpreting and summarizing academic sources that test hypotheses about causes/origins of that inequality. Make sure you relate the evidence back to your theoretical framework and discuss how this supports or challenges the ideas in the theories.
For example, Lauren Rivera’s study uses empirical evidence from job interviews to evaluate hypotheses about how cultural markers and education contribute to hiring outcomes. You could discuss that study, her findings, and relate them back to theories about how cultural capital contributes to class reproduction.
*Although it is not the primary focus here, if you have space and find it helpful, you could also include a discussion of empirical evidence about the consequences of that form of inequality. This can help make the case for why it is important to address through policy. If you choose to do this, it should take less space than your discussion of the causes. It will also probably draw on academic research, and you can relate it back to the theories as well.
[Evidence: Solutions (about 2-3 pages)]
This section evaluates the evidence on various types of efforts to address the inequality related to your topic. These might include studies of various policies to reduce inequality, or studies of general things indirectly related to policies. For example, if you were interested in a policy that provided families a guaranteed minimum income, you could describe the findings of studies that (a) actually experimented with a guaranteed income policy, and (b) studies that examine how changes in family income (due to other policies or related to observed income differences among people) influence relevant outcomes.
This section doesn’t necessarily have to focus on the specific policy you will recommend, and it doesn’t only have to focus on successful or promising policies. You might find, for instance, that many previous policies have had disappointing results, but you can learn from them to develop improved versions or alternatives that might work better.
[Your Policy Proposal (2-3 pages)]
Propose a policy solution that you think will work to help reduce your form of inequality or promote mobility. Be detailed about how the policy will operate. Also provide details about its implementation (where and when it will occur, etc.).
Explain why at least one of the theories you have discussed would support the idea that this policy would work. Also explain why the evidence you reviewed suggests this policy will work.
Anticipate the potential objections or barriers this policy might face. This might include reasons it will be difficult to enact (political resistance, difficulty passing a law, raising money, etc.), reasons it might not work in the ways expected (doesn’t provide enough money, doesn’t address other types of disadvantage/inequality, etc.). If you have responses that could persuade people with these objections that the policy is still likely to work or is worth trying, include them here.
[Conclusion]
Briefly recap in pretty simple language the problem you are addressing and why your proposed policy is a useful response to it.
[References]
Alphabetically sorted ibliography of your sources, using some standard format (MLA, APA, ASA, etc.).
