Sociology 31, Section 1

Fall 1998

Excellent term paper by Jimmie Pendergrass, from Fall 1996

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT: TERM PAPER GUIDELINES

Choosing a Job to Study

Essential Rules:

1. You must NOT study someone who is self-employed.

2. You must NOT study an immediate member of your family, e.g., father, mother, sister, brother.

3. You MUST choose someone to study who will let you observe them "in action," rather than only interviewing them.

4. You must NOT study a school teacher.

5. You must NOT study a family member in a family owned firm -- any worker you study must NOT be related to the owner of the firm.

6. You must NOT study a UNC employee.

7. The BEST job to study is a blue collar or lower level white collar job, as that will let you see most of the principles we will talk about in class this semester.

Team Papers

You may write a joint paper, under the following conditions:

1. Only two students per team.

1. First contact: Make certain that the person whose job you want to observe KNOWS that you are doing a paper. Discuss what you will be allowed to observe, how you will do it, and if there are any restrictions on you.

2. Observing: Take notes as you observe. Remember that you will have to provide enough information so that a person who has no conception of the job will be able to visualize what it involves, just from reading your descr iption.

3. Interviewing: Do NOT assume that you because you know the person whose job you are studying that you also understand the job. Ask as many qu estions as the person will tolerate! Check your assumptions by asking about them. Try to get the person to answer in his/her own words -- don't put words in his/her mouth. Save your course concepts for the paper. You can, of course, explain your interest in a particular part of the job by telling the person about a concept/principle you have learned in Sociology 31.

The paper should cover the following:

1. Describe the job in terms of the dimensions of work we've discussed in this class (including, but not necessarily limited to: autonomy/control, meaning, satisfaction). Give the reader a feel for what it is like to work in the job you have studied.

2. Explain why the job is structured and experienced as it is: how much is a result of the particular person you studied (his/her skills, socialization, expectations, etc.), how much is a result of the employing organizat ion's characteristics (its size, personnel policies, technology, etc.), how much is a result of the nature of the industry, and so on. Describe the control system the job is embedded in, and how it functions.

Your paper will be evaluated in terms of form as well as content. In other words, how clearly you express yourself will be as important as your ideas themselves. One key to good writing is the arrangement of thoughts into well-organized paragraphs. A p aragraph is simply a group of sentences that completely explain one major idea. There is no "magic number" of sentences required, but if a paragraph is extremely long (more than 8-10 sentences), this may be an indication that your idea needs to be subdivided further.

Length

The paper should be about eight (8) pages long. If you need more space, please check with us first.

Style

Please observe the following carefully:

1. Double space, with normal margins.

2. Word process if possible; if not, type on a typewriter with a clean, new, dark ribbon.

3. Check carefully for misspelled words and mistakes in grammar -- these errors will lower the evaluation of your paper.

Finally