We want students to match the structure of their essay to the reason for writing it. In this section, we outline four common kinds of projects, each of which captures several more specific assignment types.
...means applying sociological thinking to life situations, past experiences, media phenomena, and so on. Most intro assignments and smaller paper assignments in mid level courses will fit in this category.
...means writing a literature review or a full research proposal that establishes the importance of a particular question.
...involves analyzing one or more cases sociologically, as in a service learning based senior project or a historical analysis.
...is typically a quantitative investigation of a theoretical or empirical question.