SOC 3378
SOCIOLOGY OF VISUAL CULTURE
FINAL PAPER or PROJECT 30%
Due via CANVAS upload by due date listed.
Paper format: Upload your document in MS Word, double spaced, 12pt font of approximately 25003000 words. Photos and bibliography do not count toward word count.
Project format: Must be preapproved at least two weeks prior to due date. Send me a 1-2 page proposal of your project for approval via CANVAS inbox. Include what you want to do and how you plan to do it as well as what the final project will be. [Note: a proposal is only needed if you choose to do a project rather than a paper.]
___________________________________________________________________________________ Topic Choice:
Your final paper or project should provide a sociologically informed overview of an aspect of visual culture of your choice. We’ve covered a number of aspects of visual culture this semester, from social media, to films, to advertising, to visual activism, and more—any of these topics could provide a rich opportunity for your analysis.
Please do not be redundant—choose something other than you may have analyzed for a course assignment. Choose something new to explore.
In your paper (or project) you will need to use a sociological framework to analyze your chosen topic. This assignment allows you to reflect upon visual culture in your own experience and/or surroundings and demonstrate your ability to utilize sociological concepts to analyze visual culture.
A successful paper will demonstrate:
1) An understanding of the relevant perspectives on visual culture covered in class
2) An understanding of the development and history of the uses of images in social life relevant to the aspect you are discussing
3) How power relations, the political economy of images, and other ethical issues play out in the visual culture you are exploring
4) How the visual culture you are focusing on may contribute to social life and interpersonal communication
Your paper should be well organized, show thoughtful research, and present your conclusions clearly. You should structure your arguments logically, citing relevant sources, and critically evaluating the information you’ve gathered.
1
All resources used should be cited in text and included in a Reference section. You must adhere to the
UH Academic Honestly policy )https://ssl.uh.edu/academics/catalog/policies/academ-reg/academichonesty/index.php). Use the included ASA style guide for citation and paper formatting.
A Few General Notes on Writing Well
Your paper will be graded on organization, logic, and creativity. When observations are called for, they should be specific and exact, in as much detail as necessary. Don’t be afraid of taking a point of view. Write in the first person (“f’ not “we” or “the author” or passive tense), and make your voice heard in your text.
Make sure that each word and sentence count. After writing your first draft, go back and delete every non-essential word; expect to find some on each line. Go through your paper sentence by sentence, making sure that each sentence follows logically and easily from the proceeding one. Writing a good essay requires at least a couple drafts beforehand.
All assignments are to be written with the same attention to style, grammar, and spelling required for an English composition class. Proofread your paper thoroughly making sure to correct any misspellings or inappropriate grammar.
Grades will be reduced for obvious sloppiness in typing and spelling.
2
Quick Tips
for ASA Style
This style sheet has been provided to assist students studying sociology in properly citing and referencing their papers and essays. The information in this document is taken from the American Sociological Association Style Guide (4th ed., 2010). We highly encourage students who plan to major in sociology or pursue their masters degree in sociology to purchase the complete Style Guide, which features sections on editorial styles, mechanics of style, guidelines for organizing and presenting content, and more detailed information on referencing your scholarly sources. Information about the ASA Style Guide can be found at www.asanet.org/journals/guides.cfm.
Plagiarism
The ASA has a firm commitment to full and proper attribution and authorship credit, as set forth in the ASA Code of Ethics.
(a) In publications, presentations, teaching practice, and service, sociologists explicitly identify credit, and reference the author when they take data or material verbatim from another person’s written work, whether it is published, unpublished, or electronically available.
(b) In their publications, presentations, teaching, practice, and service, sociologists provide acknowledgment of and reference to the use of others’ work, even if the work is not quoted verbatim or paraphrased, and they do not present others’ work as their own whether it is published, unpublished, or electronically available.
Text Citations
Citations in the text include the last name of the author(s) and year of publication. Include page numbers when quoting directly from a work or referring to specific passages. Identify subsequent citations of the same source in the same way as the first. Examples follow:
If the author’s name is in the text, follow it with the publication year in parentheses:
…in another study by Duncan (1959).
If the author’s name is not in the text, enclose the last name and publication year in parentheses:
…whenever it occurred (Gouldner 1963).
Pagination follows the year of publication after a colon,
with no space between the colon and the page number:
…Kuhn (1970:71).
Note: This is the preferred ASA style. Older forms of text citations are not acceptable: (Kuhn 1970, p. 71).
Give both last names for joint authors: … (Martin and Bailey 1988).
If a work has three authors, cite all three last names in the first citation in the text; thereafter, use et al. in the citation. If a work has more than three authors, use et al. in the first citation and in all subsequent citations.
First citation for a work with three authors:
…had been lost (Carr, Smith, and Jones 1962).
Later: …(Carr et al. 1962)
If a work cited was reprinted from a version published earlier, list the earliest publication date in
brackets, followed by the publication date of the recent
version used.
…Veblen ([1899] 1979) stated that…
Separate a series of references with semicolons. List the series in alphabetical or date order, but be consistent throughout the manuscript.
… (Green 1995; Mundi 1987; Smith and Wallop 1989). Reference Lists
A reference list follows the text and footnotes in a separate section headed References. All references cited in the text must be listed in the reference section, and vice versa. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that publication information for each entry is complete and correct.
◆ References should be double-spaced.
◆ List all references in alphabetical order by first author’s last name
◆ Include first names and surnames for all authors. Use first-name initials only if an author used initials in the original publication. In these cases, add a space between the initials, as in R. B. Brown and M. L. B. Smith.
(See additional guidelines in the full text of the American Sociological Association Style Guide.)
Books
Author1 (last name inverted), Author2 (including full
surname, last name is not inverted), and Author3. Year of publication. Name of Publication (italicized). Publisher’s city and state, or province postal code (or name of country if a foreign publisher): Publisher’s Name.
Examples:
Bursik, Robert J., Jr. and Harold G. Grasmick. 1993. Neighborhoods and Crime: The Dimensions of Effective Community Control. New York: Lexington Books.
Hagen, John and Ruth D. Peterson, eds. 1995. Crime and Inequality. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Jaynes, Gerald D. and Robin M. Williams, Jr. 1989. A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Journal Articles
Author1 (Last name inverted), Author2 (including full surname, last name is not inverted), and Author3.Year of publication. “Title of Article.” Name of Publication (italicized) Volume Number (Issue Number):Page numbers of article.
Examples:
Aseltine, Robert H., Jr. and Ronald C. Kessler. 1993. “Marital Disruption and Depression in a Community Sample.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 34(3):237-51.
Kalleberg, Arne L., Barbara F. Reskin, and Ken Hudson.
2000. “Bad Jobs in America: Standard and Nonstandard Employment Relations and Job Quality in the United States.” American Sociological Review 65(2):256-78.
E-Resources
Articles and books obtained from the Internet follow the same pattern as those cited above, with the exception that page numbers are omitted and the URL and date of access are included.
Examples:
Schafer, Daniel W. and Fred L. Ramsey. 2003. “Teaching the Craft of Data Analysis.” Journal of Statistics Education 11(1). Retrieved December 12, 2006 (http://www.amstat. org/publications/jse/v11n1/schafer.html).
Thomas, Jan E., ed. 2005. Incorporating the Woman Founders into Classical Theory Courses. Washington DC: American Sociological Association. Retrieved December 12, 2006 (http://www.enoah.net/ASA/ASAshopOnlineService/ProductDetails.aspx?.productID=ASAOE378T05E). Web sites
A general rule may be applied to citing of Web sites: If the Web site contains data or evidence essential to a point being addressed in the manuscript, it should be formally cited with the URL and date of access. In the text of the paper cite as: (ASA 2006)
In the reference list:
American Sociological Association 2006. “Status Committees.” Washington, DC: American Sociological Association. Retrieved December 12, 2006 (http://www.asanet.
org/cs/root/leftnav/committees/committees).
For information or to purchase a copy of the ASA Style Guide, please contact:
Publications Department
American Sociological Association
1430 K Street NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 383-9005
([email protected])
Click here to purchase a copy of the ASA Style Guide!
Comment