Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the stigma behind same-sex families, specifically gay fathers.
Thesis: This paper argues that heteronormative patriarchal structures reproduce the marginilization of same sex families through the concept of the traditional nuclear family.
Subissues:
1) Patriarchal customs
2) Adoption and Surrogacy
3) Raising children in heterosexist societies
NOTE: MAXIMUM TWO DIRECT QUOTES
Students may pick any topic that deals with any social issue relating to Canadian families. Students are required to write a sociological paper that is analytical and critical. It is imperative to note that the writing of a sociological paper requires the primary use of scholarly sociological sources, such as sociological scholarly journals, sociological books, and sociological edited collections. The paper MUST include a minimum of FIVE sociological scholarly sources (books, scholarly journal articles) NOT including the course text book and relevant course materials.
The essay should be 7-8 pages in length, with one inch margins, size 12 font, double spaced and stapled, not including the bibliography or title page. Do not triple or quadruple space between paragraphs. In doing so, you immediately signify to me that you have not met the minimum length requirements for this paper. Moreover, triple and quadruple spacing between paragraphs is improper formatting and does not meet the standards of APA or Chicago Style.
Students are required to include a full bibliography of all materials used in the paper.
Late papers will not be accepted without consent from the course director obtained PRIOR to the scheduled due date.
Papers must be submitted to the Assignments drop box in D2L.
Please note that references that are NOT scholarly sources and will NOT count in your
bibliography as scholarly sources include the following:
newspaper articles (i.e., The Toronto Star, The Toronto Sun, The Globe and Mail, The National Post, etc.)
magazine articles (Macleans, Newsweek, The Economist, etc.)
encyclopedia references (including Wikipedia)
dictionary references (including Oxford Dictionary and other dictionaries)
non-scholarly websites, blogs, etc.
Students should also note that government websites and statistical data are what are considered primary sources. These sources require interpretation and analysis. Rely on your secondary scholarly resources for analysis and interpretation of statistical date and government policies. On their own, they are NOT scholarly sources and will NOT count as one of the five scholarly sources required for this paper. Government websites and statistical data provide information that is NOT scholarly and NOT analytical. Statistics denote a social trend but can be interpreted in numerous and contradictory ways. Statistics themselves are devoid of analysis. Simply stating a statistic does not explain or explore any critical sociological analysis. Similarly, government websites state government policy that is devoid of analysis, and usually reproduces mainstream stereotypes, assumptions and misconceptions. Critical sociological analysis provides a critique of mainstream stereotypes and assumptions. The use of government data requires critical sociological analysis. Please note that these government websites and statistics include, but are not limited to the following:
Statistics Canada
Ministry of Immigration and Citizenship
Government of Canada website
Government of Ontario website
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Scholarly journal articles can be retrieved on-line through the Ryerson Library journal abstracts website, Sociological Abstracts. Sources acquired on-line through Sociological Abstracts do not require instructor permission. Nonetheless, it is the students responsibility to vet the source and determine whether or not it is sociological. Just because the database is called Sociological Abstracts does not mean that all sources that it lists are sociological. Depending on the topic, some sources that show up are psychological and medical.
Students should also note that the research paper is a SOCIOLOGICAL paper that requires SOCIOLOGICAL analysis. Scholarly sources are required to be limited to sociological sources. Scholarly sources that are NOT sociological and will NOT be counted as part of your FIVE required sociological scholarly sources include:
Nursing journals and books
Medical journals and books
Economic journals and books
Business journals and books
Social work journals and books
Psychology journals and books
Social psychology journals and books
Behavioural science journals and books
Biology journals and books
Genetics journals and books
Papers that do not include a minimum of five scholarly sociological sources will be assigned an automatic failing grade. Make sure that your sources and your analysis are sociological. Make sure that your sources are SOCIOLOGICAL and NOT psychological, medical or derived from popular mainstream media. Papers that are written from a psychological, medical or mainstream popular media perspective will automatically be assigned a failing grade.
Students should never reference lecture notes or their own undergraduate papers for other courses in their papers. The reference of lecture notes in essays is improper and shows laziness on the part of the student for failure to research their topic properly. Lectures are based on scholarly sociological research. Any issue raised in lecture must be referenced in its original scholarly sociological source upon which the lecture is based. This means that students are required to seek out the original scholarly publication.
Please note that students who do not submit the research paper will automatically fail the course.
Scholarly sociological sources that are ACCEPTABLE are the following:
Race and ethnicity journals and books
Feminist and Womens Studies journals and books
Sociology journals and books
Communications journals and books
Criminology journals and books
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Sociology of Education journals and books
Sociology of the Family journals and books
Sociology of Work and Occupations journals and books
Political science journals and books
Political economy journals and books
History journals and books
Law journals and books
Possible research topics include but are not limited to the following:
Same sex families
Lesbian/gay parenting
Aboriginal families and colonialism
Immigrant families
Ethnic and racialized minority families
New reproductive technologies and Canadian families
Domestic labour and the family in Canada
The gender division of labour and the family
The cult of domesticity
The ideology of motherhood
Fatherhood
Women and divorce law in Canada
Divorce and custody in Canada
The family and state policies
Canadian families and poverty
Single female headed households and poverty
Women, work and childcare issues
The gender division of labour in the family
Work and the family
Single parent families and poverty in Canada
The ideology of motherhood
Care-giving and the elderly in Canadian families
Families and disability
Grading Criteria for Research Essays:
Your research paper is worth 30% of your final grade and will be evaluated on a 30-point scale based on the following criteria:
1) Content: (15 points) adequately addressing the topic with an emphasis on Canadian families and critical analysis. Do not summarize and/or describe your research sources, or simply describe a problem. You must argue and support your thesis. You must engage the sources and critically apply them to your argument (i.e., thesis). Your analysis should address why and how this social problem/issue occurs. Your paper should emphasize HOW this social phenomenon becomes normalized in our society. In other words, you need to examine the social process by which this social phenomenon occurs and is legitimated in our society as normative.
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2) Clarity of Argument: (5 points) focus, direction and logical organization and integration of ideas in a well structured argument. Do you have a thesis statement? Your paper should have an obvious, clear, concise, one sentence thesis. Your thesis statement clearly states in one sentence the argument of your paper.
3) Structure and Organization: (5 points) paper should include the following components:
a. Introduction: clearly stating your thesis/research argument and the specified points you will be arguing in the paper.
b. Body of Paper: where you develop your argument with support from your reference sources.
c. Conclusion: links your main ideas together.
4) Proper referencing style and grammar: (5 points) Both direct quotes and an
authors ideas must be referenced in your paper. Your paper should not have more than one or two (maximum) direct quotes. The paper should primarily be written in your own voice with social science citations crediting the scholars to whom those ideas belong. APA is the preferred referencing style. All referencing citations must include the authors name and the year of the publication. Social science citations are located as the end of the direct quote or an authors idea. Social science citations are located inside brackets and include the authors last name, the year of the publication, and the page number. For example, (Miles, 1989, p. 18). Your references in your bibliography must include the authors name, the year of the publication, the exact and complete title of the article/book, the publishers name, the city of publication, and (in the case of a journal article or book chapter) page numbers. Please note that essays that do not include the required FIVE scholarly sources (as defined in the terms above) will automatically be given a failing grade.
5) Bibliographic References: The following are examples of proper bibliographic reference styles for books, edited collections, and journal articles.
a. Book Reference Example:
Miles, Robert. 1989. Racism. London: Routledge.
b. Edited Collection Reference Example:
Mitchell, Allyson & Karaian, Lara. 2005. Third Wave Feminisms. In Nancy Mandell (Ed.). Feminist Issues: Race, Class and Sexuality. Fourth Edition. Toronto: Pearson Education Canada Inc.
c. Journal Article Reference Example:
MacKinnon, Catherine A. 1983. Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State: Toward Feminist Jurisprudence. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 8(4):635-658.
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