assignment
Assignment: The sociological imagination helps us place our individual experiences in the
context of the larger society. For this reflection, consider a social force that has played a big
role in shaping your life experiences (school, work, religion, family, media, etc), and explain its
impact on your life. In addition to discussing your personal experiences, find a news article
that relates to your experiences. Using both the news article as well as the Mills and textbook
readings, explain how your individual experiences reflect larger social forces.
In order to complete the reflection you need 3 things.
1) A personal life situation you have faced (related to school, work, religion, family, media,
race, migration, gender, sexuality, etc.). Note this does not have to be a ‘problem’ or
‘trouble,’ but any personal experiences that are likely shaped by larger social forces
2) Class readings (Mills, textbook Ch. 1)
3) An article from that relates to your personal life situation. The fact that something is
‘news’ suggests that it is more of a public issue rather than just a private one.
The reflection will be sent through a Google form that will be available on our course site and
should be between 250 500 words. You do not have to worry about formatting etc. because
it will be submitted through the form.
Examples from a previous class about paper topics:
● A student whose father lost his job in the economic recession wrote about her experiences and
the challenges her family faced.
● A student with a severe illness wrote about navigating the health care system and the need for
more affordable health care.
● A student wrote about his struggles as a returning veteran and the state of veteran services.
● A student whose computer was hacked wrote about the rise in cyber crimes and issues of
Note: This is just a suggested outline. You may choose to organize your thoughts differently.
What is the sociological imagination? Explain in your own words and using quotations
from the class readings.
Introduce the personal life situation you will be writing about.
Explain the personal situation you have faced. What was your experience like?
How is this personal situation related to a larger “public issue”? Use the article you
have selected to show how your personal situation is experienced on a larger scale.
Make sure to mention where the article is from, who the author is, and copy a link to it
at the bottom of your reflection.
PART 2: Researching your public issue
In Part 1 of this assignment, you used the sociological imagination to look at how your life may be
impacted by larger social forces. The article you found should help explain how your personal situation
relates to a larger public issue.
In Part 2, you will consider how you would attempt to research that public issue further.
First, from what you know from your own experience or what you have learned from the article
you selected, what kinds of information would be useful to better understand this public issue? Also,
what kinds of research could you use to get that information?
You can use the textbook to help answer this question (particularly the section on Methods of Data
Collection on pgs. 3637)
please I want to notice that don’t write anything about you because this is the second time am asking you to do it. thank you .