Homework Woes
Oct. 18th, 2025 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetBlaaaaargh, I really, really do not like these "Current Event Journal" assignments for my Social Problems class!
Here's the assignment instructions:
1) Choose a current news article from a newspaper (local or national) or a weekly magazine (such as Times, Newsweek, U.S. News, etc.) that addresses a social problem related to the topic/material covered in class (this can be anything that we have covered to date). Articles should communicate sociological aspects, not general interest topics (e.g., tips for long-distance biking).
--- You will submit as separate doc a PDF of the news article you are analyzing.
--- Highlight relevant sections of the article that you are critiquing.
2) Students will write a 1-page anbalysis that includes the following:
--- Provide a brief summary of the article.
--- Explain to what degree the news article meets the sociological definition of a social problem. Why or why not is the problem is considered a social problem, identifying the objective and subjective elements.
--- Critique the article using course material. This includes identifying inaccuracies, oversimplifications, or outright inaccurate information.
3) Provide two in-text citations. [The teacher did eventually clarify that we were supposed to cite materials we had used for class, including any documentaries we'd been assigned to watch, articles we'd been assigned to read, podcasts we'd been assigned to listen to, our textbook, or Powerpoint presentations from class lectures.]
I just. That's a badly written assignment, right? We haven't actually gone over how to critique the articles in class, like how to find things to critique, and it sounds like opinion articles would be best suited for this? But the assignment doesn't specify opinion articles, it just says that it has to be about a sociological problem.
I went with the radioactive shrimp for my first Current Event Journal project, and I'm going with the Trump administration's layoff of a lot of the special education workers in the Department of Education for this one, but like. How to critique that. Do I need to be looking for less accurate reporting? How do I communicate how I found out that the information was inaccurate? We haven't even gotten the first one back, so I can't refer to any feedback for more information!
Anyway, it's a headache.
Here's the assignment instructions:
1) Choose a current news article from a newspaper (local or national) or a weekly magazine (such as Times, Newsweek, U.S. News, etc.) that addresses a social problem related to the topic/material covered in class (this can be anything that we have covered to date). Articles should communicate sociological aspects, not general interest topics (e.g., tips for long-distance biking).
--- You will submit as separate doc a PDF of the news article you are analyzing.
--- Highlight relevant sections of the article that you are critiquing.
2) Students will write a 1-page anbalysis that includes the following:
--- Provide a brief summary of the article.
--- Explain to what degree the news article meets the sociological definition of a social problem. Why or why not is the problem is considered a social problem, identifying the objective and subjective elements.
--- Critique the article using course material. This includes identifying inaccuracies, oversimplifications, or outright inaccurate information.
3) Provide two in-text citations. [The teacher did eventually clarify that we were supposed to cite materials we had used for class, including any documentaries we'd been assigned to watch, articles we'd been assigned to read, podcasts we'd been assigned to listen to, our textbook, or Powerpoint presentations from class lectures.]
I just. That's a badly written assignment, right? We haven't actually gone over how to critique the articles in class, like how to find things to critique, and it sounds like opinion articles would be best suited for this? But the assignment doesn't specify opinion articles, it just says that it has to be about a sociological problem.
I went with the radioactive shrimp for my first Current Event Journal project, and I'm going with the Trump administration's layoff of a lot of the special education workers in the Department of Education for this one, but like. How to critique that. Do I need to be looking for less accurate reporting? How do I communicate how I found out that the information was inaccurate? We haven't even gotten the first one back, so I can't refer to any feedback for more information!
Anyway, it's a headache.
