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SYLLABUS
Department of Sociology and Social Work
SOCI 3023.50 Introduction to Sociological Theory
Spring 2016
Textbooks:
Contact Information
I will generally respond to emails within 24 to 48 hours, provided that you have
met the email requirements. Please make sure that you use your TWU email
address to email me. If you use a different account, it very well may be sent to
my SPAM folder. TWU is notorious for hiding emails from hotmail, gmail, yahoo,
etc. If you email me from a non-TWU email, please be aware that it is at your
own risk.
If I do not answer you within 48 hours, please send a friendly follow up email as I
may have somehow missed your email. Emails should reflect the professional
nature of our relationship. They should include a greeting, a subject with the
course number and title, a body, and should be signed, respectfully, with your
name. Emails that do not follow these considerations will not be answered.
I teach multiple courses and it gets confusing. It is impossible for me to
automatically place each name with the right class--and many of you are
associated with more than one course for me. Please do not wait until the last
minute to email questions about assignments and expect to be answered
immediately, your emergency is not necessarily my emergency. An email that
simply says "when is our assignment due?" is likely to not even receive a
response from me if the proper information is not given. So, please help me
answer your questions as quickly as possible by writing proper emails.
You must check your TWU email and Blackboard for announcements daily.
Blackboard only sends messages to the email address that is in the Blackboard
system, and if you do not check your TWU email, you will miss important
information. Please make sure to check your TWU email regularly, or set it to
forward messages to your preferred email account. Failure to check email is not
an acceptable excuse for missing work or deadlines. All work will be submitted
through Blackboard in the Assignments folder. Assignments sent to my email
address will not be accepted unless you have been instructed to submit
them in this way beforehand.
Questions should first be directed to your syllabus and then to the instructor if
you are unable to find the answer in your syllabus.
Please allow two weeks for grades to be posted but please also be aware that
sometimes life happens and it may take me a little longer. There are 35 of you
and only one of me. Grading and providing feedback takes a significant amount
of time and I want to give each assignment the attention that it needs.
Course Policies:
The class will be conducted in the virtual space of Blackboard. Our interaction
will be text-based and posted electronically on the Blackboard class discussion
forums. This system allows for students to cultivate clear and deliberate
thoughts, providing contributions that do not vanish after we verbalize them.
Because our primary communication will be written, I expect responses to be
thought out, careful, considered and to reflect sustained thought and attention to
what you say and how you say it. We cant lean on non-verbal cues like body
language and expression, and so we must be particularly conscientious. You
should be particularly aware of the way that your tone may come across in your
posts and emails. I urge you to make sure that your posts reflect the professional
nature of our relationships within our learning community. Please make sure to
read the Civility Statement below in detail.
In addition to the time you will need to spend on reading, you will need time to
spend assimilating the material, thinking about its implications, and participating
regularly in classroom activities. Remain focused when you think about what you
have read. Writing about it to share and discuss the material with classmates will
make the class much more pleasant and meaningful.
Students are expected to meet deadlines for assignments. Given the unique
nature of this course it is even more important that all deadlines be carefully met.
Be sure to check my announcements daily for any changes or additional
information. Because ample time is given each week for the completion of posts,
tests, and other assignments, NO LATE WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED.
YOU are responsible for checking Blackboard for updates and checking your
email for this class regularly. I havent checked my email or I havent logged
into Blackboard will not be an acceptable excuse for not knowing the latest
course information.
Civility Statement:
This class is a microcosm of society. Although it is online, many of the same rules
of face-to-face interaction still apply. Possibly, we need to be even more aware of
the words we use and remember that those reading them cannot see our facial
expressions, they cannot read our body language, and they cannot hear the tone
with which we might have spoken the words aloud. As such, to create a
productive and positive learning experience, each of us must take responsibility
for creating a learning environment of professionalism, mutual respect, and
acceptance. A successful learning experience requires discussion and sharing.
Education is not a product packaged and presented to you; it is an interactive
process requiring your full participation. You are encouraged to ask questions
and interact enthusiastically for understanding. I firmly believe that with our
varying backgrounds and life experiences, we can all bring something to the
table to enlighten others to other thought processes. Likewise, we can all learn
from one another and be exposed to different points of view we may never have
thought of on our own. I learn something new from people with different
viewpoints than my own every day and I encourage you to broaden your horizons
and do the same. Other people have opinions and beliefs about important social
issues with which you may or may not agree. Disagreements can and should be
discussed in a respectful manner to facilitate the emergence of new information
and to develop higher levels of learning. Fellow students, guests, or the instructor
should not be subjected to any behavior that is disruptive or rude. It is my
responsibility as the instructor to ensure a safe and respectful learning
environment. Any acts of misconduct, as defined in the Undergraduate Catalog,
will not be tolerated and will be dealt with in accordance to University policy and
procedures.
In the study of sociological theory, sensitive topics may arise. Please consider
the feelings of your classmates and respect the fact that each one of you has a
unique opinion on a wide variety of issues. Regardless of your agreement with a
classmates perspective, you are expected to respect his or her opportunity to
participate in weekly forums. Debating issues is allowed and encouraged but with
the understanding that there are often many combating perspectives within an
issue and we should strive to discuss a variety of perspectives with the goal of
learning and not of trying to prove the other person wrong and ourselves right.
Civil discourse is encouragedinsulting classmates, your instructor, or
marginalized populations is not.
TIME MANAGEMENT
Do not underestimate the time commitment that you will have to make to be
successful in this class. Each week you will have, at a minimum, a reading
assignment from your textbook (an average of one chapter per week) required
postings, and weekly quizzes. If this were a traditional course we would meet for
three hours each week. You should expect to devote at least twice this much time
each week to reading, reflection, writing, and posting. Additional time will be
required for working on projects. You will have reading assignments specified for
each week. Plan to begin reading immediately. In order to be successful in this
type of class, you must devote time to your readings.
Because you will not be attending regular class meetings, you will not have the
typical pressures of class meetings, face-to-face interaction, and contact with the
instructor to motivate you to complete assignments on time and to keep up with
your readings. This means that you will have to exercise a greater degree of self-
discipline than you would otherwise. You may find it easy to tell yourself that you
can complete an assignment later, or that you can wait until the last minute to
complete your readings or papers. Be very clear with yourself that while there are
unique benefits to a distance education course, there are also unique challenges,
and you must resolve to accommodate them if you wish to be successful.
I think it is important for you all to understand the university expectations for
workloads. The following is from the TWU undergraduate catalog: "Students are
expected to prepare for classes with a minimum of two to three hours of study for
each credit hour" (page 64). Thus, for a 3-credit hour course, the expectation, at
the very *minimum* is 6-9 hours of study weekly. This would be in addition to the
approximately 3 hours of class time that a face-to-face course would require.
Please understand that an online course requires a significant time commitment
and effort. A full-time student taking 12-15 hours of classes would be expected to
work on their coursework between 24-45 hours per week at a *minimum*. In
addition, you should realize that courses that have numbers in the 3000-4000-
range (such as this one) are considered upper level courses and therefore
should be more rigorous than lower level courses. In order to maximize your
success in this course, it is important for you to be very self-reflective if you are
struggling in a course and really think about whether you are truly putting in the
time and effort required to be successful in a course. If you are not putting in a
minimum of 6-9 hours (again, note that that is the minimum) outside of class
time studying, you need to ask yourself if the problem is really the workload the
instructor is giving or if the problem is that you have overextended yourself. I
think you are all capable of succeeding in your courses but you need to also hold
yourselves accountable to a high standard of work and effort put in.
Religious Accommodation:
We will use the Blackboard system for this course. For those of you who are not
familiar with it, Blackboard is a Web-based course delivery system. It provides
private space on a web server that is used for members of a class. No one has
access to our classroom "space" except for those who are registered for the
course and guests who are added to the course. The space that is set aside for
our class includes: space to post documents, a bulletin board to post comments,
a Java-based chat room facility, a place to post grades, a section for links to
outside resources, personal homepages for students, and several other similar
features.
Each of you will need a Pioneer Portal user ID and password to access the
Blackboard system. Your Blackboard user ID and password will be the same as
your Portal user ID. If you have used the Blackboard system before, your ID and
password will remain the same as when you last used it. If you do not know your
user ID, you can call the Information Technology Services help desk at 940-898-
3971 for assistance. You can access the Blackboard system at the URL
(address) on the top of page 1 of this syllabus. If you have never used the
Blackboard system before it is important that you get up to speed quickly.
Therefore, do not wait to begin exploring the system. Please take the time to
become familiar with the system by reviewing the "Getting Started Guide" located
at http://www.twu.edu/de/getting-started-guide.asp. Learning in the online
environment is very different from face to face classes, and the "How to Be
Successful" information and "Blackboard" section will help guide you in
preparing for our course. If, after reviewing the materials provided through these
links, you have questions, concerns, or simply can't find what you need on
Blackboard let me know - I'm here to help you.
Each of you will need to have regular Internet access to participate in this course.
You do not need extensive experience with computers or the Internet, but you do
need to have a basic familiarity with web browsing, personal computers, and the
Internet.
Each person will need to have access to word processing software. I will ask that
you submit your documents in one of the following formats: Microsoft Word
(Windows or Macintosh versions use the same file format), .doc or "docx"
formats. If I cannot open your paper, I cannot grade it.
Activities, Assignments, and Grading Policy
How to calculate your grade: All students begin with 1000 points. In order to see
where you stand grade-wise throughout the semester, simply subtract the
number of points lost per assignment, quiz, blog, etc., from 1000 and see where
you fall on the course grading scale. Simply adding up your points will not result
in an accurate evaluation of where you stand concerning your grade. Adding up
your points only works at the end of the semester when you have completed all
exams and assignments.
Quizzes:
Each module will contain a graded quiz that presents information in the form of
multiple choice or true/false questions for you to answer. Blackboard grades
quizzes and exams automatically. Problems with quizzes should be brought to
the instructors attention as soon as the problem is found. There are nine
quizzes, each worth 20 points, for a total of 180 possible points. Quizzes will
open at 12:01 a.m. on Monday mornings and Quizzes are due on Sundays at
11:59pm. Please see the Course Calendar for specific dates.
Blog:
You will each be responsible for posting a blog onto Blackboard for each Module.
YOUR BLOG CANNOT BE ATTACHED IN A WORD DOCUMENT. Your blog post
for each module is designed to give you an opportunity to explore your initial
thoughts on the readings. Please do not panic! I do not expect for you to become
an expert on the readings overnight! You should think of your blog as a space to
begin processing the ideas presented in your readings. Thus, you should imagine
your blog entry as a free-write exercise that allows you to articulate your initial
ideas about the course materials for each module and to pose questions to your
classmates to explore further.
I will also be posting prompts in the form of various types of multimedia on
Blackboard that will help connect the readings to your everyday life that I
encourage you to link to your readings in your blog posts. Please use your blog
as a space to think about how the readings expanded your own understanding of
the course topics. In addition, please post at least 2 news or journal articles,
music videos, photos, links to websites, film or television clips, advertisements or
any other multimedia that you think are related to the readings. In other words,
please write your blog entries in creative ways!
You will need to connect the readings to your own multimedia examples. You
must explain how these relate to one another and why you chose the examples
that you did. Please remember that while Blog posts are sometimes thought of as
being informal, this assignment is still a formal assignment and therefore should
adhere to all spelling and grammatical guidelines, as well as using proper
citations. You must include the authors names and page numbers for each place
that you mention the readings. You must also include a source for every piece of
multimedia that you link to. Each blog MUST reference your readings directly and
utilize quotes to bolster your blog.
I will use the following guidelines as a rubric to evaluate your entries. Blogs are
worth 20 points each module for a total of 180 points.
***Guidelines for Blog Entries (5 points will be deducted for each guideline
that is not adhered to in the blog entry):
3. You must clearly explain why you chose the multimedia examples that you
did and also explain how you think they connect to or represent the
readings.
4. Your post must adhere to rigorous spelling and grammatical standards and
should be free of mistakes. Additionally, you must properly reference and
cite the readings. Direct quotes must be in quotation marks with the author
and page number in parenthesis according to ASA guidelines. The ASA
manual is posted in Blackboard for you to reference.
Your blog should not read as a summary of the readings. You should use this
space to explore and articulate your ideas about the readings, raise issues, ask
pertinent questions, and reflect on contemporary developments in real life, which
bear on the topic of our discussion.
Again, please dont panic. I dont expect for you to become experts on the
readings overnight. Your blog should reflect that you have closely read the
readings for the week and developed your own ideas and questions about the
content. Please note that late blogs will not be accepted.
****Off topic and inappropriate posts will receive no points. Postings which
are not made within the week they are assigned will receive zero points.
The midterm exam will be a mixture of multiple choice and true/false questions.
The midterm will be posted no later than Monday, March 21 st at 12:01 a.m., and it
must be completed and submitted no later than 11:59 PM CST on Sunday, March
27th. The 100-minute long exam will include 50 multiple choice and true/false
questions to be completed during the exam time window. Some questions may
be recycled from the weekly quizzes, however each exam will randomly draw 50
questions from a larger pool of question candidates. It will be necessary for you
to review each chapter before the exam in order to maximize your chances of
completing the exam with a high score. I advise that you use a computer with a
stable connection and access to a word processing document, as any error in
processing that is not a Blackboard error will result in lost points. The
examination will close at 11:59 PM CST on Sunday, October 25th, and will not be
re-opened. If you are not finished with the exam at the time it closes, I will grade
your partial attempt. ***Please allow for 7 days after the close of the exam for
grades to be posted.
Students in this course are required to turn in a total of four theoretical writing
assignments designed to allow students to interact with and critically analyze
existing Sociological theory and textbook material. Students will be required to
read the appropriate textbook chapter for each theory and in addition, locate one
scholarly journal article from the TWU Librarys database that pertains specifically
to the theory being discussed. The goal of this assignment is not to summarize
the theory and discuss how it was developed. The goal of the assignment is to
use the theory as a starting place for an analysis of a social phenomenon.
Students will use the information gathered from the textbook and outside
source(s) to write four different 2-4 page (double-spaced) essays over the course
of the semester in which the planks or tenets of the theory are used to analyze a
case study about correctional systems to be provided by the instructor.
The prompt for each assignment can be found within the instructions for each
assignment. All essays must use ASA formatting for in-text citations and
reference list and be free of spelling and grammatical errors. Your assignment
should be typed, double-spaced, 12-point font. Each essay should between 2-4
pages in length, with one-inch margins on all sides and page numbers. Please
do not vary your font, font size, spacing, or punctuation in an effort to overcome
the length requirement.
If you do not know how to use the TWU library journal databases, please
navigate to the following link and use the interactive help tutorials to learn more.
All of them are helpful, but reference Module #2 specifically for finding books and
journal articles.
http://www.twu.edu/library/tutorials.asphttp://www.twu.edu/library/tutorials.asp
The final exam will function similarly to the midterm exam in that there will be a
mixture of multiple choice and true/false questions. The final exam will be posted
no later than Friday, May 5th at 12:00 a.m., and it must be completed and
submitted no later than 11:59 PM CST on Thursday, May 12th. The 100-minute
long exam will include 50 multiple choice and true/false questions to be
completed during the exam time window. Some questions may be recycled from
the weekly quizzes, however each exam will randomly draw 50 questions from a
larger pool of question candidates. It will be necessary for you to review each
chapter before the exam in order to maximize your chances of completing the
exam with a high score. I advise that you use a computer with a stable
connection and access to a word processing document, as any error in
processing that is not a Blackboard error will result in lost points. The
examination will close at 11:59 PM CST on Thursday, December 10th, and will
not be re-opened. If you are not finished with the exam at the time it closes, I will
grade your partial attempt. ***Please allow for 7 days after the close of the
exam for grades to be posted.
UNIVERSITY POLICIES:
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:
Honesty in completing assignments is essential to the mission of the university
and to the development of the personal integrity of the student. Cheating,
plagiarism, and other kinds of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated and will
result in appropriate sanctions that may include failing an assignment, failing the
class, or being suspended or expelled. Suspected cases in this course may be
reported to Student Life. The specific disciplinary process for academic
dishonesty is found in the TWU Student Handbook. Tools to help you avoid
plagiarism are available through the TWU Libraries Quick Links under
Research Help.
Plagiarism means using someone elses work or ideas and passing them off as
your own. Tools to help you avoid plagiarism are available through the TWU
Libraries at http://www.twu.edu/library/tutorial/plagiarism/player.html
Conduct Guidleines:
http://www.twu.edu/osl/StudentLifeOffice/AcademicDishonesty.html
TWU Student Code of Conduct:
http://www.twu.edu/osl/StudentLifeOffice/StudentCodeofConduct.html
TWU Judicial Process:
http://www.twu.edu/osl/StudentLifeOffice/AcademicDishonesty.html
Turnitin Software:
In an effort to ensure the integrity of the academic process, Texas Womans
University vigorously affirms the importance of academic honesty as defined by
the Student Handbook. Therefore, in an effort to detect and prevent plagiarism,
faculty members at Texas Womans University may now use a tool called Turnitin
to compare a students work with multiple sources. It then reports a percentage
of similarity and provides links to those specific sources. The tool itself does not
determine whether or not a paper has been plagiarized. Instead, that judgment
must be made by the individual faculty member.
Please note: You may NOT reuse a paper from a previous course. Doing so
WILL result in a ZERO for the assignment or paper and may result in further
disciplinary action. This is stated on the Academic Integrity website at TWU:
Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism,
collusion, fabrication, falsification, falsifying academic records, or other acts
intentionally designed to provide an unfair advantage to the student, and/ or the
attempt to commit such acts.
Blog posts are due for each module Wednesdays at 11:59 p.m.
Response posts are due for each module Fridays by 11:59 p.m.
Module Quizzes are due Sundays by 11:59 p.m.
Blog Rubric