Sociology 301 - Writing in Sociology

What should sociologists write and how? This course looks at writing in sociology, and investigates how writers move from an interest or a hunch to a finished piece of research-based writing. We'll practice various writing skills such as posing questions, crafting thesis statements, and organizing paragraphs into effective arguments. As we do, you will see how our choices as writers can shift the tone and impact of a sociological argument to say more meaningful and specific things about an urgent issue.

Open to Junior & Senior Sociology primary majors only. CW Gen Ed Sects and Violence: Cults, Religious Innovation, and Social Conflict

This is a course in argumentative writing. We will refine our skills in writing cogent argumentative essays by examining controversial religious groups that are often called "cults." In describing cults, popular media have focused on armed confrontations, mass suicides, and alleged satanic conspiracies. They have portrayed cult members as coerced or brainwashed, hapless victims of predatory groups. By contrast, many social scientists have investigated cults as sites of conflict between deviant or innovative social movements, conventional religious institutions, and the state. We will study sociological research that offers rigorous lenses to help us understand how and why these conflicts can have catastrophic consequences.