Assignment Guidelines: All assignments should use 1-inch margins and 12-point Times New Roman font. Assignments should be doubled spaced. For instances where you need to cite, use APA formatting for your citations. All assignments will be submitted to Canvas. For the final paper, your paper must be at least 10 pages AND 3,000 words. The page and word counts do not include the following sections: title page, abstract, and bibliography. Please note that you can take a comparative approach to your work – what might be applicable from other cultures in American Culture? What might not be applicable and why?

NOTE: Your final paper MUST be on a topic directly related to what we cover in class. If you have a topic not covered, you must discuss it directly with the instructor to receive permission. Your final paper must also include information from TWO research-based course readings. These do not count toward your final 10-15 academic sources.

This assignment should be at least ten pages in length. For this draft, you should include an early version of your introduction, literature review, conclusion, and bibliography. As with the final paper, the introduction should set up a history/background of the topic, which can include a discussion of the impact of the topic (who/what does it affect) and a broad discussion of social science methods. You should also introduce the three major themes that you will be discussing in the literature review. (Select the academic articles that you want to look at on three themes relevant to your broader topic. For instance, if you want to study education as a major topic, you might be interested in family dynamics, gender, and immigration. You will center your writing around these themes, using academic research to build a case and make points about the state of your topic in American culture.) For your conclusion, recap your overall discussion and the major points of the literature review. What does this tell us about your topic overall? How does the information fit together to portray the state of American culture? Reestablish the impact of the topic. Also cover any future directions that research should move in. Are there unanswered questions? Unstudied populations? Avoid using first person. Do not say, “I want to discuss,” or similar things. Focus on the topic and the themes, not you or your experiences. You should have at least fifteen academic sources in your rough draft, though you can have more than ten.