Sociology is a popular subject studied by many students. Despite the fact that this discipline is considered one of the easiest, the most difficult thing for students is writing essays on sociology. You need to choose one of the prompts presented, describe its idea, and also illustrate it with examples from sources or personal experience. Next, we will show you which sociology topics to choose for your essay and how to compose a well-written paper.
Essay Topics
The topics of a sociology essay can touch different spheres of life. When preparing for writing an essay, it is recommended to focus on one narrow topic. Students often have to write on difficult topics, which is why they end up with low-quality papers. Ideally, you should understand your topic fully and be an expert at it. If it seems to you that this is difficult, get help from an essay writing service. They can assist you with writing papers – these writers know different subtleties of creating sociology essays.
The best essays on social studies are often written under the field of sociology, as many students choose this area. Firstly, it is closely intertwined with the school curriculum, so it is easy to involve theoretical material. Secondly, arguments can be easily found. They are everywhere: in the news, movies, literature, everyday life.
An example topic sentence is as follows: “The family is the primary environment where a person must learn to do good.” To explain the role of the family in a person’s life, you can indicate its definition, as well as write about the functions, focusing on the educational aspect. The easiest way to look for arguments is in the literature. You can describe personal experience and talk about people who grew up in well-to-do and dysfunctional families.
What should be in an essay
When writing essays, the sociology topic should be chosen based on personal knowledge. Here are two main criteria: you understand the idea (you can reformulate it in your own words), and you have something else to say on the topic (your knowledge is deeper than what is said in the assignment). The essay consists of the following:
- Let’s say you start with a statement or quote. It is necessary to name the science to which the statement belongs and briefly tell about the author. If you don’t know anything about it, focus on the science.
- Theme designation. Name the idea of the statement and explain it. If possible, name other statements on the same topic.
- Highlight the main term and define it. Consider aspects of this term. Explain in more detail about what aspect of this topic the statement belongs to, what question it reveals.
- Indicate whether you agree with the opinion of the author or not. Explain your position.
- Give from two to five arguments to support your words. Before an example, put forward a thesis. Be sure to draw mini-conclusions connecting the argument to the statement.
- Summarize briefly.
Writing recommendations
We turn to the last question – how to write sociology essays. Here are a few recommendations:
- Allocate enough time for writing – don’t start a day before submitting your paper.
- At the beginning and the end, it is better to discuss the relevance of the idea and why you were touched by this particular statement.
- Do not make hasty conclusions about the meaning of the statement; it is not always clear in the beginning.
- First, determine which section of sociology the statement belongs to and to which topic. Recall the required theory. Only then think about the arguments.
- Do not write an essay entirely on a draft. Save time and write down only the main thoughts and arguments.
- Make sure that your opinion is clearly expressed (I agree/I disagree).
- Facts from history, social life, and culture have the greatest weight. Use examples from your personal life only as a last resort, as they are evaluated low. It is best to reformulate them from a third person (not “I bought” but “woman A. bought”).
- Be careful with actual examples. For example, if you got confused and wrote that Mount Elbrus is located in China or that North Korea is a democratic state with a market economic system, then your argumentation will not be evaluated highly.
- Structure your arguments using introductory words: “first,” “second,” “it is no less important that …” and so on.
- Write only the theory that is relevant to the topic.
- Make sure the arguments are linked and follow a logical structure.
An essay on sociology is not easy to write. It is not enough for you just to learn the theory; you need to know the news and history and to be able to prove your position. But don’t worry – it comes with practice. We wish you the best of luck with writing your sociology essay.