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As Sociology: Family (help Please)

Yo guys & girls! I need your help again. :redface:

My sociology teacher gave us a practice essay homework about lone parent families.

Q: John Redwood believes that lone-parent/one-parent/single-parent families 'are one of the biggest social problems of our day.'

My plan in tackling this essay question is:
-who john redwood is and the new right concept
-definition of lone-parent family, including the types of lone parent family
-description of situation in terms of income, education, crime; children as sufferers
-is it a question of diversity? are lone-parent families becoming more prevalent?
-is poverty, more generally, the issue?

...but if you could possibly comment, give suggestions or criticise my essay structure, it would be of great help to me.
...and also, could you suggest any thinkers/theories/models/concepts/ideas that could support my essay? thank you very much guys & girls in advance :smile:
As ever, with an essay at this level, itโ€™s always a game of two halves:

Introduction - you can mention the idea of New Right thinking on the matter. You should also take the opportunity to discuss the idea of a โ€œsocial problemโ€ (to whom is it a problem and why? For example) - one paragraph

Arguments and evidence that support the idea single parent families are a social problem.
Perhaps 2 or 3 paragraphs

Arguments and evidence against the idea they are problematic family structures.
2 or 3 paragraphs?

Conclusion - sum-up the evidence for and against and draw an overall conclusion.
1 paragraph

Fit the material youโ€™ve identified into this structure (eg poverty arguments - itโ€™s not family structure at fault etc. - would fit neatly into the โ€œArguments againstโ€ section).

If material doesnโ€™t fit, then you probably need to discard it because you wonโ€™t be focusing on the question.
Join my sociology society! :biggrin:

First of all use the definition of one in your intro, before the theory of new right. It's just a more logical order there.

Since I haven't done this since January I decided to look around for my old family notes, and I have a brief essay plan, but it should help, hopefully.

Hopefully in the new right you have all about Murray? He does a lot of single parenthood. He bangs on about the golden age being lost from single parents (but was it really golden?) and links single parenthood to crime (but are there other variables.) I think you're using that last evaluation there, by saying is it a matter of poverty in general. You should probably use this evaluation of the new right at the end of your paragraph/s on the new right instead of just at the end of the essay.

Be sure to use examples like wisconsin works in USA (making them work), the CSA (child support agency) in England, and the 1997 new labour 'new deal'.

An example of the problems of single parents is the new pehnomina of 'single mother ghettos' where they're all anti-men, the men go and live with friends of their parents, and don't work etc... Fukuyama says this displays the 'emasculation' of men... he proposes that the solution is to stop women working and let men take all the jobs, and let women have the jobs which are leftover. This would give men back their sense of purpose. (He's yet another new right nutter, who you probably had covered by "who john redwood is and the new right concept" but just to be sure!

Then to end with I'd put in some defenses of single parents:

Greg Duncan and William Rogers in the 1960's - less then a third of children born into single parent families stay in one. They did more research in the 1990's and found that 15% of lone mothers stopped being single every year.

Brown - less stigma in not being married these days, so they don't take the risk of it ending in divorce and just cohabitate. Then it's easier to split apart.

Rapoports 1982 called it a "legitimate emerging form." Which may go into your paragraph on diversity...

Many would work if it was pratical to do so, they don't want to sponge, the council houses are hardly desirable, but it's too hard to work and look after children at the same time, what are they supposed to do about it?
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Chris.Livesey
As ever, with an essay at this level, itโ€™s always a game of two halves:

Introduction - you can mention the idea of New Right thinking on the matter. You should also take the opportunity to discuss the idea of a โ€œsocial problemโ€ (to whom is it a problem and why? For example) - one paragraph

Arguments and evidence that support the idea single parent families are a social problem.
Perhaps 2 or 3 paragraphs

Arguments and evidence against the idea they are problematic family structures.
2 or 3 paragraphs?

Conclusion - sum-up the evidence for and against and draw an overall conclusion.
1 paragraph

Fit the material youโ€™ve identified into this structure (eg poverty arguments - itโ€™s not family structure at fault etc. - would fit neatly into the โ€œArguments againstโ€ section).

If material doesnโ€™t fit, then you probably need to discard it because you wonโ€™t be focusing on the question.


Good, but personally I like to weave some evaluation into every paragraph, not have it as one big chunk of a few paragraphs, eg the poverty variable needent be its own paragraph, but an evaluation of the new right after shes discussed them.

The social problem bit is good, didn't think of that. Well... my teacher didn't should I say.
I mean, WOW! thankies guys...yeah, I would like to join the sociology society hehe:P
At the moment, im enjoyin my sociology lessons but not sociology homeworks hehe:P
oh and by the way...I forgot to mention that the essay should only be 500 - 600 words long:frown: ahh well... thankies anyways...mwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
Good, but personally I like to weave some evaluation into every paragraph, not have it as one big chunk of a few paragraphs


Yep, I certainly donโ€™t disagree with this approach in principle - embedding evaluation into paragraphs is a good technique. if each paragraph is structured around the โ€œ3 Wโ€™sโ€:

What do I think is significant? (Knowledge)
Why do I think itโ€™s significant? (Interpretation and analysis)
Where is the evidence for or against? (Evaluation)

This makes for a more-coherent approach. However, itโ€™s also easier for students, especially those at the start of an A-level course, to lose track of their essayโ€™s structure and end-up with a list of disjointed ideas and arguments.

The important thing for most students, in the beginning, is to sort-out a basic structure for their answers, thereby avoiding the ever-popular โ€œvomit methodโ€ (if I throw everything into the mix some of itโ€™s bound to make sense). A simple two-part structure (which involves evaluation by juxtaposition) tends to be the easiest way to get the basic structure right.

Once this has been mastered through practice, understanding the general norms of essay writing for the exam, as it were (that's why you need to do homework...), then it becomes easier to do what you suggest.


For 500- 600 words?

Intro = 100
2 para for = 200
2 para against = 200
Conclusion = 50 - 100
Fankoo for your helpful suggestions/opinions guys. I'll use it:biggrin:
There shouldn't really be a word limit. It's pretty much half an hour to do each of the 2 essays in because the 2,4,6,8 only takes 15 mins.

If you can do it in 30 mins then it doesn't matter how many words it is... at AS the essays should be around 2 pages, give or take...

It's true that sometimes things get jumbled in sociology, I did it in one of my A2 essays and got 20/40! That's why I'm planning my latest one a lot more. :p:

But the general jist is you can often have a half supporting the question, a half against, and evaluation within both. Then conclude saying it's somewhere in the middle.

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