Different Core Writing Assignments in My Sociology of Guns Course

As I prepare to teach my Sociology of Guns course for the 9th consecutive academic year (dating back to 2015), I am revisiting my syllabus as I do annually. The biggest variables in the course are the assigned readings and the core writing assignment. Here I provide details of the different writing projects I have assigned in previous semesters.

Note that one constant has been and will continue to be our field trip to the gun range and the reflection students write on that experience. This is a highlight of the course so not going to mess with it.

This fall I am going to borrow an “Op-Ed Assignment” my Wake Forest sociology colleague Hana Brown uses in her political sociology class. The assignment will be to write a research-based opinion essay akin to those published in newspaper editorial pages.

I think this assignment will meet my course objective of having students reflect on their personal views of guns in dialogue with scholarly research on guns. This objective underlies each of the earlier writing assignments you will find below.

Sociology of Guns student presenting her paper to classmates at Wake Forest University. Photo by David Yamane

2015-2017 Writing Assignment: What Role Should and Do Guns Play in (American) Society

Goal: This writing assignment is designed to help realize the two main learning objectives for this course: (1) Be able to approach the issue of guns in society in a scholarly – that is, objective and nuanced – manner from a sociological perspective; and (2) Better understand your personal beliefs about guns, including scrutinizing your own relationship to guns so as to make informed choices about your own participation with and the place of guns in the communities in which you live.

Means: To this end, this assignment asks you to answer the question: What role should and do guns play in (American) society? (You can choose to examine another society if you wish.) You will answer this question in three different papers written over the course of the semester. Although each of the three papers should be comprehensible in and of themselves, the second and third parts will follow from the previous part(s). In this sense, they are like three chapters of a single book.

Audience: Your audience for this paper/mini-book is people like yourself who are trying to understand for themselves the role of guns in society. Your role as a writer is to add your informed and developing opinion to the ongoing conversation about this issue.

Paper 1: What role should guns play in society?

Assignment: In this first paper, you will explain your personal view of the role guns should play in society.

The arguments you make in this paper should be based on your own personal experiences, ideas, and beliefs. Although you can and should use concrete examples to ground your argument, do not draw on research studies or other formal evidence to support your position.

Although you are discussing your own experiences and beliefs, you still need to stake out some position on the issue. Where do you stand and why?

Paper 2: What role do guns play in society?

Assignment: In this second paper, you will move beyond the personal view you articulated in your first paper to a more scholarly approach to the question of the role of guns in society. Here the question is not what role should guns play, but what role do guns play?

You will consider the role guns actually play in society by systematically engaging sociological theories and studies of one aspect of the broader phenomenon (e.g., concealed carry, homicide, self-defense, hunting, sport).

Logistics: To help keep you on track to your eventual submission of a final paper, there are some intermediate assignments you must complete, specifically a topic selection proposal and an annotated bibliography.

[A] Topic Selection Proposal
After you receive your first paper back, you will be asked to select one topic to investigate further, based on your initial thoughts on the role guns should play in society. In this proposal you will summarize and detail the approach you will take to addressing to your topic. Your topic and approach must be approved by the instructor before you can proceed.

[B] Annotated Bibliography
Central to your assessment of the role guns actually play in American society will to review and synthesize existing sociological studies (the “literature”) on your topic. As an intermediate step in the process of writing your paper, you will provide an annotated bibliography of the sources you are using. These should primarily be scholarly books and/or articles, but you may also include relevant legal cases, opinions, etc. Your bibliography should include a minimum of 10 scholarly books and/or articles, no more than half of which can be on our course syllabus.

[C] Final Paper
In the final paper you submit you will explain the role that guns actually play in American society based on your reading of the existing sociological “literature” (published theories and research) on the topic you are investigating.

In addition to explaining what the existing literature says on your chosen topic, you should also develop your own perspective on it. For example, does the scholarly literature differ from popular perceptions? Do gun politics have a corrupting influence on what is studied or how? Does the literature not come to a single, clear conclusion? If so, what should scholars be studying to rectify that situation?

Our class discussions, as well as discussing your thoughts with the instructor as you go along, will be helpful in developing your perspective.

Paper 3: Revisiting the question: What role should guns play in society?

Assignment: In this final paper, you will revisit your personal view of the role guns should play in society (Paper 1) in light of your consideration of the role guns actually do play in American society (Paper 2). Reflecting on what you learned in researching and writing Paper 2, discuss how your mind has (and/or has not) changed. Where do you stand now and why?

Although the instructor has read Papers 1 and 2, do not assume he can remember your specific arguments in reading Paper 3. As you address where you started and what you learned, make specific reference to the ideas in your previous papers. (Remember: This is Chapter 3 of your 3 chapter mini-book.)

Finally, conclude this paper by considering what more you need to know in order to make informed choices about your own participation with and the place of guns in the communities in which you live and will live in the future.

Sociology of Guns students learning about firearms at Veterans Range, August 2015. Photo by David Yamane

2018-2021 Writing Assignment: Adopt a Scholarly Approach to the Question of Guns in Society

In this assignment, you will move beyond the personal view you articulated in your field trip reflection essay and adopt a scholarly approach to the question of guns in society. Here the issue is not your experience or beliefs about guns but the empirical research on guns. You will consider the role guns actually play in society by systematically engaging sociological theories and studies (called “the scholarly literature”) on one specific aspect of the broader phenomenon (e.g., concealed carry, homicide, self-defense, hunting, sport). You should choose a topic that is of interest to you that you want to investigate further.

Logistics: To keep you on track to your eventual submission of a final paper, there are two intermediate assignments you must complete: a topic selection proposal and an annotated bibliography.

[A] Topic Selection Proposal (5 points): In this proposal, you will detail and explain the topic you have chosen and why it is important to understand better. Professor Yamane must approve your general topic before you proceed to your proposal.

[B] Annotated Bibliography (10 points): Central to your assessment of the role guns actually play in American society will to review and synthesize existing sociological studies (“the scholarly literature”) on your topic. As an intermediate step in the process of writing your paper, you will provide an annotated bibliography of the sources you are using. These should primarily be social scientific books and/or articles based on original empirical research, but you may also include one or two relevant legal cases, law review articles, synthetic essays, and the like. Your bibliography should include a minimum of 10 scholarly books and/or articles, no more than three of which can be on our course syllabus.

According to the Cornell University library guide: “An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.” More info: http://guides.library.cornell.edu/annotatedbibliography

[C] Final Paper (25 points): In the final paper, you will explain the role that guns actually play in American society based on your reading of the existing sociological “literature” (published theories and research) on the topic you are investigating. In addition to explaining what the existing literature says on your chosen topic, you should also develop your own perspective on it. For example, does the scholarly literature differ from popular perceptions? Do gun politics have a corrupting influence on what is studied or how? Does the literature come to a single, clear conclusion or not? If not, what should scholars be studying to rectify that situation?

Sociology of Guns student at range. Photo by Robin Lindner/RLI Media

2022 Writing Assignment: Gunography

According to C. Wright Mills, the sociological imagination allows us to see our lives “as minute points of the intersections of biography and history within society.” One excellent vehicle for the development of a sociological imagination is the sociological autobiography. Robert K. Merton describes it this way:

…the sociological autobiography uses sociological perspectives, ideas, concepts, findings, and analytical procedures to construct and to interpret one’s own life history.

This “gunography” assignment asks you to write a sociological autobiography of your involvement (or noninvolvement) in the social life of guns. The goal of this assignment is to be critically self-reflective as you remember, describe, and analyze your experiences, the contexts in which they occurred, and the impact they had on you and others who were involved. Of course, for some of you this will be a story of how you were not involved with guns, were adversely affected by guns, or perhaps were even against guns/gun violence.

You will complete the assignment in three parts:

(A) Outline: You will submit an outline of your involvement (or noninvolvement) in the social life of guns. The outline should identify who was involved; your personal experiences related to family relationships/dynamics, friends, school, teachers, and others; key moments (try to think of both negative and positive moments); intense memories; your current situation; and your anticipated future. You should also be thinking about what bodies of scholarship on guns will help you make your autobiography sociological.

(B) Revised/Expanded Outline: During an off week for face-to-face class, you will submit a revised and expanded version of your gunography outline to keep you moving toward the final paper. Your personal relationship with guns should be more elaborated at this point and your analytical focus sharper in this version.

(C) Paper: This paper is one that you can be working on gradually over the course of the entire semester as you read and think about the course material and try to understand how it helps you to make better sense of your own life and experience. (Further details on the gunography paper are at the end of this syllabus.)

No two lives are exactly the same, so no two gunographies will be exactly the same. But every acceptable paper will interpret the biographical material in terms of the scholarly literature discussed in the course as well as other works you find in the course of your work. Quote and cite specific material as necessary.

Major components of the paper are:

1. Introduction: This paragraph should capture readers’ attention and make them want to continue. It should also suggest what sociological ideas are going to be used to interpret your life story (remember, this is a sociological autobiography not just an autobiography) and convey some sense of the overall point of the paper (the “thesis”).

2. Body: This is the core of the paper in which you connect your life story with “sociological perspectives, ideas, concepts, findings and analytical procedures.” The more specific you are about both the sociology and the autobiography, and the more closely connected the two parts are, the better the paper will be. Here are some things you might consider:

• Think back to your early experiences of guns, or your lack of experiences with guns. If you have experiences, describe them in terms of when they occurred, the context in which they occurred, and what was going on in your life as they occurred. Alternatively, think about why you lack experiences with guns. What accounts for that? How were those early experiences related to your age, social class, race or ethnicity, family, and neighborhood or community?
• Opportunities to be involved with guns are different for boys and girls and for children from different racial or ethnic groups and social class backgrounds. Write about how gender, race/ethnicity, and social class did or did not play a role in your life. Have factors related to gender, race/ethnicity, and social class influenced your experiences through your life to the present?
• Many young adults say that without their parents, they never would have had the opportunity to be involved with guns as a child or adolescent. Explain the ways that your parents encouraged/facilitated of discouraged/interfered with your participation. Were there differences between the support provided by your mother and the support provided by your father?
• In general, consider speaking with your parents and grandparents about their relationship with guns to better understand how that shaped your own.

3. Reflection: Step back from the story you have been telling and think about the big picture. Think about how your experiences related to guns have influenced (or not influenced) your life. Write about this.

4. Conclusion: Finish strong and bring it home. Remember, WF = We Finish! Your concluding paragraph should describe what you anticipate in the future with respect to guns in your life, and how that future is connected with your past experiences and what may be occurring in your life in the future.

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