SO207 ASSIGNMENT 1: ESSAY TOPIC QUESTIONS

NOTE THIS IS NOT YOUR ESSAY!!

Due Week 6 - Friday 23 September (11.55pm Fiji time)

Dropbox closes: Week 7 - Monday 26 September (11.55pm, Fiji Time)

Late penalty: 5% per day – note cut-off date for submission in dropbox. No assignment can
be submitted after the drop box closes and no assignment will be marked after this.

MAKE SURE you USE the GIVEN TEMPLATE

You will lose marks if you do not use these templates

YOU MUST PRINT OUT THIS ASSIGNMENT in order to gain an overview of it

ASSIGNMENT 1 – step 1

ESSAY TOPIC

Discuss and critically analyse an issue within your society which you consider important.
Choose ONE specific issue which is concerned with ONE of these areas:

1. Families
2. Marriage
3. Parenting
4. Childhood
5. Gender-based violence
Include in your essay an explanation of why you find this issue important. And discuss how
it is linked with processes of change at national or global levels.

Use 5 or more academic readings from the list of optional readings given on Moodle or
from the library’s databases (JStor, Pro-Quest and Ebscohost) or other academic readings
to support your argument. You are welcome to also draw on relevant media articles to
support your argument - as additional sources, but only as ad
ditional sources.

Note: since sociocultural issues are interwoven with one another, the issue you decide to
focus on may relate to several or maybe all of the listed areas. You can discuss such
connections but make sure you have as your main focus only ONE of the areas which you
analyse in depth. Why? Because if your topic is too wide and you discuss too much within
the space of a 1500-word essay, your discussion and analysis will end up being superficial.

ASSIGNMENT 1 – step 2

1) Note 3 issues concerning your chosen topic that you will discuss in your essay.
Ensure that you explain each issue in a short paragraph of 5-7 sentences.

2) Why do you find these 3 issues interesting and important to discuss in your essay?
Ensure that you unwrap and explain in a short paragraph of 5-7 sentences why you
find each issue important.

3) What is the working title of your essay? (This may change as you work on the essay
and that is fine) Make sure you include in the title the name of your society so that it
is clear from the title which society your essay is about.

4) Find 5 relevant academic sources on the Pacific Island region to support your
discussion of these issues. You will work on them in ASSIGNMENT 2 (Source
Summaries & Essay Outline). Write the full and correct reference for each source in
HARVARD referencing style.

COPY THIS TEMPLATE into your document and fill in the answers column

Questions Answers
Questions Answers
Issue 1:

Importance:

Issue 2:

Importance:

Issue 3:

Importance:

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)
This is STEP 1 of your Essay Assignment process that is made up of 3 interlinked and
individually assessed steps:

1) Assignment 1: Essay choice questions

2) Assignment 2: Source Summaries & Essay Outline

3) Assignment 3: Essay