In your groupyou will brainstorm and decide what social pheonomenon your paper willexamine. This can be anything we “do” in society today. Then you willdecide which era everyone will contribute to the history section, whichcountry you will contribute to the cross-cultural section, and whichmacro perspective you will contribute to the macro perspectivessection.

Byparticipating in this assignment you are working towards accomplishingstudent learning objectives for the semester, by demonstrating the ability to use a societal framework in order to analyze any given situation rather than individual analysis.

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT (100 points):

a research paper examining how something that we do notusually think about in our daily lives has been socially constructed.This can be anything and creativity is encouraged. You will consideryour “stuff” from three perspectives, and each group member willcontribute one part per perspective (see below), to explain how that thing has come to be the way we know it today.

*Every paper must have the following sections:

• Historical Section: Each group memberwill pick a specific era in your “stuff’s” United States history (goback as far as possible). Research and write about your era, and thenput them together in chronological order in this section of the paper.
• Cross-cultural Section: Each groupmember will pick a different country. Research and write about how your“stuff” is used in your country in the present-day, and then put each country together in this section of the paper.
• Macro Perspectives Section: Each groupmember will pick another macro perspective that you can relate to your“stuff” (i.e. gender, politics, media…). You will research and writeabout how that macro perspective has shaped ourunderstanding/experiences of your “stuff” in present-day, United States culture. Each section should have a subheading heading and be included in your final paper.

In the paper, you will take asociological and objective approach. For example, if you are researchingmarijuana I DO NOT want a paper about why smoking marijuana is bad forpeople and should not be legalized (or, on the other hand, why you thinkit should be legal).

Your paper should be in standard essayform, 12 pt font, double spaced, and 1” margins. Please proofread. You musthave works cited page listing at least 8 outside sources (2 per groupmember). You will upload the final paper here (one person in the groupwill submit the paper), and it must be turned in as a Word doc, pdf, or google doc. No other file will be accepted, and if another format issubmitted that will result in a grade of zero for the group.

VISUAL PRESENTATION (50 points):

You will also be responsible forturning in a visual presentation to represent your “stuff” and sharewhat you learned with the class (approach it like, what would you use toaccompany a presentation in a face-to-face class, i.e. PowerPointpresentation, Prezi, etc.,).