You can start with anything from the Big Ideas book and then research beyond the text. The paper needs to accomplish three goals:
1.) You must demonstrate your understanding of the idea by thoroughly discussing its meaning and which aspect of the society the theorist was trying to explain. This writing must be in your own words, again this is not a recap of the book, I want to hear your own voice.
2.) You must select and discuss an aspect of contemporary American society to which your selected idea applies.
3.) You must further demonstrate you understanding by analyzing the aspect of society that you selected for #2 using your sociological idea. That is, you must break down the social phenomena you selected and explain it using the theorist’s idea.