The purpose of this essay is to apply CW Mills’s Sociological Imagination concept to explain a personal
situation. The essay will demonstrate the student’s ability to use sociological concepts & theories learned in
the course to describe a personal situation. The topic is left to the student’s discretion.
The Essay paper should have the following 5 content areas:
1. Introduction: In this first content area, write a paragraph introducing CW Mills’s concept of sociological
imagination, and give a general overview of how you will be applying it to the personal situation that you will
discuss in your paper.
2. Personal Explanation: In this second content area, describe your personal situation/topic. Based on
whether the situation is a current one or a past one, describe how you dealt or are dealing with it. You can also
pick a situation from a person’s life who is closely related to you or whose experience affected you. You should
know the person well enough to write the essay.
Describe what caused the problem, who were involved, what were others’ and your roles in the situation, and
if a resolution was reached. This section is all about your account of your situation and should be no longer
than four paragraphs (3/4 – 1 page).
3. Sociological Imagination:
In this third content area, analyze your personal situation by applying sociological imagination, i.e., examine
how society and social forces affected your situation. This section should be the most substantial portion of
your essay. You should use terms and concepts from at least 3 different chapters from the textbook, and one
sociological theory.
4. Data/Stats:
Utilize at least 2 statistics or research studies from the textbook or outside sources such as the Galen College
online library. The references should be scholarly and should be relevant to your situation (E.g., Inclusion of
divorce rates in the US if the topic is on Divorce; inclusion of poverty rates, crime and victimization rates, or
suicide rates if the topic is either on Poverty or Crime). Citing at least one outside source is required.
5. Conclusion:
Write a wrap-up conclusion summarizing the major finding/themes in your paper. This should be no more
than a paragraph.
Your essay should be 4-6 pages in length (excluding the title page and the references page) and should be
double-spaced. You will lose points if your essay is shorter than 4 full pages of content. The font should be 12-
point Calibri or Times New Roman. Use APA format for your entire essay, including for references and in-text
citations and edit your work carefully for spelling and grammar.
The topic I chose to write on is the following:
“I will be discussing about the informal norm of husbands or men always needing to be the one in charge in a marriage like head of household, or in any position where it is usual to see men but women have a hard time acquiring. Having society’s view interfere by stating that it is out of normalcy to see a man show any type of emotions, or femininity, where woman now are able to take on the role of being head of households and having just as much rights as men. I will be discussion about the informal norm of husbands or men always needing to be the one in charge in a marriage like head of household, or in any position where it is usual to see men but women have a hard time acquiring. Having society’s view interfere by stating that it is out of normalcy to see a man show any type of emotions, or femininity, where woman now are able to take on the role of being head of households and having just as much rights as men.”
by using 3 chapters from Sociology text book: https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-%09sociology-2e?Book%20detailshttps://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-%09sociology-2e?Book%20details
