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Community Analysis Assessment 1

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Community Analysis Assessment 1

Community Analysis Assessment 1

 

  • Assessment item 1

Essay

Length: 500-750 words

Task

Write a short response to the following question:

– What is community and how would you investigate an aspect of community that fits your preferred definition?

In your answer you should:

  1. demonstrate an understanding of one or two of the perspectives about community presented in the Required reading for topic 1 (what is community);
  2. describe how community has been researched sociologically using the required readings for topic 2 (researching community);
  3. explain how you would conduct research about a community in terms of the perspectives you have presented.

You do not need to research any further than the Required Readings for the first two Comtopics. You will need to reference carefully according to the APA referencing guide, writing in full paragraphs and proper sentences. Your work will need an introduction that summarises what you will say and the argument you will make, a body that answers the questions above, and a conclusion that summarises what you have said and the argument you have made.

Rationale

This assessment is designed so that you can establish your comprehension of the early reading and get a chance to explain that formally. It is also an opportunity for you and I (your subject coordinator) to get a sense of where you’re at with your writing and referencing. Your feedback will give you a sense of what academic skills you need to brush up on, what is expected of your writing in the rest of the subject, and what is expected in terms of the thinking and understanding in the subject.

Marking criteria

Standards

  1. This essay is about the knowledge and understanding you have gained in the first 2 topics and discovering your capacity to put the ideas together. Thus, by completing this assessment you should be on your way to demonstrating your understanding of the structures and processes of communities (learning outcome 1), and the way in which sociologist conduct research into community life (learning outcome 2).
  2. The structure of your essay (logic of your argument). In all our involvement with communities, we need to be able to communicate clearly and logically. Thus, writing style and communications skills are important parts of being able to solve problems. This assessment is therefore an opportunity to develop those skills and directly relates to identifying community problems and solving or alleviating the affect of them (learning outcome 3).
  3. Writing (paragraphing, sentence structure, clarity). Again, communicating with people is important and high level writing skills helps to do that. By developing your writing you are again showing you have met learning outcome 3.

 

  1. Referencing and formatting (APA style, always referenced where and idea is presented that is not your own). As sociologists and community analysts, we need to be able to acknowledge where our ideas came from, therefore good referencing is essential for being a good sociologist, and shows we have met learning outcome 2.

 

The following Rubric (also available in the folder “Additional information and resources” on the subject interact 2 site) shows how these standards are applied to the grading system.

 

Marking Rubric SOC308 Assessment 1

FL PS CR DI HD

Argument, knowledge, comprehension Introduction does not clearly convey the purpose of the assignment; conclusion does not summarise content and/or link back to assignment topic; little use of relevant evidence; sociological ideas not raised, understood or applied Introduction conveys the purpose of the assignment; conclusion summarises content; use of relevant evidence in most paragraphs; sociological ideas raised in several places, but these are not understood or applied to the topic in most instances.

Introduction conveys the purpose of the assignment; conclusion summarises essay content; use of relevant evidence in most paragraphs; sociological ideas raised in several places; sociological ideas understood and applied to the topic in most instances.

Introduction conveys the purpose and structure of the assignment; conclusion summarises essay content and links back to assignment topic; use of relevant evidence in almost all paragraphs; sociological ideas raised consistently; sociological ideas understood and applied to the topic in almost all instances.

Introduction conveys the purpose and structure of the assignment; conclusion summarises essay content and links back to assignment topic; use of relevant evidence in all paragraphs; sociological ideas raised consistently; sociological ideas understood and applied to the topic in all instances.

Structure Introduction and/or conclusion absent; most body paragraphs contain less than 3 sentences; how the key point of each body paragraph links to the topic is unclear in most instances; how the key point of each body paragraph links to the following paragraph is unclear in most instances Contains introduction, main body, conclusion; the majority of body paragraphs contain 3 sentences or more; how the key point of each body paragraph links to the topic is clear in most instances; how the key point of each body paragraph links to the following paragraph is clear in most instances Contains introduction, body, conclusion; almost all body paragraphs contain 3 sentences or more; how the key point of each body paragraph links to the topic is clear in almost all instances; how the key point of each body paragraph links to the following paragraph is clear in almost all instances Contains introduction, body, conclusion; all body paragraphs contain 3 sentences or more; how the key point of each body paragraph links to the topic is clear in all instances; how the key point of each body paragraph links to the following paragraph is clear in almost all instances Contains introduction, body, conclusion; all body paragraphs contain 3 sentences or more; how the key point of each body paragraph links to the topic is clear in all instances; how the key point of each body paragraph links to the following paragraph is clear in all instances

Source material More than half the body paragraphs do not include references; set readings are not used; minimum number of sources are not used, or contains plagiarism** Most of the body paragraphs include references; set readings are used; minimum number of sources used, but direct quotes comprise more than 10% of the body content and heavy reliance on 1-2 sources in the body; some sources not integrated, some sources reflect annotated bibliography style writing 1-2 body paragraphs do not include references; set readings are used; minimum number of sources used; most sources are relevant and peer-reviewed; effort shown to integrate sources into the response, avoid annotated bibliography style writing and support overall argument All paragraphs include references; set readings are used; above minimum number of sources used; most sources are relevant and peer-reviewed; sources are integrated into the response to add to and support overall argument All paragraphs include references; set readings are used; above minimum number of sources used; all sources are relevant and peer-reviewed; sources were skilfully integrated into the response to add to and support the overall argument

Spelling, grammar, punctuation, word length Most of the essay is not understandable or the word length is above or below 10% of the prescribed limit (excl references) Most of the essay is understandable, but contains regular grammatical and typographical errors Contains a few grammatical and typographical errors Grammar is error-free, but contains a few typographical errors Contains 1-2 typographical errors

Referencing No reference list or in-text referencing; or

APA style not used APA style used, but reference list and in-text references do not match up APA style used, and less than half of the entries are incorrectly formatted APA style used and less than a quarter of the entries are incorrectly formatted APA style used; referencing is error-free

 

* Where multiple criteria exist, any of them may result in the relevant grade being awarded – e.g., no reference list OR not using the APA system will result in a FL grade for the ‘Referencing’ criteria.

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