how to start a sociology essay

how to start a sociology essay

Effective Strategies for Starting a Sociology Essay

1. Introduction: The Importance of a Strong Start

You can often begin by summarizing briefly, clearly, and vividly a research problem or situation and that result without which we don’t have a complete understanding of the research issue or problem. If you start by summarizing several research issues or research results from different studies, your lead-in can help the reader see how these issues might have certain things in common or how these results lead to possible interpretations or implications. Alternatively, you can lead into a paper by focusing on “anecdotal evidence”—some striking example or illustrating case that can help to make the problem(s) come alive and make it worth studying; if the subject of the study is an important one, then it should be possible to find an anecdote or two with which to or at least arouse his or her interest.

One of the most important things you can do to make your paper more interesting is to start with a strong lead-in. It will usually do the trick; on the other hand, sometimes you can start with a reasonably good statement of the research problem, main research questions and hypothesis, and the lead-in will try to be very good if the problem is extremely complex, if it can’t easily be related to a research issue, or if it isn’t “exciting.” A strong lead-in can, in fact, make an ordinary and somewhat pedestrian problem seem valuable, exciting, complex and important. It can also turn a narrow topic into an appealing, broad issue. The following are some things that you might consider as potentially interesting ways to start a paper; none of these is completely irrelevant or without purpose, which can’t be said about some other, less effective lead-ins.

2. Understanding the Essay Question

These sub-questions predict the direction of the rest of the essay. By analyzing the parts of the essay question, you are not wasting time trying to cover areas outside the main issues that the question is asking you to look at. The introduction should be brief and should not articulate your answer. This must be left until the main part of your essay is constructed.

Introduction – The introduction should outline for the reader your intention in writing the essay. The main essay question is likely to have many sub-questions that need exploration. For example, in an imaginary question: “How important are the relationships and networks you belong to in shaping your identity?” The following sub-questions also exist: What do we actually mean by relationships and networks? What types of network or relationship are significant in relation to social identity? Family, peers, education, media, community organizations? Economic class, social class, age group, ethnic and sexual identity groups.

It is imperative to understand precisely what is being asked of you in your essay question. However, essay questions and titles may vary, but in all cases, you must be able to respond clearly to the question in a structured manner. Some typical questions can be broken down into segments as seen below:

3. Engaging with Relevant Literature

Your essay should be a comprehensive and unified piece, and the reader should not feel more enlightened at the end of it than they did at the beginning – be more insightful and tempered in your discussion. In explaining existing research, you might also want to note any empirical analyses that talked to varied aspects of your research question or whether studies asked alternative questions about the processes or structures that have obtained the sort of outcomes that you are interested in. Moreover, are these alternative explanations insightful alternative explanations?

One way to organize your essay is to compare and contrast the research that has already been carried out, but that should get more than just garments, food items, and fashion accessories ticked off your to-do list. To compare and contrast means that you are engaging at a higher level with the literature, pulling out underlying themes, linking sophisticated concepts, and being, in short, more succinct.

While you’re reading and noting the main findings of studies, think too on why existing work has found that. What are the underlying processes and forces which have resulted in those patterns, in that structure or order of things? Are these universal forces (meaning they are present in a variety of contexts), or are they limited in time and space?

Once you have a question that you want to explore in depth and are clear about how you want to go about answering the question, try to locate the existing literature surrounding it. Engaging with ‘the literature’ does not mean trying to read every single study that is even tangentially related to your question (although having a wide-ranging set of references always helps to make a good essay). Rather, it refers to being aware of the debates that already exist and the types of research that have previously been conducted on your topic.

4. Crafting a Compelling Thesis Statement

Distill your arguments into a single sentence. The single sentence that captures the overarching goals and evidence of your paper is your thesis. Begin your paper with your thesis. If you find that your thesis comes after a page or two of background information, then it isn’t specific enough. Instead, you need to sharpen your pencil until you get the framing of your paper down to one taut and lean single sentence that either states a consensus view in the sociology literature, trenchantly crystallizes the disagreement over the most important topic, or establishes a connection to a promising research question. Remember: sociology is ultimately about society, not unconnected data points. Every statement in your paper means nothing until you have set up a connection between its substance and something about society—or an important puzzle sociologists want to understand about it.

One of the biggest problems that theses encounter in writing essays is making the argument the central organizer of the paper. While you may have a well-organized structure of introduction, body, and conclusion, the overall content and flow of the paper is not a linear process, and it flows back and forth in response with the specificity of the topic and the evidence you draw from the sociology literature concerning it. Substantially, what you don’t want to do is “front-end load” the introduction with all kinds of background information that do not speak to the most central question that you want to ask about your topic. To avoid the problem of “front-end loading” your paper’s introduction, it is suggested that before you write your introduction, you should write several sections of the paper, beginning with the meat of the analysis of the “body” of your paper.

5. Outlining the Structure of Your Essay

Incorporating theories to help explain an issue in a sociology essay is an important aspect of writing and also an important way to introduce theories to your reader. There are a couple of methods you might try to find a suitable theory. The first kind of theory is a grand theory. A grand theory is a large-scale theory that is usually broad. They also incorporate several other theories and most books refer to grand theories. The second kind of theory has to do with middle-range theories. These theories are known as narrow and specific theories but can be more detailed than grand theories. They can give enough information to allow individuals making a detailed hypothesis. Your conclusion wraps everything up! Your sociology essay should be concluded about by reiterating the main points and discussing your conclusion. Just like your introduction, be sure that your main points are clearly contrasted with other sections of the essay. Each paragraph should have a main theme.

When writing your introduction, it may be helpful to clarify in advance your thesis in your mind. A thesis statement is a concise summary of the main point or claim of the essay and also sets up the structure. Next, make sure it is engaging as well. Your introduction should include a brief outline of the main topics that you will be covering within your essay. Your conclusion should nicely wrap up your essay in a way that brings the reader back to your thesis in order to help them understand why your essay is important to them. There are multiple ways to write effective introductions. It is important to make sure that the purpose and significance of your essay is understood. Another choice is to start the essay by giving some background information to let the reader understand what an issue is.