[school] last minute, as always

[thejunipertree]

I have to write a term paper for my Social Problems class, due at the end of this semester (sometime in May). However, I need to present my outline for the paper in tonight's class. And I don't have a subject.

I've been wracking my brain for the past two weeks, trying to decide on a good subject to write the paper on and I keep coming up goose egged. My brain flits from one to another, turning it to examine from every angle, then the eventual discard. I'm just not sure. I can bang the outline out in less than five minutes once I have an idea of what I'm going to write about, so that's no problem.

It's Social Problems, so it's a fairly broad range to pick from (which I think is one of my issues with picking, there's too many options and my brain starts blinking). The last topic I had pondered was something along the lines of the beauty myth and its effects on women, but I can't nail it down into something resembling a good thesis statement. I also thought about writing on how abstinence-only education doesn't work, but after researching that for a bit, I couldn't find much in the way of resources. And as always, I also kicked around abortion, but that's a really broad area.

Any suggestions for a topic?

Comments

[bifemmefatale.livejournal.com]

What kind of sources are you supposed to use? Does it have to be journal articles or can you use interviews and so on?

You couldn't find sources for the ineffectiveness of abstinence? I know there's been at least one study saying kids who pledge abstinence have the same rate of STDs as kids who don't.

[bifemmefatale.livejournal.com]

What about something on the American way of handling death, since that's a primary interest of yours? Hospice care, right to die, the high cost and ripoffs in the funeral industry, the green burial movement...

[meetzemonsta.livejournal.com]

I had thought about something along those lines, possibly about how Americans fear of death is what is leading to our cultural obsession with youth and beauty.

[meetzemonsta.livejournal.com]

I need to have about 7 or 8 sources, only half of which can be from the internet. Journal articles and interviews are fine, from what I know.

When I was looking for things on the abstinence-only issue, I couldn't find any straight out books on the subject. Right after I wrote this entry, I went and spoke to one of my co-workers (she's got a bachelor's in women's studies and is very on the up and up about social issues) gave me a slightly better perspective on resources for that topic and how I could work it.

[rhiann31.livejournal.com]

What sort of paper is this? Do you have to present all sides of a particular issue or do you have to pick a side and defend it?

I think that the abstinence-only education paper could be promising. yes, it would probably be hard to find a book on the abstinence-only curriculum, but you could probably find articles and interviews on it. You would probably be more successful in finding a book on planned parenthood and full-spectrum curriculum. I'm sure that there are sociological journal articles on education and availability of birth control and you might be able to draw some statistical conclusions that way...

[rhiann31.livejournal.com]

ooh! check this out! Use their references list as a jumping off point.

http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/stateevaluations/index.htm