rev. 6 Jan 99 Soc. 157, Social Stratification Short Paper Assignment: A CASE STUDY IN STATUS ATTAINMENT. These are instructions for preparation of the short paper that is due near the end of the quarter (see calendar for precise date). Read this entire handout before you begin preparing the paper. We have studied about various determinants of an individual's social status, especially parental and educational determinants of occupation-based social status. This assignment is intended to help students relate the course content to their own lives, while letting them formulate hypotheses about various status determinants, including but not limited to ones which have been explicitly considered in the lectures and readings. Choose a person to use as the subject of your paper. This is to be SOMEONE YOU KNOW WELL, so you will already know, or can easily obtain, information about his or her life. It is NOT to be someone you have only read about or seen on TV. If you wish, you may use yourself as subject, but this has the disadvantage that many aspects of your eventual social status are not yet clearly determined while you are still in college. If the subject has an occupation, that will likely be the major basis of social status, but you need not limit yourself to a subject who is employed. Income and many other aspects of social status are commonly shared within a family unit, including retirees, students, and housewives, who in that respect derive social status from personal ties to other family members. Thus if the subject you choose is a housewife, for example, her spouse's occupation may be used as one index of her status, although her own educational level would be another index of her status. The paper is to (a) describe the subject's current social status, and (b) describe some family background characteristics, personal characteristics, social contexts, or events which have helped determine what the subject's current social status would be. This is to be a verbal discussion; no equations or computations are expected. Your paper should be a maximum of 5 double spaced typewritten pages in length. It should be on 8.5 by 11 paper with straight edges (no sheets torn from spiral binders) and of standard weight (no onionskin). Leave 1" margins all around. Type neatly and legibly (change your ribbon if needed). The first page should have your name, family name first, in the upper right corner; below that, beginning at the left margin, the paper title, "A Case Study in Status Attainment", the date, and, still on the same page, the first paragraphs of text. Fasten the pages together with a single staple in the upper left corner. Do NOT use any special binder or cover. Make two copies, and keep one, turning in the other. The paper is to be turned in DURING THE SCHEDULED CLASS PERIOD shown on the calendar. To receive full credit you must show up to class that day; be prepared to be called upon to make a brief (about two minute) statement on highlights of your paper; and fill out the usual survey of student opinions about the course and the professor. If a paper is not turned in by the end of the last class session, it will be given a score of zero and the course grade calculated accordingly, unless the student has made prior arrangements with me for an Incomplete grade.