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I need help writing an experience-based sociology paper about social class, gender and race?

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By PD Tutor#1
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When you are asked to write an experience paper, they are almost always going to be more impactful if you are describing your own personal experiences.  Therefore, to really help you write the best paper about how social class, gender, and race interact, it would good to start out with that basic demographic information about you.  Helping you craft an excellent essay about a young, affluent, African American male’s experience with police pulling him over for “driving while black” is not going to be helpful if you are a middle-age, lower-income, white female.  In fact, your own personal demographics really inform which of the three categories is going to be the most impactful at any particular point in your life. 

That is actually where we would start the essay.  If you are writing about an experience paper, think about a scenario where social class, gender, or race made a significant difference in how events unfolded for you.  Of the three categories, which one had the most impact on the scenario?  Once you explain that situation, add in how the other two categories also influenced the situation.  For example, if you are a sexual assault survivor, you might feel like your gender was the primary determinant in that event, if only because your assailant was targeting people of your gender.  However, many cultural factors including race and social class would have influenced whether you reported the assault to the police, whether you had family and social support, and even your own feelings about the assault.

If you are struggling to recall any scenarios where you felt like social class, gender, or race really had an impact on events, that is its own experience.  It would naturally lead to an essay about privilege.  If you are a male, affluent, and white, an essay about privilege would be expected.  However, if you have other attributes, you could write a really fascinating essay about how, in a particular scenario, any one of the other factors was paramount, resulting in you experiencing privilege in that scenario.

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