THEORY PAPER

General Instructions

Format

• typed
• double-spaced
• page numbered
• bibliography
• title-page
• American Sociological Association Format
• no more than ten pages in length

General Strategy

Two basic requirements

1. Your paper must be theoretical
2. The paper must focus on contemporary theory

Some Ideas

There are generally three approaches to writing a theory paper:

Conceptual

• pick a major theoretical concept, such as social conflict, functional requisites, alienation, etc., 
• describe how that concept is used in one school of thought
• or, describe how that concept is used by one particular theorist
• or, describe the similarities and differences in the use of the concept between two theorists
• or, describe the similarities and differences in the use of the concept between two theoretical traditions (in this case you can legitimately refer to both classical and contemporary theory)

Compare and Contrast

• compare and contrast two or more theorists within a tradition
• compare and contrast two or more traditions
• when writing in the compare and contrast approach it is useful to limit yourself to particular aspects of the theory or certain concepts

Review

• review and summarize one of the major contemporary theories or theorists
• review and summarize one of the major theoretical schools, such as the Frankfurt School, or Marxist Feminism, etc.
• make a synthesis of two theorists, such as suggested in lecture when we discussed Domhoff and Mills