Term Papers

Students will write two medium-sized papers for this course. The first one involves writing a companion piece for the following article: Katherine Boo. 2001. “After Welfare.” The New Yorker. April 9: 92-107. Boo’s article tells the story of Elizabeth Jones, a mother of three children in Washington, DC, who left welfare and now works as a police officer. Imagine the audience for your paper consists of college-educated U.S. citizens who have never paid close attention to poverty, inequality, or welfare. The people in the group have just read Katherine Boo’s story, and they are going to be given only one more thing to read: your paper. Based on what you’ve learned in weeks 1 though 7 of this course, what else do you think they should know? Your paper should build directly on the single case described in Boo’s article, providing readers with the broader context they need to make sense of poverty and welfare issues. The broader perspective offered by your paper should help readers figure out which aspects of this particular story are unusual and which aspects reflect more general patterns related to poverty and welfare reform in the United States. It should also go beyond the article to provide readers with the information they need for an adequate understanding of poverty and inequality in the United States. Your paper should make a coherent argument about the specific aspects of causes and consequences of poverty and inequality that you consider most important. You should communicate a point of view on these issues and back up your claims with appropriate citations to the literature we’ve read. No outside research is required for this paper. In addition, you should assume two things about your audience. First, they have already read Katherine Boo’s article. While they will appreciate specific references to what they’ve read, you should not waste space trying to summarize large parts of the article for them. Second, your readers are real sticklers for grammar, spelling, proper citation, and so on. Be sure to proofread your paper! You should also remember that this paper functions as the midterm for this class. To receive a good grade, your essay will need to demonstrate your thoughtful and detailed engagement with relevant course materials. The paper will be due in class on Wednesday, March 19th. It should be 6-8 pages in length and will count for 20% of your final grade. Late papers will be penalized 3 points for each day after the due date.

The final paper for the course should do the same for the “After Welfare” article but this time focusing on extending the discussion in the article to address issues of welfare reform, its impacts on poverty and inequality and recommendations for changing the current system of public assistance. This second paper should, like the first, use the readings in class to provide a sustained and compelling argument about welfare, reform and responses to better address issues of poverty and inequality in the U.S. today. This paper should be 7-9 pages in length and will count for 30% of your final grade. This paper will be due at my office on Wednesday, May 7 by 4:00 pm.