Required Resources
Read/review the following resources for this activity:

• Textbook: Chapter 1
• Lesson
• Minimum of 3 outside scholarly  sources in addition to the textbook/lesson

Instructions
The textbook readings for Weeks 1 and 2 explore social forces that can affect the seemingly private act of suicide. For this assignment, conduct scholarly research on a different private or individualistic act that could be regarded as a broader social problem or social issue, something other than suicide. 

Choose one of the following topics

• Homelessness
• Veteran homelessness
• Domestic violence
• Addiction
• Obesity

In an essay, address the following:

• Thoroughly explain what the sociological imagination is (Thoroughly explains how the sociological imagination helps examine seemingly private acts within a larger social context).
• Thoroughly examine how and why the sociological imagination helps understand the personal problem you chose as your topic for this essay
• Compare and contrast the outside research you find on your topic with the textbook’s descriptions of sociological studies of suicide, specifically.

Your paper must contain scholarly support in the form of paraphrases *only* with respective citations from assigned reading (the textbook/lesson) and the outside scholarly sources that you identify on your own. Do not directly quote from sources for this paper, but instead paraphrase in your own words from the source material and cite the sources with parenthetical in-text citations and with full APA-style reference entry citations in a reference page at the end of your essay document.

Writing Requirements (APA format)

• Length: 2 full pages (not including the reference page as the late page of the document)
• 1-inch margins
• Double spaced
• 12-point font
• Page number in the upper right of all pages
• Parenthetical in-text citations included and formatted in APA style
• Reference page (minimum of 3 outside scholarly sources in addition to the textbook/lesson)