It’s also possible that you’ve had few if any brushes with the welfare system. But you still should have some familiarity with it, sources of information that have informed your views. Maybe you’ve had friends who’ve received assistance, maybe your parents or relatives, maybe it’s just what you’ve read about or seen on TV, what you’ve gleaned from books, heard on talk radio, or with brushes with homeless people in a big city, etc., but you have some familiarity, and I’m interested in just how close and intimate you have come to the welfare system. In this part of the paper, I’m looking for thoughtfulness, description, and your impressions, given what we discuss in this class. In other words, you should have some insight into your experiences based on whatever contact you’ve had with welfare services (or lack of), guided by course content. You should spend at least a page on this part. It is less important that you have actually had extensive experience with the welfare system than that you engage in thoughtful reflection. This part is worth 30 points.

Second, to reflect on how your own experiences, whether frequent or very limited, have informed your attitudes on welfare. In other words, I want to know where your attitudes come from. If you haven’t given it much thought, you need to state that, and perhaps explore any disconnects between your experiences and your own philosophy. The broader idea of this assignment is to give you some space to explore how you formulate opinions on important issues—through reading, personal direct experience, interactions with other people, work experiences, religious or cultural background, the mass media, etc. So I want to know: 1) What are the bases of your opinions/attitudes about welfare? Are they anchored in any personal values you hold? 2) Have your attitudes changed over time? As you are confronted with new information, do you re-consider your opinions and values? 3) What is the importance in having a thoughtful philosophy on welfare? Is it enough that they just perform according to their job descriptions? What would the three most important areas, according to you, that welfare professionals should have developed some thoughtful opinions? Worth 25 points. 

Third, think about your own philosophy of welfare—the role of government, of the private sector, need-based versus insurance programs, your attitudes about people on welfare, poverty, the level of benefits available, perceptions of welfare fraud, accountability, comparisons with welfare systems in other industrialized societies, race/ethnicity/class/gender/age, etc. This is a section where you demonstrate what you have learned in class, and how that learning has affected your beliefs about welfare and the welfare system.To do this you obviously need to define what you mean by welfare—this is a multidimensional concept, and I expect to see some thoughtfulness in your definition and description. Again, this should take at least a page of fluff-free writing, with sources (demonstrate this is informed by course material). Worth 25 points.

I’m expecting a 4-6 page paper. Sources? Yes. Unless all of this knowledge comes out of your own head. Follow standard citation rules. I would expect four at a minimum. And no fluff. You will have spent ten weeks engaging a broad field, and presumably one that you’re considering as a career path. This is a term paper worth 100 points, and you’re being asked to justify and support your attitudes and opinions, using readings, philosophies from class or elsewhere, etc. This is not an opinion paper—it is a reflection paper, you need to reflect on your attitudes and beliefs, and where those attitudes and beliefs come from, and perhaps how some portion have been affected by your exposure to some of the material from this course. For your sake, don’t submit a paper uninformed by your time and intellectual effort spent in this class. And 4-6 pages, again, means no room for fluff.