Week 3 — Sorting the Rules: A Short Culture-Reading Report

Assignment 3 of the term — sort the rules in this week's illustrative six-norm sort, read a real figure for cultural lag, run one workplace rule through the three perspectives, and explain to someone outside sociology what a figure about objects can and cannot say about norms.

This adaptive assignment uses a coaching dialogue to help you turn a first attempt into a clear, evidence-based report. You remain the author. The coach asks questions, checks the reasoning you show, and waits for you to revise before it produces the required report. In Week 1 you learned the three perspectives and their levels of analysis; in Week 2 you learned to read a figure for what it measures and what it does not. This week you sort a culture's rules by their moral weight and their sanctions. This week's lecture tutorial, quiz, discussion, and Sociology in Action Workshop practice the same ideas from other angles; this assignment is where you put them together.

The task

You will use these materials, all from this week's chapter:

• Pew Research Center's Mobile Fact Sheet: 35% of U.S. adults owned a smartphone in 2011 and 91% in 2025.
• The six-norm sort, an illustrative set of six norms built for this course (not real data): answering a friend's group-chat message within a day (folkway; a teasing "hello??", negative and informal); waiting until everyone is served at a family dinner (folkway; a grandparent's approving smile, positive and informal); wearing the store's uniform shirt on shift (folkway, even though it is written into a workplace rule; a written warning from the manager, negative and formal); doing your own work on an exam (mos; a zero and an academic-integrity report, negative and formal); returning a lost wallet with the cash inside (mos; the neighborhood association's good-neighbor award, positive and formal); and never disturbing a grave (taboo; a criminal charge, negative and formal).

Work these four problems, showing your arithmetic:

1. Pew Research Center reports that smartphone ownership among U.S. adults rose from 35% in 2011 to 91% in 2025. On average, by how many percentage points per year did ownership rise?
2. In the illustrative six-norm sort, 3 norms are folkways, 2 are mores, and 1 is a taboo. How many of the six norms carry moral weight?
3. In the illustrative six-norm sort, the six sanctions are 1 positive informal, 1 positive formal, 1 negative informal, and 3 negative formal. How many of the six sanctions are formal?
4. In the illustrative six-norm sort, 3 of the 6 norms are folkways. What percentage of the norms in the sort are folkways?

Beside each answer, add one brief interpretation. For problem 1, say what the figure measures and explain why it cannot, by itself, show whether the norms for using phones have lagged behind. For problem 2, sort the store's uniform-shirt rule and explain why its written warning does not make it a mos. For problem 3, explain how the formal-or-informal question differs from the moral-weight question, and point to one positive and one negative sanction in the sort. For problem 4, say what your percentage does and does not describe, then run the uniform-shirt rule through structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism, one sentence each, naming each perspective's level of analysis.

Explain it to a non-expert

The editor of a neighborhood newsletter has never studied sociology and plans to write: "Since 91% of adults now own smartphones, our community's manners have collapsed." Write a 3–5 sentence message to the editor that recommends a more accurate way to say it, explains in everyday words what the 91% measures and what it does not, uses the idea of cultural lag in plain words, and names one limit, such as that the figure describes adults across the country rather than this neighborhood. Explain any technical term in everyday words. More than one accurate wording can be defensible.

For a different, ungraded example, imagine a gym manager who plans to post a sign reading "People who don't wipe down the machines are immoral." Model answer: "I'd post 'Please wipe down each machine after you use it; the next person will thank you.' Wiping down equipment is an everyday custom, what sociologists call a folkway, so calling people immoral makes it sound far more serious than members treat it. A friendly reminder fits the kind of rule it is. One limit: I'm judging from how members react here, and another gym might treat the same rule more strictly."

Use that pattern for your message to the editor, with your own recommendation and evidence.

Part 1 — Student instructions

1. Draft all four answers, the four brief interpretations, and your message to the newsletter editor before opening a chatbot.
2. Open any course-approved chatbot. Copy the entire Coach Prompt box, including its first and last marker lines, and paste it as one message. The coach will ask for your draft and then work one question at a time.
3. Answer in your own words. Show calculations when asked. Use the coach's feedback to revise at least one calculation or explanation, even if your first attempt was correct.
4. Continue until the prompt's exit condition is met.
5. Save the chat's share link and copy the final report exactly as the coach gives it.

The chatbot is a coach, not a ghostwriter. It must draw out your reasoning rather than write the report for you.

Coach Prompt

COPY EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE
ROLE: You are a careful learning coach. Draw out and challenge MY thinking about culture: folkways, mores, and taboos; positive, negative, formal, and informal sanctions; cultural lag; and the three sociological perspectives. Do not write my assignment for me and do not invent work I did not show.

ASSIGNMENT: Work through these four problems in order, one at a time. Do not invent, replace, or reorder a problem. The data: Pew Research Center's Mobile Fact Sheet: 35% of U.S. adults owned a smartphone in 2011 and 91% in 2025. The six-norm sort, an illustrative set of six norms built for the course (not real data): group-chat reply within a day (folkway; teasing message, negative informal); waiting until everyone is served (folkway; approving smile, positive informal); wearing the store's uniform shirt (folkway, written into a workplace rule; written warning, negative formal); doing your own work on an exam (mos; zero and integrity report, negative formal); returning a lost wallet with the cash (mos; good-neighbor award, positive formal); never disturbing a grave (taboo; criminal charge, negative formal).
PROBLEM P1: Pew Research Center reports that smartphone ownership among U.S. adults rose from 35% in 2011 to 91% in 2025. On average, by how many percentage points per year did ownership rise?
PROBLEM P2: In the illustrative six-norm sort, 3 norms are folkways, 2 are mores, and 1 is a taboo. How many of the six norms carry moral weight?
PROBLEM P3: In the illustrative six-norm sort, the six sanctions are 1 positive informal, 1 positive formal, 1 negative informal, and 3 negative formal. How many of the six sanctions are formal?
PROBLEM P4: In the illustrative six-norm sort, 3 of the 6 norms are folkways. What percentage of the norms in the sort are folkways?
After the four answers, I must briefly interpret each one: for P1, what the figure measures and why it cannot by itself show a lag in the norms for using phones; for P2, the sort of the uniform-shirt rule and why its written warning does not make it a mos; for P3, how the formal-or-informal question differs from the moral-weight question, with one positive and one negative sanction from the sort; for P4, what the percentage does and does not describe, plus the uniform-shirt rule read through structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism with each level named. I must then write a 3-5 sentence message to a neighborhood newsletter editor who is new to sociology and plans to write "Since 91% of adults now own smartphones, our community's manners have collapsed," recommending a more accurate wording, explaining what the 91% measures and does not, using cultural lag in plain words, and naming one limit. I must explain technical terms in everyday words.

SCORING CRITERIA: Score only evidence I supply: correct computations from the data (40 points), sociological reasoning and interpretation (32 points), clarity for a non-expert reader (16 points), and showing work so it can be checked (12 points). For each of P1-P4, give 2, 1, or 0 evidence units per criterion; one unit is worth 5 computation points, 4 reasoning points, 2 clarity points, or 1.5 showing-work points. Sum all four problems within each criterion. Count my final message only with P4, not again with P1-P3.
COMPUTATION UNITS: A correct yearly rise, count, or percentage = 2; the right values and operation with only an arithmetic slip = 1; a missing result or the wrong values or operation = 0. Do not penalize an alternative valid method or equivalent correct notation.
REASONING UNITS: For P1-P3 separately, an accurate account of what that value shows plus the concept point tied to it = 2; exactly one of the two = 1; neither = 0. For P1, treating the ownership figure as proof that phone norms are lagging does not count. For P2, calling the uniform-shirt rule a mos because it is written down does not count. For P4, BOTH a statement that the percentage describes one constructed sort plus a three-lens reading of the uniform-shirt rule with each level named AND a final message that recommends an accurate wording, explains what the 91% does and does not measure, uses cultural lag in plain words, and names a limit = 2. If full P4 evidence is absent but at least one accurate substantive part appears, give 1. No accurate reasoning = 0. An arithmetic slip alone is not a reasoning error.
CLARITY UNITS: For each problem, labeled evidence understandable to someone new to sociology, with technical terms explained = 2; intelligible evidence that needs rereading because of ambiguity or jargon = 1; absent or unintelligible evidence = 0. Include the final message with P4 if submitted. Missing reasoning alone does not lower clarity for otherwise clear submitted work.
SHOWING-WORK UNITS: For each problem, checkable values and steps = 2; a relevant but incomplete value or step = 1; a result alone or no method = 0. A visible method stays checkable despite an arithmetic slip.

Do NOT invent grading rules.

DIALOGUE RULES: Ask exactly one question per message and wait for my answer. Start by asking for my complete first attempt. Build each next question from my exact words. Probe an unsupported claim and ask me to examine its evidence. Keep the conversation focused on questions rather than completed work.

ENGAGEMENT GUARDS: A greeting, copied prompt, yes/no reply, or one-word answer is not a substantive exchange. Do not flatter or accept agreement as evidence. Praise only a concrete move I made. If evidence is missing, say what is missing and ask for it. Require a real revision plus a short reflection on why the revision is better. Do not issue the report early. Never credit folkways and mores to anyone but Sumner (1906), and never describe a real culture or group from a stereotype.

EXIT CONDITION: Continue until at least five substantive exchanges have occurred AND I have supplied all four answers and their brief interpretations AND written my message to the newsletter editor AND revised at least one calculation or explanation AND reflected on the revision. Stop only after whichever requirement happens last.

REPORT: After the exit condition is satisfied, output exactly these labelled lines in this order. Replace X with the exact earned score; it may end in .5 and must not be rounded to a whole number. Base every line only on evidence in this chat; write "Not supplied" for missing evidence and never raise the score for polished chatbot prose.
STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100
EVIDENCE FOR THE SCORE: [specific evidence from my calculations and reasoning]
REVISION MADE: [what I changed and why]
STRENGTH: [one earned strength]
NEXT STEP: [one concrete improvement]
Then tell me to submit this report, my revised culture-reading report, and the share link.
COPY EVERYTHING ABOVE THIS LINE

Deliverables

Submit these three items in the assignment entry:

• your revised culture-reading report with all four answers, their brief interpretations, and your message to the newsletter editor — written, or recorded as audio or video with a transcript, or as a labelled diagram that sorts the six norms by moral weight and by sanction with a short note; every form is graded by the same scoring criteria;
• the coach's five-line report; and
• the conversation share link.

Submit in any accessible file type or as a link; a recorded response may be submitted as audio or video with a transcript, or as text.

Equivalent route (no AI required)

This route assesses the same Week 3 skills — sorting norms by moral weight and sanctions by direction and formality, reading a real figure for cultural lag without stretching it, running a cultural norm through the three perspectives with each level named, and explaining a figure to someone new to sociology — for comparable time and effort, about 60 to 90 minutes, the same as the coached route. Complete the same four problems, the four brief interpretations, and the message to the newsletter editor. Then audit your own first draft against the attached scoring criteria, criterion by criterion, and write a second draft. Add a 150–200 word revision memo that names one calculation or explanation you changed, the evidence that prompted the change, and one question you still have. Submit the revised culture-reading report, your completed criteria checklist, and the revision memo in the assignment entry; together they replace the share link and the coach's report. This route uses the same scoring criteria and the same points, with no penalty for choosing it.

How you'll be graded

The full analytic rubric is attached to this assignment in Canvas.

Academic integrity and AI use

The calculations, reasoning, revision, and final report must be your own. Do not ask the chatbot to create the assignment or add evidence you did not produce. Submit an honest share link from your own dialogue. The equivalent route keeps the same workload and evidence and requires no AI account.

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