Isela Pena

Culture of Gangs in Social Science

Part 1:
In this essay, the writer discusses the culture of gangs; their symbols, language, values,
norms, sanctions, etc. It further discusses how and why gangs are formed. It is important to
understand that gangs are part of a subculture whose purpose is not going against society, but
tend to do things that are against the law. Furthermore, this essay also focuses on gangs habits
and how they differ to society. In this writing, the writer interviews a friend to help the audience
further understand the culture of gangs. Therefore, the exigence of Culture of Gangs is to
understand gang members culture and how it influences their behavior. To understand the culture
of gangs, the audience (teacher) must consider the social context of gang members and how it
influences their social groups to form.
The audience's opinions on gangs can have an impact on how they accept this writing.
This can be a constraint to the writer because the audience may have different opinions to the
writer or the person she interviewed. Our society has different opinions on gangs that is influence
by personal experience or if they are a gang members themselves. Another limitation in the
writing is that the information given is all based on the interviewee's opinions. In Reading and
Writing Without Authority by Ann M. Penrose and Cheryl Geisler state that ... Rogers
knowledge of the domain afforded great advantages in [his] situation.(pg 516) Having domain
knowledge helped him seem more authoritative and credible. In contrast, Culture of Gangs
only has the intervewees knowledge about gangs and didn't use any credible sources for her data.
The writer only has an outsider's view of gangs and was trying to explain the culture and reason
why people join and behave the way they do.There are no reliable sources used to back up this
essay and causes it to lose credibility.
Part 2:
Child Development is in the department of Social Sciences with Education at Sacramento
State University. Social Science focuses on the study of society by developing theories and
studying humans behavior. In this field student are required to know how to read, write, and
research in the social sciences. It is important for students considering this major to know the
expectation in writings to be successful throughout their career. Knowing the writing
expectations for any major is important for student to know and will allow them to get help if
needed. Practicing the writing requirements at an earlier stage will allow students to become
experts and do better in their writings.
According to Writing and Researching in the Social Sciences from the CSUS
Handbook Reading, there are certain types of writings that students will face; such as interviews,
case studies, ethnographies, and research reports. Researching is something very important for
this field because data collection is a big part in social science. With data, people are able to
expand and explain why things are the way they are, and helps create theories. For example, in
child development students are often times asked to analyze people's behaviors since they focus
on the development of children, how the environment affects them, how people learn, how their
minds work, and child behavior.
In addition, students are expected to write with a purpose, share, and challenge theories.
They need to be able to read and determine the argument when reading, or create an argument
when writing. The exigence in writing in the field of social science is collecting data and
studying human behavior. It is important for students to be good at analyzing and reflecting on
data since many careers in this field require understanding human behavior, and how their
surrounding created the person they become. The context used in this field is social context that
influences people's perspectives and behavior toward a situation. Lastly, the audience for
writings in this field, would be those who are researching and studying human behavior.
Part 3:
If the essay discussed in part 1 was tuned in to an instructor in Social Sciences, it would
be towards the direction of being successful, but not completely. In part 2 it is discussed how
writing in the social sciences has certain requirements; such as, testing and creating theories,
collecting data, and reflecting on it. In Writing and Researching in Social Sciences from the
CSUS Handbook Reading, it discusses how Social Scientist use reading, writing, and
researching to explore questions about human behavior.(pg 118) Their goal is for student and
others to be able to expand or create new theories. Therefore this essay is something similar that
students should turn into an instructor, since it focuses on a social group and tries to understand
its culture.
Social science attempts to improve people's lives by studying and trying to create change.
This is is done by researching and collecting data; similarly, in the essay described above, the
writer collects data by conducting a interview of her friend. Interviews are a form of data
collection in social science that is seen in the essay. (CSUS Handbook Reading pg120) Another
reason why it's good for tuning it into a social science instructor, is because this essay
specifically focuses of a group within the society (gangs). The writer discusses the culture of
gangs and how a group's behavior is based on their environment. Gangs culture is describes by
including things such as their symbols, values, taboos, language, characteristics and more. Most
importantly, the writer conducts her own theories after reflecting on the information given by the
interviewee. For example, she states that gangs form because the people in them share similar
experiences and crave power. Reflection and creating new theories is one of the things an
instructor would want to see in writings, that is seen in Culture of Gangs.
However, this essay would be more acceptable if it also included reliable sources. The
data used for the essay is only based on an interviewee who can be bias. The data losses its value
so if the writer were to use credible sources it would make the essay stronger. Also, the writing
focuses on the culture of gangs and does not go in depth of how their surroundings/being in a
gang has an impact on their behavior. This is one of the most important concepts in social
science that the writer lacks to explain.