Isela Pena

Culture of Gangs in Social Science

Part 1:
The essay I will be using for this assignment is an essay I did in my Sociology class about
gangs. In this essay, I discussed the culture of gangs; their symbols, language, values, norms,
sanctions, etc. It further discusses how and why gangs are formed. I wrote this essay to explain
and show the audience 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, I interviewed 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 purpose of this essay was to inform the
audience and prove how gangs are part of subculture. What gave rise to the context is that the
person I interviewed lives in a place where people consider dangerous. She has heard many
stories about gang relationships from others but has never actually spoken to someone who was
in a gang. If she had spoken to someone who was in a gang, the information given to me could
have been more credible. Doing this essay allowed me to learn more about a social group and see
a different view about gangs.
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 I interviewed. Our society has different opinions on gangs that is influenced
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.(Penrose and Geisler,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 my data. I only had 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.
Doing this essay allowed me to understand more about a social group in our society. I
was able to do this by interviewing a friend and allowed me to see a different perspective than
my own. It allowed me to see possible reasons why they form and understand more about their
culture.
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 the 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.(CSUS Handbook Reading pg 119)
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 turned into 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.(CSUS Handbook Reading, 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, pg 120) Another
reason why it's good for turning 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.

Revision Summary
 Looking at what my peers thought about my writing, I have gone back and made some
changes. When I was doing this essay I had forgotten that we could have written it in first person
for part one. For part one I wrote it in second person and was reminded by a peer to write it in
first person. I was not sure if part one could have still been in second person; however, I went
back and changed it to first person. Something else that I changed for part one was that I further
explained the essay I used for this assignment and my reason for writing this essay for the
audience. I was also advised to include what I did to prove my point, but I believe that is
something that I have already included.
Furthermore, for part one a peer advised me to expand on context. The reason for this
was that I had trouble understanding what it meant by context. I went back and tried to expand
on this part by including the rise. It is something that I am not one hundred percent sure I did
correctly and will look back into it after. Also for this part I included more about my experience
doing this essay and what I thought about the social group myself.
For parts one and three I also went back and included the intext citation for the
quotes/paraphrases I used. I had forgotten to include the author's last names so I fixed that.
Another thing that I went back and added on on was my experience with the writing and how it
changed my perspectives on this social group. Also I was advised to expand on the audience part
for part one. I went back and included my purpose for the audience and what they were suppose
to get from my essay.