The identified social problem, in this case, is poverty. While evaluating poverty, a functionalist would view poverty as a result of a community that has gone wrong in some way. For instance, a functionalist analysis might direct our attention to the fact that there are inadequate job opportunities, resulting in a comparatively high level of employment. The lack of opportunities in the society is caused by, for example, rampant inflation that may be caused by a weak central bank. In such a scenario, the functionalist making this argument is merely saying that a country is a complex system that comprises of various resources and in that system, everything seems to be broken, and as a result of system malfunction, we have poverty and this is the functionalist view on poverty ( Ritzer & Stepnisky, 2017) .
A conflict theorist would explain poverty as stratification, a harmful and dysfunctional norm in the society since it benefits only the rich and the powerful while discriminating and prejudicing against the poor, people of color and women in society. The rich and powerful in society take advantage of their position in society to stay on top even if it means subjugating those at the bottom ( Ritzer & Yagatich, 2016) . At the very least, they can deliberately influence the law and institutions in a manner that sustains society's class structure.
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Symbolic interactionism is founded on the idea that individuals create, dispatch and adjust symbols, which have a significant mutually agreed upon interpretation and this may include; dress, symbols, images, and gestures. Stepnisky (2018) observed that the poor in society have different interpretations of such symbols and access to various symbols compared to the rich. For example, one can imagine going to a high-end restaurant and being presented with strange utensils and food. A poor person would lack the right form of cultural capital to identify himself to others. Therefore, symbols that different individuals create and transmit are used to determine them as members of a given group or not as may be the case and cultural capital may create an ambiance of discomfort when one comes across an out-group member because the symbols create categorical distinctions between groups of individuals ( Wallace, 2017) .
A significant time-saving tip that I have learned is staying active. Setting goals and jotting down questions to answer. If the book is yours, then you can underline the key points using highlighter pens selectively while writing summaries in the margin and this prevents one from drifting off or merely reading the same wording over and over again without understanding it. Secondly, I have learned to form peer groups with some of my classmates, and this has helped me with some of my reading. When our peer group reads the same information, we can, later on, discuss it and that discussion helps us grasp all important information one might miss out on. Another essential technique I have learned is not to force information. Forcing information during the last days to exams and tests is unbelievably inefficient; instead, I try to slowly interlink ideas and concepts as they come to the mind and this has helped to make studying a quick recap rather than the first attempt at learning.
Besides, I have also learned that calmness goes hand in hand with reading and researching. If i am completely exhausted, I cannot do a good job reading or researching, and this has helped me take breaks any time I am frazzled to avoid doing shoddy work. For instance, my sister has terminal breast cancer, and this implies that if she is having a bad day, then I will also be upset and that will be a bad day for me to attempt to apprehend my reading and research. Lastly, although writing and formatting an APA paper may seem complicated and confusing; I learned how to tackle it procedurally. I start by breaking it down into more manageable steps, thus when I am researching on a given topic, I create an outline, and the working bibliography helps me to structure the paper and keep track of all the references used.
References
Ritzer, G., & Stepnisky, J. (2017). Modern sociological theory . Sage publications.
Ritzer, G., & Yagatich, W. (2016). Contemporary Sociological Theory. The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Sociology , 98.
Stepnisky, J. (2018). Types of Sociological Theory. Core Concepts in Sociology , 295.
Wallace, W. (2017). Sociological theory . Routledge.
