Book Title: A Journey Through the Human-Shaped Structure: An Introduction to Sociology

Book Description

A core introductory sociology textbook that solves the three most common obstacles that both students and instructors struggle with:

1. Students Do Not Read the Book: In an entertaining contrast to a typical “boring” textbook, this text is written in a storytelling style of narrative prose that injects irony and humor to engage students that they enjoy:

• “I really loved reading the chapter. I am not a reader, but I did continue reading the whole thing.”
• “It felt like a friend talking to me. I love how the book is being narrated.”
• “This did not seem like I am reading a book, it was like someone is telling me a story about what sociology is.”
• “And most of the sentences were friendly talking to me, not letting me read the whole chapter alone.”

By increasing the readability of the text, students come to class more prepared, and instructors can spend more time exploring the content with students rather than explaining the content.

2. Students Do Not Understand the Book: The book is intentionally crafted around universal design principles. Universal design benefits everyone as it removes the need for accommodation and, thus, additional time from instructors. The textbook is globally accessible to allstudents regardless of their cultural background or diversity of ability. This non-Eurocentric core textbook dramatically reduces the confusion and burdens on students and instructors compared to a country or culturally-specific book. This is done by removing the barrier of “Cultural Overtime.” It refers to the additional work international students must perform to acquire the same cultural background information that domestic students already have the privilege of being socialized in. Lastly, because of its simplified writing style using everyday terminology, it communicates sociological jargon so that it can be absorbed without students resorting to dictionaries, internet help, tutors, or instructors to grasp its meaning.

Students Do Not “Get” Sociology: The textbook (The Human-Shaped Structure: An Introduction to Sociology) brands the study of the discipline within the broader social sciences (that study, the larger human-shaped world) and seamlessly maps onto standard curricula in introductory sociology courses (e.g., SOCI 100). Throughout the book, students learn to think sociologically and understand their role and place within the human-shaped world.