The ultimate goal: the final paper is a 10-15 page paper on a specific and relatively narrow social problem. The final paper will have three main parts: (1) describing the social problem (paper 1), and (2) identifying the factors that cause it (including factors you may disagree with) and (3) possible interventions/solutions and what causes/allows for the solution (paper 2).
The first part (paper 1) will be submitted as a 5-7 page paper ( size 12 Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins, ASA style in-text citations and references section) that will be treated as a rough draft for the final. In the first paper, you need to define a social problem/issue and explain to the reader why it is important: what are its consequences, how does it impact members of society, and why we should want to solve the problem?
I recommend selecting a topic that you either (1) have personal experience with, (2) have been interested/fascinated in prior to taking this class, or (3) something that you want to learn more about. Make sure the topic isn’t too broad. A topic like racism is far too large for a 10-week course (much less for a dissertation). You’ll need to think of a relatively narrow topic. So instead of racism, a topic far too broad to be studied in a short paper, focus on a racism in a certain context, like with respect to a certain norm/institution/policy, or in a particular social space.
You only need to do the paper1 (above on the second paragraph), and it should be 6 pages.