Help me structure my Socialism vs Capitalism Assignment

[GodLike1001]

I am doing an assignment for my modern history class, where I've been asked to choose any event or idea of the modern era and study it. I will need to present a 2000 word essay as well as a 5 minute speech to other members of the class.

I have chosen the topic: Does Capitalism or Socialism offer a better general lifestyle? (general being to the people/majority)

Before I begin stIudying this topic, I need to find a way to structure the essay. The structure I have thought of is:

1. Intro - What is Capitalism, Communism and Socialism. (what main countries adopted them)
2. indepth look at communism, Karl Marx's ideology + how his idea was misrepresented
3. Example of a country that adopted Communism + any significant events. (I was thinking of the Russian Revolution)
4. Modern day communism + The adoption of the Socialist Ideology.
5. Comparison of a Capitalist nation and a Socialist. (I was thinking USA vs Sweden...is there any other country more socialist than sweden?)
6. For a conclusion I might do my personal verdict of the research and talk about the future of both ideologies.

Anything else I should include? Also what branch of socialism would be best suited for my research...Is democratic Socialism the most likely to compete with capitalism?

[Yazman]

I would say that you should try to avoid putting much of your personal opinion into it, although you are definitely going to be arguing a point I assume so make sure you do consider that.

Remember that you only have 2000 words, and while this might seem like a lot, its actually not much at all. You need to make sure your essay is very tight and concise, and you don't have a lot of room to really cover everything you might want to cover.

The 'meat' of your essay is going to be points 2-5, so you need to condense those a bit and try to set word limits - my recommendation is 400-500 words for each point, 2-5. 150-250 for your intro and conclusion.

Each of your points, 2-5 seem to be very broad - so you need to actually condense them. Each one of those points you can actually make a 2000 word essay out of on their own, so you need to reduce them down to be more specific. Your first section (point 2) can be a brief overview of communism and various branches of it, but make sure to be very brief. Note that it isn't a single monolithic group and that many communist disagree with each other and that what is commonly labelled as "big C Communism" is debatable as to its merit within the various communist movements themselves.

You can probably condense point 3 and 4 into a single larger section. Simply take a historic implementation of ideology and contrast it with a more recent one - i.e. contrast the paris commune with cuban socialism, or contrast the soviet union with modern chinese "socialism".

For your next section, you can further contrast both of those examples with a capitalist nation. Sweden is not appropriate as it is not a socialist country. Just contrast a capitalist nation with your previous examples.

Then obviously conclude the essay with a brief overview and draw whatever conclusions you may from what you've demonstrated, but only if the conclusions are grounded in evidence and arguments that you have presented.

[Ocean Seal]

I am doing an assignment for my modern history class, where I've been asked to choose any event or idea of the modern era and study it. I will need to present a 2000 word essay as well as a 5 minute speech to other members of the class.

I have chosen the topic: Does Capitalism or Socialism offer a better general lifestyle? (general being to the people/majority)

Before I begin stIudying this topic, I need to find a way to structure the essay. The structure I have thought of is:

1. Intro - What is Capitalism, Communism and Socialism. (what main countries adopted them)
2. indepth look at communism, Karl Marx's ideology + how his idea was misrepresented
3. Example of a country that adopted Communism + any significant events. (I was thinking of the Russian Revolution)
4. Modern day communism + The adoption of the Socialist Ideology.
5. Comparison of a Capitalist nation and a Socialist. (I was thinking USA vs Sweden...is there any other country more socialist than sweden?)
6. For a conclusion I might do my personal verdict of the research and talk about the future of both ideologies.

Anything else I should include? Also what branch of socialism would be best suited for my research...Is democratic Socialism the most likely to compete with capitalism?

So far only capitalism and socialism have been adopted: communism has not been adopted by a single nation, no nation has claimed communism. Also Sweden is not socialist or at the very least is not a "genuine" socialist nation (it has social democracy). Also when addressing the lifestyle question, communism is not relevant as you are debating capitalism vs. socialism.

[L.A.P.]

Just so you aren't biased you should also go into not just people who created the modern ideas of socialism and communism (Karl Marx) but also include people who created the modern ideas of capitalism like Milton Friedman and John Maynard Keynes. That way you have a fair and balanced analysis of both but of course if you feel the need to, give your two cents in the conclusion.