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GSWS 101 Gender Talk Final Research Assignment – Annotated Bibliography & Research Assessment (25%)

Spring 2020 – Due: April 4, 2020 – In Class

Late Policy: There is an automatic grace period of 24 hrs. to submit your assignment without penalty. It is your responsibility to deliver your assignment to me. Do not ask for an extension beyond this without providing appropriate medical documentation. All late assignments will be assessed a 5% penalty per day, including weekends. No emails will be accepted or graded. Requirements:

• Your assignment must be typed, double-spaced, in a 12-pt font, with 2.5 cm margins

• Put your full name and preferred name, as well as your FIC Student number on the front page

• Number all pages in the top right or bottom right corner

• Please make sure every source is accurately documented. Plagiarism will not be tolerated and will result in an F on the assignment.

I: ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW A. Choose ONE topic from the list of assigned topics below.

B. Conduct research on the topic choosing from the articles on the list provided below. All articles are available on Moodle under the Research Assignment tab.

C. Write an Annotated Bibliography (4-5 pages maximum) to document your research. Each annotation should be approximately 150-200 words, but no more than 300 words.

D. Write a research assessment (800-1000 word /2-3 pages) based on your research. II: DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENT A. Choose ONE topic from the following two: Topic #1: Gender Binaries and Gender Identity As we have discussed in class this term, scholars in gender, sexuality, and women’s studies have discussed some of the limitations of understanding gender in binary terms. Can the word ‘woman’ or the word ‘man’ capture the diversity of gender identity in North American society? In your answer provide at least three examples drawn from the work of the authors, below, which demonstrate the impact of thinking about gender in binary terms. Some key concepts to include in your assignments include:

• Complexity of sex and the body; impact of binary treatment and ‘false dichotomies’ of gender and sex; how ‘truths’ about bodies are created and confirmed; how bodily normality is understood; different theoretical understandings of sex/body/biology

• The relationship between sex differences and gender identity; the impact of gender differentiation in sport, everyday life

• Reasons for (and kinds of) violence against sex/gender minorities/gender transgression; definition of genderbashing; harassment in public space; activism

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• Impact of gender binary thinking on youth; how to create affirming and safe environments for transgender students

You will use a minimum of 3 articles, all of which are available on Moodle. The following two articles are required:

• Anne Fausto-Sterling, “Dueling Dualisms.” In Gender and Women’s Studies in Canada: Critical Terrain. Eds. Margaret Hobbs and Carla Rice (Toronto: Women’s Press, 2013): 125-37.

• Judith Lorber, “Believing is Seeing: Biology as Ideology,” in The Gendered Society Reader, edited by Michael Kimmel, Amy Aronson, and Amy Kaler (Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2015): 15-24.

In addition, please choose one of the following two articles:

• Annelise A Singh, Sarah Meng, and Anthony Hansen, “’It’s Already Hard Enough Being a Student:’ Developing Affirming College Environments for Trans Youth,” Journal of LGBT Youth 10/3 (2013): 208-223

• Viviane K. Namaste, “Genderbashing: Sexuality, Gender, and the Regulation of Public Space.” In The Gendered Society Reader, second edition, edited by Kimmel, Aronson, Kaler (Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2011): 421-429.

Topic #2: Legalizing Prostitution Throughout this semester, we have discussed how and why the state regulates certain expressions of sexual behavior. One current Canadian debate is whether sex work—specifically, all the activities surrounding sex work—should be decriminalized. Should the state fully legalize sex work in Canada? Why or why not? Be sure to include an analysis of the feminist arguments for and against the legalization of sex work before you explain your opinion. Some key concepts to address in your assignment include:

• Reasons for stigmas surrounding sex work; sex work and bodies as commodities; similarities and differences between paid labour in and outside of sex trade; ideas about immorality and morality in relation to selling sexual services

• Relationship between sex work, violence, criminalization; differential structures of sex industry work/ labour practices

• Differences between adult sex work, youth sexual exploitation and human trafficking; systemic nature of violence against Indigenous people and the connection to colonialism; Sex worker activism

You will use a minimum of 3 articles, all of which are available on Moodle. The following two articles are required:

• Chris Bruckert and Colette Parent, “The Work of Sex Work.” In Sex Work: Rethinking the Job, Respecting the Workers, eds C. Parent et al (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2013).

• Tara Lyons et al. Negotiating Violence in the Context of Transphobia and Criminalization: The Experiences of Trans Sex Workers in Vancouver, Canada. Qualitative Health Research v. 27(2), pp 182- 190 (2017)

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In addition, please choose one of the following two articles:

• Sarah Hunt, “Representing Colonial Violence: Trafficking, Sex Work, and the Violence of Law,” Atlantis v. 37 n.2 (2015-2016): 25-39.

• Ava Rose, “Punished for Strength: Sex Worker Activism and the Anti-Trafficking Movement,” Atlantis v. 37 n.2 (2015-2016): 57-64

Please note that the articles listed on this assignment sheet are NOT formatted according to MLA style. B. Read the Assigned Research Articles/Conduct Research

Choose your required 3 articles, read them thoroughly, and take detailed notes on the readings. To prepare for your Research Assessment, it is important to consider how you read, not just what you read. When reading, keep the following guidelines in mind to help you think and read critically:

• Identify the thesis and evaluate the way in which the author uses the evidence they present

• Think about how different authors agree or disagree when they write on the same subject---what is causing the disagreement? What kinds of evidence do they use? How might different evidence change the outcome of their analysis? Which interpretation do you find most convincing?

• Describe the author’s viewpoint and the evidence they use to support their argument

• Is their argument convincing? Why or why not? Be critical – strengthens and weaknesses.

C. Write an Annotated Bibliography

This is a listing of books or articles on your particular topic, arranged alphabetically by the last name of the author. These are listed in MLA citation style (see examples below). In addition to this bibliographic information, under each source you will briefly summarize each book or article and assess its value to your topic. Keep in mind the following questions to consider when summarizing and commenting on the value of your source:

• Condense the author’s main ideas into your own words (see last section here on avoiding plagiarism)

• Note the author’s main point (thesis), and the key evidence used to support it

• Describe the author’s viewpoint and reason/purpose for writing

• Note the most important evidence the author presents to support his/her thesis

• Explain why this source is useful and how it might contribute to the topic under consideration Here is an example of an annotation taken from a well-known history source:

Piven, Frances Fox and Richard A. Cloward. Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare. New York: Pantheon Books, 1971. This book details the history of social welfare in the United States through an examination and analysis of key federal government policies such as unemployment insurance, social welfare, and education policies. The authors argue that the welfare state did not develop from the government’s humanitarian concern for the vulnerability of the poor, but because the state wanted to ensure that poor people did not organize together collectively to overthrow liberal capitalism in favour of social

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democracy. The authors explore the conditions under which the poor have organized to demand better welfare conditions, arguing that welfare organizers and social workers play a key role in enrolling the poor on public welfare programs in order to force federal responsibility for welfare. While this is an American study, the theme of welfare state development and popular organizing is also relevant to Canadian welfare policies, particularly in regard to the relationship between municipal funding and federal regulation of welfare state policy.

D. Short Research Assessment

(800-1000 words, 2-3 pages double-spaced in a 12-point font, 2.5 cm margins) Write a short assessment of the research that you have undertaken for this assignment that: (a) highlights the main points of your research, (b) demonstrates your ability to critically assess the research and (c) presents your research in a straightforward and compelling manner. This is where you will develop a thesis statement and an overview of the research which supports that statement. Your assessment should include:

• A title that attracts attention and hints at what your essay is about

• An introductory paragraph which states your topic of study and has a clear thesis statement

• An essay body which provides: an overview of the key arguments drawn from your research to support your thesis and a few well-chosen examples drawn from the readings to illustrate your points.

• The essay body should have well-developed paragraphs, each with a topic sentence that relates back to the thesis statement. Each sentence in that paragraph should support the topic sentence by providing evidence from the research or your own critical viewpoint. Make sure that all sentences in a paragraph relate to each other and the topic sentence; move new ideas to a new paragraph.

Some ideas to keep in mind:

• Is there consensus on the research topic that you chose? If not, what are the major debates?

• How have the scholars you have read discussed the topic?

• Remember that the final assessment is an attempt to answer the topic question, so your answer should be based on the research you have completed.

Developing a Thesis and an Introductory Paragraph Keep in mind the overall project of your research paper, remembering that a research assessment is more than a series of factual statements about a certain topic. A good research paper explores and explains the significance of the topic of choice and has a thesis statement that reflects what you have concluded about the topic under consideration and which answers the question posed. It is based on the critical analysis and interpretation that you developed when you read the sources for your paper. You cannot develop a good thesis statement without critically reading your sources. You are trying to present the reader of your paper with a convincing argument, so remember that the thesis is the central point to which all the information in the paper relates. Your thesis statement will be imbedded in an introductory paragraph. Here you should:

• Let your readers know the topic of your paper

• Put the topic of your paper into context

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• State your thesis: the position you will take on the topic

• Explain the main ways that you will attempt to argue your paper

• Try, as much as possible, to attract your readers’ attention and interest A quick note about your Conclusion Always end your paper with a conclusion that emphasizes why your topic is important and what your paper has argued. Without a conclusion, your paper will end abruptly. Be sure to end with a paragraph that states the most important conclusions you have reached about your topic, and why you think your conclusions are important or significant. Do not introduce new ideas, facts, or information in the conclusion. III: PROPERLY FORMATTING YOUR SOURCES For this class, please use the MLA citation style for your final research assessment. Here is a link to the university style guide: https://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/cite-write/citation-style-guides/mla In your assessment, using the MLA citation style means that you will use parenthetical (in-text) citations. If you directly quote from, summarize or use the ideas or arguments from a book or article, please list (in brackets) the author's last name, followed by a space and the page number without any other punctuation. For example:

Some scholars argue that sex work should be regulated like other forms of labour (Bruckert 99).

If you incorporate the author's name in the text of your paper, only provide the page number in parentheses, for example:

Bruckert states that "sex work should be regulated as a form of labour" (99).

For your annotated bibliography, list all your sources alphabetically by last name. Titles of books or journals are in italics. The second line is a hanging indent. For example:

Bagchi, Alaknanda. "Conflicting Nationalisms: The Voice of the Subaltern in Mahasweta Devi's Bashai Tudu." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, vol. 15, no. 1, 1996, pp. 41-50.

It is your responsibility to learn how to format your sources accurately. The rules change depending on the number of authors and the type of source that you use. Consult the MLA Guide. IV: TIPS ON WRITING AND ORGANIZING Outlines and drafts: Most good papers begin with a detailed outline. Develop a working title and a working thesis statement. Plan out the major themes of your paper and the basic points that you will make to argue your paper. I strongly suggest writing a draft paper before handing in a final paper. This will give you a chance to see if the paper has a good sense of organization, your arguments and sentences are clear and focused, the spelling and grammar is correct, and the paper has all the required elements. Revise your draft until you are confident that your paper is as good as it can be. You may find it helpful to read your paper aloud, as this forces you to listen to your sentences, which means you are more likely to catch lapses in grammar, organization and logic. I also recommend that you take the time to have a friend read over your paper, and/or that you take your paper to a FIC Writing Tutorial.

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Examples and evidence: Be careful to provide specific examples and evidence to back up your general arguments. But be choosy; don’t get bogged down with too many details. There are different types of evidence for you to consider. For example, if one theme of your paper is that that sex workers face violence, you will want to back this up by providing a specific example of what you mean, define the kinds of violence sex workers face, perhaps provide a statistic or two, and show how the law contributes to dangerous working conditions. Without examples to back up your larger points, your paper will be a series of general statements. Some things to keep in mind for your opening paragraph:

• Don’t open with a global statement, such as “From the beginning of time, women and men have always……”, or “Prostitution is the oldest profession…”. These kinds of statements are huge generalizations, and so broad that they are meaningless.

• Include the subject of the paper, the time frame of the discussion, and the place or the people involved.

• Remember that your thesis statement is the heart of your paper and of your opening paragraph—it is best to keep your introduction short (1 paragraph), and to state your thesis clearly

V: PLAGIARISM AND POLICIES

• Your assignment is due on April 4 in-class. Late essays without a medical note will be deducted at 5% per day including weekends. Review the Late Policy.

• Your assignment must be typed, double-spaced, in a 12-pt font, with 2.25 cm margins left and right.

• Observe the page limit. Your Instructor reserves the right to disregard any pages over the limit.

• Please make sure every source is accurately documented. Plagiarism will not be tolerated and will result in an F on the assignment.

Definition of plagiarism Plagiarism is the act of taking the words, ideas or research of another author and using them in your essay as if they were your own words. When you derive either facts or ideas from the work of other writers, you must cite the sources of your information. However, remember that it is not only direct quotations that you need to cite. You must also cite the major ideas that you use from other sources and you must also cite when you paraphrase information. You don’t need to provide citations from common knowledge, such as dates, names, etc. If in doubt, it is better to be safe and cite the source. The whole point of this is to enable your readers to distinguish between your ideas and that of other people, as well as to find out where your information comes from. It is against the code of ethics of SFU and FIC to plagiarize, and all students caught plagiarizing will automatically receive a grade of 0 on the assignment. Quoting and paraphrasing Copying a passage word for word from a source without putting it in quotes is plagiarism. Quotes provide information and examples for your paper, but you must be careful not to end up with a paper that is no more than a series of quotes strung together. You should choose the ones you use with care. Only use a quotation when you feel that the quote is compelling, or the words are memorable or striking. Keep your quotations as brief as possible. In a short paper like this, no more than 10% of your paper should be direct quotes.

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Try not to quote when you can paraphrase. This shows that you have studied and analyzed the information from your research and are able to put it in your own words. Be careful, when paraphrasing, to not simply change a few words or simply leave out a few of the original words. The changes must be more than just editorial. You should think about what the source says, understand the content, and then express the ideas in your own words. Once you have done this, be sure to provide a citation of the original location of the material. You must do this even if you do not use a direct quote. Some plagiarism is obvious, including:

• Deliberately copying long sections from a book or article

• Buying a research paper and presenting it as your own work

• Copying or having another student write your paper for you

• Handing in substantially similar papers to two separate classes Some plagiarism is not deliberate, but it is still serious:

• Taking key ideas form another source such as a book or journal article or website, but not providing footnotes or endnotes or any other citation. Please be careful—even if you include that source in your bibliography but fail to include it in the body of the paper, this is plagiarism. You must always acknowledge where the original idea came from.

• Taking an original text and only changing some of the words or rearranging the order of the material is plagiarism. You must put quotation marks around the words that are taken directly from the source and you must also include a citation to indicate where the ideas and information come from.

Using quotation marks properly Quotation marks are used in pairs to signal the beginning and the end of a direct quotation. Integrate “quotations of four or fewer lines into the text of your paper.” For the rare occasion when you use longer quotes, quotations that are longer than four lines should be blocked off from the rest of the text. Set-off quotations are indented 10 spaces from the left margin and double-spaced. You do not need quotation marks in this case. VI: SOME COMMON WRITING PROBLEMS I’ve included a list and brief explanation of some of the most common essay problems. Review them and ensure that your own writing does not contain these grammatical and structural errors. Note, however, that this is not an exhaustive list! It may be a wise investment to buy a writing guide to not only help you avoid errors but also help you to write stronger, more creative papers. There are many such guides on the market. Tips are available on the Student Learning Commons website and are very useful for students working on their writing skills. Misplaced Modifiers Most sentences depend on word order for clarity of meaning. Therefore, modifiers should be placed as close as possible to the words that they modify. For example:

Incorrect: The waiter brought a steak to the young man covered with mushrooms. Correct: The waiter brought a steak covered with mushrooms to the young man.

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Slang/informal language Avoid slang expressions and clichés in a formal research essay. Try to avoid contractions (e.g. can’t, doesn’t), informal phrases (e.g. show up instead of arrive), or various slang phrases. Try to be clear and direct in your writing as well. Avoid phrases such as “due to the fact that” or “according to me” or “now talking about” that only serve to clutter your argument. Sentence structure Active and passive voice Try to use the more emphatic active voice when you are writing.

Passive: Our boat was pushed by winds onto the rocks, where it was destroyed by waves. Active: Winds pushed our boat onto the rocks, where waves destroyed it.

Run-on sentences This occurs when you omit proper punctuation.

Incorrect: The legislators could not agree on the bill they had to stay in parliament. Correct: The legislators could not agree on the bill. They had to stay in parliament. OR Correct: The legislators could not agree on the bill, so they had to stay in parliament.

Subject-verb agreement This is the relationship between a verb and its subject. Every verb must agree in number and in person with its subject.

E.g.: A singular subject and a singular verb: Overcrowding causes many of the behavioural problems in our school system. Plural subject and verb: Fires destroy millions of dollars worth of property each year.

Tenses The tense of a verb indicates when an action takes place. Be sure to use the proper tense in your writing: past, present or future. Do not shift tenses in the middle of sentences or paragraphs. E.g. They spoke (past); They speak (present); They will speak (future) And for the most common problem of all…..its versus it is. It’s is the contraction of it is. Its is the possessive form of it. Test whether you are using the correct version by inserting the words it is in your sentence.

The rare bird is losing its habitat. (not it is) It is/it’s cold outside today. (not its)

VII: SUMMARY

• Carefully edit and proofread your paper before you hand it in to be marked.

• Never be afraid to use a dictionary or thesaurus, or to get extra help with your assignment.

• Be sure to number your pages, preferably in the top right-hand corners.

• Include your name, student number, course number, and the title of your paper.

• Be sure that you have an introduction and conclusion.

• Be sure that you have the minimum number of required sources.

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ASSIGNMENT CHECK LIST

 Assignments must be typed, double-spaced, 12 pt font, 2.5 cm margins, pages numbered, and must include all the following. Points will be deducted for not following this checklist.

Page 1

 Your full name and preferred name

 Your FIC student number

 The full course name and instructor’s name

 The date

 A unique Title that hints at your topic and the research you’ve done Pages 2-4/5

 An Annotated Bibliography (3-4 pages), correctly formatted using MLA style. All sources must be accurately documented. Plagiarism will not be tolerated and will result in an F on the assignment. Sources are in alphabetic order by author’s last name. Each annotation is 150-300 words and clearly summarizes and evaluates the source.

Pages 4/5 – 6/7

 Research Assessment essay (2-3 pages) correctly formatted using MLA style for all in-text citations. All sources must be accurately documented. Plagiarism will not be tolerated and will result in an F on the assignment.

*end of assignment – you do not need to include an additional works cited list* MARKING CRITERIA (25%) Research assignments will be marked based on the following:

❑ Quality of the annotated bibliography: accurate summary of the article, evidence of critical thinking, relevance to topic, relation to other articles

❑ Quality of the research assessment essay: use of evidence, evidence of critical thinking, clear thesis statement, attempt to answer the research question

❑ Formatting of annotated bibliography: correct documentation of articles and in-text citations using MLA style

❑ Quality of the writing: grammar, punctuation, organization, mechanics of good university-level writing

❑ Ability to follow instructions and presentation of the research: clearly laid out with headings and/or subheadings; pages numbered, title page and other requirements, university-level presentation