Feminism

Instructions for Essay 3 and Its Proposal

Below are the instructions for Essay 3. Below that there are instructions for the Proposal for Essay 3. I will provide feedback to the proposals, which could be quite helpful. But what matters in the end is how good is Essay 3: The Proposal is part of is to help with the Essay 3 Writing Project.

I. Instructions for Essay 3

• Essay 3 will be between 700 and 1000 words long. (This is only a little longer than Essay 2.) You must use this space effectively: Don’t be over ambitious, but instead stay on a tightly focused topic.

• Essay 3 is due on the day of the final exam, December 15.

• Essay 3 is like Essays 1 and 2 in that A) it should be interesting; B) it centers on your own ideas, opinions, or claims, which should be plausible and reasonable; C) It should not state the obvious, D) it should develop a focused topic on gender: it is better to dig deep into a topic than to treat several subtopics in a superficial manner; E) it should be a coherent train of thought. F) it can be either a persuasive essay that argues for a major claim (or thesis), or it can be exploration of a focused topic (either way, it should have some “point”); G) it is a creative project: You are in charge to make it the best essay possible H) it should not drift off into vague generalities or idealizations; I) nor should it merely summarize other people’s ideas: this is not a research paper (if you quote or use other people’s ideas this should be clearly noted J) your audience is an informed one (represented by me), not a popular audience (such as one finds on low-quality and/or idealistic websites).

• Like Essay 2. Essay 3 must significantly engage one required text. But unlike Essay 2, Essay 3 will engage a required text from Unit II (the second half of the course, beginning with Shakespeare). You need to discuss and comment on the required text that you picked substantially, for at least about a quarter of the essay or so (or anything more, up to the whole essay). Discuss a specific idea or a specific passage from the essay. It’s a good idea to use short quotations from the required text. These quotes should be commented on and integrated into your discussion (do not use long quotes).

• Engaging a specific or a few specifics from the required text early on in Essay 3, probably soon after a short introductory paragraph (which may only provide the topic, text and upshot). Engaging a specific of the required text should anchor your essay and discourage the common tendency of drifting off into vague generalities. The engagement with a required text should help to provide a tight focus for your essay.

• After you engage the required text (or part of it) by discussing how the text raises an interesting specific issue, then you may discuss the same issue apart from the text and in general.

• Each prompt under each of the four topics on the “Group Work Review Sheet Unit 2” (in BB’s Course Material) can function as a suggestion about how to relate a required text to a topic: These can prompt you to help you develop your ideas using a required text. These are only prompts to help you begin to develop your ideas on a large topic by using a required text. As you develop your ideas, you should probably modify the topic to a tighter focus.

• Use my feedback that you will get if you submit a Proposal for Essay 3 (see below), and also keep in mind my feedback to your first two essays.

• Carefully edit the essay. Is there anything that should be developed? Is there anything that should be cut? Did you effectively and concisely discuss the required text and the issue it raises, or is your essay too wordy? Is the essay organized in an effective manner? Are all the main points very clear?

• Carefully proofread the essay. I suggest that you have someone slowly read it out loud to you, so that their voice will tell you if the essay is clear and well written. And their voice should tell you if they understand the essay and its main point(s).

• The essay must be clear and well written (small problems don’t matter). If needed, get help from a Lehman Tutor: https://www.lehman.edu/academics/instructional-support-services/online-writing-tutor.php. For the virtual waiting room: https://us.bbcollab.com/collab/ui/session/guest/adf7cbc464854e299feb75e3e9e15442

• Try your best to finish by the deadline (December 15), but it’s always better to take another day or two if it will significantly improve the essay. If you need more than two days extra, email me to request an extension. I will have to get final grades in soon after December 17 (and I will have much work to do), so, there will be much less extra time than for Essays 1 and 2.

• Any time you use someone else’s words, they must be in quotation marks and the source must be provided; otherwise, it is plagiarism, and the essay will receive an F. Even a short passage of 5 or 6 words can be plagiarism. If you change a few words in a passage, it is still plagiarism. See the syllabus (in BB’s Course Materials) for more information on plagiarism.

• It would be good if you bring in a little research of good quality, at least as good as Wikipedia, which is often a helpful short resource on many topics. Do not use blogs, Shmoop or any poor-quality webpage. (The research is usually not a major factor in the essay’s grade.)

• At the end of the essay, have a Works Cited list that includes (in alphabetical order of the author’s last name or first word) the required text, the one piece of research, and any other source that you used and cited (mentioned/used) in the body of your essay. For the required work, the entry in the works cited list should have the author’s last and first name, the title of the piece, and then something like this: Lehman College’s Blackboard: LEH 352: Scenes from the History of Gender, Fall 2020 (if it was provided by me BB, as all required texts were except Twelfth Night). If the citation is for research is from the internet, include the URL and the date accessed. (For other types of sources, consult your writer’s handbook.) Each entry should begin with the author’s last name (if possible), which should have been clearly referred to in the essay when the work was used. (The Works Cited list is not a major factor in the essay’s grade.)

II. Proposal For Essay 3

Students can receive feedback on essay ideas by sending me a proposal. The proposal should be about 100 to 150 words long or so, providing me with enough of your plan to allow me to provide feedback. The proposal should include the required text that you will engage, your topic, and some idea of how you will develop the essay, or a short summary of your ideas so far. The proposal should be emailed to [email protected] (not to my Lehman address). The proposal allows me to help when it is most effective: when you’re developing ideas. The sooner you send me a proposal, the sooner I will provide you with feedback (I’ll need a several days).