This paper is for my women’s rhetoric class. It is a personal reflection based off of readings available online.

The essay guidelines are below. This is a personal reflection essay based off of the readings which are available online. Information about me is that i’m a straight, 22 year old caucasian female from california. Let me know if you have any additional questions, thanks. 🙂

There will be three papers this semester that ask you to cover critical themes in our course. These papers are to be personal, combining your opinion, experience, or insight with what you’ve learned. What I want you to get out of these assignments is to demonstrate that you have read, that you have understood what you have read, and that you are able to relate to/identify with/challenge what you have read.

Papers will integrate ideas from our readings and class lectures. You must employ the voices of our rhetors in answering questions and refer to readings in bold or italics (not just discussion, but you may also include films and lectures) in order to receive minimum credit.

NOTE! These are analyses. That means you are making meaning from what you learn. These are applications, meaning you APPLY what you have learned by explicitly demonstrating it.

Requirements for a C:

MINIMUM of 4 full (not 3 ½) pages (7 pages max)

Includes a creative title

Uses BOLD or italics for course or textual references. (A MUST!!!)

Cites readings thoroughly and uses page #s and authors

Answers all bulleted areas

Nearly error free and written at a 400 level

12 pt. font, 1’’ margins, double spaced

A “B” paper will do the above and be well written and thorough in its response to questions. Course concepts will be used and written materials referenced, although perhaps not as thoroughly.

An “A” paper will do all of the above, and go beyond, using clever and thoughtful analysis, strong voice, and thorough reference to course content and reader. It will be 5+ pages. It will expand on ideas in original ways and cover more ground than the minimum, including the number of readings.

A paper that does not meet the above bulleted requirements will receive less than a passing grade. (D or F) These papers may contain a lot of grammatical errors, not answer all areas, and only use vocab and not citations.

Paper #1: Women’s Voices (15%)

Now that we have a basic understanding of the relationship between women’s language, and voice/representation, let’s examine our own experiences and opinions in relation to what we have read.

Additionally, you will be asked to respond to the readings through some degree of research on current events (news articles) using your observations in the culture, your family, work, or media. Go beyond what we have discussed in class; you will not succeed if you are not able to create original examples and complete original research.

In the Hunter College Article, symbolic representation is discussed. Beyond what we demonstrated in class, How/where do you see women defined or constructed in these symbolic, but limited ways? How/where do you see any challenges to this representation?

How do you see women’s place as the ‘Second Sex’ in our culture today? How do you see women defined in ways that relate to this set of readings on ‘what makes a woman’?

Using Lorde, Solnit, and Anzaldua, what examples do you have of silencing beyond what we discussed in class? “Man”splaining? Disappearing/erasing/taming? Perhaps you have experienced these phenomenon, perhaps you have witnessed, either personally or in the culture.

Kramarae argues that the language system constructs gender. Beyond what we discussed in class, what examples do you see or experience of a lack of representation in language or conversation?