California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
English Department
Dr. Johanna Rubba
LAST UPDATED 9/17/10

ENGL 495 Language and Gender Fall 2010

Instructions for preparing your term paper

Link to 495 home page

• Print this page out and refer to it often while working on your paper.
  
  
• WARNING: BACK UP your work frequently. A simple way to do this is to e-mail the paper to yourself every time you edit it. You can also use a thumb drive (memory stick). Be ready to print the final version far enough ahead of time to deal with printer problems. Computer/printer problems will NOT be considered a vaild excuse for handing papers in late.
  
  
• NOTE: ALL FORMS OF CHEATING WILL RESULT IN LOWERING OF THE COURSE GRADE (INCLUDING A POSSIBLE 'F' FOR THE COURSE) AND A REPORT TO THE OFFICE OF STUDENT RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES. VISIT THEIR WEBSITE AND STUDY ALL OF ITS PAGES CAREFULLY. SERIOUS OFFENSES CAN RESULT IN EXPULSION FROM CAL POLY. READ ALSO MY PLAGIARISM WARNING. Accidental plagiarism is easy, but not excusable. It is also easy to avoid.
  
  
• Contents of this page:  Objective & Tasks - Schedule of Due Dates - Required Content - Grading criteria - Formatting Requirements - Two Types of Studies
  
• Associated Pages: Topic Suggestions - Proposal Instructions - Model Papers
  
  
• OBJECTIVE:To give you an opportunity to do hands-on, original research in language & gender. Also, every time I teach this course, one or two people derive their senior project from it. This topic is easily combined with interests such as literature, teaching, journalism, or ESL teaching.
  
  
• There are four tasks which come together in the project:
  1. Collecting, organizing, and interpreting real data from real subjects / sources (a subject is a person whose behavior you study)
  2. Interpreting your data in the context of the theories and findings of previous language and gender research relevant to your topic
  3. Applying relevant course concepts to your data
  4. Being able to report (1), (2) and (3) in well-organized, college-level prose appropriate to a 400-level course, that conforms to standard academic usage, and conforming to the REQUIRED format set out below. My Editing Tips page (click here) has advice for SOME typical problems.
     
     
• There are two types of projects that can be done for this paper: empirical or quantitative studies and Critical Discourse Analysis.   A description of each is at the bottom of this web page.
  
  
• GROUP WORK: In my experience, group work often goes badly. This paper is worth 25% of your grade, so you don't want to take unnecessary risks. If you decide to work with others, it is best to work with people you already know well or have worked with before. I will NOT mediate group conflicts. Group members themselves are responsible for making sure each member does a fair share of work. Very often, in group projects, one person winds up doing most of the work. All group members receive the same grade (high or low!), however, regardless of who did how much work. Groups are limited to two persons.
  
  
• SCHEDULE:
  • Proposal (Click here for instructions)
    • Due  Weds., Oct. 5th (Week 3) NO extensions. Changes in project topics MUST be discussed with and approved by me early in the quarter.
  • Class presentations of your projects will take place possibly beginning in Week 10 (11/21) but most definitely in Week 11 (11/28-30).
  • PAPER DUE:
    • A pre-final draft, to be submitted electroncially, is due on Tuesday, Nov. 22nd (the day before Thanksgiving break).
    • The final draft is due on the last day of class, Weds., Nov. 30th. DO NOT miss class if your paper isn't done.
  • Extensions: Will be given only in cases of documentable emergency.
    
    
• REQUIRED CONTENT
  
  
  • Most of the articles we read are excellent models for your report. Your required format is very similar to these. All papers MUST have the following sections, titled as shown below.
  • IMPORTANT: Linguists prefer papers with clearly-defined subsections to the all-one-piece, continuous essays that are typical of literature papers or other formal essays. Even our theoretical papers are like this, e.g., Bing & Bergvall. Your paper must have subsections with subtitles as shown below; you may also want to have subsections within these.
  • Note on Human Subjects:The University has a committee whose job it is to assure that any research done by Cal Poly faculty or students campus does not put people used for research at unreasonable risk. Course papers do not require this approval. But if you think you might want to present or publish your research one day (this is not implausible, especially for graduate students), you do need it. The Human Subjects Committee recommends, but does not require, approval for senior projects. Approval of projects using anonymous questionnaires is very easy, in fact usually exempt from committee review (though they still have to be reported). Interviews or recordings of volunteer adults is slightly more complex, but also not very difficult. A project that uses children (under age 18) requires the most rigorous process. But remember, this is only required if you plan to someday publish or present your paper. The HS Committee does not meet all that often, so you must submit a request for approval at least a week, preferably two, in advance of collecting data.
    
    
• The following five sections MUST appear in your paper. This is the standard format for linguistics research papers.
  
  
  • I. BACKGROUND (or INTRODUCTION):
    State the research question you wish to answer, or the hypothesis / hypotheses you wish to test. You will develop this by reading our class texts and finding and reading library sources directly related to your topic choice. In this section, you must also place your research question/hypothesis in the context of previous language and gender research and theory: Summarize results from similar studies; integrate your research question with theoretical models (deficit, dominance, difference, sexist language, etc.) and methods (experimental, critical discourse analysis). Cite our class readings (textbook and articles) as well as other scholars' work. You should cite more than one or two sources in this section. At the end of this section, give your reader a look-forward by summarizing your method, results, and conclusion (in 1-2 paragraphs). (Clearly, you can wait until your whole paper is finished to write this section.) I would expect this section to cover 3-5 pages. You must apply course concepts and use terminology relevant to your topic.
    
    
  • II. METHOD:
    (1-2 pages) Describe in some detail how you went about collecting information or data for your research. Keep your people and institutional sources anonymous. Give facts about them such as their age, sex, and role in your project, but leave out their names. Use made-up names if you need a name. Include a copy of any research instruments used (questionnaires, list of interview questions, checklist of behaviors, etc.) in an appendix at the end of the paper. Then give a brief description of your method of analyzing the data: If you did a quantitative study, what did you count and how did you do a numerical analysis (you do not need to do statistical analysis; percentages, etc. will suffice). (Do not give actual numbers in this section; see Results below.) If you did a Critical Discourse Analysis study, what did you look for in your language samples? What did you leave in and leave out and why?
    
    Note: It is not necessary to describe how you chose your topic, how and where you sought articles and books, or what lengths you went to to find volunteers. Study the Method sections of our various readings very closely to see the kind of information typically found there.
    
    
  • III. RESULTS:
    (1-2 pages) Give the results of your research. If your study is quantitative, give all appropriate numbers: totals as well as numbers which prove patterns, such as percentages and subtotals. Visual presentation of results via bar graphs, pie charts, and tables is strongly encouraged (No single graphic should occupy more than a quarter of a page. If you need large graphics, put them in an appendix and refer the reader to them; appendices do not count towards the page count requirement). Also, give a brief verbal summary of the results.
    
    
  • IV. ANALYSIS OF RESULTS:
    This is the most important section of your paper. It should also be the longest part. This section is where you interpret your results. Some questions you might address are: What do the results mean in terms of your research question or hypothesis? Were your findings expected, given past research or theory? Were there unexpected results? What do the results imply for the interaction of language and gender? Do they fit theories of language/gender? Do you see implications for education, civil rights, employment, commerce, etc.?** Given your findings, what do you conclude about the current state of cultural conceptions of the relevant gender categories (fem., masc., gay, lesbian, bisexual)? It is absolutely essential in this section to cite our class readings (textbook and articles) as well as other scholars' work for support of your reasoning and conclusions. Citations should be relatively generous (3 per page is reasonable), and from various sources: Don't depend too much on one or two sources. You MUST apply course concepts and use terminology relevant to your topic here. The whole point of this part of the paper is to demonstrate that you understand the Course Concepts well enough to use them to analyze real language.
    
    **You should avoid taking an ideological position in your paper. Consider this an exercise in OBJECTIVITY: you can observe which side of a controversy your analysis favors, but do not take a position yourself, even if you have strong feelings about the subject. Some of our readings do take a strong position, but this doesn't license you to do so. Let's say, for example, that you find that even strong female characters (e.g., the princess in Shrek) are subject to norms of female beauty (in disguise, she's beautiful by normal standards; as an ogre, she's still cute, especially by comparison with Shrek. She has long eyelashes, a shapely mouth, and is proportionally chubby rather than obese). An inappropriate response would be "Such characterizations are extremely offensive, because they continue to set sexist and unreasonable standards of beauty that every woman must meet in order to be acceptable to a man -- even an ugly, uncouth character like Shrek." Step back: at the least, put those words in a hypothetical mouth : "Some would find such characterizations offensive, claiming that they demonstrate that ... ". Even more objectively, one could say "These characterizations indicate that a woman, even an ogre, must meet certain societal standards of beauty to be acceptable to men -- even characters intended to be perceived as unattractive and uncouth, such as Shrek." If want to include suggestions for reform in your paper, you would need to preface them something like this: "Those who seek to reform this practice might ... (what they might do)."
    
    IMPORTANT NOTE: Papers that are using critical discourse analysis as their primary means of analyzing data can merge the results and interpretation sections (III & IV) into one section (again, this is typical of the model papers we will be reading all along).
    
    
  • V. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
    Identify work by other authors (including our textbook/course readings) that you cited in your report, such as books or research articles. These must follow a standard format such as MLA or APA. If you don't know what this means, FIND OUT! Many college writing manuals show you how to do this. List ONLY sources that you actually cite or quote from in your paper, not 'works consulted but not cited'. At least SIX sources are required.
  • INTERNET sources: I encourage you to get actual books and journals into your hands, from Kennedy or another library (LINK+ is an excellent interlibrary source; books often arrive within days). However, if you use Internet sources, they must be respectable scholarly sources, such as peer-reviewed journals or downloaded books. As to websites, university sites are often reliable. The addresses for these sites end in in .edu in the USA, but .ac.uk, .ac.au, and .ac.ca for England, Australia, and Canda, respectively. Sites ending in .org can be useful, but often belong to advocacy groups with a strong bias. .com sites are the least reliable -- these are often misinformed, perpetuating popular myths; and any whacko can buy a site and post whatever they want. .gov sites can be useful for statistics and similar information, such as demographics, as well, of course, for laws and policies. But government positions on particular issues may not be based on solid science.
    
    Some sites you cannot use: Wikipedia or any other encyclopedia, Google Books (only portions of these books are posted, so you lack the larger context of what's being said), personal blogs, social media sites, etc. If an organization has a Facebook page, for example, go to the home site of the organization for your information. Concerning journalistic sources: most journalists are not experts in either linguitics or gender studies. They also do not usually have the space to give the full context of the topic. They may tend towards sensationalism, oversimplification and hyping. Be cautious with such sources, especially in newspapers and popular magazines such as Time. If their piece is reporting what experts are doing/saying, then it is what the experts say that would be legitimate to quote.
    
    If your data sources are published material (e.g., a men's magazine, or a novel), you must include them in your bibliography. However, they DO NOT COUNT towards the six required references. For instance, if you are analyzing language in Hemingway's A Movable Feast, you would cite the edition of the book you used as a data source, but you would still need six scholarly sources in addition.
    
    
    • APPENDICES:
      Your paper may need an appendix, for instance, if you are using a questionnaire, you need to include a copy there; if you are including images that have to be large to see detail, they would also go there. If you're unsure whether you need an appendix, let me know. Appendices go after the bibliography, and do not count towards the minimum page count (but you should number all pages).
      
      
• WHAT ARE "SOURCES"?
  • Once in a while, a student becomes confused about what counts as which kind of "source." You must differentiate between your sources of data -- where you get the language you are analyzing from -- and your research sources -- work by other scholars that you use to set up background for your study and that you use for support of your analysis or that you might be challenging. Let's suppose you're studying Sports Illustrated to compare its depiction of female vs. male athletes. The articles in the magazine are your data source. Now, suppose you've found two research articles that have studied similar data, one by Angus McGillicutty and one by Mechthild Funkenblaser. If you use these studies to describe the research that has been done on your topic, or you use their ideas as support for the claims of your analysis, these are research sources.
    
    
• DEFINITIONS & EXAMPLES
  • A hypothesis is a prediction that you will test and prove or disprove through your data. It can make a claim, but the claim is in the form of a specific prediction regarding your specific project.
    • Example: "My hypothesis is that greeting cards, specifically birthday cards, are gendered for either their male recipient or their female recipient."
  • A thesis is a claim, taking a position, which you will argue for in your paper, using either quantitative or CDA data.
    • Example: "Television shows like "Sex and the City" are viewed by some as depicting the truly liberated woman -- the product of a successful feminist movement. In this paper, I will demonstrate that the image of women in this series reflects only partial progress towards dismantling traditional sex roles for women."
  • A research question neither predicts nor claims; it states something you wish to investigate. You may be investigating it in order just to find out what is going on, or you may be wanting to compare your results with earlier studies that have addressed the same question.
    • Example: "In this paper, I investigate the depiction of gender norms in a sample of comic strips appearing on Mother's Day and Father's Day, respectively, over the past 40 years. To what degree do the strips codify gender norms of their period for fathers and mothers? Are social changes in these norms visible over the decades?"
  • NOTE: These examples are from student papers from a previous offering of this course.
    
    
• RESEARCH REPORT GRADING: The papers are graded on these criteria:
  • Quality of the analysis (foremost criterion) -- shows understanding of the data, of relevant course concepts, and of others' research on the topic; uses sound reasoning in the analysis.
  • Soundness of methods of collection and analysis.
  • Quality of the writing: clear organization; clear, academic-level prose, with appropriate use of words and careful attention to formal grammar, punctuation, and manuscript form. Note: Linguistics papers (especially by novices) are not expected to have individual flair or high literary style. The most important qualities of a research report are rigorous organization, clarity of explanations and presentation of information, depth of the content, and conciseness: saying everything you need to say straightforwardly, in as little prose as possible. High-quality prose in this genre features varied, complex sentence structure, but it must also be very clear and straightforward. Your subject matter must be what impresses the reader, not your flair or voice as a writer. Flair and individual voice are highly valued in other genres, but not in this genre (at least not until you have reached a position of some eminence).
  • Flaws in any of these areas can result in a lower grade. Though #1 is most important, flaws in the other areas can be very damaging. Revisit my Grading Standards for more detail.
    
    
• FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS
  
  TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE FREE TUTORS IN THE WRITING LAB, Bldg. 10 Rm. 138, for help with organization and editing. This is especially important for people who have little experience writing upper-division term papers. Note that the tutors will not proofread or edit your papers for you. They can help you find problems and remedy them, but you must do the work of making necessary changes. Also, you should have specific questions in mind when you go there (for example, if you see something on my Editing Tips page that you don't understand).
  
  
• Title page: At the top of your first page, either right- or left-justified, put your name, your major, the date, and the title of the course. Do not put this on a separate page. NO report covers, please — I'll just staple the paper and you won't get your cover back.
  
  
• USE THIS CHECKLIST as you prepare your paper. Check it again when working on your final draft. Not conforming to these formatting requirements will cost you points.
  1. ____ I have examined and followed the project instructions on Dr. Rubba's web pages.
  2. ____ My term paper follows the required organization, with the prescribed titles:  ____ Background, ____ Method, ____ Results, ____ Discussion, ( ____ Conclusion), ____ Bibliography, ( ____ Appendix)
  3. ____ The paper is divided into sections with subheadings; it is not one, continuous essay.
  4. ____ My pages are numbered either in the top right or lower right corner.
  5. ____ My paper is double-spaced, not 1.5 space.
  6. ____ My margins are 1"-1.25" all around; no more, no less. (Learn how to change margins in your word processor.)
  7. ____ My paper is between 12 and 15 pages in length, excluding bibliography and any appendices. Graduate students: 15-20 pp.
  8. ____ The paper is in 12-point Times, Times Roman or Times New Roman font.
  9. ____ I do not skip a line between paragraphs; I indent new paragraphs. None of my paragraphs takes up most or all of a page.
  10. ____ None of my graphics (tables, charts, graphs, images) takes up more than a quarter of a page. I have put large items in an appendix.
  11. ____ I have avoided "widows" and "orphans" (that is, a page that ends with the single line of a new paragraph or with a new section subtitle. Break to a new page if this is going to happen.
  12. ____ My bibliography is presented according to MLA or APA format.
  13. ____ I have included an appendix if appropriate.
  14. ____ I have visited Dr. Rubba's Editing Tips page on her website and made sure my paper conforms to the requirements given there, especially those listed at the top of the page.
  15. ____ I have taken the paper through at least two drafts and have carefully checked spelling, punctuation, and grammar. I have used my own eyes as well as a spell-checker. I do not recommend using grammar checkers. Half the time, their suggestions are wrong.
      
      
• TWO TYPES OF STUDIES
  • There are two sorts of projects appropriate for this course:
    • Experimental/empirical/quantitative studies: In this type, you set up a task or use questionnaires, record language in use or collect examples from media or literature. You look for particular features in your data (for example, the number of times a speaker interrupts another speaker, or the number of male, female, heterosexual or homosexual characters in a book or a television show, etc.) These studies tend strongly towards the quantitative, meaning you will have numerical quantities of the features you are targeting. Often, the amount of data is large (e.g., 60 questionnaires filled out by students in a Gen Ed class; the number of times generic "man" is used in an anthropology textbook). You then use the numerical results (which, if collected in a sound fashion, can't be argued with) to support or refute your initial expectations going in to the study, and place it in the context of theories and findings of other language/gender researchers.
    • Qualitative/Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) studies: In this type of study, you also collect data, but the amount of data is usually smaller: in-depth interviews with 5-6 people; the language and images in a magazine, government document, health brochure, the language of a courtroom trial, etc. Often, the data comprises language chosen to illustrate the point, rather than the less-controlled data that comes from an experiment. For instance, August appeals to common phrases and slogans such as "innocent women and children" (all men are combatants?) or "choosy mothers choose Jif" or "kid-tested, Mom-approved" (fathers never shop for food or decide their children's diet content). You interpret the data by seeing how the language and images enforce society's norms or perhaps challenge them. The quantity of data is less important in this type of study. Again, you analyze what you find in terms of concepts and theories of language and gender, as well as research by others in the discipline. This type of study is more interpretive, since your explanation of the data often depends your readers' agreement that the language in your data means what you claim it means
    • These two types of study can blend in one study when quantitative data is interpreted in terms of the assumptions or norms of a society. Although qualitative studies are more interpretive, it is still true that, as with linguistics research in general, there is less room for your personal opinion or subjective interpretations. Interpretations of data must be in strong accord with what the data show. Explanations of data cannot be speculative or based on your impressions of how the world works, or that 'everybody knows ... '. You must have data to confirm your claims and explanations; and you must cite previous research that supports your explanations.
    • Examples of experimental studies from our reading list include Eisikovits, Gastil, O'Barr & Atkins, and Meyers. In each case, data was collected and counted, and conclusions drawn from the numbers. Examples of CDA studies are August, Leap, Morrish, and Sheldon. In these cases, either everyday expressions (e.g., man up) or specific utterances (the jokes retold in Leap) are studied. The line between the two types of study is somewhat blurred: sometimes quantitative data are blended with CDA. I can help you clarify which way your study leans, or help you decide which kind you would be more successful with. Quantitative (experimental) studies are "neater" in that you gather data and count things, and the results are clearcut.  CDA data -- interview data or existing material such as magazines or movies -- require careful selection of relevant passages and perhaps more effort to coordinate the data with course concepts.