ESSAY II:  STORIES ABOUT GENDER

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The clothes and behaviors depicted in these five photos suggest that boys and girls learn different identities and live out different stories.                       

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 What stories have shaped your experience of gender?  What roles have you learned to play?  How do we learn what it means to be a man or a woman?
Essay II Assignment Sequence
Date Homework Due In-Class Work
Day 8
9/17		 Read "Two Kinds" in Speculations (p. 9).   Identify four or five important parts of the story and develop a theory about how they work to convey an idea.  List some possible experiences in your life related to gender that you might use for Essay II. Discuss "Two Kinds" as a story and develop a "theory" about how several of the story's scenes make sense to create a theme.
Day 9
9/20		 Reread "Two Kinds" as a writer and discuss what you like about how Tan wrote the story, about the choices she made.  Refer to specific passages and create a name for what you like (e.g., symbolism) (about 1 page).  Do some freewriting on one of the experiences you listed last week (about 1 page).  Reading your freewrites for ideas.  Discuss "Two Kinds" from the point of view as a writer.  Start developing criteria for well written narratives.  Writing rules for men and women:  what are our questions about gender development?
Day 10
9/22		 First draft of Essay I due, with metatext.  E-mail me draft by 9:00 a.m.  See requirements of essay below.  Click here for student example. Exercise to move from summary to scene.  Possible work in pairs or groups to respond to drafts.    In-class writing to begin revision. 
Day 11
9/24		 Read "No-Name Woman" in Speculations (p. 337) and develop a "theory" as with "Two Kinds."  (Hint:   include scenes from very beginning and end.)  Respond using the two-column-entry format.  Afterwards, use the focused freewrite format to say what we learn about gender development or gender relations in China.  (One page after two-column work.)   Share responses to "No-Name Woman" and develop a "theory" about how all the pieces fit together.  If time, read your own story to think of it in terms of pieces that fit together.
Day 12
9/27		 Second draft of Essay I due, with metatext.  E-mail me draft by 9:00 a.m.  Consider especially the kind of effect you want to create for your reader and the word choice that will achieve this effect.  Possible writing process for this draft.. Editing work in pairs.  Establishment of a Grammar Log.   Start homework reading assignment in class to read for meaning.
Day 13
9/29		 Read Brent Staples essay, "Just Walk On By" (Speculations, 382), Sanders essay (handout), and Julia Kasdorf’s "The Knowledge of Good and Evil" (handout). Respond to one or two using double-entry journal and the remaining one or two by freewriting. In both cases, use some of your writing to articulate the main idea in a nonsimplistic fashion and to explore your own question about gender. Do a close reading of Julia's poem as a full class.   Share writing in class as a way to deepen the ideas you're developing about gender development and identity.
Day 14
10/1		 Final draft of Essay I due, printed, with metatext.  E-mail me a version, too.  Introduction to Essay III.

This is the only essay this term that will really be "just" a story.  It will be about an experience of yours or someone you know that  in some way casts some light on how we grow up as boys or girls in this society.  These stories will serve as the evidence for Essay III, in which we as a class will attempt to make some generalizations about gender in contemporary U.S. society.  But for now, the focus is on telling a story that entertains--and makes us think about gender formation in nonsimplistic ways. 

Requirements for Essay II:
+     Tells a story with a sense of scene and climax
+     Reveals something about what it's like to grow up a boy or girl
+     2-3 pages, typed, double-spaced, following MLA format