Woolf/Walker Essay

Requirements

Each student will write a two to three page essay responding to the readings. This essay is due at the beginning of class.  No late essays will be accepted without a medical or other excuse acceptable to the instructor. If necessary, students may email the essay as an attachment in WordPerfect X3 or below or Microsoft Word 2007 or below or a pdf file. 

1. Your essay should be word-processed, double-spaced, one-inch to one and one-half inch margins. It should be spell-checked and grammar-checked. Pages Numbered. Font no smaller than 12 point.

2. You should have a cover page with title, date, prompt, class and section, and your name. 

3.    Number each paragraph.  Bold your thesis.  After the end of the essay, attach an OUTLINE of the essay with the thesis clearly stated and at minimum a line for each paragraph.

4. Each essay should be approximately two to three pages long (not including the title page or Works Consulted page).

5. You must include a Works Consulted/Cited Page and/or Complete Footnotes/Endnotes.  You may use MLA, Turabian, Harvard, or University of Chicago in-text, footnote, or endnote styles. APA is OK, provided you add page numbers to it. CAREFUL AND CORRECT CITATION IS REQUIRED. WHEN IN DOUBT, CITE. Remember that simply paraphrasing or changing every third word is not OK. Quote and cite or radically summarize and cite. Use quotation marks when quoting or indent if quote is five lines or longer. Guessing at where your information comes from is not OK. Use page numbers in your in-text citations, footnotes or endnotes. Book or journal titles are italicized or underlined.  You need not consult any other sources than what we have read for class.  Those sources and any other sources you consult must be included in your Works Consulted/Cited and cited in-text or in footnotes/endnotes.

6. Your essay should define any key terms used, use examples to illustrate and support your argument where appropriate, and discuss likely alternatives or respond to possible objections.

Please consult the Essay Grading/Proofreading Rubric for further details.

Choose One of the following prompts (questions/topics) to write about:

1. Describe one key similarity and one key difference between Woolf’s and Walker’s thought as expressed in the readings.  Use examples from the texts to illustrate. How would you evaluate these two points? (Note that Walker cites Woolf on 235, 239, and 240; you may want to consider whether the similarity/difference is related to presuppositions, interpretation or construal of data, historical and social context,  life experience, etc.)

2.  Would you characterize the lives of women discussed by both Woolf and Walker as "oppressed"?  In what way?  If you do not believe the women in these discussions are oppressed, how would you characterize their situation? In your answer, be sure to define "oppression."

3. Describe how race, class, and economics as well as gender play into the arguments of Woolf and Walker?  Be sure to use textual examples.

4.  Discuss at least two examples of how Woolf and Walker use comparison to make their points. How effective is this technique?

5. Is Woolf making an argument for the essential similarity and/or difference between men and women? How does Walker shed a different light on this question?

6.  ****Wildcard.  Topic of your choice, ask or email instructor about question.