WMST 111 — Guidelines for Abstracts

1) What is an abstract? Abstracts may be submitted in class (typed please) or on the K: drive.

• Each abstract should begin with the author’s name and article title.  (Article titles in quotation marks; book titles underlined or italicize).
• An abstract is NOT a description of the article. 
• The purpose of an abstract is to synthesize the author’s argument and the key theoretical points that support it.  Be very careful about theoretical terms and assumptions; be sure that you use terms that are consistent with the author’s approach and language.
• An abstract usually does not include your opinion or response; it is written from the perspective of the article’s author.  So you’d be less likely to use “I” in the abstracts than in the comparison paragraph.
• In general, abstracts are ONE paragraph of about 5 sentences.

Some Additional Guidelines

• An abstract is not a list of the points an article makes.
• An abstract should read as a coherent paragraph that attempts to articlulate the argument.
• An abstract is not a description of the article.  I.e. It might begin “Delmar argues ...” but it
       should not begin “Delmar’s article is about . . .”
• An abstract should not contain long quotations, but it might quote a key phrase or a particular term the aruthor uses.  When you are tempted to quote a whole sentence, read it carefully and try to summarize or paraphrase the point it makes.
• An abstract will not necessarily follow the order of the author’s argument.  It pulls out her major point (the objective, purpose, project of the article and puts it first).  The sentences which follow may be subordinate points or examples.  The final sentence should tell us where the argument comes out.  The order of sentences in an abstract is not the same as the order in a thesis paragraph of a longer paper.
• An abstract should not be so general that you can’t tell one argument from another.  The question you might try to ask yourself as you write  each abstract is:  “what does this author contribute to the development of the theoretical debates we are studying?’
• Proofread abstracts carefully for coherence, grammar and spelling.  Read the paragraph out loud — always a good check on the coherence of your writing.
   

The material can be provided:
 –As a web page created in Netscape composer or Dreamweaver and saved on the K: drive or a disk. (preferred)
 –As a WordPerfect file saved on the K: drive.
 –As a WordPerfect file saved on a disk.

The materials should include:
–key quotations from the text we read in class;
–summary biographical information as a time line or paragraph;
— contextual information you provided for class;
— definitions of terms you provided to the class;
— brief bibliography of the materials you used to find the information;
— brief webliography of sources you used to find information for your report or that you found while
          preparing your report. 

 Materials are due by the second Monday  after you do your presentation (e.g. if you present on October 15, you web materials are due no later than Monday, October 29)

Sept 19 Jayme Rabenberg:
FT, 67-75: Mill, from Subjection of Women (1870); Harriet Taylor, "Enfranchisement of Women"

Sept 24 Jen Russell:
Florence Nightingale, Cassandra (1852)

Oct 1 Jenny Conger:
Emmeline Pankhurst [copy]

Oct 3 Rekha Lohani:
FT, 88-91: Frederick Engels, from Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884)

Oct 10 Jessie Gamble:
FT, 106-108: Mother (Mary) Jones, "Girl Slaves of the Milwaukee Breweries" (1910)
Brooke Berescik-Johns:
FT, 108-110: Olive Schreiner, from Women and Labor (1911)

Oct 15 Laurel Jacobsen:
FT, 102-106: Emma Goldman, from The Traffic in Women (1910)
Jane Yamaykin:
FT, 118-119: Margaret Sanger, "Birth Control—A Parent's Problem or Woman's?" from Women and the New Race (1920)

Oct 17 Sara Gaba:
From Radcliffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness (1928)

Oct 24 Marissa Hildebrandt:
FT, 127-130: Karen Horney, "The Dread of Women" (1932)

Oct 29 Sakona Khiev:
FT, 141-145: Florynce Kennedy, "A Comparative Study: Accentuating the Similarities of the Societal Positions of Women and Negroes" (1946) from Color Me Flo: My Hard Life and Good Times (1976)

Oct 31 Sarah Jacobs:
Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex

Nov 7 Laurel Jacobsen,
SCUM Manifesto
Jayme Rabenberg,
June Arnold, "Consciousness Raising"

Nov 5 Sarah Jacobs:
FT, 164-169:Freidan, The Feminine Mystique (1963) + selected chapters [copy]

Nov 12 Rekha Lohani:
FT, 174-176: Kate Millett from Sexual Politics
Marissa Hildebrandt:
FT, 183-187: Shulamith Firestone from The Dialectic of Sex

Nov 14 Brooke Berescik-Johns:
Mary Daly from Gyn/ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism [copy]

Nov 19 Jen Russell:
FT, 212-218: Hélène Cixous, "The Laugh of the Medusa" (1975)
Sara Gaba:
FT, 277-282: Luce Irigaray, "This Sex Which Is Not One" (1977)

Dec 3 Sakona Khiev:
Ann Koedt, "The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm" [copy]
Jane Yamaykin:
Susan Griffin, "Silence" from Pornography and Silence: Culture's Revenge Against Nature [copy]

Dec 5 Jenny Conger:
Abbott and Love, "Is Women's Liberation a Lesbian Plot?" [Copy]

Dec 10 Jessie Gamble:
Ellen Willis, "Abortion: Is a Woman a Person?" [copy]