I. Purpose of the assignment: to gain insight into women's lives through either reading their own words and hearing their own "voice," or through reading a fictional account that deals with a woman or women's lives in a third world society. To analyze and evaluate the work as a source of history about third world women.

II. The assignment.

Write a 5-7 page essay on one of the books from the sign-up list. The paper should not "report" the story told by the author but rather, evaluate the work on its own merits. You will need to simply and succinctly summarize the main elements of the narrative but that should take no more than one page at the most. Questions and criteria for evaluating the book follow. You may raise other questions and issues to write about as well but the following need to be addressed in the paper.

1. Authorial intention. Who is the author and why do you think she wrote the book? She may be the author, a biographer, or a novelist. Whose voice does the author present? What is the "message" she is trying to impart, if there is a message? Is she trying to convince the reader of something, and if so, what is it?

2. The book as a historical document or source for history. How does the book enlighten the reader about the history of third world women? What are the major themes of the work, and how does the author deal with some of the themes we are focusing on in the course? What (if any) are some of the larger issues beyond the personal? How was the personal affected by the historical/political? Is the book able to provide the reader with historical information?

3. Memoirs, autobiography, biography, novels as sources of history. Evaluate this genre as a source of history: is it effective? What are its strengths, weaknesses? Take into account the genre. (Learn from the previous assignment! Remember that a novel is a work of the imagination.) NOTE: be very clear about this and what a book is. All books are NOT novels!

4. Quality and structure of the writing. Is the book engaging and well-written? Is it clear and well-organized? How well does the author approach her subject? How does the actual writing affect the reader's comprehension and understanding of the author's themes?

1. Audience and style:

Write this paper for an educated, well-informed reader (i.e., me) who knows something---more than the average person---about the topic. Do not write it for a general audience. Please avoid colloquialism, slang and the passive voice. This is a formal writing assignment but write in your own voice, and avoid trying to write in a style that is unnatural and complicated. Write clearly.

2. Format

• FONT: All papers are to be double-spaced, typed 12 font.
• PAGING: Pages are to be NUMBERED, and STAPLED. Warning: these are pet peeves of mine. Page number one is NOT the title page.
• TITLE PAGE: Do not use fancy covers. Provide a simple cover page with your name, the title of the paper, the name and number of the course, and the date.
• CITATION OF THE BOOK(S): If you use only your one book (which is perfectly acceptable), you may use a simple citation. Include the full publication details at the end of the paper: author's name, title of the book underlined or italicized, place of publication, publisher and date.
• Example: Buchi Emechta, The Bride Price. New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1976.
Then, when you cite the book in the paper, merely put the author's name in parentheses and the page number.
• Example: Emechta's account of Aku-nna's response to her father's death illustrated the trauma and impact of his death on her own life: "Then the realization came to her again...that they would never see their father again, and she faced the shocking reality that his death would change her whole life" (Emechta, 37).
If you wish to refer to other sources (such as reading from the course), you may use this simple citation method as well. Just make sure if it is an article from a book that you include the full and proper citation information at the end of the paper.
• SPELLING, GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION: All students in this course should have completed English 101 and 102 or the equivalent before taking this 300-level class. For this reason, there will be zero tolerance for spelling errors, zero tolerance for grammatical errors, and zero tolerance for punctuation errors. There are many sources of assistance available on campus to help you avoid errors. Use spell check. Have a friend read your paper. Bring your draft to me before handing in the final version. Go to the Write Place.
• PLAGIARISM: Make sure you know what this is. Re-read my policies on it, as anyone caught plagiarizing will fail the course. Check definitions of it. The best rule of thumb is, when in doubt, cite your source. If you use someone else's words directly, make sure you put quotation marks around the quote.