Research Paper Guidelines
WS101.1
Susana L. Gallardo
SJSU Spring 2006
gallardo@email.sjsu.edu
The primary writing assignment for this class is a 8-10 page analytical research paper, due at the
beginning of class Monday, May 8. Your research paper should be an original work of scholarship on
a women’s studies topic or feminist issue that interests you. Topics are entirely of your own choosing,
though I list suggestions below.
This is a formal research paper which must include a cover page, references, and bibliography.
You must use at least five academic research sources --at least two books, at least two journal
articles. One source may be assigned course reading; one or more sources may be websites. I highly
recommend re-browsing the course reading assignments to find those most interesting to you. Use
your textbook--look to the footnotes or bibliography of a particular reading to start searching for other
references on the same topic. We will all start researching topics in a research workshop after spring
break.
Your paper should be 8-10 pages in a standard 12 point type (Times/Times Roman is best) with a
one-inch margin on all sides. Please see the attached sample for APA Style footnotes and references,
or other standard style guides available in Reference at King library): The Chicago Manual of Style, or
Kate Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. If you are already
familiar with a specific style guide, you may use that as long as you are consistent and accurate.
Deadlines:
Wed 3/15
Wed 4/5
Wed 4/19
Mon 5/8
General topic (one page or less, typed)
Preliminary thesis & bibliography due (3-4 sources minimum)
Thesis & complete outline due
Final paper due
Topics The best way to find topics for an analytical paper is to ask a general question:
What was it like to be a first wave feminist activist?
How did white women and women of color interact in first wave feminism?
How does gender make a difference in science?
How does class interact with race in (domestic violence, the wage gap, media images, [any
specific feminist issue]?
What kind of feminist organizing has been most successful in the 80s and 90s?
Have children’s cartoons incorporated feminist issues?
How do white women and women of color view reproductive rights differently?
How is domestic violence different for same-sex couples?
How has sexuality been incorporated into feminist movements, if at all?
What does it mean to be a feminist parent? For a son? For a daughter?
How has our concept of masculinity changed since the Women’s movements?
Has the human genome project changed scientific definitions of sex?
How have men contributed, if at all, to the feminist movement?
How has the ‘second shift’ changed over the last forty years?
What is the impact of Title IX on the current generation of young women?
How do Christian (or Jewish or Islamic) feminists reconcile their faith and feminism?
Do fathers have a role in raising feminists sons and daughters?
How has Chicana (or Asian or AfrAm or Pakistani) feminism incorporated race and gender?
How have women worked in grassroots organizing in X communities?
How has feminism affected science fiction writing? (Octavia Butler, Marge Piercy, etc.)
As you look up keywords relating to this topic, let your interests guide you through the various
books and articles you find. Choose two or three key resources, look them up and browse them, and
look at those footnotes to find more sources. Keep looking and reading, narrowing your topic as you
go, until you have a sufficiently narrow topic that you can tackle in 8-10 pages.
Finally, please remember that copying anyone else’s work is dishonest, and defeats the entire
purpose of your education. Students found plagiarizing will be reported to the Dean for disciplinary
action, and will receive an F in the course. Do your own work.
Additional Resources:
Writing a Research Paper htttp://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/ResearchW/types.html
What is plagiarism? Do tutorial at http://tutorials.sjlibrary.org/plagiarism/index.htm
Some general writing tips:

Wikipedia.org, about.com, infoplease.com are NOT academic sources. You might scavenge some
info from them, but be sure to find it verified in an academic source elsewhere.

Avoid colloquial or informal terms in a formal research paper.
Kids nowadays are more sexually active.
It wasn’t that great.
This is a big issue for women.

Avoid superlatives (very, extremely, really, supremely). They tend to make your statement weaker
rather than stronger.

Avoid redundancy
Ex. It is important to note that there are many different types of families.
(Obviously, it is important or you wouldn’t be discussing it)
A stronger sentence would be:
There are many different types of families.
(Better, but try not to use the verb “to be” [is, am, are, were, are being] too often.)
The strongest sentence would include an active verb instead:
The concept of family ranges from the traditional “nuclear family” to various types of
extended families.

Cliches to ALWAYS avoid
Why?
Through time, we have always…..
Ahistorical, vague. Be specific.
Webster’s defines X as …
Use a more specific definition from your text or reading
or class discussion. Dictionaries are for kids.
Short catchy title for my research paper
Juana Banana
juana@hotmail.com
WS 101.1 San Jose State University
May 23, 2006
Asian American feminism has a different meaning to different people. Chandra Talpade
Mohanty described in her essay her life and touching on life experiences that strengthen her idea
of Asian American Feminism. In her experiences, she had to discover the meaning of being an
American immigrant, being Hindu during a problematic time in her life. She had to discover her
own definition of home, identity, and community.
Being American immigrant was difficult for Chandra Talpade Mohanty. She discovered
that “being a foreign student and a woman at that, meant being either dismissed as irrelevant,
treated in racist ways, or celebrated and exoticized” (2004, p. 39). She experienced all three of
those ideals. She was pushed away as a quiet Asian woman stereotype, patronized by her
American professors, and rewarded for her good English but told that she should still have the
South Asian Indian accent. These experiences had her examine her experiences in terms of race
and racism in the U.S. as well as identify her view of herself.
The next hurdle of identity is the fact that even though she possessed a green card she
identified being Hindu. In fact she asked herself questions that tried to come in terms with a
definition of identity. For example, she states “what does it meant to have a green card—to be
an expatriate” (Mohanty, 1999, p. 41). She was made an “outsider” by her family who believed
that she belonged to a different world, and that she would not understand what it was like living
in India for her.
What made her Indian and an “absent” elite and a racialized minority in American?
Were her beliefs as a feminist shaken? She is both an American and Hindu and that is why she
felt attracted to the feminism of U.S. women of color and Third world women. She is Asian and
has experienced inequalities due to race and it strengthen her view of a feminist action, while she
felt drawn towards the position of women in her native country. She commented that for her
“home, community and identity all fall somewhere between the histories and experiences we
inherit and the political choices we make through alliances, solidarities and friendships.” She
saw Asian American feminism as being one that you create for yourself. This position and
identity is your discovery and that whatever choice that makes you happy is the core idea for her
view of Asian American identity. Mohanty also says:
Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time
citing sources. This difficulty could be attributed to the fact that many students failed to
purchase a style manual or to ask their teacher for help. Notice that this long quotation
(more than 40 words) is fully indented without quotation marks. (p. 199)
Students often had difficulty using APA style,especially when it was their first time citing
sources. This difficulty could be attributed to the fact that many students failed to purchase a
style manual or to ask their teacher for help. (p. 199)
The APA style is a bit different, and is being modeled here. One of the women most
significant historically who worked throughout her life to secure the right to legal and safe
contraception was Margaret Sanger. In 1920s, she was arrested for sending pornographic items
in the U.S. mail (Margaret Sanger Papers, 2000, introduction). She was a relentless organizer…
She stated, "Students often had difficulty using APA style," (Jones, 1998, p. 199), but she
did not offer an explanation as to why.
According to Jones (1998), "Students often had dificulty using APA style, especially
when it was their first time" (p. 199).
Jones (1998) found "students often had difficulty using APA style" (p. 199); what
implications does this have for teachers?
References
Glazer, N. (1994). The Emergence of an American Ethnic Pattern. In R. Takaki (Ed.), From
Different Shores (pp. 11-23). New York: Oxford University Press.
Lopez, I. F.H. (2004). The Social Construction of Race. In G. Kirk and M. Okazawa-Rey (Eds.),
Women’s Lives (pp. 252-54). Boston: McGrawHill.
Lopez, I. F.H. (1994). The Social Construction of Race. Harvard Civil Rights Law Review 11,
11-33.
Margaret Sanger Papers Project. (2000). Retrieved 18 Oct. 2005, from
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/.
Magana, A. (1996). Twelve Types of Work. Retrieved 1 October 2005 from
http://inequality.com/work.html.
Media Giants. (2001). The Merchants of Cool. Retrieved 5 October 2005 from Public
Broadcasting Service, Frontline Web Site:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/giants.
Mohanty, C.T. (2004). Defining Genealogies. In G. Kirk (Ed.), Women’s Lives: Multicultural
Perspectives, 35-54. Boston: McGrawHill.
Phillips, L.M. (2000). Flirting with Danger. New York: New York University Press.
Staples, Brent. (1986). Just Walk On By. Ms. Magazine, 11(1), 34.
VandenBos, G., Knapp, S., & Doe, J. (2001). Role of parenting in gender socialization
[Electronic version]. Journal of Gender Studies, 5(2), 117-123.
Wong, D. (2005, June 12). Making a Living on Minimum Wage. Los Angeles Times, p. B1.
Zander, M. (1993). Sibling communication and Gender. San Francisco, CA: Annual Meeting of
the Gender Studies Association. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 356943)
Research Paper Guidelines
WS101.2
Susana L. Gallardo
SJSU Spring 2006
The primary writing assignment for this class is a 8-10 page analytical research paper, due at the
beginning of class Monday, May 8. Your research paper should be an original work of scholarship on
a women’s studies topic or feminist issue that interests you. Topics are entirely of your own choosing,
though I list suggestions below.
This is a formal research paper which must include a cover page, references, and bibliography.
You must use at least five academic research sources --at least two books, at least two journal
articles. One source may be assigned course reading; one or more sources may be websites. I highly
recommend re-browsing the course reading assignments to find those most interesting to you. Use
your textbook--look to the footnotes or bibliography of a particular reading to start searching for other
references on the same topic. We will all start researching topics in a research workshop after spring
break.
Your paper should be 8-10 pages in a standard 12 point type (Times/Times Roman is best) with a
one-inch margin on all sides. Please see the attached sample for APA Style footnotes and references,
or other standard style guides available in Reference at King library): The Chicago Manual of Style, or
Kate Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. If you are already
familiar with a specific style guide, you may use that as long as you are consistent and accurate.
Deadlines:
Mon 3/13
Mon 4/3
Mon 4/17
Mon 5/8
General topic (one page or less, typed)
Preliminary thesis & bibliography due (3-4 sources minimum)
(will be returned to you with comments the next day)
Thesis & complete outline due
Final paper due
Topics The best way to find topics for an analytical paper is to ask a general question:
What was it like to be a first wave feminist activist?
How did white women and women of color interact in first wave feminism?
How does gender make a difference in science?
How does class interact with race in (domestic violence, the wage gap, media images, [any
specific feminist issue]?
What kind of feminist organizing has been most successful in the 80s and 90s?
Have children’s cartoons incorporated feminist issues?
How do white women and women of color view reproductive rights differently?
How is domestic violence different for same-sex couples?
How has sexuality been incorporated into feminist movements, if at all?
What does it mean to be a feminist parent? For a son? For a daughter?
How has our concept of masculinity changed since the Women’s movements?
Has the human genome project changed scientific definitions of sex?
How have men contributed, if at all, to the feminist movement?
How has the ‘second shift’ changed over the last forty years?
What is the impact of Title IX on the current generation of young women?
How do Christian (or Jewish or Islamic) feminists reconcile their faith and feminism?
Do fathers have a role in raising feminists sons and daughters?
How has Chicana (or Asian or AfrAm or Pakistani) feminism incorporated race and gender?
How have women worked in grassroots organizing in X communities?
How has feminism affected science fiction writing? (Octavia Butler, Marge Piercy, etc.)