(Sociology of) Sex and Gender

Questions to ask as a check after completing a draft

    These questions are not substitutes for the guidelines available on other pages.  Always consult the guidelines before and during writing.  This check list provides questions aimed at the most common weaknesses that appear in the biographical papers.  If you can answer them all affirmatively, you are probably in good shape. 

• Is my paper well organized?  Okay, this may be obvious, but we all lose track of this at times.  To succeed as a paper, the biography needs structure and thematic focus.  We each want to ask, what is the main point I have to make about the role of gender in my life?  Give the paper a center.  Organize around this.  Avoid a flailing series of vignettes.  And remember to sustain that organization with appropriate transitions.
• Have I presented a realistic portrayal of my life (and family)?  A good biography shows the successes and the failures, the good and the bad, the reasons for pride and those for shame.  Everyone's life is inconsistent; everyone's identity includes contradictions.  No one's parents were feminist saints; few were simply sexist devils.  No one's family history is an unblemished harmony.  None of us are purely charming examples of gender goodness, however we might conceive it.  Get real.
• Is my gender autobiography truly biographical?  Does that sound odd?  When writing our autobiography, we want to consider these questions.  Have I shown the biographical significance of every event or circumstance I describe?  We can all describe many gender-influenced events, personalities, and relationships we have observed that do not have any significance for our own biography.  Most of these we want to edit out.  We also want to check each biographical event or circumstance we describe and make sure that we have considered why it is biographically significant.  Did it channel our choices?  Was it part of a pattern that left an imprint on our personality?  Beyond the assessment of each individual part, do the parts add up to a (gender) biography.  Does a reader come away with a clear portrait of our gender identity and history, and understand the influences and choices that led us here? 
  
• Have I explored causes?  Have I left in parts where I describe events, circumstances or outcomes without any link to causes or explanations?  Remember the importance of how and why.  Explain, explain, explain.  Yes, each of us "has" gender.  Yes, each of us is typical in some ways and has had typical experiences.  Yes, each of us is also atypical in some ways and has had atypical experiences.  We need to consider both the typical and atypical aspects of gender in our identities and developmental experiences, seeking to explain why this pattern exists for us and explore what it means.  Similarly, everyone has preferences, everyone makes choices.  They are an important part of our biographies.  However, they are not self-explanatory.  They do not simply burst forth from our souls; they are not gifts of the gods.  They grow out of experiences and circumstances and can be explained.  Try.
• Have I edited out all unsubstantiated opinions?  We need to avoid statements of the form "I believe X" or "I think ..." with disregard for the research and theory we have studied.  Perhaps we all have times when we are a bit anti-intellectual, clinging to beliefs that have no empirical support or defy logic.  Still, if we have good sense, we keep such disregard of reason out of our analytical work.  Save it for rants with friends over a drink.  In short, using identified themes or key ideas from our course is a good idea; using unsubstantiated generalizations is not.
• Have I shown knowledge and understanding of the course materials?  Have I double checked my possible misinterpretations or neglect of course materials?  We must build our gender biographies using the materials we have read this semester.  We want to ask: how do the important circumstances and dynamics surrounding gender in my developmental experiences and in my present life represent the processes examined in the class materials and how do they not?  Why?  Use quotations and citations effectively.  (Among other things, this means that we should consistently show (1) what is the relevant argument in the materials we cite or quote and (2) how is that argument related to the autobiographical analysis.)  Remember also, as discussed in the guidelines, making statements that contradict arguments in the readings without defending those statements is a serious flaw.  This is an analytical, scholarly piece.  We are responsible for knowing all the material we read and referring to it when it applies. 
• Have I avoided being superficial about the role of socialization?  This is such a common mistake that it deserves special note.  If we write that our gender is a simple reflection of our parents' socialization, it makes us sound as if we missed most of the class.  We must try to think a little further and dig a little deeper. 
• Have I double checked the citations and bibliography?  While each student is free to choose among the standard styles for citations and bibliographies, one must be selected and used consistently and accurately throughout.  If a paper neglects an accurate citation or bibliographic entry, any argument depending on them is wrong and will count as a serious flaw during evaluation.