4. Terms
Androgeny (also androgynous, bi-gendered, no-
gendered): A person who identifies as both or neither
of the two culturally defined genders, or a person who
expresses merged culturally/stereotypically feminine
and masculine characteristics or neutral
characteristics.
Anti-Semitism: Hostility toward, or prejudice or
discrimination against Jews or Judaism.
5. Assigned (Biological) Sex: A social construct referring to the state of
being intersex, female, or male. A concept that relies on the
dichotomous division of various genitive, biological, chromosomal,
hormonal and physiological differences in human.
Bisexual: A person who is emotionally, physically, and/or sexually
attracted to both men and women. Some people avoid this term
because of its implications that there are only two sexes/genders to be
sexually attracted to and this reinforces the binary gender system.
Cross-Dresser: Someone who enjoys wearing clothing typically
assigned to a gender that the individual has not been socialized as, or
does not identify as. Cross-dressers are of all sexual orientations and
do not necessarily identify as transgender. “Cross-dresser” is
frequently used today in place of the term “transvestite.” This activity
seems more obvious when men as opposed to women engage in it
publicly, because of an inequity in societal norms concerning attire
and other components of appearance.
6. Cultural Humility: A lifelong commitment to self-
evaluation and critique, to redressing the power imbalances
in the [interpersonal relationship] dynamic[s], and to
developing mutually beneficial and non-paternalistic
partnerships with communities on behalf of individuals and
defined populations.
FtM (F2M)/MtF (M2F): Generally, abbreviations used to
refer to specific members of the trans community. FtM
stands for female-to-male, as in moving from a female pole
of the spectrum to the male. MtF stands for male-to-female
and refers to moving from the male pole of the spectrum tot
eh female. FtM is sometimes, not always, synonymous with
transman. Conversely, someone who identifies as MtF, may
identify as a transwoman.
8. Introduction: Directed Summary
Transition to Thesis Statement
Thesis Statement
Section A
Body Paragraph 1
Body Paragraph 2
Section B
Body Paragraph 3
Body Paragraph 4
Section C
Body Paragraph 5
Body Paragraph 6
Counterargument
Conclusion
10. Directed Summary
• A directed summary provides readers of your
paper with the information they need to
understand your argument and explanation.
• State the title and author of the literary work
near the beginning of the first paragraph,
perhaps in the first sentence. This is essential
so that the reader knows which work you are
discussing.
11. • Hook the reader. In the first sentences, write
what is particularly interesting about the work.
This thought-provoking information must also
be relevant to the topic you will discuss in your
essay.
• Assume that the reader is familiar with the
work about which you are writing. Do not
include too much plot summary in the
introduction or in the rest of the essay. Do
include a bit of the story that will support your
thesis.
12. • Use transitions throughout the introduction. Because
there are so many aspects of the work that have to be
included, the introduction can end up fragmented
and confusing. Make sure that it makes sense on its
own as a paragraph. Clearly transition from your
introduction into your thesis.
• State the thesis near the end of the introduction
(your introduction might be more than one
paragraph). The thesis should clearly state what the
essay will analyze and should be very specific.
13. Try writing your introduction
1. Title and author
2. Hook the reader with a thought-provoking aspect
of the story, one that connects to your essay.
3. Assuming the reader is familiar with the text,
include a brief summary that provides support for
your paper.
4. Use transitions to keep the introduction clear and
organized.
5. Transition to the thesis.
6. Include your thesis near the end of the
introduction.
15. • When you write an academic essay, you make an argument:
you propose a thesis and offer some reasoning, using evidence,
that suggests why the thesis is true. When you counter-argue,
you consider a possible argument against your thesis or some
aspect of your reasoning. This is a good way to test your ideas
when drafting, while you still have time to revise them. And in
the finished essay, it can be a persuasive and disarming tactic. It
allows you to anticipate doubts and pre-empt objections that a
skeptical reader might have; it presents you as the kind of
person who weighs alternatives before arguing for one, who
confronts difficulties instead of sweeping them under the rug,
who is more interested in discovering the truth than winning a
point.
• Not every objection is worth entertaining, of course, and you
shouldn't include one just to include one. But some imagining
of other views, or of resistance to one's own, occurs in most
good essays.
16. The Turn Against
A counterargument in an essay has two stages: you turn against your
argument to challenge it and then you turn back to re-affirm it. You first
imagine a skeptical reader, or cite an actual source, who might resist your
argument by pointing out a problem with your demonstration:
1. that a different conclusion could be drawn from the same facts, a key
assumption is unwarranted, a key term is used unfairly, certain
evidence is ignored or played down
2. one or more disadvantages or practical drawbacks to what you
propose
3. an alternative explanation or proposal that makes more sense.
You introduce this turn against with a phrase like one of these
• One might object here that
• It might seem that
• It's true that
• Admittedly
• Of course
17. Another approach is to use an anticipated
challenging question:
But how...?
But why...?
But isn't this just…?
But if this is so, what about…?
Then you state the case against yourself as briefly but as
clearly and forcefully as you can, pointing to evidence where
possible. You must answer your own question completely and
concisely or you risk undermining your own argument.
An obviously feeble or perfunctory counterargument does
more harm than good.
18. The Turn Back
Your return to your own argument—which you announce with a
but, yet, however, nevertheless or still—must likewise involve
careful reasoning, not a flippant (or nervous) dismissal. In
reasoning about the proposed counterargument, you may do one
of the following:
1. Refute it, showing why it is mistaken—an apparent but not
real problem
2. Acknowledge its validity or plausibility, but suggest why on
balance it's relatively less important or less likely than what
you propose, and thus doesn't overturn it;
3. Concede its force and complicate your idea accordingly—
restate your thesis in a more exact, qualified, or nuanced way
that takes account of the objection, or start a new section in
which you consider your topic in light of it.
19. Where to Put a Counter-Argument
Counter-argument can appear anywhere in the essay. Try it in several places
and see where it fits best:
1. as part of your introduction—before you propose your thesis—where the
existence of a different view is the motive for your essay, the reason it
needs writing;
2. as a section or paragraph just after your introduction, in which you lay out
the expected reaction or standard position before turning away to develop
your own.
3. as a quick move within a paragraph, where you imagine a
counterargument not to your main idea but to the sub-idea that the
paragraph is arguing or is about to argue.
4. as a section or paragraph just before the conclusion of your essay, in which
you imagine what someone might object to what you have argued.
But watch that you don't overdo it. A turn into counterargument here and
there will sharpen and energize your essay, but too many such turns will have
the reverse effect by obscuring your main idea or suggesting that you're
ambivalent.
20. Thesis: This book shows that social pressure, oppression, and
violence do not act only as forces of conformity, but also as
powerful sources of agency; they can inspire people to challenge
injustice in pursuit of liberty.
Counterargument:
Of course, there are times when social pressure, oppression, and
violence push people to conform, but these examples generally fall into
one of three main categories: One, people bow to social pressure,
oppression, and violence when they do not have a significant reason to
resist; two, people bow to social pressure, oppression, and violence
when the consequences are life threatening; and three, people bow to
social pressure, oppression, and violence until they can strategize their
resistance. This final response is the one that Feinberg illustrates
through Jess Goldberg.
22. Strategies for Writing a Conclusion
Conclusions are often the most difficult part of an essay
to write, and many writers feel that they have nothing
left to say after having written the paper. A writer needs
to keep in mind that the conclusion is often what a
reader remembers best. Your conclusion should be the
best part of your paper.
A conclusion should
• stress the importance of the thesis statement,
• give the essay a sense of completeness, and
• leave a final impression on the reader.
23. Create a new meaning
Demonstrating how your ideas work together can
create a new picture. Often the sum of the paper
is worth more than its parts.
Stone Butch Blues shows that social
pressures, oppression, and violence are
appropriate ways neither to create harmony
nor to manage cultural diversity
24. Answer the question "So What?”
Show your readers why this paper was
important.
Stone Butch Blues provides knowledge
that can liberate those people who suffer
social oppression by both providing
models of and encouraging successful
resistance.
25. Propose a course of action
Redirect your reader's thought process and help him or
her to apply your info and ideas to her own life or to
see the broader implications.
Finally, Stone Butch Blues inspires people to
challenge injustice in pursuit of liberty for all
people.
26. Let’s try writing a couple of conclusions
1. Answer the question "So What?”: Show your readers why this paper
was important.
2. Synthesize information: Show how the points you made and the
support and examples you used fit together.
3. Challenge the reader: Help readers redirect the information in the
paper, so they may apply it to their own lives.
4. Create a new meaning: demonstrating how your ideas work together
can create a new picture. Often the sum of the paper is worth more
than its parts.
5. Propose a course of action, a solution to an issue, or questions for
further study: Redirect your reader's thought process and help him
or her to apply your info and ideas to her own life or to see the
broader implications.
6. Echo the introduction: If you begin by describing a scenario, you can
end with the same scenario as proof that your essay was helpful in
creating a new understanding.
27. Henry David Hwang
• David Henry Hwang was born on August 11, 1957
in Los Angeles, California.
• His parents immigrated from China
• He went to Stanford University
• As an undergraduate, he wrote his first play FOB,
which explores the contrast in attitudes between
recently arrived Chinese immigrants and two
Chinese-American students who have long since
assimilated.
• He went to graduate school at Yale, where he
continued to write successful plays.
28. M Butterfly
• Hwang returned to the stage with M. Butterfly, one of the
most celebrated of recent American plays, and the first by
an Asian-American to win universal acclaim.
• It was first produced in 1988 and won numerous awards,
including the Tony Award for Best Play of the Year, the
New York Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle
Award for Best Broadway play, and the John Gassner
Award for the season's outstanding new playwright.
• M. Butterfly enjoyed a popular run on Broadway and
when it moved to London's Shaftsbury Theatre in 1989 it
broke all box office records in the first week.
29. • Reading: M Butterfly
• Writing:
• Introduction
• Counterargument
• Conclusion
• Finish your draft of Essay
#3 and post it.
• Bring three complete
copies of your draft to our
next meeting.
