Humanities : Women Studies Archives

Your draft MUST follow the steps outlined below.
STEP ONE (The Proposal): Here you should indicate who you are going to focus on, which text, and why. Your chosen author AND text MUST be selected from the authors and works we’ve covered this semester. Once you have made a selection, tell your reader (me) about your choice. For example, your Proposal (or Step One) might look like this:
I have decided to focus on Sheree McMillan and her novel The Blues Knows No Bounds. While I have enjoyed reading all the texts we’ve studied this semester, this author and her novel impacted me the most. I enjoyed reading about the characters in the novel—especially her narrator, Jasmine. In The Blues Knows No Bounds, McMillan creates a unique world where the characters find themselves trying to overcome obstacles so that they can become better people. Jasmine, in my opinion, has the most to overcome and is constantly plagued by the bad behavior of her family—especially those of her twin siblings James and Gentle. That said, by the end of the novel, Jasmine is stronger and more powerful that she ever thought she could be. I like seeing the so-called “underdog” of a story come out on top.

STEP TWO: Your paper requires THREE Sources: 2 scholarly and your selected course text. As such, in this part of the draft, you are required to list the citations for the three sources you are LIKELY use. However, as you continue to conduct research for this paper, your scholarly sources may change. Said differently, a source that you choose for the draft may be set aside for something stronger/more reliable for use in the final submission.
But, conducting your research NOW will likely prevent you from scrambling to find sources later, as the paper’s due date approaches. As such, your tentative citations make look like this:

Works Cited
Benjamin, Lacy. “Writing About Pain: An Interview with Sheree McMillan.” The New York Times, 14
August 2023, p. A14-17.
Davis, Cooper. “Looking For the Light in The Blues Knows No Bounds: A Review.” Journey Magazine, 23
Sep. 2022, https://JourneyBoundsdavis/ .Accessed 31 Oct 2023.
McMillan, Sheree. The Blues Knows No Bounds. New York: Harper-Collins, 2022.

PART THREE: Write The Introduction w/Thesis and the very first Body Paragraph, using one of the sources.
Getting started is the hardest part of writing a paper. However, If you can lay out the basics in the draft, I will be able to offer advice/suggestions and can help to guide your writing. Use the tutorial on writing paragraphs and thesis statements as a guide (posted to Blackboard w/ tutorial on punctuation)
With this in mind, your Part Three may look something like this:

INTRODUCTION w/Thesis:
This semester, we have studied many authors. For the most part, each writer has asked the reader to think about the positions and belief systems they hold dear. For instance, the readings challenged us to consider our opinions about politics, the rights of women, individuality, identity, and the challenges we face as we move through world. As we read on, our ideas were further challenged as we learned about such things as Feminism, Womanism, Intersectionality, Signification, and various significant literary moments, among other important themes and constructs. That said, in my opinion, one author stood out from the others: Sheree McMillan. Moreover, I found her novel, The Blues Knows No Bounds, to be profound and very impactful. It was a challenging book that explored pain, family, and why we must sometimes let go of people—even when we are related to them. After reading a novel, one begins to think about the author: who they are, where they come from, the community they hail from, the other types of things they’ve written, and where their ideas come from. As such, this Critical Edition will focus on novelist Sheree McMillian, exploring what makes the author and her work unique and relatable, ending with a discussion of her award-winning novel, The Blues Knows No Bounds.

BODY PARAGRAPH w/ quote
Sheree McMillan is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, which is why nearly all her writing takes place in the famed city. For the last six years, her work has been published in noteworthy literary magazines and anthologies and has been translated into nearly 150 different languages, across the globe. Simply put, she has become the writer she always dreamed of becoming, when she was young English major at Louisiana State University. McMillan began her career as a short fiction writer, and then made her big transition into writing novels in 2021. The city of New Orleans is so important to her that it has become a character in her writing. Readers are often presented with vivid descriptions of real-life restaurants, jazz clubs, and its vibrant streets and neighborhoods: Burbon, Toulouse, and the French Quarter. In an interview with reporter Lacy Benjamin, McMillan shares just why her hometown always shows up in her writing, “I love my city. It’s as simple as that. I can think of no other place that is more alive with the spirit of its people. It is rich in culture and full of history. Our history feels like a beautiful duality sometimes filled with the good and bad of a special kind of Americanness. So, it feels like a very natural backdrop to the complicated stories of my characters. I don’t see myself ever writing something that doesn’t include my hometown” (A 15). Indeed, New Orleans is a place McMillan knows very well. Her family has lived there for fifteen generations, making her a descendant of some of the oldest New Orleanian families. She attended school there from childhood to her college years. She resides in the famed French Quarter with her husband, Kendall, and their pet greyhound dog, Tabitha (Benjamin, A16). She is surrounded by friends and family. It feels and looks very much like a charmed life—and maybe it is.
WHAT YOU SUBMIT SHOULD LOOK LIKE THIS:
THE PROPOSAL:
I have decided to focus on Sheree McMillan and her novel The Blues Knows No Bounds. While I have enjoyed reading all the texts we’ve studied this semester, this author and her novel impacted me the most. I enjoyed reading about the characters in the novel—especially her narrator, Jasmine. In The Blues Knows No Bounds, McMillan creates a unique world where the characters find themselves trying to overcome obstacles so that they can become better people. Jasmine, in my opinion, has the most to overcome and is constantly plagued by the bad behavior of her family—especially those of her twin siblings James and Gentle. That said, by the end of the novel, Jasmine is stronger and more powerful that she ever thought she could be. I like seeing the so-called “underdog” of a story come out on top.

INTRODUCTION w/ Thesis & BODY PARAGRAPH
This semester, we have studied many authors. For the most part, each writer has asked the reader to think about the positions and belief systems they hold dear. For instance, the readings challenged us to consider our opinions about politics, the rights of women, individuality, identity, and the challenges we face as we move through world. As we read on, our ideas were further challenged as we learned about such things as Feminism, Womanism, Intersectionality, Signification, and various significant literary moments, among other important themes and constructs. That said, in my opinion, one author stood out from the others: Sheree McMillan. Moreover, I found her novel, The Blues Knows No Bounds, to be profound and very impactful. It was a challenging book that explored pain, family, and why we must sometimes let go of people—even when we are related to them. After reading a novel, one begins to think about the author: who they are, where they come from, the community they hail from, the other types of things they’ve written, and where their ideas come from. As such, this Critical Edition will focus on novelist Sheree McMillian, exploring what makes the author and her work unique and relatable, ending with a discussion of her award-winning novel, The Blues Knows No Bounds.
Sheree McMillan is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, which is why nearly all her writing takes place in the famed city. For the last six years, her work has been published in noteworthy literary magazines and anthologies and has been translated into nearly 150 different languages, across the globe. Simply put, she has become the writer she always dreamed of becoming, when she was young English major at Louisiana State University. McMillan began her career as a short fiction writer, and then made her big transition into writing novels in 2021. The city of New Orleans is so important to her that it has become a character in her writing. Readers are often presented with vivid descriptions of real-life restaurants, jazz clubs, and its vibrant streets and neighborhoods: Burbon, Toulouse, and the French Quarter. In an interview with reporter Lacy Benjamin, McMillan shares just why her hometown always shows up in her writing, “I love my city. It’s as simple as that. I can think of no other place that is more alive with the spirit of its people. It is rich in culture and full of history. Our history feels like a beautiful duality sometimes filled with the good and bad of a special kind of Americanness. So, it feels like a very natural backdrop to the complicated stories of my characters. I don’t see myself ever writing something that doesn’t include my hometown” (A 15). Indeed, New Orleans is a place McMillan knows very well. Her family has lived there for fifteen generations, making her a descendant of some of the oldest New Orleanian families. She attended school there from childhood to her college years. She resides in the famed French Quarter with her husband, Kendall, and their pet greyhound dog, Tabitha (Benjamin, A16). She is surrounded by friends and family. It feels and looks very much like a charmed life—and maybe it is.

What I have written for you is a sample. Your assignment MUST BE IN YOUR OWN WORDS AND USE YOUR OWN IDEAS!
WHAT TO DO/WHAT TO WRITE:
Your essay MUST focus on ONE text (essay, article, chapter, short story, novel) AND its author.

Follow the steps outlined below—
1st: Select an author and a text whose work truly moved and spoke to you this semester.
2nd: Locate at least 1 credentialed outside source (more if needed) that provides informative biographical background on the author and the kinds of work they have produced over the years. This information can/should include the author’s background (where they are from and the impact this may have had on their art and artistic process). Quoting from this text is MANDATORY.
3rd: Find a 2nd source that explores the reception of your selected author’s body of work; these can be reviews. Use this source to explore what the critics/reviewers say/reveal as they study and comment on works published by the author. Also, explore what these critics/reviewers reveal about the author’s artistic failures/successes, if any.
—OR—
Your 2nd source can be one where the author discusses the work they’ve written. Use this source to explore how the author feels about their published work; perhaps the source discusses what inspired their writing; or what they hope to write about in the future; finally, does the author discuss the community they write for and why?
Using this source, make sure this part of your essay speaks to the following: how your selected author feels about their failures/successes, if any; what the author reveals/shares (in articles/essays) about their work and what they hope to contribute to their artform; how the literary community feels about the author and their work; how audiences have responded; what makes the author successful. QUOTING FROM THIS SOURCE IS MANDATORY.

4th: Using your selected author and the class text that inspired your essay, address the following areas of interest:

EXPLORE WHY YOU SELECTED THIS TEXT AND AUTHOR.
Begin this section by sharing why this text was most compelling above everything and everyone else we’ve studied this semester.
Plot and theme (of your selected text)—what does the text reveal/show reader? Said differently, in your opinion, what did/does the author want us to take away from the work?
What you find compelling or exciting about the central character; How the author uses the central character(s) and/or idea to tell a specific story or to express a point of view? How successful or unsuccessful is the development of the main character and why—in your opinion?

Here, I am asking you to explain and explore what the text means to you and WHY and HOW important it is to the genre of literature penned by Black women.

Attached are the course text, you’ll have to find 2 scholarly sources

Category: Humanities : Women Studies

Part 1 (at least 1500 words): What are the major challenges facing women’s right

Your draft MUST follow the steps outlined below. STEP ONE (The Proposal): Here y