This assignment requires you write 2 essays, in which you will “adapt” your “voice” to 2 different

Your Topic:

Your writing will address the issue of gender and the media. You have a choice of focus:

Option 1) You can focus specifically on the media and/or pop culture and gender
socialization

Option 2) Or, you can focus specially on the media and/or pop culture and body image.

Piece of Writing 1: Formal
Academic Research-Based Argument Essay

1st: you will be required to write a 4-5 page formal, academic (research) essay with a thesis.
You will explore your thesis throughout the paper. This essay should refer to at least 3 external
sources. 2 of these sources should be material discussed in class, the remaining 1 or more can
be sources you’ve uncovered yourself. Make sure that your research is suitable for inclusion
into an academic essay.

• Stephanie Hanes, “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect” (EAA 509-516)
• Skip Hollandsworth, “Toddlers in Tiaras” (handout)
• Ellen Goodman, “The Culture of Thin Bites Fiji” (handout)
• Anne E. Becker, “Television, Disordered Eating, and Young Women in Fiji: Negotiating Body
Image and Identity during Rapid Social Change” (handout)

• Michael Kimmel, “‘Bros Before Hos’: The Guy Code” (handout)
• Brendan O’ Sullivan, “Dead Man Walking” (handout)
• Jackson Katz, Tough Guise (DVD)

Your essay will be formal in both form and content. This means that it will have a formal
structure:
• Title
• Abstract

• Key Words
• Discussion
• Conclusions
• Works Cited

It should also communicate in a formal and academic tone.

Piece of Writing 2: Informal and Conversational

2nd: you will be required to turn this academic, formal essay into a 2-3 page essay with a
journalist/popular style (use Ellen Goodman’s “The Culture of Thin Bites Fiji” as a model of style
but not content). This essay does not need to refer to any external sources.

This essay should – of course – have a structure that logically leads the reader through your
argument. This would mean you need to think of having: an introduction, a body, a conclusion.
However, you also have more freedom when constructing an informal piece of writing in terms
of tone/style.

Use the formal/informal worksheet to help adapt the formal into the informal

***See Attachments for better details