How to Write a Research Essay in Women and Gender Studies: What That Is & How to Start

Writing guide
Posted on April 10, 2021

It is hard to believe that there are still talks about gender roles and gender discrimination in the XXI century. Nevertheless, some countries discriminate against women and prefer male employers to female ones when appointing to most positions. One can hardly find a woman that really rules the country or determines a serious dispute for the country. That is why this topic remains timely and urgent.

Essays in women and gender studies help not only professors and tutors but also sociologists learn about the attitude of the youth towards gender discrimination. It also assists in case studies and looking for the ways of their solution. Both male and female students are free to express their feelings and emotions, ideas and resolutions.

As a rule, an essay does not exceed 20 pages. An average volume is 3-5 pages or 5-paragraph essays. It is important to be topic-oriented and try not to discuss many things in one paper. One must focus on one issue and provide as many details as possible. The better a paper is researched the more points you will get. Consequently, a person should make a plan and try to execute it. The creation of an outline is the best variant to start writing an essay on gender studies.

How to Write a Research Essay in Women and Gender Studies: Types of Essays

Students must also know everything about the styles and forms of essays they are going to write. These are the most popular ones.

Compare and Contrast
It compares notions, works, personalities, events, and provides some analogies looking for similarities and differences. For example, ‘Feminist movements at the end of XX and the beginning of the XXI century’.

Cause and Effect
It explains the reasons for some events and consequences of actions. For instance, ‘Causes for sex discriminations and their consequences in different countries of the globe’.

Expository
This essay type aims at providing trustable information about the topic. It describes and explains notions, events, etc. E.g., ‘Liang Qichao, a male who protected women’s rights in China’.

Descriptive
It is usually called a five-senses essay. Its purpose is to depict something involving all human sensors: nose (smells), eyes (visual description), ears (sounds, voices), skin (feeling of cold, warmth, pain, etc.), and mouth (tastes).

Narrative
It is a story that deals with flash-forwards, flashbacks, and transitions. This essay has a plot and is often presented in the 1st person narrative. For example, ‘Gender discrimination I had to face in my life.’

Argumentative
It presents arguments and a writer chooses one side and supports it with facts and pieces of evidence. For instance, ‘Is there true friendship between girls?’

Reflective
A person examines personal life experience providing details like personal changes and growth. E.g., ‘What happened to me when parents had decided to change their ‘gender’ responsibilities for a week?’
As soon as you make sure what essay type you need to write, study the requirements and get ready for writing.

How to Write a Research Essay in Women and Gender Studies: Pre-Writing Tips

Sometimes students delay their home assignment hoping to cope with it quickly on the last day before the deadline. As a result, they either fail to do it or do it anyhow and get the lowest grade. The most unpleasant thing happens when tutors and professors ban papers because of plagiarism. It means that a student has found something on the Internet, copied and pasted it, and handed it in as a unique paper. To avoid such misfortunes, one has to consider 5 pre-writing tips described below.

Watch News and Look for the Latest Publications on the Internet

It is very essential to choose a topic that can intrigue and become informative for the target audience. Moreover, one should find out who is the target audience. If a student should present an essay to other students, there will be minimal demands for lexical units and the topic. If a person has to write for professors and tutors or a larger experienced audience, the selection of the topic will be harder and lexical units are going to be more complex.
The latest publications can give a hint about the urgent problem you can discuss in your essay. These are some timely topics for students to write about.

  • College Discrimination: Why Do We Meet More Male Than Female Professors?
  • Can a Man Become a Perfect ‘Househusband’ While Women Work?
  • Do People Treat Transgenders Equally to Inborn Men and Women?
  • Are Gender Stereotypes Dangerous in the XXI century?
  • Rights of Same-Sex Parenting in the Adoption Process

These topics are urgent and need answers.

Brainstorm to Create an Outline

An outline is a structural reflection of the essay you are going to write. It resembles a content that you can find in a textbook at the beginning or the end of the book. One can make notes on its margins, set the deadline for each section, and see what information one has and what information one needs to find.

Many tutors ask their students to present an outline before the paper is ready. It helps them understand the idea, innovation, and value of the essay. It is a map that guides to structural parts of the paper and a perfect assistant in self-organization.

Study Writing Requirements of the College

Professors can demand a concrete essay type, formatting, number of pages or words, deadline, and number of used sources. Some tutors do not like students who search for the required information on Wikipedia while others regard it as a trustable source. Each student should study and even learn the requirements of the college to make sure that he or she understands the assignment.

Fill in the Gaps

One of the most important functions of an outline is to reveal the information gaps a student has to feel in. Sometimes a student goes too deep into the subject. Consequently, a paper turns out to be successful but only if it gives all details about the case, person, event, or experience. In case you lack some information, time, or writing tools, it will be necessary to find everything required first. It will help to delete all distractions and concentrate on writing.

Study Samples

It is hard to understand a topic without excellent samples. The Internet is full of sample papers that a person can find in a minute with the help of the searching engine and a couple of mouse clicks. One should remember about copyright policy. Examples serve as guides but students must not copy them. Nevertheless, writers should pay attention to formatting, structuring, titles, citations, etc. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Consult Professionals

Experienced students, tutors, professors, and professional writers can suggest some cool ideas. They can tell you where to look for exciting topics and how to intrigue, convenience the reader in something, or tell facts without the risk of plagiarizing.

How to Write a Research Essay in Women and Gender Studies: Structuring

An essay is a semi-official assignment compared to a thesis paper. Nevertheless, a person has to structure it properly. An average essay consists of an introductory part, a body, and a conclusion. A student must also create a striking title to interest the target reader.

Title

A title reflects the topic of the paper. It must have not more than 70 and no less than 45 characters excluding spaces. A student must include keywords and make a title sound smart.

Bad variant: Abortion rights
Good variant: Abortion: Should Only Women Be Responsible for Their Unborn Baby’s Life?

Introduction

This part of an essay presents a topic, an idea of the paper, and a writer’s position (if it is subjective). Writers usually include a thesis statement. There are 2 categories:

Informative
Only 27 countries let same-sex couples adopt children legally. (topic: adoption of children by LGBT representatives; direction: discussion of discrimination of LGBT representatives)

Persuasive
LGBT representatives are also good parents but the law (except 27 counties) and society prevent their parenting regarding it as an immoral and sinful thing. (opinion: a writer considers same-sex parenting as a positive occurrence but blames the society and the government for unfair discrimination)

This part of an essay makes up to 10% of the whole paper. It often happens that most readers pay attention only to this part. In case an introduction does not impress them, they would not like to read the whole essay. Consequently, an introduction aims at attracting the reader’s attention. That is why it is better to use captivating facts, rhetorical questions, discreditable information, shocking statistics, and even anecdotes and call-to-action statements. It is better to choose the device that will fit the purpose and type of essay.

Body

It is the biggest part of an essay. It makes approximately 80% of the whole paper and develops the idea presented in the thesis statement. Its purpose is to restate the thesis statement, support it with statistics, real-life situations, pieces of evidence, or facts, and explain the reason for their choice.

Statistic: Only 20% of all gay couples have children. (source)
Fact: There are scientific proofs that sexual orientation impairs the ability to be a good parent. (source)

The above-presented information supports the thesis statement. A writer can explain it the following way:
‘Both opposite-gender couples and same-sex couples can be good and bad parents. Sexual orientation has nothing to do with parenting. People should stop discriminating against LGBT couples who want to bring up children and rescue them from orphan asylums and loneliness.’

A body of an essay must be also structured. It must have subsections (paragraphs) where each subsection provides a new idea or logical shift from one point to another.

Conclusion

This is the last part of an essay. It usually makes up to 10% of the paper volume and summarizes everything. It supplies the target audience with something worthy to be taken away. It stresses the importance of the described topic. A student can also offer the basis for further investigation. Sometimes professors and tutors read a conclusion first. This part helps them find out whether the paper is worthy of their attention or not. A student can also use here some facts, shreds of evidence, or provocative questions to make the target audience ponder on the idea or to try to persuade them to take his or her side.

How to Write a Research Essay in Women and Gender Studies: After Writing Tips

Even if the essay is ready a person should make sure that it is top-level. A student should make 3 steps before handing in the paper.

Step 1. Scan Via Grammar Checkers

Find online grammar checkers and scan your paper. Such apps will find mistakes in your essay and suggest improvements or corrections. Free versions underline typical mistakes and premium versions help to correct more difficult points. For example, Grammar Checker, Grammarly, and Scribens are powerful tools for essay writers.

Step 2. Proofreading and Readability

Everyone can make mistakes that online grammar checkers cannot notice. It can be wrong data or misplaced information. Proofreading helps to find such mistakes and correct them. Experts also recommend giving an essay to someone who can proofread a paper and comment on it. These can be your experienced college friends and professional writers.

One more thing a person should consider is the readability of the text. Sometimes we complicate everything and it is hard to understand the message. Hemingway Editor helps to make your essay clear and bold. You can also find other readability formulas to satisfy college demands.

Step 3. Formatting

Professors and tutors pay attention not only to the content of the paper but to its formatting too. Study the requirements of the college and then the requirements of the demanded style. EasyBib is a free bibliography generator that can help you format the used literature properly. Keep in mind that only trustable sources are to be applied (scientific magazines, journals, newspapers; encyclopedias; official websites of organizations, etc.).
Don’t forget to scan your paper through plagiarism checkers. Plagiarized papers are always banned and a student can be dispelled from college.

References:

  1. Fredericks, N. (2015 10). Six different types of essays. Retrieved from https://prezi.com/ep_prt_xtpqg/six-different-types-of-essays/
  2. Gary J. Gates, M.V. Lee Badgett, Kate Chambers, Jennifer Macomber, Adoption and Foster Care by Gay and Lesbian Parents in the United States. The Williams Institute, Los Angeles, CA. 2007.
  3. Write Your Essay | UNSW Current Students. Retrieved from https://student.unsw.edu.au/writing-your-essay
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