Read “The Taming of the Tongue: How Silence and Linguistic Disguise Ennobles Women’s Speech in The Taming of the Shrew and Lessons for Women“.

Jackie Li’s essay “The Taming of the Tongue” soars amongst those received in my PoH Tales of Gender and Power course. Particularly notable is the rigor and exactitude with which Jackie addresses all aspects of the essay prompt. In brief, it asked students to meaningfully juxtapose two course texts in order to illuminate an overarching problem neither text does entirely on its own. Students tend to assume this assignment represents a “compare and contrast” essay, so they list similarities and differences, ping-ponging between descriptions. Minimal analysis or interpretive mission can result. Readers end up wondering, “So what?”

Adroitly negotiating disparities of culture and historical period through contextualization and detailed analysis,  Jackie’s juxtaposition of two marvelous women — erudite Han dynasty scholar Ban Zhao, China’s first female historian, and Shakespeare’s wickedly sharp-tongued English Renaissance shrew, Kate Minola — accomplishes its valuable scholarly purpose occasionally using the tools of compare and contrast, but never bridled by them. Jackie’s pointed title highlights her essay’s key insight: in highly patriarchal societies, literate, sophisticated and independent women, by disguising and/or modulating their speech, express power and agency, not subordination or submission.

Jackie drafted and revised this essay many times. It did not ‘come easy’ — why would it? Its richness, complexity, excellent research and tightly structured argument so well supported by textual evidence  is a testament to Jackie’s fierce persistence, devotion, love of her subject, and determination to make her essay ring true. I can only commend her essay without reserve.

—Amy Goldman, Lecturer in the Writing Program

Read “Swiped off My Feet — Tinder Gold and Superficiality in Modern Relationships”.

In Finn’s Writing as Inquiry class, our final research project was to turn the skills students had learned in close-reading argumentative essays towards close-reading something more personal: an app on their phone. As in their previous essays, the goal was to uncover a value the app seemed driven by, or perhaps projected into our increasingly online lives. Finn’s essay “Swiped off My Feet — Tinder Gold and Superficiality in Modern Relationships” takes an admirably fearless dive into the biggest, blurriest value of all: love.

A daunting project for any writer, indeed! But Finn shows two crucial skills here. First, there’s his close attention to defining his terms: he begins examining Tinder Gold through the broad lens of love & dating, and then narrows it down, source by source, to physical attraction, ultimately building his argument on the distinction he’s drawn. Second, he makes an inspired connection: instead of forever arguing with the clucking Tinder commentary, Finn jumps silos to explain the app’s matchups not as love but as an example of networked individualism. This comfort in both explaining others’ ideas and taking them to new places — along with his dry, self-deprecating humor about the whole project — makes Finn’s essay an excellent example of rigorous, engaging scholarship.

—Dan Keane, Lecturer in the Writing Program

Read “Inequality and Rural Discrimination: Causes of the Rural-Urban Literacy Gap for Children in China”.

In Writing as Inquiry I (Spring 2020), Chen Kuntian was interested in exploring what causes the unequal literacy abilities children of migrant workers exhibit in large Chinese cities. In “Inequality and Rural Discrimination: Causes of the Rural-Urban Literacy Gap for Children in China,” Chen brings to our attention a few important issues: the struggle of migrant laborers’ children for literacy, and the bias against migrant workers who are often seen as irresponsible parents. Chen however does not accept these negative attitudes and popular accusations. Instead of blaming the migrant parents, Chen argues that we should pay more attention to the multi-faceted nature of inequality these migrant Chinese parents and their families face if a real change is to happen. “Inequality and Rural Discrimination” indeed explores an important issue that needs attention. Chen uses reliable sources to advance a clear argument. His work is informative and educational. I congratulate Chen Kuntian on this achievement. 

—Adam Yaghi, Lecturer in the Writing Program

Read “Chinese Young Adults’ Sense of Self in Social Media: Through the Lens of Beauty Apps”.

Zou Jia wrote “Chinese Young Adults’ Sense of Self in Social Media: Through the Lens of Beauty Apps” for my Spring 2020 Writing as Inquiry class. For this assignment, students were required to respond to course texts, conduct research, and develop their own original argument in response to sources. Zou Jia’s essay models the development of a complex thesis statement through weighing and synthesizing differing perspectives. Zou Jia evaluates the effect of selfie-editing apps on young people’s self-esteem and argues that as much as unedited selfies seem to capture one’s “authenticity,” they still promote self-objectification. By weighing the arguments of Fan Jiayang’s “China’s Selfie Obsession” and sources she found through research, Zou Jia makes a convincing case that social media as a platform intensifies young people’s hunger for validation. Zou Jia skillfully incorporates and weaves quotations from secondary sources to support her claims. She carefully defines key terms, such as “authenticity” and “self-esteem.” She includes social media posts as apt visual examples for her claims. Overall, Zou Jia’s essay is an ambitious, methodical response to the way social media has affected our psyche today.

—Alice Chuang, Lecturer in the Writing Program