Assignment 8

I really enjoyed the Starbucks essay.  I liked the way that she went about using inquiry, and also the issue that she was exploring was very fun and got me interested.  I think overall this is what I should strive for in my research she really showed all perspectives, and had good detail to back up her research.  She tried to show that even though it may look like Starbucks is a very good coffee shop that actually cares about their customers and the environment, or if it is all a business plan to get the customers to come back.  Overall I really enjoyed this essay, and it helped me to see what I need to do in my research.

The video we watching in class on Thursday really showed me that you need to look at all perspectives to write a good research paper.  If any are left out or can be questioned then the writer did not do there job.  I realized with my paper that I am only looking at the female perspective.  The articles that I have read have been very biased, and my research is very one sided so far.  I need to look deeper into the issue to find out what the male perspective is as well as why this issue is even being brought up, because reading all of these femenist articles is not helping my research. It is just making my paper very one sided and biased.

AB's

Marini, Margaret Mooney. "Sex and Gender: What Do We Know?." Sociological Forum, 5.1 (1990): 95-120.
This article focuses on the differences between the male and female gender.  It does not techically deal with sports but it is useful in the fact that it compares the differences and similarities between the genders, and why some of the stereotypes are made.

Love, Adam, and Kimberly Kelly. "Equity or Essentialism." Gender & Society, 25.2 (2011): 227-249.

This article deals specifically with the femenist idea of women being treated unfairly in sports.  This article seems very biased towards women, but can be useful to point out what femenists think and why they come to these conclusions.  This article may be useful for the women's side of the argument, but I will need to do further research to find out the men's perspective on the issue.

Washington, Robert, and David Karen. "Sport and Society." Annual Review of Sociology, 27.1 (2001): 187.

This article is a sociological article for examining the issues of gender, as well as race, and class.  These issues are a very important part of the society.  These issues are also very important to notice in sport because things may effect the way a person thinks or makes decisions.  This article deals with not only race but a variety of different things that people discrimiate about and can be useful because it does not only focus on gender and we can maybe have a better idea of why people think the way they do when we see more issues.

Cooky, Cheryl, Faye Wachs, Michael Messner, and Shari Dworkin. "It's Not About the Game: Don Imus, Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Media." Sociology of Sport Journal, 27.2 (2010): 139-159.

This is a very good article for the question I currently have.  It is a sociological article that explains the image that women athletes currently have, and why men have more media coverage.  This article is biased towards the women's side, but I think for a good reason.  Women do not get as much media coverage as men, and that is the main issue I am trying to explore.

Comeau, Gina, and Anthony Church. "A Comparative Analysis of Women's Sport Advocacy Groups in Canada and the United States." Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 34.4 (2010): 457-474.

This article talks about the same issues of gender in sport, but I think this article is very useful because it is about Candian sports and not in America which puts more variety into my research.

Lemons, Mary, and Monica Parzinger. "Gender Schemas: A Cognitive Explanation of Discrimination of Women in Technology." Journal of Business and Psychology, 22.1 (2007): 91-98.

This is another article that deals specifically with women being discrimated against.  It deals with my question because women are being descrimated against in sports, and not the workplace but it is still the same issue that is being talked about.

Knoppers, Annelies, and Mary McDonald. "Scholarship on Gender and Sport in Sex Roles and Beyond." Sex Roles, 2010, Vol.63(5-6), P.311-323, 63.5-6 (2010): 311-6),.  This article explains the last 35 years, and  shows what differences have been deveolping with women in sports.  This article also shows perspectives from different countries to help get a diverse group to help show how things have been changing.

Buysse, Jo Ann, and Melissa Sheridan Embser-Herbert. "Constructions of Gender in Sport: An Analysis of Intercollegiate Media Guide Cover Photographs." Gender and Society, 18.1 (2004): 66-81. This article focuses on College sports and how the media depicts women as feminine and much less likely to be active, which is not the case.  It also explains how the media chooses certain photos to show how men are the more masculine and active gender.

Ruel, Erin, Marni Brown, and Stephanie Medley-Rath. "High School Students' Attitudes Toward Providing Girls Opportunities to Participate in Sport." Sociology of Sport Journal, 28.2 (2011): 239-253.   This article explains how stereotypes are made from even high school students.  It explains how the male athletes have a negative attitude towards the female student athletes which overall could have an impact on why people have come to see the stereotyping of women in sport increase.

Assignment 4b

I took your advise and combined two of my questions into one question that I think does show inquiry.  I choose to look at How does technology effect gender stereotypes in sports?  I combined my question How does the media stereotype against gender? and What does technology do to effect sports? I think these two questions alone could be topics for a research paper but when you combine them you can really do alot of research and find alot of things to write about.  I don't think that there will be any problem with trying to find enough information to compose a 10 page research paper on this question because it is so controversial and up for disscussion. 


I used the keyword technology and gender stereotypes in sports and I found an article entitled "Scholarship on Gender in Sport in Sex Roles and Beyond" This article explores the roles of women and sport in the last 35 years.  It explains how and why this stereotypes may have been created as well as how there is room for more research in this topic.  They explore not only the USA but also other countries and also a variety of diffent age groups and skill levels which is very useful.  This article is composed of alot of data and alot of good useful information about women in the last 35 years.  I think this would be a good overall start for me to at least look at why these stereotypes have been made and then go on later to see why technology may or may not have been a contributing factor to these stereotypes.  Overall I think this is a good place to start but I will need more information if I am going to look at all aspects of the question that I have chosen.

I found that rewording and rephrasing my searches helped concetrate my seaches to what I specifically wanted the article to be about.  Also, I knew that I wanted to explore technology in sports but I didnt know the question I wanted to ask so I put technology in sports into the databases, and I found that it helped me find questions and topics that I could write a reasearch paper about.  I also used this same strategy for stereotyping gender sports in the media and it helped me find some information that could be very usefull when I go about starting and developing my research paper.  These questions could be a start to a good research paper, and I will continue to try new things to help get the best results and find an article that is about what I really want to write about.

I used keywords like:
gender in sports
technology in sports
change in sports
gender stereotype in sports
etc..

Inquiry deals with your own questions which you investigate and develop, and then show that you understand the response to the reader.  There should not be a right or wrong answer to this question, it should just explore the question with critical thinking and to be able to make it clear to the reader to get them to think critically about the topic also



1.  How has performance enhancing drugs effected sports?
2. Will there ever be a limit in skill for professional sports?
3. How do concussions change professional football?
4. Why does the media stereotype against gender?
5. How does the media of professional sports effect young boys and girls?
6. How has technology effected the rising skill level of athletes?

Assignment 3

Byrson is an Author that uses a untraditional approach to his reasearch writing.  He is very informative and also uses a great deal of detail to make his argument known.

I think Byrson's approach as an author does work in our alternative approach to research writing.  He sets up his essay with alot of information, and he has a great use of inquiry throughout his entire essay, which I think is how you relate to the certain topic that you are addressing.  I think he has a great use of inquiry because he focuses everything back to his own life, and his own beliefs.  He writes, "We are so used to having a lot of comfort in our lives-to being clean, warm, and well fed-that we forget how recent most of that is." He admits to not knowing much about how things used to be but then he researched and found facts that he included to show that even though he was not very knowledgable in that topic that he could go on to compare life today to life then, and what happened to make the lives we have now possible.
  I like the way he would almost tell a story, and then at the end relate everything together to show what he thought of everything as a whole.  He did this a few times throughout his essay, the first being the house, and the second being the kitchen.  I think this overall approach is very rich in inquiry because you are relating everything back to yourself, and showing the differences and what had to happen for how life is today. 
His approach is a great example of the Alternative way of writing research because he does not follow any guideline.  He simply tells what he knows, tells what he found, and then relates both of them together into one big idea.  I found this essay to be very effective, and I enjoyed it very much.