The A-Z's of essay writing

Choose a topic based on your own opinions. Go out and find other people that have published the same opinions and ideas you have. List each of those sources together and group by topic, keep the quotes on hand for copy and paste. Then, instead of writing your own opinion, you are all of the sudden writing a creative link between multiple sources of good repute. Just go category by category and link your sources in the same order that you would have linked your own ideas, citing along the way the reasons why each source is important and how it integrates into your argument. The reference list alone will improve your mark by a letter grade. An example of such an essay is available below the next post, good luck!

The A-Z's of book publishing

You know what? Every time I go onto one of those writing boards, somebody is asking for a fairy godmother to come fluttering out of the sky and pluck them out of the thousands of scribes out there in order to place them safely in the hands of a world renown agent. Often I send emails to each one of these people and try to explain to them how things work, and what they can do about their career if they chose to have a successful one. However, I think that instead of writing it out over and over and over again trying to get through to people, maybe it could work a bit better if I posted it all quite succinctly here on the blog. So, here we go kids...


Before the Writing
- Ghost-writers make this go faster, never use the publisher’s
- Self-publishing, editors and book doctors are all bad, bad, bad
- The only ‘yes’ you should use in this industry is your signature, because that’s what
everybody else does

The Writing
- Outline general topics, not structure
- Notebook and a pen
- Read constantly on topic, especially people you disagree with, underline passages
(movies count)
- Never force the words, never hold back the words
- Read newspaper or watch ½ hr of news everyday in order to find modern context to
your ideas
- Transcribe any hand-written work to the computer as often as possible in order to
provide periodically scheduled first edit
- Review topic outline often and revise
- Talk to as many people as possible about these ideas and take note of both how they
respond and how you explain in the face of that reponse
- Sometimes words don’t fit, ideas always do
- Pose an interesting thought every page, even if they are not yet explained
- Interview as many related people as possible about their ideas, not yours
- Apply for as many government grants as possible, they will held you subsidize creation
time and with future marketing
- Draft article queries for every idea you come up with for the book, send them out to
relevant magazine publications in order to muster possible pre-publishing deal buzz-
don’t draft actual articles though, only write articles that have been requested as a result
of a query


The Editing Process
- Transcribe all written material to computer and edit as you go from start to end
- Read through at least four times: there will always be at least one word you missed
- Use grammar check, it finds things you won’t
- Find three people to read you draft at this point: one who totally agrees with you on this
subject, one who totally disagrees with you on this subject and one who has no idea what
you’re talking about
- Always impliment their ideas, never leave out yours
- Use as much inter-textualization as possible
- Speak to at least ten recognizable experts within the field you are writing on, about
things you have said in the book. Make sure these are different people than those you
spoke to during the ‘writing process’, you can re-interview those you’ve interviewed
before, but treat them as extra additions to your interview list. Impliment everything
they say in agreeance to your points into the book as well as at least one thing they say
that is in disagreeance to you- one thing that you do not defend yourself against in the
book
- Impliment as many personal experiences as possible at this point, that way the ideas do
not revolve around you, but your experiences revolve around your ideas
- Ask the most agreeable person that you have worked with so far and ask them to write a
forward to the book
- Once complete, proofread as many as five times, at least
- Leave room for a sequel at the end
- Expand rather than retract

The Publishing Process
- Create a 3 paragraph query: the first paragraph is who you are, the second is about your
book, the third is about why you wrote it
- Create a 5 section proposal (maximum three pages)
a) Book Overview
b) The Market- who is your market, how many people are in it, any magazine
circulations for publications on your field, any statistics you can find that are in
your favor
c) Competition- cite three or four other books on the field you are writing on and
why your book is different/better
d) Marketing- how do you plan to sell your book, what do you bring to the table in
terms of sales skills or marketable reputation that other writers might not have,
what kind of unique promotional idea do you have (a website, unique book
signing locations you either have access to or wish to employ, what kind of
press you are looking to garner and how), any money you are willing to spend
and how you will spend it (grants received?)
e) Biography- why are you qualified to write this book, why are you interesting-
keep in mind that this section helps the reader to determine how you present
yourself as a person
f) Also include 3 sample chapters and a chapter breakdown (each chapter title and
a brief idea of what each chapter is about)
g) Add blurbs to the end of the proposal if you can (quotes about you or your
work- especially this book- from new organizations or from famous or
important people)
- You can develop these as soon as three chapters have been written and reasonably
edited, and start sending them out within two months of the anticipated manuscript
completion in order to have agents and publishers ready to see the final work as soon as
its ready and to skip several months of waiting time
- Send query to at least 100 different agencies if you do not already have one
- very few agents will reply positively and request your proposal, if they then like
the proposal, they’ll ask for the full manuscript
- be prepared for agents and publishers to ask for additional edits (again, always
impliment their ideas but never leave out yours)
- only sign with an agent that has sold consistently to the types of publishers you
with to publish with
- always bargain for a better contract, always insist on some sort of exit clause
- try to sign with someone that has both a law degree and has worked at a
publisher in the past (preferably as an editor)
- When you have an agent:
- submit to every publisher under the sun, this will assure you can play them off
each other and receive a better deal
- check in with agent at least once a month, if they are not being helful use exit
clause
- read everything they send and receive in order to monitor progress
- Send copy to as many contests as possible, they help sales tremendously
- Send manuscript to ten people you would most like a quote about the book for, to put
on your jacket
- Prepare your own cover design, if you want to

The Marketing Process
- Draft a list of publications in every major center of interest and ensure a gallery copy is
received by them four months before release date- three months prior is the standard, no
publication will review your book if it is any later than that
- Plan as many signings as you can
- Follow through on promises you made in your proposal- people will notice if you do not
- Interview with everyone that asks
- Draft another query and start to seek an agent for translation into other languages
- Ask advice from other authors on how they sold more books
- Send complimentary copies to every person either cited or quoted in the book, or that
helped you out a lot on the project
- Sign 200 books and have them signed by the more important contributors to the book as
well, keep a few and then sell the rest on E-Bay
- Link book to a speaking tour, contact tour agencies upon publishing deal, this helps to
pay for travelling expenses and signings in additional areas
- Records your own book on tape
- Approach TV production companies about developing TV special featuring ideas from
the book
- Draft queries for articles in conjunction to book and flyer all relevant periodicals, then
only write articles when they have been requested, you can also draft queries to have
your best interviews published as is
- Keep control information from every person you meet, they will be of help in the future
- Sell yourself in the media, sell your work in person
- Include a picture in all press releases and send a press release to all local periodicals
whenever you arrive anywhere for a book related event, use a general template for all
press releases for easy conversion
- Fame/importance of position, they get you a better deal with the publisher, but quality of
writing gets you higher sales
- Store signings are good for promotion, mostly because of the in-store posters that
advertise your signing and because the store will most likely place your book more
prominently in the store, so if people don’t purchase from you at the table, don’t lost
heart

The Extent to which Feminism has Worked

The Extent to which Feminism has Worked

Introduction

Feminism has worked to an extent that can be shown and could have been expected given its historical precedents as a radically new change in political thinking. Significant advances within the main target areas of feminism have occurred. First wave feminism achieved women’s suffrage as well as personhood in the Western world, something that occurred in the first half of the twentieth century. Then second wave feminism began in the 1960s with more far reaching goals, goals that included reproductive rights, child care rights and equal employment opportunities.

The widely lauded U.S. Supreme Court precedent Wade v. Roe solidified basic reproductive rights for women in the Western world in the 1970s. Child care rights have been increased by similar legal precedents and statistically significant rates of primary custody for mothers following divorce proceedings, something that did not exist in prior decades. However, this paper will look at the third above stated goal of second wave feminism and the extent to which it has been achieved. The cause of equal employment opportunity has been significantly advanced, and should be fully realized in the foreseeable future. This paper will seek to prove that notion.

As feminism has been most thoroughly developed in the United States, the examples and evidence in this paper will come mostly from the American feminist movement. Evidence will be provided in several different areas of advancement. The first area of advancement that will be analyzed is that of university education, a vital element of economic success as an adult. The second area that will be analyzed is the economic situation of women in western society, both in terms of personal fortune and business ownership. The final area that will be analyzed is that of the political arena, the most influential institution in the modern world. This should show that the goal of equal employment opportunities is in the process of being achieved.


Historical Precedents

The complete realization of all goals set forth by second wave of feminism has not occurred. It may be frustrating for the movement to not have seen immediate change, but the length of time over which this equalization is occurring is not unexpected. The evolution of feminism as a political movement is in line with several other historical changes in social and political norms. Democracy is a recent political development that occurred within the last few hundred years and it did not arise over night. The Magna Carta, which opened the door for government by the people in Great Britain and created the first ‘Parliament’, was signed in 1215. After this it took over four hundred years to wrest authority over taxation from the traditional monarchy, something that occurred with the signing of the Petition of Right 1628. Of course the first recognizable government by the people and only the people did not occur until over five hundred and fifty years after the Magna Carta – the signing of the United States Constitution in 1787.

A second example of how long it can take for a political movement to legitimate all of its goals is in the evolution of modern Communism. It is widely believed that the first influential version of communist living came in the sixteenth century, when Sir Thomas More wrote his classic work ‘Utopia’ that described a completely communal society. In Utopia, More outlined a world in which all men did all jobs, changing professions every year in order to give each person a chance at experiencing different things. Of course Communism as we think of it today did not occur until 1918 and the Russian Revolution, even Marx’s vision of Communism the final form implemented by Vladmir Lenin and Joseph Stalin.

Many different precedents lend credence to the idea that feminism will take many, many years to realize all of its goals. If the first real landmark of feminism was women’s suffrage in 1918-20, as it is widely believed to be, then its evolution has only been in progress for just short of a hundred years. The length of time each goal of feminism has taken to be realized has not been out of synch with historical precedent.


University Education

In 1841, the first three American women to graduate from a university accepted their degrees from Oberlin College. It was not until 1877 that a woman to receive a PhD. from a US school. In contrast, today 57% of all BAs in the US go to women as opposed to men (Ramphele, 2002). This progress was not a steady climb since 1877, but the percentage of university educated women has grown exponentially since the advent of second wave feminism. As an example, Troy Duster wrote for the Association of American Law Schools that, “…in the 1965-66 academic year, women constituted only 4.2 per cent of the students studying for the J.D. in American colleges and universities. …data for 1993-94 reflect a ten-fold increase during the last thirty years: women now constitute more than forty-three per cent of law students in the country” (Duster, 1997). These growths in opportunities in advanced education are correlative with the efforts of second wave feminism.

Feminism’s goal of perfect equality is approaching in this area, over the past ten years the best schools in North America have finally achieved a firm balance between male and female students. Harvard University, according to its 2005 enrollment statistics, has an exact split of 50% males and 50% females in their freshman class (AOHU 2005). Harvard’s more prestigious programs also see a healthy portion of its enrollment as women, for Harvard medical school in 2000 it was 45% (HMS 1998). Even schools whose main focus is on faculties traditionally thought of as male areas of study have seen equality in their enrollment statistics. At MIT in September of 2003, 45% of the freshman class was female, an increase from only 39% in 1994 (MIT 1995). According to the National Center of Education Statistics, Yale, Duke, Princeton, Stanford, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Penn State and John Hopkins University all had an even split between male and female enrollment in their freshmen classes give or take three percent with only one exception. At Brown University, enrollment for males is 45%, and for females it is of course ten percent higher. These (including Harvard) are the top ten schools in America in terms of graduation rates, and considered some of the finest schools in the world (U. of Chi 2005).

These equal education opportunities have opened the doors for equal employment opportunities, as one of the most important elements of a successful career in today’s world is that of a good education. In addition, universities have also opened other doors in terms of liberal acceptance of women as equals on a social level. Alyssa Bryant wrote in a 2003 article, after a study in which she gauged how university had influenced the gender views of modern students, “In general, the college experience tends to liberalize students' gender-role attitudes on a variety of dimensions, including attitudes toward women's occupational and educational opportunities, roles, and responsibilities” (Bryant 2003; 131-142). A second study was also done on the attitude towards feminism itself in university by Linda Jackson et al, in which they found, “Overall, 70.7% of the definitions [for feminism given by students] were favorable, only 6.1% were unfavorable, and 23.2% were mixed… Thus, consistent with predictions, both genders were more supportive than opposed to feminism... The overwhelming majority of our college student respondents (71%) defined feminism favorably, and primarily in terms of gender equality” (Jackson et al 1996; 687-693). Not only are universities opening up the doors of the corporate world, but university environments themselves are helping to encourage egalitarian behavior.


Economic Status

One of the most important aspects of equal opportunity is business ownership. While educational institutions have given their students a shot at equality in their future lives, women of previous generations have made great strides in the business world. 26% of all business in the United States have women with majority stakes (USCB 97-02, 2003). Between 1997 and 2002 every state in the union registered an increase in the total share taken up by women except for one, and Nevada led the way with and increase of over 40% (USCB 97-02, 2003). According to the Center for Women’s Business Research, “Growth in women-owned businesses has outpaced that of other firms… women-owned firms have grown at nearly twice the rate of all firms (17% vs. 9%). Growth in employment by women-owned firms has been even more dramatic—24% compared to 12% for all firms” (CWBR, 2005). Business development is a key aspect of economic success in any society.

Disparity between male and female mean salaries has also shown signs of closing, and has shrunk by approximately $4000 over the last thirty-five years. This number becomes impressive when put into the right context, as since 1973 female salaries have risen steadily even through periods of recession. In contrast, the mean for male salaries has remained stagnant over the same period and decreased sharply during periods of recession (USCB 67-02, 2003). There has been some criticism however, that women are not present at the top of the corporate ladder. The first woman CEO of a Fortune 50 was not hired until 1999, when Carly Fiorina was given the seat at Hewett Packard (Pozner 1999).

L.F. Paradis published that the problem is especially bad in the healthcare business, “Laywomen CEOs tend to be at hospitals with the fewest beds and the lowest budgets, staffs, and salaries. No women run hospitals affiliated with medical schools… Few women are hired into positions that allow them to advance to the ranks of CEOs” (Paradis 1989; 58-65, 72). Yet according to Women in Higher Education, out of the 54 executive positions they analyzed, 22 of them had instances of higher average salaries and employment numbers for females than males (WIHE, 2000). 60% of all accountants, for instance, are women (Ramphele 2002). In now trying to predict how future, better educated generations will influence the balance of equality, note that in 2005 the three richest people in the world under the age of 25 were all female (Fortune 2005).


The Political Arena

The National Organization for Women has become one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, claiming more than half a million members and over 550 chapters. Their message has reached both the top of the government and the most isolated communities with their actions and publications, according to researcher Kyra Pearson, “The significance of alternative presses to feminist politics should not be underestimated… these newspapers [act] as ‘life lines to isolated groups in small towns’” (Pearson 1999; A:5). Female politicians have also become commonplace, it was only 1924 that the first female State governor was elected. Today, according to the Institute of Women’s Policy Research, “Between the fall of 1996 and October of 2004, the number of women governors jumped from one to nine, the number of women in the U.S. Senate grew from nine to 14, and the number of women in the U.S. House increased from 49 to 60” (IWPR; 5).

Yet in Canada, according to Rosemary Speirs in a press release for equalvoice.ca, “[The] House of Commons [includes] 65 women, or 21.1 per cent of the 308 seats. By our latest count, that is 34 female Liberal MPs, 14 for the Bloc Quebecois, 12 Conservatives and 5 New Democrats. This is a very slight increase—two more women Members in a bigger House, and a .2 per cent gain over the previous Parliament” (Speirs 2004). These totals of around 20% for legislators in both the United States and Canada have been criticized as a type of glass ceiling, a token gift that affords no real control. However, these numbers are reflective of enrollment at major universities about forty to fifty years ago.

The first female Ph D. was in 1877, approximately fifty years before the first female State governor. The 20% level of female officials today reflects similar statistics of women in universities nearly fifty years ago, a second point of correlation. In another fifty years there just may be a third correlation, an exponential jump to equal levels of male and female elected officials that reflects what is seen in higher education today. A new generation has been born with equal opportunity in terms of acquiring the tools of success and a culture of women owned businesses; the true test of equality is about to begin.


Conclusion

Second wave feminist Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua, in trying to define feminism for her generation, developed the term ‘mestizaje’ to refer to a state beyond the binary ‘either/or’ conception of gender (Wikipedia). Though forty years ago this term seemed more of a dream than reality, today it very much appears to be materializing. Enrollments in universities are completely equal today at the undergraduate level, and fast approaching a perfect equilibrium in the more selective programs. Economic disparities are lessening between men and women, and female owned businesses are a well established cornerstone of the Western economy. Even in the political arena, great strides have been made, with one fifth of all North American politicians at the Federal level being female. The goals of feminism have not been entirely achieved just yet, but it is evident that the goal of equal opportunity is in the process of being achieved.


References

Admissions Office at Harvard University. Statistics: Class of 2009. 2005. http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/prospective/applying/stats/index.html.

Asay-Wilkinson, Dorene. The ‘F’ Word. October 7, 2005. Insurgent 49: Independent Media for Progressive Alaskans.
Bryant, Alyssa. Changes in attitudes toward women's roles: predicting gender-role traditionalism among college students. February 2003. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research. Vol 48, numbers 3-4; Pp 131-142.

(CWBR) Center for Women’s Business Research. Capturing the Impact: Women-Owned Businesses in the United States. November 18, 2005. www.Bizwomen.com.

Duster, Troy. “Chapter 4: What we can Learn from other Experiences in Higher Education” in ‘Perspectives on Diversity: AALS Special Commission on Meeting the Challenges of Diversity in an Academic Democracy’. 1997. The Association of American Law Schools. www.aals.org/duster.html.

Fortune Magazine. America’s 40 Richest Under 40. February 2005. Forbes Magazine.
(HMS) Registrar Office at Harvard Medical School. Official Fall Enrollments M.D. Candidates Registered Fall 2000. 1998. Harvard Medical School. http://www.hms.harvard.edu/reg-istrar/enrole98.html.

Institute for Women’s Policy Research. The Status of Women in the States. www.iwpr.org. IWPR #R265, Pp 5.

L. Jackson, R. Fleury and D. Lewandowski. Feminism: definitions, support, and correlates of support among female and male college students. May 1995. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research. Volume 34; Pp 687-693.

L.F. Paradis and G.S Sloss. Women CEOs: lonely at the top. Men still dominate upper echelons of healthcare management. Health Prog. 1989 Dec; 70(10):58-65, 72.

Pearson, Kyra. Mapping rhetorical interventions in "national" feminist histories: Second wave feminism and Ain't I a Woman. Communication Studies. Summer 1999, Art. 5.

Pozner, Jennifer. One Giant Step from a Woman, One Small Step for Womankind. 1999. Feminista! Vol 3, #9.
Ramphele, Mamphela. Keynote Address at International Symposium on International Perspectives: “Global Voices for Gender Equity”. 2002. American Association of University Women. http://www.aauw.org/ef/ramphele.cfm.

Registrar Office at MIT. MIT Reports to the President 1994-95. 1995. MIT.edu. http://web.mit.edu/annualreports/pres95/01.2.html.

Registrar Office at MIT. Statistics for the Year. 2004. MIT.edu. http://web.mit.-edu/annualreports/pres04/01.01.pdf

Speirs, Rosemary. Media Release Re: Election of Women to Parliament. June 29, 2004. Equalvoice.ca. http://www.equalvoice.ca/press_062904.html.

(U. of Chi) Registrar Office at University of Chicago. University of Chicago Academic and Enrollment Statistics. 2004. University of Chicago. http://registrar.uchicago.edu/stat-istics/

(USCB) US Census Bureau. Women Owned Businesses: Percentage Change in Number of Firms – 1997-2002. 2003. US Department of Commerce.

(USCB) US Census Bureau. Median Earnings of Full Time, Year-Round workers age 15 and over by sex; 1967-2002. 2003. US Department of Commerce.

Wikipedia. Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua. 2005. Wikipedia.com.

Wikipedia. The National Organization for Women. 2005. Wikipedia.com.

(WIHE) Women in Higher Education. Gender Differences in 1998-1999 Administrative Salaries. 2000. Women in Higher Education. http://www.wihe.com/stats98.htm.