ABSTRACT draft

Traditional gender roles have a negative impact, especially on children. Traditional gender roles can absolutely make a child believe the worst about themselves and their abilities; the subsequent stigmas negatively affect a child’s psyche. Young children exposed to traditional gender roles will be more likely to perpetuate them later in life. Everyone can benefit from gender-neutral parenting. Some people totally miss the point of gender neutral parenting and proceed to spread the wrong information. Gender-neutral parenting is not trying to erase gender by being completely against femininity or masculinity, does not alter your child’s sexuality, and is not only for parenting trans* children. Children should be raised without traditional gender roles and as gender-neutral as possible to allow them to develop their own identity and ideas about gender and sexuality in general and in regards to themselves. 

OUTLINE draft

1. Introduction: I define my topic briefly and state my thesis.

1. Traditional gender roles have a negative impact on children. 

1. Traditional gender roles can absolutely make a child believe the worst about themselves and their abilities. (Jacobs & Eccles)

1. Traditional gender roles and subsequent stigmas negatively affect a child’s psyche. (Halim et al)

1. Young children exposed to traditional gender roles will be more likely to perpetuate them later in life. (Halim et al)
2. Many parents perpetuate traditional gender roles, making it hard for children to create their own ideas about gender and their own gender. (Leaper)

1. Gender-neutral parenting is extremely beneficial. 

1. GNP is not trying to erase gender by being completely against femininity or masculinity, does not alter your child’s sexuality, and is not only for parenting trans* children. (Lucas-Stannard)

1. Some people totally miss the point of gender neutral parenting and proceed to spread the wrong information. (Villalva)

1. People overreact to gender-neutral parenting when, in actuality, they do not understand. (Gibson)
2. Children that are forced into their sex-type stereotypes have a harder time developing their own identity. (Knafo et al)

1. Thesis statement: Children should be raised without traditional gender roles and as gender-neutral as possible to allow them to develop their own identity and ideas about gender and sexuality in general and in regards to themselves.

1. Background: Traditional gender roles and sex-typing

1. A child’s perception of self is developed by a combination of their sex, their sex-specific stereotypes, their teacher’s ability rating, and, most of all, their mother’s perception (which can be affected by their internalized misogyny) of them. (Jacobs & Eccles)

1. A family with traditional gender roles is going to probably raise a child with more positive ideals about traditional gender roles. (McHale et al)
2. The idea that men should be the head of the household and following traditional gender roles can be harmful for children and families. (Qualls) 
3. “Think Barbie saying “Math is Hard” and then ponder why so few women enter science, technology, engineering, and medicine. Think “boys don’t play with baby dolls” and then ponder why men don’t have the same skill level with newborns that women do”. (Lucas-Stannard)

1. A lot of girls go through a “phase” of rejecting all things girly and embracing traditionally masculine images. (Halim et al)

1. The older a child becomes, the more likely they were to participate in sex-typed activities. (Schuette & Killen)

1. Children pick up on gender-relative negative connotations when boys get praised for being strong, smart leaders, girls are being praised for their good looks and manners. (Halim et al)

1. school sexual education is lacking and is in need of a complete remodel, especially when it comes to gender and sexuality. (Pyne)

1. Gender stereotypes greatly effected the psyche and ideals of people throughout their entire life. (Zucker)

1. Impact: Gender identity and sexuality

1. Gender binary classifies two separate sex/genders: ultra-feminine female and ultra-masculine male. 

1. From the very start, ideals about the separation of strict male and female genders are drilled into children’s heads.

1. The traditional gender binary causes people to have expectations for gender.

1. In ancient times, gender variations were not uncommon. (Chew)
2. There are biological and cognitive factors in gender development differences. (McGraw-Hill)
3. Gender differences in children raised by non-heterosexual couples are more accepted and understood. (Gato & Fontaine)

1. There are a lot of negative stigmas around non-heterosexual couples adopting children. (Gato & Fontaine)
2. “A child’s sexual orientation will be what it will be. Nothing a parent does will change that”. (Lucas-Stannard)

1. People are starting to recognize that some people find themselves outside the gender binary.

1. CJ is as an example of a child that falls outside the gender binary and should not have to conform or decide who, or even what, he is yet. (DiBlasi)
2. More and more places have started offering an “other” option beside male and female, but many continue to not recognize other genders. (Chew)
3. Without proper gender and sex education, children may believe they are “broken”, and that what they feel and who they are is incorrect. (Pyne)

1. FOR: Gender-neutral parenting

1. Raising children gender-neutrally can help children not feel so lost in their self-identification. (Pyne)

1. Recently, many children are identifying as non-binary and/or non-heterosexual at a younger age. (DiBlasi)
2. Some people have hard time labeling their gender and picking pronouns. (Chew)
3. Non-binary genders and other related topics are becoming more universally recognized. (Chan)
4. There are many factors that lead to gender identity issues in non-heterosexual youths. (Wood et al) 

1. Gender-neutral parenting is not a social experiment, but merely a way to expand what a child could and/or will become. (Lucas-Stannard)

1. Weighing all the physical and social repercussions from GNP can take a long time. (Parents Magazine)
2. Raising a child gender-neutrally can lead to questions from both parent and children who are not informed. (Parents Magazine)

1. Many people have ideas about how children should be raised, even if it is not their children.

1. Even when Sasha, a child raised with gender-neutral parenting, deemed traditional gender values stupid, a lot of people claimed that Laxton and Cooper’s parenting style was child abuse and brainwashing. (Gibson)
2. Children like CJ (Trans*) would benefit from gender-neutral parenting. (DiBlasi) 

1. People overreact to GNP when, in actuality, they do not understand.

1. Some people totally miss the point of gender neutral parenting and proceed to spread the wrong information. (Villalva)

1. A family with traditional gender roles is going to probably raise a child with more positive ideals about traditional gender roles. [why this is bad, reference above points] (McHale et al)

1. Conclusion: Gender-neutral parenting is the future. Gender-neutral parenting “expose[s] kids to a wide range of gender-types and give[s] them the freedom to explore without judgment those that call to them”. (Lucas-Stannard)

RATIONALE draft

I will define my topic (gender-neutral parenting) and explain why I think this issue is important (the negative impact of traditional gender roles). To further explain, I will make a few points about how bad traditional gender roles are, especially for children (see outline).  Then, I will explain more about gender-neutral parenting and the varying opinions on the matter. As I am not an esteemed expert on this topic, I will reference some of the well-known scholars I found in my research. I will paraphrase some of their research in order to provide background and context on my subject. At the end of my introduction, I will state my thesis in an obvious fashion so the themes I write about will not seem foreign to the reader and clearly make this an academic paper which will add to my credibility in this field. 

Chapter 13

A paper with proper organization is a better paper, as chapter 13 of the Bedford Researcher explains. When a reader can expect what will happen next in your document, they will be more engaged and interested. Choosing an organization pattern is one step in organizing your document. The Bedford Researcher has 10 examples of different organization patterns. By comparing your topic to the different organization patterns, it is easy to see what is the best fit. Organizing your evidence with labels, groups, or clusters can help you stay focused and keep your ideas together. With all of your evidence coordinated, you can go on to create an outline: first informal, then formal.

The last section of chapter 13 is very useful for what we are doing in class right now. As we create our outlines for the final research paper, these tips and instructions are just what I need. Having examples of the transitions from informal to formal topical and sentence outlines is really nice to see. Being able to really connect how the different outlines help an author succeed in writing an actual draft of their paper is interesting and makes writing an outline easier for me.

Chapter 19

The Bedford Researcher's chapter 19 continues the design theme of chapter 18. Chapter 19 is a broader view of how to design big-picture documents and presentations, versus chapter 18's general design rules.
This chapter has instructions for designing academic essays, multimodal essays, articles, web sites, and oral, multimedia, or poster presentations. Many of the instructions for each type of document or presentation are similar. The Bedford Researcher suggests and author consider their purpose first and foremost for each document or presentation. The tips for documents tend to be almost identical, with some variations depending on the medium. 

I will probably be able to utilize the information on design later in my life. Being able to create presentations that are both engaging and informative may help my end-goals. As my big-picture dream job is traveling to high schools talking about suicide prevention and good mental health, the subsections on oral, multimedia, and perhaps poster presentations will probably be useful. Even if I do not come back and reference this book when creating my presentations, the information I read is probably internalized and will help me create an interesting presentation that people can learn from. 

Chapter 18

Chapter 18 of the Bedford Researcher is all about principles of design. Although we have been coached from childhood to "not judge a book by it's cover", it is an indisputable fact that design can sway how a person feels about something. A badly designed paper can create unsettled or even negative connotations in the reader, leading them to associate the topic with bad feelings. This is something no writer wants to happen. Using the top five principles of design, an author can create an aesthetically-pleasing paper so the reader can focus on the information. Balance, emphasis, placement, repetition, and consistency can help an author "accomplish [their] goals" (286). Different designs can convey different ideals. When considering a design for your paper, it is important to decide your goals. Are you designing for a purpose? Or for your readers? Or are you designing to address genre conventions? These are questions an author must answer before creating their paper's aesthetic.

The subsection on design elements of this chapter is very informative. This chapter explains how to further support your argument through design elements. Design elements are options like fonts, line spacing, alignment, layouts, color, shading, borders, and illustrations. This chapter's information on illustrations can be applied to my work on my research paper. By explaining how to use illustrations, the Bedford Researcher helps implementing more design elements into my paper easier.

Chapter 12

It is pretty obvious that a well-developed argument is essential in any research paper. Chapter 12 contains instructions on how to support your thesis statement with an accurate and unquestionable argument. Your "effective argument" is more of a game plan then just producing information about your topic. Using good reasons, authentic evidence, and authoritative appeal can construct an argument that boosts your thesis to make you, as an author, seem more legitimate. An argument can and should appeal to different parts or feelings people have. Arguments can appeal to authority, emotion, values, character, and/or logic. A well-made argument with integrity without fallacies is the best type.

A thesis statement is not as powerful without a strong, backing argument. An important part of an argument is ensuring it does not contain any fallacies. This chapter helps an author sift through their argument for questionable assumptions, misrepresentation, and careless reasoning. Some of the sources with a negative view of GNP I found in my research have fallacies based on these three categories. Even though the information may not be accurate, people can spread allegedly bad news and incorrect information through the power of assumption. This chapter can help me prove the negative articles wrong.