Fixed Standards of Beauty in Media Essay

Research Question

Does the image of women promoted by the media cause them to undertake cosmetic surgery?

The research will be based on the sources that can be accessed online. I plan to use various types of literature – websites, books, journal articles.

Day 1: Search for sources

The objective is to locate as many relevant sources as possible, look through them and identify the ones that match the purpose of the research best. Looking for materials, I will rely on Google Search, Google Books, and Google Scholar. The keywords for the search will include the combination of the following words and phrases: women, self-image, body image, advertising, mass media, objectification, cosmetic surgery, medicalization, Asian, African-American, racial features, ethnic identity. The keywords concerning the racial features are included because I plan to cover the issue of ethnic diversity and its relation to the fixed standards of beauty. Overall, the first step of the research will focus on the search for the suitable sources. The links to all of the documents and web pages that match the subject requirements after a brief scanning will be saved in a separate document.

Day 2: Reading the sources, processing and synthesizing the information

The task for this step will be to identify several main subjects for the literature review section. Another objective is to create a detailed outline with all the sections, subsections, and topics that I will attempt to cover in the paper. The basic outline of the sections is expected to look like this:

1. Introduction (half a page)
2. Background (2 pages)
3. Method (1 page)
4. Sample (1 page)
5. Literature Review (3 pages)
6. Results (2 pages)
7. Discussion and Implication (2 pages)
8. Conclusion (half a page)

Day 3: Writing the first several pages

This step includes the work on the sections of introduction and background. They must occupy at least two and a half pages. The introduction will focus on the problem statement, description of the aspects the paper will attempt to cover, and the research question it will answer. Background section will present the general information about the rates of plastic surgery in the modern world, the influence of the media, and objectification of women namely. Both sections will be supported with several references.

Day 4: Description of Method and sample

By this stage, I will know the number of sources for the paper and their types. In the “method” section I will explain that the research would be based on the review of the literature, and in the “sample” section I will provide a description of the search and selection of sources.

Day 5: Literature review

The objective is to complete the largest section of the paper will be written with the inclusion of all the sources. For better clarity, I plan to divide the review into several subsections.

Day 6: Results, discussion, conclusion

This part of my paper is estimated to take about 4 pages and three sections. Basically, it will provide my analysis of the information found in the sources.

Day 7: Proofreading, editing, and reference list

This is the final stage that will focus on the review of the completed paper. I plan to read it several times during the day and use a spellchecker I can access online to make sure everything is correct. Reference page may include around 10 sources, and I will follow APA rules to document them properly.

Exercises

36-1

1. Researchers at Utrecht University found that bereaved spouses “who often talked with others and briefly wrote in diaries about their emotions fared no better than their tight-lipped unexpressive counterparts” (Bower, 2002, p. 131).
2. OK
3. OK
4. According to Bower (2002), “mental-health workers have long theorized that it takes grueling emotional exertion to recover from the death of a loved one” (p. 131).
5. Mental health professionals have assumed that people stricken by grief need a great deal of help and noted that “so-called grief work, now the stock-in-trade of a growing number of grief councelors entails confronting the reality of a loved one’s demise and grappling with the harsh emotions triggered by that loss” (Bower, 2002, p. 131).
6. OK
7. OK
8. OK
9. OK
10. OK

36-2

1. OK
2. Bower (2002) reported a surprising finding based on several longitudinal studies: “many [convicted sex offenders] don’t return to their criminal ways” (p. 60).
3. No one has yet answered the question of how to deal with potentially dangerous sex offenders who are serving prison time. Many researchers are focused on developing “statistical tools that courts can use to decide who should stay behind bars and who should go free” (Bower, 2002, p. 60).
4. OK
5. A Canadian psychologist has reported that “data from several long-term studies of 4,724 sex offenders released from prisons in the United States and Canada after 1980 show that after 10 years, one in five had been arrested for a new sexual offense (p. 60).
6. OK
7. OK
8. OK
9. OK
10. OK

36-3

1. OK
2. Kidder (1989) argued that teaching experience “especially the kind that is both repetitious and disappointing, can easily harden into narrow pedagogical theories” (p. 51).
3. OK
4. According to Kidder (1989), it is not unusual for a teacher to develop “a theory built on grudges” (p. 51).
5. Most teachers gain experience on the job and develop rigid habits and theories after as few as four years, and also, many educators “don’t last that long” (Kidder, 1989, p. 51).

36-4

1. OK
2. OK
3. Many people believe that the home environment has direct effect on the way children grow up; however, the conclusions of many recent studies “depend on the belief that children are blank slates” (Pinker, 2003, p. 39).
4. Pinker (2003) has pointed out, “everyone concludes that… parents must be loving, authoritative and talkative, and if children don’t turn out well it must be the parents’ fault. But the conclusions depend on the belief that children are blank slates” (p. 39).
5. Pinker (2003) pointed out that the conclusions of many recent studies “depend on the belief that children are blank slates” (Pinker, 2003, p. 39).