A talk with the Librarian,

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1. If a student is looking for a book which he/she can not find it in any of the libraries of GWU, how should he/she proceeds to submit a request for the book. What is the GWU policy in this regard and how will the GWU library accommodate the student in such circumstances?

2. What are some other services, the GWU library offers to students, which might be beneficial particularly to graduate students? (Tutorials, workshops, book grants and loans, part-time job positions, etc...)

3. How can we interact with other libraries in the world through our membership in GWU library?

Language and Gender: A brief literature review

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In this post, we aim to answer several questions regarding a brief literature review on Language and Gender (Click here to go to the article).

     1. What are the general sequence of points covered in the review? 

  The author(s) has tried to point-out and shortly analyze the two opposing approaches dealing with the topic of Language and Gender, namely gender power perspective and gender-based subcultural behaviors perspective. 

     2. Why does the writer adopt this sequence? 

  The author has adopted this sequence to conclude that, the two major approaches proposed so far are not mutually exclusive, but a third approach which would fairly consider both approaches, would probably describe the problem in a more comprehensive manner.

     

     3. Does the writer simply list previous studies or does she/he provide an evaluation of these studies? List some specific examples. Both. In some of the studies the author evaluate the main idea of the article and in some others she/he simply list the ideas. 

Some examples of the former are: 

•   Lakoff's (1975)- While there are clearly some problems with Lakoff's work - her analysis was not based on empirical research, for example, and the automatic equation of subordinate with `weak' is problematic - the emphasis on dominance has understandably remained at the Centre of much of this work.

 Where some examples of the latter are:

• Zimmerman and West, 1975). The chief focus of this approach, then, has been to show
  how patterns of interaction between men and women reflect the dominant position of men in
  society.

• Maltz and Borker (1982)- Much of this research has focused on comparisons between, for example, the competitive conversational style of men and the cooperative conversational style of women.

      4. Does the writer's review sound reasonable and balanced?

  Although the author has briefly argued the different approaches in Language and Gender and not thoroughly investigated the previous studies, however his/her overall conclusions seems balanced since he/she unfavorably considered both major views in the field.