By Kelly Plante
Publish a critical introduction on ladysmuseum.com
We encourage readers, teachers and students to participate in this project by writing and receiving a publishing credential for publishing an introductory essay, or critical introduction, to the Lady’s Museum. Suggested topics that we are planning to publish can be found under the Critical Introductions section in our About the Magazine page. Contact us to pitch or claim your article topic; we will provide editorial support to you along the way, as we are currently working with our summer 2022 volunteer essayists on.
For a sense of the style (informed, public-facing) and length (1,000-2,000 words) we are aiming for, see the graduate/undergraduate student-authored critical introductions on our affiliated site, which Kelly serves as co-General Editor on, The Poetry of Gertrude More: Piety and Politics in a Benedictine Convent, for sample essays.
Teachers
Use the “Criticial Introductions to the Lady’s Museum” as a course assignment and/or professionalization opportunity in your classroom
For a sample assignment description to use in your class, if you are planning on teaching the Lady’s Museum using our site and would like students to have professionalization experience of publishing a critical introduction on our suggested or Lady’s Museum-related topics, you may use the following description, written by Kelly Plante, as a template for your class assignment.
This activity is suggested for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.
Critical Introductions to the Lady’s Museum (1760-61)
Introduction/Rationale
In this assignment you will practice writing, for potential publication, an introduction to an eighteenth-century primary source text that will introduce undergraduate students and non-specialists to Charlotte Lennox’s periodical, the Lady’s Museum (1760-61).
Assignment Prompt
Write a critical introduction to familiarize a public audience (the non-specialist or undergraduate student target readers of ladysmuseum.com) with an aspect of Charlotte Lennox’s magazine, the Lady’s Museum (topics to be chosen by the class).
Critical introductions will offer your opinion—based on literary analysis of the primary source text—plus a short survey of relevant scholarship.
Each critical introduction will consist of the following elements:
- Essay: an essay of 1,000 words that combines argumentative literary analysis with a synthesis of critical opinions about this topic
- Citations: at least three relevant, peer-reviewed publications in Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) 17 format
- In citing the magazine, you must cite the teaching edition on ladysmuseum.com, not the eighteenth-century scanned originals [say, those digitized by Google and on Google Books or those digitized by Gale and available on Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (ECCO)].
For example: “The TRIFLER. [NUMBER I],” The Lady’s Museum, ed. Charlotte Lennox (1760), accessed 24 June 2023, https://ladysmuseum.com/the-trifler-number-i/.
- In citing the magazine, you must cite the teaching edition on ladysmuseum.com, not the eighteenth-century scanned originals [say, those digitized by Google and on Google Books or those digitized by Gale and available on Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (ECCO)].
Sources you cite must be peer-reviewed sources (such as journal articles, book chapters, and books). Sources that are not peer-reviewed (such as Wikipedia) will not count.
Minimum Requirements
- Essay
- 1,000 words
- argument (thesis statement)
- analysis of literature
- synthesis of critics’ opinions
- Citations
- three or more relevant, peer-reviewed publications cited throughout the article
- citations in Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) 17 Notes format (endnotes; no bibliography required)
Learning Outcomes
- Writing: Compose persuasive academic methods including summary of the primary source text when necessary, analysis, and synthesis. You will demonstrate understanding of the primary source text. You will use a flexible writing process that includes brainstorming your ideas, planning, drafting, giving and receiving feedback, revising, editing, and finally, publishing. You will practice using MLA style citations.
- Reading: Use critical reading strategies to identify, summarize, analyze, synthesize, and respond to the primary source-text and related scholarly arguments in college-level texts and media. You’ll formulate an argument (with claims and evidence to support those claims), and persuasive language to introduce a public audience to your assigned primary source-text in the Lady’s Museum.
- Researching: Use a scholarly ethos to evaluate and use information from secondary and primary sources to support your ideas and argument.
Supporting Materials
- Ladysmuseum.com site bibliography
Rubric
The grading rubric for the critical introduction assignment is listed below.
- Thesis: 15%
- Analysis: 35%
- Use of sources: 15%
- Introduction 5%
- Conclusion 5%
- Organization 5%
- Topic sentences and synthesis: 10%
- MLA citation and format: 5%
- Grammar/clarity: 5%
Calendar
- Day 1 – create your outline/article blueprint; analyze your primary source (in other words, construct a close reading relevant to your argument)
- Day 2 – identifying and inserting your secondary sources into your argument
- Day 3 – crafting intros and conclusions
- Day 4 – peer-review day