User:Sorenss/sandbox

Article Evaluation: Edith Pattou
Everything is relevant and neutral in the article so far. There is no opinion stated so viewpoint being over or underrepresented is not an issue. Citations are not placed in-line with the statements. Sources used for her biography are from book reviews, and therefore give little to no information about Edith Pattou's life. The information seems up to date, but lacks prior events and awards. The talk page seems barren, a lone comment about a stylistic choice in her book sits unanswered. The article is rated as a stub-class article and is part of Wikiproject Biography, Wikiproject Children's literature, and Wikiproject Women writers. The article differs from class because the page focuses on the author's life and work without going discussing possible interpretations, as it should. There is a lot of work to do. Sorenss (talk) 20:33, 28 September 2017 (UTC)

Citation Practice
There is an annotation project on my student website.

Possible Alternate Topic
Upon further evaluation of Edith Pattou's page, the academic sources are scarce due to a majority of her information being self-published. Although it would be possible to work on this page, I believe that substantial progress would be difficult due to the fact that most reliable sources detail basic plot summaries of her works and very superficial biographies. Instead, I am considering moving into fleshing out Amy Tan's page who has been the target of academic analysis and criticism. it seems as though there is a negative slant on her page, since there is a section for criticism without noting any of the praise that her work garners. Moreover, the section outlined "themes" does not give any thematic insight, rather it just gives short descriptions of the novels that she has written. Still searching for sources, but this seems like a much more balanced choice. [edit - Gathered Sources supporting thematic elements of Amy Tan as well as a more comprehensive look at the criticism]

http://ejournals.ebsco.com.jpllnet.sfsu.edu/direct.asp?ArticleID=462E8674015312913EC0

http://ic.galegroup.com.jpllnet.sfsu.edu/ic/ovic/NewsDetailsPage/NewsDetailsWindow?disableHighlighting=&displayGroupName=News&docIndex=&source=&prodId=&mode=view&limiter=&display-query=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&windowstate=normal&currPage=&dviSelectedPage=&scanId=&query=&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&catId=&u=sfsu_main&displayGroups=&documentId=GALE%7CA174681663&activityType=&failOverType=&commentary=

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sfsu/detail.action?docID=3000513

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sfsu/reader.action?docID=343568&ppg=1

https://muse-jhu-edu.jpllnet.sfsu.edu/article/550246

= Amy Tan Page Draft = Notes

[ added underlined section to personal life, minimal edit]

[clarifying Works and Themes section to encompass more of her work in a more broad sense]

To do:

Edit criticism section to remove quotes and change to paraphrasing -- possibly removal altogether? Without detailing her praise and counter-arguments it seems as if the criticism section comes across as biased.

remove bias with more neutral wording

Amy Tan
Amy Tan (born February 19, 1952) is an American writer whose works explore mother-daughter relationships and the Chinese American experience.

Tan's first novel, The Joy Luck Club, was adapted into a film in 1993 by director Wayne Wang. Tan has written several other novels, including The Kitchen God's Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter's Daughter, Saving Fish from Drowning, and The Valley of Amazement. She has also written a collection of non-fiction essays entitled The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings. In addition to her novels, Tan has written two children's books: The Moon Lady (1992) and Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat (1994), which was turned into an animated series that aired on PBS. Tan has also released a self-written memoir detailing her own life titled Where the Past Begins in 2017. Tan has received both praise and criticism for her portrayals of Chinese culture within her works.

Personal Life
Tan was born in Oakland, California, but her family moved a number of times throughout her childhood She is the second of three children born to Chinese immigrants John and Daisy Tan. Her father was an electrical engineer and Baptist minister who traveled to the United States in order to escape the chaos of the Chinese Civil War. Tan attended Marian A. Peterson High School in Sunnyvale for one year. When she was fifteen years old, her father and older brother Peter both died of brain tumors within six months of each other.

Tan's mother subsequently moved Amy and her younger brother, John Jr., to Switzerland, where Tan finished high school at the Institut Monte Rosa, Montreux. During this period, Tan learned about her mother's previous marriage to another man in China, of their four children (a son who died as a toddler and three daughters), and how her mother left these children behind in Shanghai. This incident was the basis for Tan's first novel The Joy Luck Club. In 1987, Tan traveled with her mother to China. There, in China, Amy met her three half-sisters.

Tan and her mother did not speak for six months after Tan dropped out of the Baptist college her mother had selected for her, Linfield College in Oregon, to follow her boyfriend to San Jose City College in California. Tan met him on a blind date and married him in 1974. Tan later received bachelor's and master's degrees in English and linguistics from San Jose State University. She also participated in doctoral studies in linguistics at UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley, but abandoned her doctoral studies in 1976.

While in school, Tan worked odd jobs—serving as a switchboard operator, carhop, bartender, and pizza maker—before starting a writing career. As a freelance business writer, she worked on projects for AT&T, IBM, Bank of America, and Pacific Bell, writing under non-Chinese-sounding pseudonyms.

In 1998, Tan contracted Lyme disease, which went misdiagnosed for a few years. As a result, she suffers complications like epileptic seizures. Tan co-founded LymeAid 4 Kids, which helps uninsured children pay for treatment. She wrote about her life with Lyme disease in The New York Times.

Tan currently resides in San Francisco, California, with her husband.

Themes
Tan employs a version of traditional Chinese "talk story", a method of oral storytelling that adapts structural and literary patterns from Chinese wisdom to preserve culture after immigration. In Tan's novel The Joy Luck Club, inter-generational connections and the reconciliation of racial identity is addressed. Similar themes are portrayed again in later works, such as in The Kitchen God's Wife and The Bonesetter's Daughter, which emphasize familial bonds and multiculturalism.

Adaptations
Tan's work has been adapted into several different forms of media. The Joy Luck Club was adapted into a play in 1993; that same year, director Wayne Wang adapted the book into a film. The Bonesetter's Daughter was adapted into an opera in 2008. Tan's children's book Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat was adapted into a PBS animated television show.

Criticism
Tan has received criticism from critics who say her work includes inaccurate representations of Chinese culture, and that it reaffirms harmful stereotypes that Asians face in America. Sau-ling Cynthia Wong, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote that Tan's novels appear to be authentically Chinese, but instead are actually written from the viewpoint of a distinct Asian-American perspective. The aforementioned critiques has led several writers and scholars to accuse Tan of drawing upon popular stereotypes about Asians in order to make her work more palatable for Westerners.

Short stories

 * Fish Cheeks (1987)

Novels

 * The Joy Luck Club (1989)
 * The Kitchen God's Wife (1991)
 * The Hundred Secret Senses (1995)
 * The Bonesetter's Daughter (2001)
 * Saving Fish from Drowning (2005)
 * Rules for Virgins (2012; an excerpt from The Valley of Amazement)
 * The Valley of Amazement (2013)

Children's books

 * The Moon Lady, illustrated by Gretchen Schields (1992)
 * Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat, illustrated by Gretchen Schields (1994)

Non-fiction

 * Mid-Life Confidential: The Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America With Three Chords and an Attitude (with Dave Barry, Stephen King, Tabitha King, Barbara Kingsolver) (1994)
 * Mother (with Maya Angelou, Mary Higgins Clark) (1996)
 * The Best American Short Stories 1999 (Editor, with Katrina Kenison) (1999)
 * The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2003, ISBN 9780399150746)
 * Hard Listening, co-authored in July 2013, an interactive ebook about her participation in a writer/musician band, the Rock Bottom Remainders. Published by Coliloquy, LLC.
 * Where the Past Begins (2017)

Awards

 * 1989, Finalist National Book Award for The Joy Luck Club
 * 1989, Finalist National Book Critics Circle Award for The Joy Luck Club
 * Finalist Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize
 * Bay Area Book Reviewers Award
 * Commonwealth Gold Award
 * American Library Association's Notable Books
 * American Library Association's Best Book for Young Adults
 * 2005-2006, Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature Honorable Mention for Saving Fish From Drowning
 * The Joy Luck Club selected for the National Endowment for the Arts' Big Read
 * New York Times Notable Book
 * Booklist Editors Choice
 * Finalist for the Orange Prize
 * Nominated for the Orange Prize
 * Nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award
 * Audie Award: Best Non-fiction, Abridged
 * Parents' Choice Award, Best Television Program for Children
 * Shortlisted British Academy of Film and Television Arts award, best screenplay adaptation
 * Shortlisted WGA Award, best screenplay adaptation
 * 1996, Academy of Achievement, Golden Plate Award