1. Why is she writing this letter? What does she want from the recipient of the letter?

Mary Wollstonecraft is writing this letter because she is introducing about the works of feminism. She argues that the educational system of her time deliberately trained women to be senseless and incapable. What she wants from the recipient of this letter is for women to be treated equally like men.

2.After reading this letter, how would you identify the DC that Wollstonecraft is a part of? Does the recipient appear to be a part of this DC or outside of it? (Really think about this!)

After reading this article, I would identify the DC that Wollstonecraft is a part of is Women’s rights. I believe that she is part of this DC because based on the letter that she had written; she talked about the equality that women should have had in her time. The reason being is because women were not allowed to receive education and that they should focus their looks towards men. The recipient appeared to be a part of this DC because she believed that women are able to accomplish many different tasks and that if women had received education, they would become smarter and could have made society better in general. 

3.Find two moments (either a sentence or a paragraph) where Wollstonecraft’s writing strategy gets your attention, and think about how you might use these strategies as models for your own writing. (Remember: for Unit 1 Assignment: Investigation a Discourse Community you will be writing your own speech or letter.)

Quote 1: “In society’s infancy when men were just emerging out of barbarism, chiefs and priests must have had unlimited influence because they tapped into the most powerful springs of savage conduct—hope and fear.” (12)

Identify the writing strategy you see Wollstonecraft using: She is using a comparison, comparing men with chiefs and priests.

Explain why you find this useful, persuasive, or effective in some other way: I find this effective in some way because I think she is saying that men were becoming apparent to extreme cruelty and brutalism while chiefs and priests were influenced by them, making them hope and fear them as well.

Quote 2: “Men have various employments and pursuits that engage their attention, and give a character to the opening mind; but women, confined to one pursuit and having their thoughts constantly directed to the most insignificant part of themselves, seldom extend their view beyond the triumph of the hour.” (30)

Identify the writing strategy you see Wollstonecraft using: She is contrasting men with women, telling the reader why both genders are different with her reasoning.

Explain why you find this useful, persuasive, or effective in some other way: I find this persuasive because she is saying that men have different jobs from one another that bring their attention and those being opened minded as to considering new ideas. On the other hand, she says that women keep their thoughts to themselves while men don’t and I believe what she said at last was that they can view themselves succeeding which tells us that they can work harder than men and are more confident as well.