During this semester we have been examining how cultural beliefs, actions and norms influence different aspects of individual lives, institutions, societies, and nations. Now it is your turn to think deeply and reflectively about your own personal experiences and life. How are cultural norms, beliefs, and meanings intertwined in your life. Here you may use a story-telling or self narrative writing style. But you must follow proper grammatical conventions (including spacing, spelling, paragraphs, sentences, etc).
What do you write about?
You might write about a particularly challenging situation in your life (such as the death of a loved-one, financial difficulties or an illness) and discuss how some aspect of your cultural and/or ethnic heritage or belief system helped you (or did not help you) work through this event. Or you might discuss how you visited a foreign country and how your cultural differences played out. Or you might discuss how culture has shaped your identity or overall belief system. The topic is OPEN. In your prose:
Make the connections to cultural beliefs clear. Avoid vagueness.
Final Product: Must be accompanied by a report from TURNitIN.
For this assignment you must write an essay of at least 800 to 1000 words (double-spaced with Times New Roman 12 pnt). You may write more if you wish but limit your responses to no more than 6-pages. Please write for an educated general audience. Spelling, stylistic conventions, grammar, organization, and syntax count as much as content. If you cite any sources or use quotes you need to supply an appropriate bibliography. The bibliography does NOT count towards the word/page requirement.
You will be graded on the following criteria (Rubric):1) Organization of ideas: To get full credit make sure your writing shows high degree of attention to logic, reasoning and topical content. Clearly leads reader from opening through body to conclusions. Stirs thought in conclusions. 2) Format: the assignment requirements in page length, font-size, spacing and indents. 3) Conventions: grammar, spelling, punctuation, verb/noun agreement. 4) Sentence fluency: vocabulary/word choice and sentence structure. 5) Level of content/Ideas: synthesis of ideas, use of original and novel thoughts.
