English 1F: Critical Reading and Writing about Cultures (I) --- 2010 Spring

Instruction to Essay I: Comparing and Contrasting Texts

This 5-page essay assignment requires you to compare/contrast your culture with American culture. and analyze how TWO cultures share the similar features or differ from each other from your particular perspective.

When we compare, we are focusing on likeness or areas of agreement; when we contrast, we are focusing on differences or areas of disagreement. When we do comparison and contrast, we are to examine different perspectives, to see if one is superior to another, to see if we ourselves have yet another perspective, and so on.

How to start

You can compare the likeness of your culture with American culture, or contrast the differences between them a specific focus and from different perspectives. Likeness and differences may not be immediately apparent, nor may any significance strike you at the start. Doing some preliminary writing may help.

Write a thesis statement that will clearly inform your audience that you are going to explore similarities, or differences, or both. You might decide to write something like "After studying both of these two cultures carefully, I saw two distinct differences." Or you might decide to name the areas of likeness or difference: "The two cultures are similar in their emphasis on ..." You may even decide to announce the personal significance of your contrast in your thesis statement: "Seeing the influence of American culture on us made me wary of the tendency of Americanization in the world and the loss of our traditional culture."

Organizing ideas

This assignment fits well with what you have already learned about essay structure. You can give an introduction that will end with your thesis statement. The actual discussion of likeness and/or differences will take place in the body paragraphs, and the significance of your analysis can be introduced or expanded upon in the conclusion. The major decision you will have to make is whether to use block or point-by-point organization or some combination of the two.

Remember to begin each body paragraph with a topic sentence indicating that this point will be discussed about one or two cultures. Then provide with as much information as is needed to help the audience see what you mean.

In your conclusion, name or expand upon the significance of your analysis, but be careful not to make too broad a statement.

Student's Words
"The first assignment that I remember was to write about our own culture. I started off being quite sure about what I wanted to share about Sweden, but then I started to think: is this really what I want everyone else to know about Sweden? And there it was, my first doubt about what Sweden was for me, my first real reflection about myself being a representitive for Sweden, not just a student but an "ambassador" for my whole country. That paper really made me think about what Sweden is to me and who I am and what I represent to everyone else." --- Sofi Mathsson (2008 spring)

Instruction to Essay II: Critical Reading and Thinking---Critique

The task in writing a critique is to turn your critical reading of a passage into a systematic evaluation in order to deepen your reader's (and your own) understanding of that passage. You are interested in determining what an author says, how well the points are made, what assumptions underlie the argument, what issues are overlooked, and what implications can be drawn from such an analysis. Critiques, positive or negative, should include a fair and accurate summary of the passage; they may draw on and cite information and ideas from other sources (your reading or your personal experience and observations); and they should also include a statement of your own assumptions. In the process of writing a critical assessment, you are forced to examine your own knowledge, beliefs, and assumptions. Ultimately, the critique is a way of learning about yourself --- yet another example of the ways in which writing is useful as a tool for critical thinking.

How to Write Critiques
You may find it useful to organize a critique into five sections: introduction, summary, assessment of the presentation, your response to the presentation, and conclusion.
Guidelines for Writing Critiques:

Read the sample critique on "We are not Created Equal in Every Way", discuss it over with the strategies of writing critiques introduced. Write a 5 pages critique over Sharon Begley's article "East vs. West: One Sees the Big Picture, the Other is Focused".


Instruction to Essay III: Visual-verbal Essay (See America through Images)

Why to write verbal-visual essay?

For Essay III, students are expected to use creative thinking to choose a visual text, which conveys a message about a typical social issue in America. Analyze this social phenomenon with details, examples, or statistics.

Writing process:


Instruction to Essay IV: Reflective Argumentation

As students are becoming more confident in their thinking and writing abilities, they should learn how to evaluate information, how to express their own perspectives clearly and how to persuade and convince readers with their opinions.

Why to argue and persuade?
Our beliefs usually come from four sources: people of authority, recorded references, observed evidence, and personal evidence.

People often continue to believe the same ideas they were brought up with without ever examining and deciding for themselves what to think. Perspectives, or points of view, are what people express when they speak and write and also the vantage points from which they perceive events or issues. So a complex interaction exists between perceptions and perspectives. People's perspectives are formed by beliefs, interests, needs, age, gender, nationality, ethnicity, health, education - the multiple factors of life. These factors of perspective influence perceptions; at the same time, perceptions continuously influence perspective. Various people can be exposed to the same stimuli or events and yet have different perceptions, as if each of us views the world through personal "contact lenses". We are usually aware that we are wearing these lenses. Instead, without our realizing it, our lenses act as filters that select and shape what we perceive. To understand how people perceive the world, we have to understand their individual lenses, which influence how they actively select, organize and interpret the events in their experience.

Effective critical thinkers are aware of the lenses that they - and others - are wearing. People unaware of the nature of their own lenses can often mistake their own perceptions for objective truth, not having examined either the facts or others' perceptions of a given issue.

Instead of simply accepting the views of others, students should gradually develop the ability to identify and evaluate beliefs before accepting them with critical thinking, and, at the same time, they should also know how to persuade readers to accept the well-supported beliefs.

Topic of Essay IV:
For Essay IV, students are expected to reflect on people's modern lifestyle in America which has been accepted by most people as common. Try to ask these questions when brainstorming, Why do you think it is a a falsifiable lifestyle? How can you convince the readers that it is false? with personal experience? through people of authority? Try to find authoritative supports to develop your opinion. The topic should be developed into a 5 pages long essay, each point developed in details. Remember description and narration can be supportive techniques to argumentation.

The purpose of this essay:
In this high-industrialized age, people's life is flooded with so many fast changes in society that they hardly have time to think, to reflect, or to evaluate before they just accept. Thus, critical thinkers and thoughtful writers have to face a continuing challenge to evaluate information they receive and to redefine their beliefs accordingly. Therefore, it is very critical to think twice and ask why before believing and accepting.