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Stewart-Steele1
MWP #1:
Profile of a Culture or Ethnic Group
Weight: 20% of final grade
Length and Formatting: 2-3 pages, typed, double-spaced, Black 12-point Times New Roman font, using standard MLA format.
Assignment Preparation: Brainstorm about a culture or ethnic group. (Useful for Mind Map Assignment) Think of all the ways that a culture or ethnic group has impacted the way individuals live, learn, and behave socially. Next, beside each of your top picks with the category’s, clarify for yourself why that impacts the culture or ethnic group specifically. Then write for 5-10 minutes about what outsiders in general might think about the culture or ethnic group. After this, list who on Campus or within a community might be a good insider for information regarding the culture or ethnic group, and why?
Assignment: Write a profile of a culture or ethnic group that surrounds beliefs, education, and social preferences. Remember this assignment is not about you but about profiling a culture or ethnic group, therefore the essay should be written in 3rd person.
Work to Describe the culture or ethnic groups key features: What makes it a distinct culture or ethnic group, and what experiences or outcomes may someone have who enters that culture or ethnic group reasonably expect?
The profile you provide should work to enlighten your readers about the culture or ethnic group that you have chosen. Your readers should leave your essay not with a general encyclopedia-level understanding of the culture or ethnic group, but with a refreshed and expanded understanding—beyond common knowledge or stereotypes—of what the culture or ethnic group concerns. Focus your paper on 3 key takeaways for your readers.
Audience: First-year college students who have not thought extensively about other cultures or ethnic groups in which you have chosen to write about. They are comprised of an indifferent audience that encounters your essay in a booklet called “Campus Life” written for undergraduates and focusing on the many options for work and study at the College.
Research: If you choose to obtain outside sources you are limited to 2 sources only. Do not use Google. Resources that can be used for this assignment should only be comprised of in-class text, Jstor, or the library. If you choose to utilize quotes from these sources for this paper, you will need to make sure you are introducing the quote or quotes correctly, make sure that it is absolutely necessary to have the author’s words exactly and not your own words.
Rationale: This assignment forces you to describe and explain a topic with a sense of your purpose and audience—fundamental concerns for anyone who wishes to write rhetorically. Furthermore, it pushes you to be specific, to commit to 3 key points rather than try to list and explain several points about your topic. Doing this will give you practice organizing your ideas differently than via the five-paragraph theme; this is a crucial step for college writers.
