Central Virginia Community College Identity of American and African Family Essay
Essay #2 Final Draft Comparison and Contrast EssayExperiences That Shapes IdentityUnderstanding the elements in a specific culture that are likely to influence any group leads towards the development of strategies that may lead to more exposure towards the specific cultural group. Ideally, the essay focuses on comparing the three aspects of experiences (family interactions, culture, and cooperation) that shape the identity of people from different cultures in society. The American family practices and experiences are entirely different from those of the African family experiences that shape people's lives and identities. In comparing my friend Glady’s family experiences and practices with my family experiences, family culture, and values play a vital role in shaping people's lives and identities. Generally, the societies we live in are the products of people’s practices and experiences in both families and individual lives. Examples of people who have different skills due to their families varying values are David Sedaris and Hugh Hamrick (Thomas Cooley, Back to The Lake). It is indeed logical that people become products of their own experiences attributed mainly to different family values and practices that they experienced during their childhood lives (Davey, Maureen, et al., 198). Both families had provided them with diverse experiences that make people become who they are today. Both families share and differ in cultural practices and values. Based on family interactions, families that value quality interactions and bonding time ideally influence and shape their lives. For instance, my family is devoted to such experiences that made me value spending quality time with my family to bond. Families that love spending time interacting with others often influence characters of individuals to value family interactions (Puplampu, 42). On the other hand, my friend Glady was raised in her single parenthood family, which shaped her personality and character. Been raised in a single parenthood family can be challenging for her since she may lack specific values given from families that have both parents.Unlike Glady’s American family, my African family often value strong family cooperation built by a sense of belonging and unity. African families are indeed a representation of families that like collaboration, as opposed to American families; therefore, shaping their lives and experiences. Furthermore, based on gender roles, my friend Glady’s family has unique values and characteristics. For instance, she was raised in a single parenthood family; as such, she learns things from either her mother or father; therefore, making her have little exposure to traditional gendered roles. Comparing to my African family that value the aspects of gender roles built-in conventional practices and responsibilities, Glady’s American family is based on individualism attributed to the experiences of cohabitation and remarriage practices. In contrast, my African family system emphasizes collectivism that helps me to value friends and groups more than individuals. Additionally, my family appreciates gender roles that help girls to adhere to the specific purpose of women in society and a sense of belonging in the community and highly value unity, unlike my friend Glady’s family that have no value for gender roles due to modernization. Generally, American children have little exposure to cultural values due to modernization and families based on remarriage and cohabitation. Girls are the most affected by these cultural values; thus, significantly shaping their perspectives and personality on love (McCubbin et al., 34). Therefore, these distinctive characteristics are seen because people are raised in different families with unique experiences that have shaped their identities.In conclusion, the distinctive practices, and values of Glady’s family and my family shaped our identities in different ways. It is evident that both our families generally have different values and practices that help shape whom we become in the future. The society we live in has a big part to play when it comes to influencing our personal and public lives.
Work CitedDavey, Maureen, et al. "Parenting practices and the transmission of ethnic identity." Journal of Marital and Family Therapy 29.2 (2003): 195-208.McCubbin, Laurie D., and Hamilton I. McCubbin. "Culture and ethnic identity in family resilience." Handbook for working with children and youth: Pathways to resilience across cultures and contexts (2005): 27-44.Puplampu, Korbla P., and Wisdom J. Tettey. "Ethnicity and the identity of African-Canadians: A theoretical and political analysis." The African diaspora in Canada: Negotiating identity and belonging (2005): 25-48.Thomas Cooley Third Edition (2016): 369-375. Back to The Lake.The assignment is to revise the already written compare and contrast essay. Above I attached the rough draft already submitted to my professor. Please make proper adjustments according to the instruction provided and the feedback given by my instructor. I made up an American family called Glady’s. I am originally from Ethiopia and currently living in the United states. you can compare Glady’s family (American family) with my family (Ethiopian family). The professor wanted the essay to be specific so please make the essay more specific and add details. You can make up stories if necessary. Glady’s is an imaginary friend I created so feel free to make up my personal details as well. In the thesis, You need to select 3 aspects of the story you are telling and list them in the thesis which you have written on the last sentence of your introduction. From there, the body of the essay should be written in three separate paragraphs, with each one recounting one of the ideas you put in your thesisBelow is the Feedback I got from my professor. Please consider the feedback while correcting the essay.TitleIt is too general as if it is talking about anyone; make it specific to who you are comparingThesis: PoorIt must name the 3 topics you will compare in the essay. Then each paragraph in the essay must discuss only one of those 3 points. Every paragraph must start with the point from your thesis.Development/organizationAll your paragraphs are lacking details and will not help you reach the designated 1000 words.Citations are okayEssay Guidelines- ReminderYour essay should be 5 paragraph long. Introduction. Make sure your thesis appears in the introduction, 3 body paragraphs and conclusion.It should be typed using a standard 12 point font.MLA standard pagination is required. See The Little Seagull Handbookpage 161 for a sample essay in MLA format.Follow directions carefully.It should be double-spaced with margins no bigger than 1 inch. (These are standard settings in Microsoft Word.)Carefully review the strategies for writing a Comparison and Contrast essay.Include your name on your essay.Create a Works Cited page and cite the essay you respond to. Cite any other outside sources used in the essay.Name your document E2lastnameFD.How to write compare and contrast essayPart I: Prewriting - Generating Ideas Tip: In a comparison and contrast essay, a writer typically tries to explain the similarities between two things usually considered different, or he/she tries to explain the differences between two things thought of as alike. You are encouraged to review the sections "Composing an Essay That Compares and Contrasts" on pages 339-344 in Back to the Lakeand "Generating Ideas: Asking How Two Things Are Alike or Different" for suggestions on brainstorming and narrowing your ideas to topics for a comparison and contrast essay. Develop a Working Thesis (for submission): Draft a working thesis statement for Essay 2. Be sure it names the subjects you will compare; indicates whether you will compare, contrast, or both; and suggests your purpose for writing. Come up with strong thesis statement Part II: Organizing Ideas After you have selected your topic, identified your points of comparison, and developed some good ideas, you will turn your attention to organizing Essay 2. You have crafted a working thesis statement and have a strong sense of the supporting details you will use. Next, you need to organize the body of your comparison and contrast essay. Writers find that a point-by-point methodor a subject-by-subject methodworks best when presenting supporting details to the readers. Please review "Choosing a Method of Organization" on page 342-344 in Back to the Laketo become familiar with these organizational methods and select one method to suit your needs. Tip:you can try outlining using one method and then another to see which one yields better results. Create an Outline (for submission): Turn back to your working thesis statement for Essay 2 (Part I Prewriting). Then, using the same thesis statement and the same supporting details, organize your ideas into an outline (point-by-point method OR subject-by-subject method). (You may want to review pages 57-58 in Back to the Lakefor information about formal outlines.) Make sure that you use complete sentences for each topic sentence and your thesis statement. Back up your all your work (Part I and Part II). Part Three: Introduction TechniqueIntroductions and conclusions are often overlooked elements of a text, but they are crucial to engaging a reader. An essay with an awkward or ineffective introduction may discourage the reader from reading the text or seriously interfere with the reader's understanding of the text. A weak conclusion will often leave the reader without a sense of closure; it can also leave the reader dissatisfied with the text and, therefore, hostile to the ideas presented by the author. In contrast, a good introduction and thesis will pull your essay together and make it engaging and cohesive.Your textbook presents many strategies for writing introductions and conclusions. For this assignment, please review the strategies for introductions and conclusions presented in Back to the Lakeon pages 86-88 and 91-92. Also you should review the professional essays we have read so far and analyze their introductions and conclusions.Look at how the introductions and conclusions work with the rest of the essay; look specifically at the strategies the authors use. You may want to compare the professional essays to the student essays to see how different introductions can have different effects on the text as a whole. Determine which strategies are more effective, which engage your interest or pull the essay together best.Draft Introduction (for submission):Using one of the introduction strategies explained in your textbook and illustrated in the chapter and in the texts we have read, write your introduction for Essay #2. Write with the intention of including it in your rough draft of Essay #2. Make sure your thesis appears in the introduction, and it is the same thesis you used earlier in the outline. Back up your work.