Scholars involved in the field of religious studies often interview religious practitioners in order to get a better idea of “lived religion”, or how individuals live out their religious beliefs, as it can often differ greatly from official doctrine and sacred texts. In order to get a better idea of the work done in the field of religious studies and how individuals live out their religious beliefs, you will be conducting an interview with someone who self-identifies as a practitioner of one of the traditions that we study in this course (Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, or Islam).In order to complete this assignment, you will need to:Choose an individual in your life that you would like to interview and ask him/her if they would be willing to be interviewed for your project. This could be a family member, friend, neighbor, co-worker, classmate, etc. You can also contact a local house of worship if you are interested in interviewing someone from a particular faith but don’t know anyone personally.Schedule a time for the interview that is convenient for him/her (be sure to let them know that the interview should take about 45 mns.).Compose a list of at least 10 questions for this individual about their religious beliefs and practices. You may choose from the list of example questions listed below, or compose your own questions.Interview your subject. The interview should last about 45 mns and should focus on their religious beliefs and practices. Ideally, the interview should be done in person so that you can better gauge your subject’s reaction to your questions. However, it is also acceptable to conduct your interview over the phone or skype.You should record the interview in some way – if it is done in person you could either bring a notebook and write down the subject’s answers or bring an audio recorder of some type (most smartphones have this capability).Compose a 1000-word paper discussing the interview. The paper should address the following questions:Who is your interview subject? What religious tradition are they a member of? Why did you choose this individual?Describe the interview itself: what questions were asked and how did the individual respond?You will not be able to include every question and answer, so focus on the responses that were most interesting to youThis should not be a transcript of the interview, but a summary of the questions you asked and how the subject responded to them.Describe your subject’s demeanor: Did he/she seem nervous? Did they enjoy speaking about their religious beliefs? Had they ever spoken about them before to another person? Which aspect of their religious beliefs did they seem to enjoy speaking about the most? The least?Did you learn anything new about the religious tradition that your subject practices? What was at least one similarity and one difference between what your interview subject said and what we read in God Is Not One about that tradition- you must include two direct quotations from the book to demonstrate the similarity and difference.You should also include a paragraph about your own response to the interview: did you learn something new about this person? Was it interesting to learn about his/her religious beliefs/practices? Were any of their answers surprising or not?Turn in your list of interview questions along with your paper.I recommend that you get started on setting up your interview as soon as possible as scheduling can often take longer than you think!Example Questions:How and why did you become a member of this religious tradition?If you grew up in this religious tradition, was there a time that you decided to commit yourself independently to this tradition?Do you perform any daily (or weekly, monthly, etc) religious rituals?How long have you performed this ritual?Do you believe in a higher power?How do you describe this higher power? Or higher reality?How does your religious tradition view American society?Who is allowed to be an authority figure in your religious tradition?How does your religion influence your daily life?Are there particular texts or narratives in your religious tradition that are particularly important to you?Have your religious beliefs changed over the course of your life?Were there particular times during your life when you were more or less involved with your religion?Have you ever had a religious experience that changed the way you lived your life?How does your religion conceive of ‘the good life’?How does your religious tradition view the issue of gender? Does it promote gender equality?Are there any aspects of your religious tradition (ethical teachings, rituals) that you disagree with or would like to see changed?What do you think will happen to your religious tradition in a hundred years? Do you think it will grow, diminish, or change in any way?How do you view members of other religious traditions or those without any religion at all?

Below is the instructions for this paper, I really need a 100 in order for me to pass this class as I'm almost failing, please see the rubric in the attachments. And please let me know if you have any questionsMajor Paper 2: Profile of a Writer"So to study rhetoric becomes a way of studying humans. Rhetoric becomes for me the complete study of language, the study of the ways in which peoples have accomplished all that has been accomplished beyond the instinctual... There was the possibility that in teaching writing and in teaching rhetoric as conscious considerations of language use I could help others like myself: players with language, victims of the language of failure" —Victor Villanueva, Excerpt from Bootstraps, Writing about Writing p. 127"We are autobiographical in the way we write; my autobiography exists in the the examples of writing I use in this piece and in the text I weave around them. I have my own peculiar way of looking at the world and my own way of using language to communicate what I see...our autobiography grows from a few deep taproots that are set down into our past in childhood" --Donald Murray, "All Writing is Autobiography, Writing about Writing p. 226Background We've started the semester by thinking and writing about our individual stories as writers in order to consider the role writing has played in our lives and the roles we might like it to play, as you have begun this discourse in the reading responses thus far. Specifically, we've really begun talking about about the contexts in which we write and read, what writing researchers and teachers call rhetorical ecologies. "Rhetoric" is both the art and study of human interaction (and specifically persuasion) through language and symbols, so when we talk about rhetorical ecologies/situations we're simply talking about how language/symbol use is situated in a particular time and space. This is a way of looking at the contexts in which writing and reading happen and how those influence us. The purpose of this inquiry is Consider how the writing of others can tell us about their curated identity. What messages are people using, sharing, spreading that have been constructed by others to for mass consumption to signify a personal experience.Your TaskWrite a personal essay (at least 1,200-2,000 words) that examines the public persona created by an individual using artifacts to curate their identity. The three artifacts from Expressions of Literacy II are eligible, or you may choose three others from an individual account. Look to join the conversation with the authors we've been reading by drawing ideas and concepts from at least two of the articles we have read in this part of the class to help you frame and discuss your stories., in addition to a connection with Melzer’s “Understanding Discourse Communities,” making a minimum of three scholarly sources.This might, for instance, mean talking about how the individual you choose to analyze changes their messages for different audiences or in response to particular constraints, or the evidence of no variation and a singular type of narrrative. You might talk about how you've never really thought about audience in your writing. Or you might write about something else entirely. This is about connecting what you are seeing on the account through the three artifacts, connecting to the class readings, and your own perceptions of how the author is creating a persona through the artifacts. You may want to begin by explaining why you chose the individual to examine, or what lead you to the artifacts, and conclude with how this connects to you as a writer. For this first Major Project, You will upload the following files (#1 and #2 should be as Word or PDF documents):1) Your final Literacy Narrative essay2) Any literacy-related artifacts referred to in the essay _______________________________________________________________________Objective:Audience: Your peers and your professor, as well as readers of StylusLinks to an external site..Format: 1,200-2,000 words, MLA-formatHow you will be graded: The rubric below is based on a holistic grading system. its in the attachmentsNO SAMPLE OF STUDENT WORK ARE AVAILABLE FOR THS ASSIGNMENT.What to DoHere, I briefly outline the moves you’ll need to make in your essay in order to accomplish the task required by this assignment. You may think of these as “sections,” if you like, but don’t feel bound by this structure: if you have a better idea for how to go about completing the task, try it out.Synthesize and respond to some of the ideas we've read about in this part of the course.Consider which readings have stood out to you. What ideas seem to resonate with you in some way? What seems important? As a group, what do these authors seem to be saying about discourse communities and how they shape individuals? Rather than merely summarize each and every reading (which would take far too long and serve little purpose), be selective in what you choose to discuss. You don’t need to discuss every point or even every reading. Also, look to draw connections between texts and ideas to get them into conversation with each other. You might, for instance, contrast the ways that Murray and Brandt talk about rhetoric to introduce the way you think about audience.Present your argument about your writing and what you are seeing through the writing of others. In this case, the writing is through the artifacts that are shared/reposted/retweeted/etc.Use the material you’ve synthesized in the first part to get to your own story. Explain and qualify as you need to in order to make your particular argument as clear as possible. Support and develop your argument with stories about your experiences as a writer.Tell specific stories or anecdotes that speak to your argument in some way. Be sure to provide plenty of details.When discussing your experiences, you may find it difficult to write it without talking about yourself in the first person. Using "I" when you need to will make the piece feel somewhat informal, which is appropriate for this kind of writing. Feel free to include pictures or artifacts with your narrative. They are not a part of your word count.Reflect on what you've learned and why any of this might matter.Your conclusion should not merely restate what you've already said elsewhere. Instead, use this section to address the "So what?" question: why do your arguments and stories matter? What might a reader do with these ideas?You might think more broadly about what you've learned about writing in general as well. How has your understanding of writing (or any of the specific course topics) shifted since beginning the course and doing this project?What questions still remain unanswered? What might you need to keep thinking about as you continue investigating writing this semester? In general, such narratives are typically around 1,200 -2,000 words (or roughly 5-8 double-spaced pages). Writing less than that will probably not give you enough space to fully develop your ideas and examples. Writing much more than that means you may have expanded the scope of this assignment too far. But exact lengths will vary, and your work will be assessed on quality, not length.Additional ResourcesKeep in mind, this assignment is the evolution of past writing prompts, so no one has drafted the perfect example of what you are tasked with. That is both exhilarating and scary. Not all of these fulfill all of the requirements of this particular assignment, but they should serve as useful inspiration as you consider what to write about and how to approach this project. These are not allowable as secondary sources. Some of those are listed below:Thomas Osborne’s “Late Nights, Last Rites, and the Rain-Slick Road to Self-Destruction”Links to an external site.in Stylus 2.2Adrien Pitchman’s “Historical and Institutional Literacy Sponsors: A Love Story”Links to an external site. in Stylus 3.2Casiana Aponte’s “Elements of a Storm: The Rhetoric Behind a 7th Grade Poem”Links to an external site. in Stylus Knights Write Showcase Special Issue Spring 2016Taylor Jones’ “Change Is Possible for Everyone”Links to an external site. in Stylus 5.2Jaydelle Celestine's "Did I Create the Process? Or Did the Process Create Me?" Links to an external site.in Stylus 8.2What Makes It Good?Here are the qualities I will be looking for when I grade this assignment:Discussion of Course Readings and TopicsHow well have you demonstrated your understanding of the material we’ve been considering about writing, rhetoric, and related topics?Have you thoughtfully selected key ideas and points to include in your synthesis?How well have you drawn connections between different ideas, texts, and authors?Have you responded and added to the discussion or merely repeated what you’ve read?Originality and ThoughtfulnessHow original is your assertion? Does it demonstrate that you've thought carefully about both the course topics, the artifacts, and your own experiences?How clear and precise is your argument/assertion/claim? Don’t think of argument as in something you need to prove, think of it as the direction that shapes your paper. Have you addressed why your argument matters—the "So what?" question?Use of Stories and DetailHave you explained and synthesized your artifacts? Have you shown me the message beyond what is simply written on the page, considering what the artifact is telling us both visually and rhetorically? (Meaning why are certain fonts, colors, images used? What audience considerations are there? What is the purpose/exigence of the message?)Have you made clear connections between the stories you're presenting and the overall argument you're presenting so that readers can follow your thinking?OrganizationIs it clear how and why you’re moving from point to point?Do your ideas logically lead into one another?Are sections and points fully developed?In addition, all major projects you submit in this course are expected be clean and error-free as well as properly presented in MLA style. Our focus on this project, however, will be on the above criteria.

600 words (week 5)In this discussion you will identify solutions to address issues of culture in the development of curriculum, assessment practices, program design, and program evaluation as well as identify future needs in culturally competent curriculum and assessment. Prior to completing this discussion read Freire (2009), National Education Association (2010), and Neurokultur (2013).Initial Post: Create an initial response that addresses the following:Reflect on your work in this course. What do you see as the issues that currently exist regarding culturally competent curriculum development, assessment, and program design?What do you see as potential solutions to these issues you’ve presented? Your solutions may involve policy, education reform, resource allocation, or any other concerns that we have read about and discussed.How do these solutions address the future needs for culturally diverse groups?Guided Response: Post responses to at least two classmates. In your response, reflect on your classmate’s responses. Questions you might consider in your response include:Have your classmates clearly presented issues regarding culturally competent curriculum development, assessment, and program design?How feasible are your classmate’s solutions?Do you have additional suggestions that your classmates may want to consider?