Essay 1: Cultural Self-Analysis

Youâll be given credit for each stage in your Working Portfolio.
In order to receive credit for each stage, you must meet the minimum requirements.
These steps comprise a significant portion of the grade for each Working Portfolio this term.
Credit Earned: Stages are listed in the order you should submit them in your Working Portfolio (top to bottom) Due Dates:
_______ Self-Reflection Letter (analysis of successes, obstacles, lessons learned, processes for Essay 1) _______
_______ Feedback Draft (3-5 pp.; all below work included in Working Portfolio; meets MLA requirements)   _______
_______ Letter from your Partner about Response Group Draft (1/2-page response to RGD) _______
_______ Copy of your Letter to your Partner  (1/2-page response to RGD) _______
_______ Response Group Draft with a Thesis (3 or more pp.; 3 copies; 2-5 questions attached to each copy) _______
_______ In-class Responses to your Response Group Draft (record group membersâ suggestions) _______
_______ Discovery Draft (3 or more pp. handwritten, double-spaced, 2-5 questions included)  _______
_______ 2 Freewrites÷1 on one topic, the other on another topic (1 page each, handwritten)  _______
_______ Mandala  (5 steps listed on next pg)   +   List of Potential Cultures/Identities (at least 10 groups)  _______
_______ In-Class Writing Prompts #___ - #___    +   Self-Introduction  _______

 


Description
We all have some sense of "who we are." In fact, when weâre asked, we almost instinctively respond by identifying any one of the various groups to which we feel we belong, depending on whoâs asking and in what context. In one context you might identify yourself as Irish (or half-Latina/half-Jewish, or Karuk). But in another context you might say, Iâm an Art major" (or a Wildlife major, or a Business Administration major). In still another context you might describe yourself as a surfer (or a thrasher, or a cyberhead). And in still other, sometimes uncomfortable contexts, others might tell you that youâre a jock (or a hick, or a hippie, or a fag). Our sense of ourselves as individuals seems always, ironically, to be connected to our sense of membership in any number of larger groups or cultures (however we define that term). Some of these memberships we choose for ourselves at various points in life; others we inherit from family; some may even be imposed upon us.

Since we write best when we write about something we know well (or think we know well!), for our first assignment weâll use ourselves as the topic of our explorations. For this assignment, youâll consider how your connections to some larger group or culture has influenced you and affected your life by recounting a story or several shorter stories that reveal something about a culture to which you belong and the role it plays in your sense of your own identity. You will not be relating an entire story for this assignment but finding meaningful anecdotes that serve as examples and evidence to bolster your thesis. You might think of this as a kind of cultural self-analysis that will draw on aspects of both narrative writing (that is, story-telling) and analysis.

Youâll begin by creating a personal inventory of many of your own "memberships," inherited, chosen, or imposed, through a variety of prewriting techniques. Youâll explore your own understanding of the nature of at least two cultures÷their values, their practices, their rituals. Together in class weâll compile a list of analytical questions that we can all use in unpacking our various cultures. Youâll then spend time remembering your experiences within these cultures, settling finally on a story or stories that are particularly revealing both of this culture and your relationship to it.

This is a type of personal analytical writing; you should keep in mind the following features of such essays:

  • usually told in the first person;
  • point is highlighted (or illustrated) by a revealing story or stories;
  • physical and sensory description used;
  • title captures interest and reflects contents of essay;
  • has a clear purpose for writing;
  • is likely to include dialogue;       (see your grammar Handbook for guidance on this)
  • must be formatted in accordance with MLA guidelines;   (see your grammar Handbook for guidance on this)
  • correct punctuation and mechanics;    (see your grammar Handbook for guidance on this)
  • appropriate diction/word choice and syntax/sentence structure (see your grammar Handbook for guidance on this)

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    And a few words of warning:

  • Some very personal and very particular group (your "unique" family) is probably too small to really constitute a culture. To truly be a culture, there must be "members" of this group that donât know each other and never will; no surfer will ever know all the other surfers in the world. But when two surfers meet, they instantly share a common language and a common set of values, even though they have never met each other before. So if what helped to make your family unique was that it was multi-racial, or Italian-American, or economically struggling, then you shared a culture with other families.

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  • The emphasis in this assignment is on personal analysis, not narrative. This is an essay with a thesis. Ideally, this essay should compel you to think about the influences and forces that have shaped your values and beliefs÷itâs a type of personal writing that results in a somewhat detached reflection on the sources of something we all feel to be deeply personal and individually-determined: our own identities.


    • Prewriting:
    To help generate ideas for your Cultural S-A essay, youâll practice 2 prewriting techniques: a mandala* and freewriting.

    *A mandala is a circular design made up of representational figures. In both the Hindu and Buddhist religions, these designs represent the cosmos and are used in meditation and ceremony. In Jungian psychology, the figures represent "the effort to reunify the self" (Random House 824). Weâll create mandalas in an attempt to identify the subcultures and groups to which we belong and to better understand our relationships to these groups.

    ~~ Listing Ideas + Creating Pictures:
    1.  Make a list of ten subcultures or groups to which you belong.  These prompts may help you generate some ideas:

  • What organized groups do I belong to? Sports teams? Religious affiliations? Greenpeace? FFA?
  • What labels do I wear÷political, ethnic, racial, cultural? Do people think Iâm a Gen-Xer? A surfer? A rasta?
  • What words would I use to define myself? Smoker? Californian? Vegetarian?

    •       These can be groups to which you proudly or happily belong, but they can also be groups or identities that you are trying to
    shed or those that society or family, friends, or strangers have imposed upon you.

    2.  Rank them in order of importance in your life, with 1 being the most important and 10 being the least.

    3.  Come up with a symbol or pictorial representation for each. Write out a sentence or two for each symbol telling what it
    represents and why itâs important to your life.

    4.  Reconsider your ranking, and reorder your list, if your priorities now seem different after some reflection.

    ~~ Creating a Mandala:
    Create a mandala on the template provided by placing the most important symbol in the center and arranging the other symbols around it in any pattern that has meaning for you. You may draw your symbols, but you can also use images from magazines or newspapers, or attach artifacts from nature.

    Freewriting:
    Now that youâve carefully considered a variety of identities, and worked to create visual representations, choose the two that you would most like to explore in greater depth. For each identity, make a list of some of the events in your life that you associate with it. Freewrite on those two identities, and at least one of the events associated with each, to produce at least 1 page of notes for each identity that might form the basis of your essay.

    Discovery Draft:
    Select one of the identities youâve been exploring and in a 3-5 page, double-spaced, handwritten draft consider the role this identity has played in shaping the values and beliefs you hold, or once held. Your draft should include a story or stories that reveal the relevance of this identity in your life.

    To explore how others have approached the Cultural Self-Analysis essay, please refer to assigned readings, our class discussion, and model essays. Voices: Topic Ideas (pp. 73-4, 501-2), Model Essays (readings in Chapter 1 pp. 29-67) might help you as you consider topics. Former student topics include: thespians, snowboarders, single-parent children/children who survive a parentâs death, swim instructors, artists, mountain bikers, athletes, thrift store shoppers, lesbians, surfers, athletes, African Americans, in-line skaters, no culture/outsiders, college students, softball players, vegetarians, dancers, musicians, Upward Bounders.  Also, for practice and ideas of how to approach an essay similar to this type, see Voices: Writing Workshop 1 (pp. 68-73).

    Feedback Draft:
    Format according to the instructions and example in your grammar handbook (see sections on essay formatting/sbumission).  For your heading, include your name (line 1); your instructorsâ names (line 2); course name and # (line 3); date (line 4); and writing assignment title, i.e., Cultural Self-Analysis, and draft type, i.e., Feedback Draft, (line 5).  Also refer to "Essay Format" and "Example Essay in MLA Format" on these webpages.

    Thanks to our colleague Laura Fox for introducing to us the mandala exercise.