In David Muras Reflections of My Daughter,
In this final essay, you are given an opportunity to apply what youve learned thus far about beliefs, perspectives, and deductive reasoning. Please read the Topic to get an understanding of the Traditional & Popular Beliefs about Interracial Relationships that you will be comparing & contrasting.
I. Topic
In David Muras Reflections of My Daughter, he discusses the appearance of self-hate represented in his choice of marrying a white woman. When recalling a poem he wrote entitled The Color of Desire he said, at one point, the poem asks this question: Father, mother, / I married a woman not of my color. / What is it I want to escape?
Traditional Belief Men of color who marry outside of their race want to escape from their culture, values and/or themselves.
Popular Culture Belief Men of color who marry outside of their race dont want to escape from their culture, values and/or themselves, instead they are driven by love.
II. Prompt
You are being asked to write a comparative essay that will investigate the Traditional and Popular Cultural Belief from the topic above for the people of color that you decide to explore. You can change the gender & ethnicity of the subjects, e.g. you can choose to explore how these beliefs apply to Asian women. You are to research both the Traditional and Popular Cultural Beliefs and based on the facts you discover from that research develop your perspective.
I want you to adopt an active perspective about the idea of escape vs. love driving people of color into interracial relationships. This is to say, when writing your paper,
please share with me how your new perspective will impact your life. Will it affect how you watch movies? Will it affect who you date? Will it affect how you raise your children? Your thesis should be a question that guides you towards your perspective.
Your thesis will dictate how you organize your paper. A good essay will reflect substantial research and a strong roadmap also known as an outline. These three basic building blocks, i.e. thesis, research and roadmap are the key to developing an essay that effectively communicates your perspective.
III. Key Terms
Compare & Contrast This is a comparative Essay! Be sure to compare and contrast the Traditional Belief to the Popular Cultural Belief within your paper.
Theme/Topic Clearly share your understanding of both the Traditional and Popular Cultural Beliefs for your chosen topic in your introductory paragraph, i.e. show that you comprehend the theme(s) presented in the topic that you choose.
Thesis – You are tasked with proposing a thesis that guides you to develop a perspective on the belief presented in your topic. Your thesis should also be included in your introductory paragraph. And this thesis should guide you towards both your perspective and the way that you envision applying your perspective, e.g. if you are considering interracial dating, then developing a perspective could guide you in your decision.
Roadmap – Your introductory paragraph should present the roadmap that you will follow to transition the belief presented in your paper into your perspective on the topic.
Research – When developing your perspective, please remember to apply deductive reasoning through research and examination of the facts, rather than inductive reasoning.
Active Perspective – In the end, the outcome of your research and examination of both the Traditional Belief and the Popular Culture Belief will lead you to a perspective that you can apply to your life in some way.
Conclusion – Ultimately, you must articulate your newly developed perspective. While researching for this paper, you may find that your perspective is in sync with the Traditional Belief or perhaps your perspective is more in agreement with the Popular Cultural Belief. It is entirely possible to have developed an alternative perspective on your topic. Either way remember that you must articulate what you plan on doing with your new perspective, i.e. how will it impact your life.
LOGISTICS
Grading: This essay is 30% of your final grade and is broken down as follows:
Following directions (5 points) Thesis (3 points)
Support (3 points)
2
Organization (3 points)
Response to Prompt (16 points) See Sections II & III
Directions for Paper
1. Your paper should be no less than 4 full pages and no more than 6 pages 2. 12-point font
3. Times New Roman font
4. Double spaced
5. Standard margins
6. Include page numbers
7. Include a cover sheet (see attached sample provided), which is not to be included
in your page count.
8. Include a bibliography (see attached sample provided), which is not to be
included in your page count.
9. Endnotes (sample provided at the end of these instructions)
10. Please choose a specific citing style, i.e. MLA, Chicago Manual Style, etc.
11. 4 Scholarly sources (two of which must be from outside of the assigned books,
movies and professors insight from the course; one must come from this class the only movies that can be referenced are from in-class). Please remember that wikipedia is NOT a scholarly source (see syllabus). Also, do NOT use Blogs or video sources including Youtube. Scholarly sources are in-class material or outside material that has been edited or peer-reviewed. If you are unsure, please check-in with Professor Cleveland.
See the document Samples for examples of cover sheet and citations. Papers are due on Sunday, December 8th, 2019 before 11:59am.
NO LATE PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED. NO EXCEPTIONS.
***Please post through the Final Essay Assignment Turn-It-In item in the Course Material Section on-line. When you upload your essay, you will receive a receipt. If you dont receive that receipt, then you HAVE NOT submitted your essay successfully. NOTE: Please submit a Windows document with your name in the file title, e.g. Final Essay_Your Name.doc or .docx
