Tuesday, 08 July 2008: Web highlight (finals from summer 2006): Cana Hauerland

Final Assignment Review:

Essay 1 assignment: Comprehensive review of course and your learning curve

Write a reflective essay describing and evaluating your learning experience with this course in terms of your own interests, the course’s readings, and our use of the Immigrant Narrative as a model or norm for describing multicultural American literature.

Essay 2 assignment: Identifying and criticizing America’s dominant culture—or not!

This course has attempted to identify an elusive subject that is unattractive if not repellent to some students of multiculturalism:

·         the USA’s dominant culture: its manifestations, makeup, and ideology
 

·         Relevant to immigrant literature: What kind of culture do immigrants assimilate to? 

Refer to readings of the Exodus story, Of Plymouth Plantation, and two other relevant texts from this semester considering the questions listed on Final.

Final Exam Link: http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/4333/models/20085731/finals/5731suf08copy.htm

Grading standards:

Quality of writing: central theme consistently present throughout essay + power and appeal; unity, organization, and development; transitions and connections; surface quality (absence of chronic errors); inclusion of titles.

Creating and maintaining unity / continuity in writing link: http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/INSTRUCT/unity.htm

Evidence of learning: All exams are expected competently to use central terms and themes from objectives with examples from shared texts.

Extension of learning: The best exams not only comprehend the course’s terms, objectives, and texts but also refresh, extend, or vary terms and themes in the student's voice with examples from the course and from experience in and beyond our classroom. Make our course meet the world!

Introduction: After reviewing the final exam requirements and grading standards, I searched for final exams that fulfilled both of the following:

¨ the essay assignment (one for each essay assignment)

¨ the quality of writing

Applying each essay to the given assignment is essential in order to fulfill the course requirements, but the quality of writing is necessary to ensure the writer’s evidence and extension of learning. 

Comprehensive Essay Example:

http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/4333/models/20065731/final/f06compreed.htm

Essay Fulfillment: the writer uses course materials to explain the use of immigrant narratives as a model for multicultural literature and interestingly begins with a final reading assignment to explain his strategy in understanding the course.

Quality of Writing: the writer uses an intellectual approach and “technique transitions” to connect thoughts

Description: Notice the effective transitioning (in the paraphrased paragraphs with colored transitional topics) as the essay unfolds from the proposed subject in the first paragraph.

¶ 1  “Part of what has made American Literature so exciting and enigmatic since it has come of age is that it reflects the energy of uniquely diverse experiences in a uniquely diverse society.  The immigrant narrative is a crucial part of the whole that makes up American Literature.  But the immigrant narrative itself is made up of numerous parts reflecting countless individual experiences.  The story of the immigrant is the story of water breaking on the rock of the dominant culture and finding its way to settle in its place”.

¶ 2  The pilgrims immigrated and experiences that of another immigrant by changing life. By successfully doing this first, the Pilgrims created the dominant culture.

¶ 3 – Many other immigrants follow the Pilgrim pattern

¶ 4 – The pilgrims adapt to a community with a different language but not a dominant culture. After the Pilgrimage, America prospered thus attracting immigrants seeking the American Dream who are blind to the now dominant culture’s creation of this dream.

¶ 5 – The immigrants realize the hardships of accomplishing the American Dream once they arrive though the narratives usually end hopeful.

¶ 6 - However, the struggle of the minorities to achieve the American Dream is not as hopeful because they are unable to identify with the dominant culture.

¶ 7 – Although, the model minorities do find assimilation through the pathway of education much like the immigrants.

¶ 8 – “Not all immigrants assimilate or succeed.  The Immigrant Narrative is a narrative of the struggles of adapting and finding an identity as a foreigner in a land with demanding standards.  The landscape of America is broadly diverse, and each group has a different background, yet they all come together to form a society that somehow works together as one.  Naturally, no single immigrant story tells the entire story.  One immigrant’s experience is not all encompassing, but each story serves to add to the grand Immigrant Narrative that shapes the multiculturalism of American society”.

Strengths:

●uses a unique way of explaining the course by beginning with a last reading assignment as his first example.

●uses the intellectual approach by introducing his idea from the top of the essay and working his way down and continues deepening the subject while remaining on topic

●successfully transitions between subtopics

●introduces his subject using attractive figurative language

Improvement Suggestions:

●repeating the key concept of the figurative language example

-it’s easy for the writer to comprehend their (usually) invented example of figurative language, but readers usually need a further explanation to fully grasp the new concept. Also, readers may better remember the concept use it to better understand parts of the immigrant narrative in relation to the course objectives.

-also, the simile is interesting, and a further explanation or mentioning throughout the essay will create an even stronger messageJ.

Can you find other strengths or weaknesses to highlight in this essay?

Dominant Culture Essay Example:

http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/4333/models/20065731/final/f06domcorrea.htm

Essay Fulfillment: the writer thoroughly identifies and criticizes the dominant culture by using interesting topics.

Quality of Writing: the writer exemplifies excellent usage of paragraph structure and transition sentences.

Description: Notice how comfortably the reader can flow throughout the essay even when the writer introduces thoughts and ideas when switching paragraphs by using good transitional sentences.

¶ 1 "The dominant culture is a fascinating topic because it is extremely difficult to define and identify.

¶ 2 "Interestingly, even though the dominant culture is difficult to define, there are certain characteristics that seem to repeatedly appear in immigrant and minority literature". (The writer then introduces Exodus as an earliest example to display the dominant culture)

¶ 3 "The story of Exodus is similar to how the Pilgrims established the dominant culture of America". (The write highlights the Pilgrims refusal to join cultures with the Indian Americans and explains that intermarriage between cultures is still not fully acceptable with everyone in the dominant culture today).

¶ 4 "Also, the Pilgrims had a blatant desire to remain separate from the Indians in more ways than just not intermarrying, and this separateness is a key characteristic of the modern dominant culture". (The writer refers to the invisible appearance of the dominant culture in Jonathan Raban’s “Hunting Mister Heartbreak: A Discovery of America").

¶ 5 Invisibility can also be interpreted as being bland. If everyone were to “fit in” in the dominant culture, then the culture could be plain, boring, and monotonous. (The writer describes a boring life in America if everyone upheld dominant culture characteristics).

¶ 6 One final, yet important, characteristic of the dominant culture can be found in Katherine Rearick’s “Dominant Culture Moment: Education and the Dominant Culture.”

¶ 7 In conclusion, some characteristics associated with the dominant culture have existed for centuries and may include negative attitudes towards the idea of intermarriage, and a desire to be separate, detached, invisible, plain, yet powerful.

Strengths:

●begins with an explanation of the difficulty in defining and explaining the dominant culture because of its constant changing and then explains herself

●uses good transitioning sentences between paragraphs which assist the reader in remaining on topic with the writer

Improvement Suggestions:

● more figurative language might add a unique undertone to the essay ☺.

● the writer introduces and concludes with the dominant culture "constantly changing" but highlights what remains the same with the dominant culture during the body of the essay.

            - when a subject is introduced, the reader should attempt to stay with it;  although, in this case, the writer may have introduced the "constantly changing" concept to define what stays the same which provides an interesting approach to the essay☺.

Can you find other strengths or weaknesses to highlight in this essay?

Conclusion:

I found that many examples explore the same subjects in unique ways that make us forget we have the same essay topics. Each model is impressive in its own development of the subject matter. I find it hard to criticize the models because of their intellect and exclusiveness. The final essay models display that of the immigrant and minority narrative. They are diverse in their ideas yet have some of the same qualities in structure.