English 104 Cross-cultural Spring 2004
Essay #5: Interview Length: 700-1200 words (3-5 pages)
Topic In this assignment, you will conduct an in-depth, one-person interview of someone with different cultural assumptions than yours. This interview will involve someone from another country than your home country, but whose professional work, community involvement, political activity, personal experience, way of life, or philosophy interests you. This interview will be conducted from a sample of topics and questions that are on the class website. However, those topics are just to give you some ideas and you will need to come up with more in-depth interview questions on your own. Purpose The purpose of this assignment is threefold. The first goal is for you to use information from your interview to write an engaging paper in which you represent this person’s experiences and opinions and explore how they challenge or complicate your own attitudes and assumptions. The paper should have a meaningful response or reaction from you. Another significant goal of this in-depth interview is to elevate your consciousness of biases or tendencies toward cultural assumptions and stereotyping and to increase opportunity for you (as either and American student or an international student) to meet and become friends with each other. The final purpose of this assignment is to help you focus on your audience. In addition to your instructor and your fellow students, your audience will include participants in the interviews who might be outside your writing class and perhaps readers of publications to which you might submit your profile. Evaluation Criteria
The paper should Have an interesting introduction that contains a thesis and forecasts the organization. (10 points) Represent without bias a specific feature of your interviewee’s culture through his or her explanation of it to you. Be in-depth and develop your essay with interesting and appropriate detail. (20 points) Try to account for cultural differences and sources of stereotypes (analysis). (20 points) Include your meaningful response to the topic. (20 points) An effective organizational structure that contains coherent transitions from one idea to another (20 points) Have a polished expression. (Avoid sentences that start with: My interviewee said, He/she told me.) (5 points) Avoid fragments and run-on sentences, and avoid other correctness issues. (5 points)
Important Dates
In-class interviews Peer review session Final paper due at the beginning of class 4/2, 4/5 4/9 4/12
What to turn in:
Two rough drafts, interview questions and answers, and the final paper.