Assignments for Martin Luther King weekend

Assignments for the long weekend January 16, 17, 18, 19 Writing 20 2010

I found the assignments confusing, and so I thought I would sort them out one more time.

1. Read Chapter 9 in Ainsworth and focus on the essays on pages 406, 419, 421, 425, 428.
2. Choose one of these essays and write a response to it—What is the author’s point? Do you agree? Pull out a good quote something like that no more than two pages.
3. Write a page on Maria Root’s essay on page 428. It speaks of multiple identities and we need to think about what makes up an identity.
4. Skip the question on the handout that says you should find a quote in Takaki and write about myths. Just skip it--#2 I think.
5. Read Saleem and write to me about what you think of her argument for arranged marriage. Is she for it? No more than a page.
6. Martin Luther King Day is Monday. No essay is due on MLK this week. Our convocation is at eth Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium on February 11, 2010, 7pm, admission free. Anna Devere Smith, poet, movie star, and TV actor, will speak.
So our essay on MLK is not due until February—after the convocation.
Maybe I will write you again over the weekend. You can find the assignments repeated at timfitz.blogspot.com.

The assignment sheet I gave out in class with part crossed out.
Writing 20 Tim Fitzmaurice Essay 2 On Culture & Identity
“… an individual can have simultaneous membership and multiple, fluid identities with different groups.” (Maria Root, 431)

Culture is not simply the ethnic group we were born into. It is a complex and often changing membership in traditions, religions, sexual identities, vocational (job) identities, that shape us and that we share with others.
How does culture and identity contribute to our personal happiness and success? Can we look at the elements of our own culture and identity and see how these factors make us more likely to succeed?

For Wednesday
1. Write a page based on reading Maria Root’s essay on multiple identities (428) What are the fundamental elements of your identity?
2. Skip this!
3. Look at the Sabaa Saleem essay on 323.
What do we owe to our family? Loyalty to tradition or independence or a balance of the two?

Have a good weekend! Tim