Salad Bowl

America is called the melting pot because there are people from everywhere around the world, they have different cultures, different customs, but when they come to America, they are one, one nation. However, America is not a melting pot, it is a salad bowl. A melting pot implies that although we have many different people from many different cultures here in America, they have all adapted to our culture. This however, is simply not true. We have people come here from different cultures but they retain their own cultures and let them flourish here in America. We have things such as China town and little Italy. I myself have a strong Persian influence and grew up surrounded by a Persian culture. I went to a Farsi school when I was little, my family would always shop in local Persian markets, and I was surrounded by Persian kids as a child. America is amazing because you can be American and Chinese here. Or American and Indian, or German, or even Persian and it would be normal. But in other countries such as India or Germany, or Iran the population is mostly one people and one culture. That’s why America is the most unique country at the least.

One Race, One People

I have many different identities in the world. I’m a student, I’m a part of the youth of America, I’m a son and a brother, and I’m a minority. I affect the culture as part of the youth the greatest simply because our voice in society tends to be the loudest. However, my role is to improve our society to the best of my ability not just for my peers and community, but for myself as well. Putting identity aside, we all have the same role in society; to improve humanity and progress as a race. It’s hard to keep that in mind when we identify ourselves as different groups of people, whether it’s based off our skin color, ethnicity, or what we believe, we’re simply getting in our own way. One of my dreams is to see us all working together to advance humanity. We’re all the same, we all want the best for ourselves and our families, we all have hopes and dreams but we seem determined to kill the hopes and dreams of our fellow man. We’re digging our own graves by doing so. It’s becoming apparent that we will face a problem that affects all of us equally, whether that be global warming or something else, but I can promise you that the day will come when the only way to survive is by working together as one race. I just hope we can overcome our differences by then.

Outlines

The outline example in the text was very useful. I liked how everything was broken down, not only in simple bullets, but separated into different sub-topics and with full sentences under each of them. It truly does give an outline of the actual paper and I believe it will help considerably in writing the actual paper. Doing an outline this way helps avoid procrastination because I basically had to write most of my essay simply for the outline. It was a good step before having to put everything together and writing a rough draft. I did my outline a little differently than the example in the text did. I had a subtopic, then I gave my first point along with one or two pieces of evidence, then I usually gave a second point in my essay followed by another two pieces of evidence. I believe that this method will make it easier for the Assertion, Evidence, and then Analysis form that I’m trying to follow for this paper. All in all, this outline was benefit me greatly and I will follow it closely when writing my first draft.

Notes and Plagerism

When I take notes, I usually try to only write down the important things. Anything the professor puts on the board usually goes down in my notes. Along with anything that the professor repeats constantly. Every now and then, they will tell you specifically that you will need to know something or something will pop up on the test and obviously it’s a good idea to write that down. I also use things such as stars, side notes saying If something is important, and underlining. Although many people sometimes use different colors or another tool to go the extra mile, I believe that such things are a waste of time. It takes up time and effort and is completely un-necessary. Notes should be a simple summary of a lecture or a class. It’s also important to avoid plagiarism at all costs. If nothing else, plagiarism can get you into serious trouble. Some schools even have a no tolerance policy in where they will expel a student if they are caught plagiarizing even once. It’s simply not ethical to plagiarize. Think of it this way; if you wrote a paper that you worked hard on and were proud to call yours, would you appreciate someone else using it and calling it their own?

Interviews

The second interview is clearly much more organized than the first. It’s a simple question and answer but its works. After reading the first interview, I was actually unclear of what I was reading. There were many different people being introduced and it was more of a discussion than anything else. The second interview is also more organized by the way the people answer the questions. In the first interview, the man asking the questions, Terrence Smith, simply says a general statement and the rest of the people comment of what he said. In the second interview, the reporter asks George Ritzer a question, and George Ritzer gives his answer. Then they move on. That simple. I believe that this method of interview is much more efficient than the first one. It’s more organized and that makes all the difference. If I had to choose a way to interview someone, I would definitely choose the second method and I think the person I was interviewing would prefer it as well.

Stereotypes

Chinua Achebe once said “The whole idea of a stereotype is to simplify. Instead of going through the problem of all this great diversity - that it's this or maybe that - you have just one large statement; it is this”. After reading these two sections together, I realized how much I stereotype when before I thought I could proudly say I didn’t. I watch a lot of sports and to be honest, I think that most of the star athletes are black, many of the white ones aren’t so great, and the only good quarter backs are the white one. I’m ashamed to admit how stereotypical that is but it’s what I’ve been thinking. I know I’m not ethnocentric and back home, I had friends of all races and the only way I judged them was based off their character. However, when it comes to people I don’t know, like athletes, it’s simply easier to stereotype. I know that almost all stereotypes, including my own, are not true. Michel Vick is one of the best quarterbacks in the league right now. Steve Nash is one of the best point guards in the history of the league. Wes Welker is simply put an amazing wide receiver. It’s easy to stereotype, but we must strive to keep an open mind and judge people only on themselves.

Research Scources

When writing a research topic, there’s more to research than simply finding a topic. You have to read through a bunch of books, websites, and articles. You might have to watch some films, conduct some interviews, and take some surveys. When you decide to begin a research paper, you must become a semi-expert on you topic if you want to write a good paper.  After you begin your research, you must find primary and secondary resources for your argument. After that, you have to evaluate just how good your sources are. For example, when coming across websites, it’s best to find out about the author or publisher of the source. When coming up with a survey, you must: target your population, develop questions, prepare, make contact, record and document, and conduct a follow-up. It is also a good idea to take notes as you read through your sources. After you find all your sources, you can create a dialogue of your source and must write an annotated bibliography. To create a dialogue of sources, you must: identify the key players, create a cast of character’s list, draft the script, consider what your sources would say to each other, and don’t just play the “objective” moderator.