essay

American Identities

Essay #1 Purpose of Assignment: To help you understand the importance of your voice and perspective in narrating the American experience.

To develop your critical thinking skills. To develop your writing and editing skills. To develop your ability to reflect and contextualize your lived experience.

What you need to do: Write about an experience in the US that affirmed an American value or ideal that is dear to you, and about an experience that challenged or disrupted your belief in an American value or ideal.

Reflect on your experiences and how they fit with or contradict the narrative about values and ideals in the US.

How have race, gender, sexuality, religion, ethnicity and class been

factors in your experience(s)? Suggest how we may develop an inclusive narrative of the American

experience.

Please limit your essay to no more than five pages. Make sure you cite your sources, and include a "Works Cited" page as needed. Use MLA or another citation format as appropriate. Your essay must be uploaded into the D2L Assignments folder on the Thursday it is due.