cross cultural management

Continuous Assessment: Reflection paper (40%, Individual)

Submit 28 June, two formats: hard copy, PLUS submit to Blackboard.

Memorization is not really likely to help you in your job, in your life. The key is THINKING about material from textbooks and classes. This assignment will help you THINK, and help you LEARN. Although it will be graded as ONE paper, you will write a series of mini-essays giving your reflections on at least THREE topics from the course. You may wish to write on more, for example, 5 topics. YOUR CHOICE. The entire paper should be around 10 pages (normal margins, 1.5 spacing). You may want to choose tentative topics NOW, and change later if different topics catch your attention. Ideally, you will choose at least one topic from the first half of the class, another topic from the last half of the class, and additional topics from anywhere in the course. For example in one essay you may give your reflections after thinking about CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION (which is introduced in chapter 5), another reflection essay about ETHICS AS SEEN IN DIFFERENT CULTURES (ethics is introduced in chapter 8), another reflection essay on SAMSUNG IN MEXICO (triggered by a case in chater 9). What might you say in each of your reflection essays? You might say “our textbook says XXX XXXX XXX but is the text right? In my personal opinion,….” Or you might say “In business I have often noticed XXXXX. This seems to be exactly what was said in class on Tuesday! I AGREE and here is why….” Or maybe you now have more questions than answers. THINK, reflect, and WRITE.

Hopefully you can do this in a way that keeps the reader interested, AND gives new insights. You may want to use an interesting title, or possibly interesting titles for each of your short reflection essays, so people will want to read what you have to say. Make it informative and interesting. Learn to draw ideas from everywhere, including real life. You will want to read each chapter of your text that introduces your topic before you write. You may use real life examples to illustrate or cast doubt on ideas from our text but the key is YOUR reflection, YOUR analysis. You do not have to go to the web: this is a THOUGHT project not a RESEARCH project. Please do NOT prepare an academic theoretical paper. This short paper will probably not have references and will not have a bibliography. Rather, write your essay using your own thoughts.

MORE IDEAS ABOUT WRITING for this class: as said above, “please do NOT prepare an academic theoretical paper.” Reflection is NOT research. THINK, then write. For this paper, write in a way that will interest readers. Any paper that starts with the words “This paper is about” is in danger of being burned (TOO BORING). Try to capture the reader’s attention, and set the direction and purpose of your essay in the first sentence or two of each essay. Then make your key points, each main idea in its own paragraph. You might wrap up each reflection essay in an interesting concluding sentence or short paragraph. MAKE THE PAPER INTERESTING ENOUGH SO THAT YOUR MOTHER WOULD READ IT, THE WHOLE THING. SO, a unique essay. This will be a paper only you could do, because it is about YOUR THOUGHTS. There is no instruction book, no set of clear guidelines, neither here nor in life. Be creative, think, analyze, and share your insights! There is a certain element of risk in having such an open-ended free-wheeling assignm14ent. What if you really want to say more than can fit in 10 pages? Learn to CONDENSE! Your report should be submitted two ways: you will submit a hard copy on the assigned day, AND you will also submit a soft copy on BlackBoard that same day.

Learning objectives for this assignment:

· to help you delelop your critical thinking skills

· to help you realize you can learn from real life, not only from text books

· to further develop your writing skills

The following grade-standards should be aimed at:

A : Excellent… structured, focused and concise

B : Very Good.. thorough, knowledgeable and well-organised

C : Good: adequate, competent but limited

D : Satisfactory: acceptable response, but lacking in focus

More details about grading are included later in this study guide.

Structure and Format

As in all UCD papers, please use 12 point font, use reasonable (1 inch) margins, and use double spacing or 1.5 spacing, and be sure to number all pages. Page numbers should be included on each page. This is a short paper so a cover sheet is not required by me but may be required by Kaplan. You can structure the essay as you see fit. YOU decide.

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