CULTURAL COMPARISON PAPER ASSIGNMENT.

SU15 SPCH100 CULTURAL COMP. INFO DOC

1

SPEECH 100 • INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION CULTURAL COMPARISON PAPER ASSIGNMENT INFORMATION

>> What is it? The purpose of this paper is to illustrate culture(s) and/or subcultures and the impact on one’s communication and perception. >> What do I do? Write a paper comparing two cultures, one of which could be your own. If you opt to cover yourself as one of the cultures, the other culture could be a family member’s culture (e.g. parents’ traditional culture), a friend’s culture (e.g. different religious backgrounds), or someone else’s culture. In the paper, please examine and report on differences discussed in class and in the readings: family structure, relationship values, communication with the general public (nonverbal, listening, language, etc.), communication in various contexts (family, work) or with various types of people (family, friends, strangers). Use information from academic sources to show that you have researched these cultures. >> How do I organize this paper? The paper should have the below-listed components in the following order:

- APA-formatted title page (cover page) [see APA format paper example on Blackboard] - Introduction paragraph(s) [NO ABSTRACT REQUIRED] - Descriptions of the two cultures being compared - Specific information provided regarding such comparisons (see “What do I do?” above) - Conclusion paragraph(s) - Standalone References page(s) in full APA format

>> How do I format this paper? APA conformity is crucial in maintaining a strong assignment grade. All references must be cited in APA format within the paper’s narrative and also listed on the References page. Wiki- and/or -pedia citations are not allowed. All references should be of valid, sound academic value. News reports must be culled from legitimate, reputable organizations. Personal blogs and non-academically sourced websites are unacceptable. Five qualifying references must appear in the References page. Formatting is a graded component of the paper. Therefore, papers lacking quality, academically-sound sources will also be subjected to point deductions.

APA info available here: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

Note: Those “automatic” APA citation tools available online are not perfect and may miss components of proper style for your references list or in-text citations. Therefore, I strongly urge you to double-check the citations with an APA Style Publication Manual before submitting.

Please submit your paper using 12 pt. Times New Roman font throughout the entire document (including headers/footers). Papers must also be double-spaced, with 1" margins all around. Page numbers must be included per APA specifications (upper right hand corner with running head). This paper should be about 5 pages in length, excluding title and references pages.

Please note that because this is a Communication class and due to your instructor’s professional writing background, items like spelling, punctuation, word usage and overall grammatical quality will be factored in as a sizable portion of the paper’s overall grade, so please proofread and spell-check your document before submitting.

Other very important writing-related items to know:

! Eliminate use of contractions, unless used within a direct quote ! Reduce usage of first-person in the paper whenever possible (“I” or “me”) and use second-person

references (“you”) only if totally necessary (this should be rare to never) ! Do not use exclamation points (!!!!) ! Time is written as a.m. or p.m., not as am or pm, nor as AM or PM ! Money: It’s $6 million, $23 billion, $240,000 or $104. Don’t write out the entire number (six million, two

hundred forty thousand dollars). Do not write the word “dollars” either, as that’s what the dollar sign automatically signifies.

! Round up/down when necessary. Do not tell me that exactly 23,918,189 people watched the TV show. Use “approximately 24 million people” instead. Please. "

! Please form actual paragraphs rather than solid pages of unbroken text

SU15 SPCH100 CULTURAL COMP. INFO DOC

2

! Use proper capitalization and punctuation when necessary, especially with proper nouns and trademarked products/services (e.g., iPod, not Ipod or i-pod)

! Don’t use “in today’s society” or “in this day and age” or any of their variations/derivatives — this gets super boring after reading dozens of papers with the same statement (or sometimes the same statement in the same paper over and over)

! Italicize or use “quotation marks” for titles of songs, albums, books, publications and other artistic/creative works

! When discussing people, use first and last names only on first reference within the body of the paper; use last names only on all subsequent references (unless two people mentioned in the paper share the same last name, in which case use full names on all references)

! Try to avoid the overuse of direct quotes — paraphrase information when possible for brevity and clarity

As you can surmise the above list of items (and I cannot emphasize this enough): I am really picky about writing quality. >> How do I turn in this paper? The Cultural Comparison Paper is to be received by the instructor via e-mail no later than Tues., July 7 at 3:00 p.m. Files must be attached in MICROSOFT WORD DOCUMENT FORMAT ONLY. Papers received up to 24 hours after deadline will only receive half credit (25 points maximum). Papers received more than 24 hours after deadline will not receive ANY credit. There are NO exceptions to this deadline. Do not submit a hard copy in lieu of the e-mailed paper (electronic paper submissions only). PAPERS WILL BE SCANNED VIA PLAGIARISM DETECTION SOFTWARE.

E-mail the paper to me at [email protected]. Also, cc: the e-mail to [email protected] and cc: it back to yourself to make sure it was sent out. One way to guarantee that the instructor receives your paper is to send it well before the deadline. The instructor sends out confirmation e-mails to all paper submissions. If you do not receive an e-mail confirming receipt of your paper from the instructor that same day, you must assume it was NOT RECEIVED.

When you submit your e-mail, the subject line AND the attached Word document filename should look like this:

YOUR LAST NAME_FIRST INITIAL_100_CULTURECOMP (for example, if I were submitting a paper: RASHIDI_W_100_CULTURECOMP is my subject line; RASHIDI_W_100_CULTURECOMP.docx is my filename). Do not delete the extension on the file name.

>> How do you grade this paper? The paper is worth 50 points and will be graded via a variety of categories including compositional quality, formatting, citations/references, depth and significance of information provided in each section, plus adherence to protocol and assignment instructions. I will do my best to have grades posted and papers returned within a week from submittal, but this is not guaranteed.

Note that analysis is key. I am not seeking a straight historical report of a culture; depth and discussion based on research and credible sources adds value to this paper.

CONTENT (20 POINTS) COMPOSITION (10 POINTS) REFERENCES (10 POINTS) FORMATTING (10 POINTS) TOTAL (50 POINTS)

>> Questions? Call me: 626-914-8587. E-mail me: [email protected]. See me: TC-126. Please note: I do not pre-read entire papers, however I will be happy to answer any specific questions you may have about your paper or review certain sections.