You may have thought that these blogs were the only assignments I've been doing for my Writing 150 class, but let me assure you that I've also had to write a couple of papers! Currently I've been working on my research paper, also known as the most important and heavily graded assignment in this class. Yeah, no pressure! We've all been asked to write about a family story, which doesn't sound too bad at first, right? However, the family story also has to relate to an issue that is not only relevant to today, but interesting to us as well. After contemplating for some time about what I'm going to write about, I've decided to write about my Samoan heritage. My mom was born in Pago Pago, American Samoa, but moved to the U.S. when she was quite young. With that being said, I'm writing about how moving to a new country effects the cultural identity of generations to follow. I've seen in my own life that because I was born and raised in the states, I don't have as strong of a connection to my Polynesian culture, especially because I don't know how to speak Samoan. My plan is to share examples from my life of feeling distant from my Samoan heritage and connect them to research of other immigrants to America. I'm pretty excited about this topic and hopefully I'll be able to successfully write my research paper!
Below is an exercise for my research paper that my teacher had us do in class:
PART 1. How do I feel about my research paper right at this moment?
There are so many ways I could go about writing this paper that I feel pretty overwhelmed. But as time goes on and I research more, I feel better and better about my paper. I'm excited to see how it turns out.
PART 2. Create a dialogue between you and someone reading your paper.
Reader: Why did you choose this topic?
Me: I think sometimes I take for granted who I am and the family I've been blessed with. Being Samoan is pretty cool and I don't take the time to appreciate my culture very much, so that's why I chose this topic!
Reader: That's interesting. What do you want readers to get out of reading your paper?
Me: I guess I just want people to appreciate where they came from. If you feel like you don't have enough of your culture incorporated into your life, then take the time to change that and educate yourself!
Reader: Do you feel like writing this paper helped you appreciate your culture?
Me: I think it did. Just reading about Samoa made me realize how much I really I didn't know and I'm excited to learn more!
PART 3. Well it seems to me that...
We can always learn more about our families. As I said before, your culture is a huge part of who you are so you shouldn't take it for granted. Just like with anything else, there is always more for you to learn!
The reason for this exercise was to see where we all were with our papers. So if reading this didn't make sense, don't worry! It was more for the purpose of helping me with my research paper than anything else. :)
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