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Before
you go ahead, let's make one thing clear. This guide is no
final authority; we are still in the process of improving
and adding more content in it. We recommend students should
take assistance from their teachers before finalizing their
term papers. The reason for the same is that teacher can give
more clear idea of what exactly he/she is trying to get from
you. The samples given below will help you learn about organizing
and compiling your term papers in an effective manner.
Sample 1
At the end of July of '95, I boarded a plane that would take
me from my home in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Nairobi, Kenya. My
parents had always wanted to take our family abroad, but when
my mother signed a contract to work for the U.S. Agency for
International Development in Kenya, plans materialized, and
we were soon on our way to an exotic year in Africa.
Besides the farewells I had to make to my friends at home,
I had few reservations about living abroad. What made it easy
for me to come to Africa was my eagerness to immerse myself
in a new culture.
I knew that I might never get such an experience again, so
I was determined to learn all I could about the language,
the history, and the people, of that far-off place.
During the first few months of our stay, my family took various
trips around the country. We watched zebra and wildebeest
migrate across the Serengeti, saw hippos floating like rocks
in Lake Victoria, marveled at flamingos balancing knee-deep
in a salt-lake. We climbed an extinct volcano in the Rift
Valley. We snorkeled in the Indian Ocean and fed fish from
our fingers. We hiked 17,000 feet above sea level to the peak
of Mt. Kenya. And we studied Swahili, the local language,
every evening after dinner. But in late October my aunt came
to visit for a month. She romanced us with stories of her
experiences in rural Africa working in the Peace Corps. The
sharp contrast between the simple lifestyle she described
and the one I was leading shocked me as to how un-African
my life was. I went to an American school every day with mostly
Europeans and Asians, which, despite being a unique experience
itself, isolated me from the larger Kenyan community. I was
also living in a city, where shopping malls, Italian restaurants,
late-night discos, and movie theaters were all available close
at hand. Was this really what I had come to see? My daily
activities were almost the same as the ones in the United
States. I typed English term papers late at night on a computer;
I showered with hot water every day after soccer practice;
I dined on fried chicken or fish fillets or hamburgers. I
was in the midst of a swarm of expatriates who had formed
a community so tight that I could live with all the luxuries
of a technologically modern lifestyle. I saw my problem: I
had wound myself so tightly in the routine of my school life
that I was no longer seeing Kenya or even Kenyans. I yearned
to know some of the African culture, but I didn't know how
that could be achieved without a drastic break in my academic
progress, which I wasn't willing to sacrifice.
After talking over this issue with my parents, I stumbled
upon the perfect solution. [name] is the son of [name] and
[name], with whom my mother lived twenty years ago when she
came to Kenya as a volunteer nurse. [name] was living with
us while he attended [name] College, but he was going back
to his home village to visit his family over the Christmas
holidays. I could go with him and stay with his family there.
This excursion proved to be the most rewarding ten days of
my entire stay in Africa. In that short period, I learned
more about Kenyan culture than I had in the five months prior
to that time. First of all, I witnessed how different the
female role is in Kenya than in America. The women-young and
old-did about twice the work the men did. They had to cook
the meals, get the milk, sweep the house, chop the firewood,
take care of the children; the list goes on and on. The men
did some work on the farm, but mostly they enjoyed a laid-back
lifestyle. And it is not uncommon for a man to have more than
one wife. [Name] has had a total of three women as wives.
What seems unheard-of to a Westerner is commonplace to a Kenyan.
I also saw an intense restlessness for change. When the men
sat around the dinner table (women weren't allowed to eat
with them), they would not merely discuss the weather or the
latest gossip of the village. No, they debated the problems
and merits of Kenya and what could be done to improve their
country. They voiced their apprehension of the government,
their fear that if they openly opposed the established authority,
their family could be persecuted by the president's special
agents. They talked of the A.I.D.S. epidemic spreading through
the working class like wildfire. They expressed their anger
at the drug abuse of their nation's youth. But these men were
unwilling to accept the obstacles they faced and instead looked
toward solutions-education, fairer elections, less corruption,
and others. I also saw that a primitive life is not necessarily
a painful one. Theirs is a simple life-one without running
water, or electricity, or telephones, or cars. But being simple
did not mean it was a pleasure-less life. It meant fetching
water every day from a well. It meant cooking over a fire
and reading by a lantern. It meant walking to school instead
of driving. But it also meant no expensive phone bills, no
wallet-straining car repairs, no broken washing machines.
A simple life had its hardships, but it also avoided the hassles
that Americans face in their complex modern lives. In the
village, we ate good food, children screamed and shouted with
joy, we laughed while playing card games, we flipped through
old photo albums. Their lifestyle was vastly different from
mine, but they still had the same goals that I did: to have
fun, to get a good education, to be comfortable. After the
New Year, when I returned to my home in Nairobi, I went back
carrying in my mind a vivid picture of rural Kenya, but also
satisfied that I had learned something that could not be found
in Nairobi's American expatriate community.
** Comments by Admissions Officers who assisted in the Creation
of this Course **
This writer benefited from having had an unusual travel experience
and from knowing how to write about it using lots of colorful
detail. Two officers mentioned that the writer could have
improved the term paper by making her conclusion more reflective.
"What do these things mean?" asked one. "In
the conclusion, the all-important self-reflection is absent.
. . . Remember, if you want to write a term paper about your
immersion in a foreign culture, you must be able to articulate
how you've grown from the experience; a mere recounting of
events is not enough."
This is very well written. I especially like the vivid descriptions
of the African scenes. It shows us a young woman who is extremely
open to new experiences, who wants to immerse herself completely
in whatever new situation comes her way. She would be a valuable
addition to an entering class.
Solid all-around term paper from beginning to end. This is
one of those term papers that you hope more students would
write. This student knows what it takes to compose a quality
term paper. It is told in an expressive way that allows you
to envision the experience yourself. Excellent form and writing.
This student has a keen sense for details and how to tell
a story.
Go
to: SAMPLE 2 | SAMPLE
3 | SAMPLE 4
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