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CRE201
Critical Reading and Writing
In a Global Society

Paradise Valley Community College
Phoenix, Arizona
Course Outline
  1. Effect of culture on ways of thinking about specific issues (Competency 1)
    1. Effects of students' own ethnic cultures and traditions
      1. Identify characteristics
      2. Evaluate effects of characteristics
    2. Effects of other cultures and traditions
      1. Identify characteristics
      2. Evaluate effects of characteristics
  2. Value conflicts among various cultures as they relate to specific issues (Competency 2)
    1. Geographical
      1. Identify values of the cultures as they relate to the issues
      2. Compare and contrast these values
      3. Analyze the conflicts generated
    2. Religious
      1. Identify values of the cultures as they relate to the issues
      2. Compare and contrast these values
      3. Analyze the conflicts generated
    3. Economic
      1. Identify values of the cultures as they relate to the issues
      2. Compare and contrast these values
      3. Analyze the conflicts generated
    4. Political
      1. Identify values of the cultures as they relate to the issues
      2. Compare and contrast these values
      3. Analyze the conflicts generated
    5. Interpersonal
      1. Identify values of the cultures as they relate to the issues
      2. Compare and contrast these values
      3. Analyze the conflicts generated
  3. Elements of argument (as found in readings on specific issues) (Competency 3)
    1. Basic structure
      1. Conclusion
      2. Evidence
        1. Facts
        2. Inferences
        3. Judgments
      3. Underlying assumption (warrant)
    2. Forms of argument
      1. Induction
      2. Deduction
      3. Analogy
      4. Causal arguments
    3. Types of appeals
      1. Ethos
      2. Logos
      3. Pathos
  4. Authors' credibility on a specific issue, based on: (Competency 4)
    1. Background
    2. Past writings
    3. Where published
    4. Other writers' critical analyses
  5. Viewpoints of two authors from different cultures on a specific issue (Competency 5)
    1. Effect of their cultures on their thinking
    2. Value conflicts involved
    3. Elements of argument used
    4. Credibility of authors
  6. Cultural factors that lead to biases in the media (Competency 6)
    1. Historical assumptions regarding freedom of the press
    2. Use of censorship
    3. Influence of profit motive
      1. Ratings
      2. Advertising
    4. Entertainment factor in journalism
    5. Influence of polling reports
  7. Communicating with persons from other cultures about issues of international concern. (Competency 7)
    1. Through Internet
    2. Through a face-to-face interview
  8. Synthesis of an international perspective on one specific issue (Competency 8)
    1. At least five international sources
    2. Formal research paper
      1. Standard English usage
      2. Current standard documentation form, such as MLA or APA

Suggested Activities
Competency 1: Identify and evaluate ways in which culture affects thinking about specific issues.

Interview family members with knowledge of their ethnic cultures and traditions to identify characteristics of these cultures.

In a descriptive essay of 300-500 words, develop your own cultural profile: the major influences on who you are, accounting for ethnicity, ancestry, religion, socio-economic group, educational background, places of residence, parents' occupations.

Trace the historical development of a cultural practice or attitude important to you, from at least 200 years ago to present day.

Competency 2: Identify and analyze value conflicts among various national and cultural systems as they relate to specific issues.

Choose one specific issue or topic and assign each student to look at the issue from a different perspective. (Possible topics: international piracy, the World Bank, the U.N.)

Research and summarize the points of view for one of the following issues:

The Japan-U.S. trade war re: automobile imports
The effect of American water use/consumption on Mexico
American -produced acid rain over Canada
The African -American experience at home and abroad: How do other countries view/ treat black Americans?
Competency 3: Identify and analyze the elements of argument in selected readings.

Cooperative learning groups analyze an international essay or article and identify the elements of argument. Then compare with other groups' findings. Finally each individual responds in writing to several questions, such as:
1. How would an American argue this issue differently?
2. By what cultural limitations may this writer be bound?
Competency 6: Identify and explain in writing cultural factors that lead to specific biases appearing in the media: TV, newspapers, magazines.

Explain the influence of modern mass media on the homogenization of American and international cultural groups. (Reading: 'Technology and Democracy" by Daniel Boorstin)

Explain the influence of modern mass media on the shaping of national and international opinion concerning one current issue.

Read two articles on alleged media bias and one defense of the media. Summarize these articles, critically analyze them, and draw a conclusion about media bias based on these readings.

Competency 7: Evaluate in writing experiences in communicating with persons from other cultures about specific issues of international concern.

Introduce Internet as a medium of information gathering, communication, and cultural exchange.

Communicate via Internet with persons living in other countries, who have grown up in other cultures and respond in writing to these interchanges.

Interview face-to-face a person, who has grown up in another country and write a response to the interview that demonstrates increased international awareness. (Prior to the interview, identify

relevant issues for the interview and develop appropriate questions. After the interview, analyze the answers.)

General:

Attend Honors Forums and apply international perspectives to the topics of the forums through class discussions.

Acquire information about conflict resolution from the U.N. and use it to propose possible resolutions to specific international conflicts.

Suggested sources for Readings

Ethnic Newswatch

The following essays from the text One World, Many Cultures:
Levine and Wolf, "Social Time: The Heartbeat of Culture"
Carroll, "Minor Accidents"
Hoffman, "Lost in Translation"
Said, "Reflections on Exile"
Hayslip, "Yearning, to Breathe Free"
The World and /: A Chronicle of Our Changing Era. A publication of the Washington Times Corp. 1-800-822-2822.

International Herald-Tribune

International USA Today

Foreign Affairs . Council on Foreign Relations, 58 E. 68 St., New York, NY 10021.

International Peace Research Newsletter. International Peace Research Association, Antioch College, Yellow Springs, OH 45387.

UN Chronicle. United Nations Publications, Room DC2-853, New York, NY 10017.

World Review. Australian Institute of International Affairs, Queensland Branch, PO Box 279, Indooroopilly, Brisbane, Oueensland 4068, Australia.

Lexus-Nexus. A database for business, economics, and media.

Financial Times . (an international business newspaper)


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Last updated: May 27, 2005
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Please send your questions and comments via email to Michele Marion at michele.marion@pvmail.maricopa.edu