Selecting a cultural topic that interests you will make the writing process more enjoyable and effective. The content of your essay can address various aspects of culture, including traditions, family, holidays, religious and spiritual practices, gender roles, art, music, methods of communication and oral history. California state university in fresno suggests writing about topics such as the civil rights movement, racism and discrimination, blues and gospel music or mexican immigration. Once you have selected a topic, you can compose a thesis statement for your essay. A cultural narrative is a story that helps participants of that culture make sense of life within that culture. Postmodern thought argues that there is no one overarching narrative that holds true but rather, multiple metanarratives, or cultural stories created by members of a given culture to gain or maintain power or, to mount a resistance to a given power structure.

Writing a descriptive essay about a cultural narrative can be a way to vividly express the viewpoint of a given segment of a population or culture. Consider narratives that you have a personal connection with and can write descriptively about. For example, if you are a woman who has experienced a situation in life where you believe you were paid less or treated differently because of your gender, you may choose to express a feminist cultural narrative through a descriptive essay. Remember a powerful experience connected with the cultural narrative you have chosen to write about. Remember that the power of a descriptive essay is in its relaying of observations and detailed descriptions, rather than facts and statistics. Draw your reader in to your essay with colorful, descriptive writing about your experience.

Generate three or four main points about your chosen cultural narrative that you want to present in your essay. Write down three or four additional experiences or observations that you can connect with your main points so that each point is illustrated with a personal observation or experience. Present the findings or arguments of others that have written about your chosen cultural narrative. Write your paper, working your way from the introduction, through your main points and ending with a well written, descriptive conclusion. Prepare your bibliography alphabetically according to your instructor's chosen style guidelines. Ask a friend or classmate to read your paper for spelling, grammar and consistency errors you may have missed. I was browsing through a media’s photo collection when i found the collection from an american soldier.

The media followed the young man from the time he enlisted into the army until the time he was able to return home. This story is analyzed by photographs of the young man, his friends, and his family. A young man sits in his home talking to his father while holding a note with an army recruiter’s information on it. The young boy picks up the phone and calls the recruiter to follow up on his enlistment.

As weeks go by the boy receives his high school diploma and is ready to enlist into the united states army. Ian, the young man goes to different places and enjoys spending time with his loved ones before enlisting. You can tell he is scared to leave his father by actions and emotions expressed in the photos. As ian prepares to leave for basic training he gathers with his friends and family to say bye to everyone. Ian’s parent were in full support of his decision to enlist as they stand by and watch him being sworn in before his departure to basic training.

Ian then returns back to base and returns to his normal daily training courses and his job. On a weekend leave, ian sits at home with a friend and does not go back to base on time. When he returned back to base late, he awaits in a higher ranking officer’s office to receive counseling. Once he returned, he goes to his superior officer and admits he has an addiction to the pain medicine that he had been subscribed to due to his injuries.

I've decided to upload some of the ideas i am working on for my upcoming class this semester. The class is a sophomore level composition class which is focusing on american culture as a broad subject. The first major assignment i want my students to write about is a cultural narrative, in which, i have the assignment posted below. Though the assignment is still a work in progress, i believe the main gist of the work can be seen.

Since we live in solitary confinement daily within our minds and perceive the world through our own identities, cultures, and ways, we realize, even when talking amongst similar people, that we are indeed not all the same. They help us better understand ourselves and our own identities through writing and exploration, but they also allow us to connect to and see the differences in our identities. Though many times we do not do these in an academic sense, we often do create these stories through the likes of telling our histories and in locating how we relate to other groups. Thus, for our first major assignment this semester, we will be writing our own individual cultural narratives.