Assessment 2: Critical Reflection Essay After creating your cultural mind map in previous weeks, you will have built an understanding of how our personal culture is influenced. This next assignment helps you to build your understanding of how this awareness of influences on your personal culture can help you to be more culturally intelligent. Due date: Monday Week 9 Length: 1000 - 1200 words Value: 40% Open All | Close All Write an essay to critically reflect on why cultural self-awareness is important to develop cultural intelligence. • You should first define the term 'cultural self-awareness' and ‘cultural intelligence’. • Discuss how and why cultural self-awareness assists people to be more culturally intelligent. • For the Why part (use readings) and the How part (use your own experiences such as aspects from your mind map). • Using at least 4 readings covered in the first 8 weeks, describe your experiences (such as one or two aspects you explored in your mind-map) that illustrate the points being made in the readings. Structuring your critical reflection Your critical reflection should be an example of academic writing. As a reflective essay, we expect you to write in the first person when you are recounting examples from your experience. Therefore, you will be moving between third person when you discuss the readings and first person when you describe your experiences that illustrate the points being made in the readings. 1. Introduction Your essay should have an introduction that includes the following information: o Orientation - background information o Putting the assessment task into your own words o A thesis statement/topic: an initial thesis statement  introduces and anchors your argument or discussion  expresses your viewpoint or stand on the subject o An outline of the structure of your reflection – what are the different parts o Scope – this is optional. It may not be appropriate to the reflection. The scope should outline the limits of the discussion. 2. Body paragraphs o Your paragraphs must include a topic sentence, supporting sentences (theory and personal examples) and a concluding sentence. o Integrate references into your points wherever possible. o You should aim to have 4-6 paragraphs in the body of an essay of this length (not including the introduction or conclusion). 3. Conclusion Ensure your conclusion does the following: o Restate and qualify your thesis statement from your introduction o Provide a summary of the key points covered in the body of your reflection. Referencing Theoretical ideas you use in this writing will come from outside sources. Ensure that all sources of information are correctly referenced in the text and in a reference list on a separate page at the end of your critical reflection. If you are unsure of how to reference correctly, see the referencing style guide for APA6th available on the Charles Darwin University Library website. (link on right). In–text references An in-text reference is a way of showing that a phrase, sentence or idea is taken from another author or authors. To find out more about this academic skill, try the exercise opposite to help you learn how to use in-text references correctly. Plagiarism It is ok for you to share ideas and discuss these with fellow students; however you cannot copy and paste what someone else has said into your assessment. Your assessment must be your own work. The link at right gives some great tips on how to avoid plagiarism. Academic writing When writing at University, you are expected to use an ‘academic’ style. The CUC100 handbook – Communicating at University has in depth information about academic writing. The readings and learning materials for each week are relevant in developing the background knowledge and skills necessary for this assessment task. What follows is a suggested time-table which links each week’s learning materials to your on-going work on Assessment 3. (Scroll, or press the button links). Prepration This week you should start to develop your ideas on why cultural self-awareness is important to develop cultural intelligence, through: • Making sure you have read and understood the key readings • Developing a thesis statement for your essay Reading Ensure you have read the specific pages of the following readings to develop your ideas for this essay. Read them with the purpose of supporting your ideas. • Spencer-Oatey (2012) pp. 1-17 • Taipale (2012) pp. 173-178 • Russell (2011) pages 29-35 to identify critical reflection writing style • Brislin, Worthley and McNab (2006) pp.40-43 • Quappe and Cantatore (2005) whole article. • Flanja (2009) pp.112-114 Developing your critical reflection A critical reflection is the process of identifying, analysing and explaining experiences in relation to issues. In this critical reflection there are three steps you need to complete: 1. Explain why cultural self-awareness is important to develop cultural intelligence. 2. Identify and analyse how your cultural self-awareness can develop in analysing beliefs, values, cultural practices, and/or social structures in your daily life (based on one or two aspects from your mind map). 3. Explain how these elements fit into a broader context in relation to the theories mentioned in Spencer-Oatey (2012), Taipale (2012), Russell (2011), Quappe and Cantatore (2005), and/or other relevant readings. Use these authors to support your analysis of how cultural self-awareness can help to build cultural intelligence (Brislin, Worthley and Mcnab (2006). You may also choose to explore ‘culture shock’ (Flanja 2009) and how to avoid it with cultural self-awareness and developing cultural intelligence. NOTE- Keep the references relevant to the ideas you are developing. Writing an introduction Your essay should have an introduction that includes the following types of information: • Orientation (also known as the context/background for the essay) • Thesis (your 'argument' or 'claim' or what you will 'argue') • Outline (the organization of your essay: how the sub-arguments will be developed) You can access free ALLSP assistance to extend your introduction and other writing skills. As you write, come back to adjust this introduction if your ideas change. Writing a thesis statement Your essay should take a clear position (thesis) as to how and why cultural self-awareness is important to develop cultural intelligence. Use the media clip on the right to understand what a thesis statement is. Have a go at writing a thesis statement for your critical reflection (this is a first draft). Your thesis statement only needs to be one sentence. • Ask yourself - why is cultural self-awareness important to developing cultural intelligence? • Think about issues associated with cultural awareness • Jot down some ideas, particularly the focus for your critical reflection Prepare your Word document • Open a Word document. • Insert header and footer that indicates: page number, your name, assignment 2 - critical reflection. Prepration last week you were asked to develop a thesis statement that gives a clear position (thesis) as to how and why cultural self-awareness is important to develop cultural intelligence. This week you will use the readings to develop and support your idea on why self-awareness is important for cultural intelligence, and importantly, think of personal examples that illustrate these ideas (this is the 'reflective' part of a critical reflection essay). This will provide you with the content you need for the body of your essay. Start to plan your critical reflection based on key ideas you want to explain. • A plan with topic sentences for each paragraph is a helpful way to start. • Make sure you cover the definitions of cultural self-awareness and cultural intelligence. • Use at least one relevant personal experience to show you understand how cultural self-awareness helps to develop cultural intelligence. Set up your document to fulfil presentation expectations below. Presentation 1. Write using word processing software. o For Mac users, please save your files in a '.doc' format. o Word documents (not PDF files) are preferred as lecturers often use 'Track Changes' to provide feedback. 2. Label your Word document file with your name included e.g. John Green CUC107 Assignment 2. 3. Ensure that your Word document has the following formatting: o 12 size font of Calibri, Times New Roman, Arial o 1.5 spacing o One space between each paragraph o Footer with page numbers, your name and student number o Header with the assessment name e.g. Critical Reflection, CUC107 and date Prep This week, finalise your critical reflection. Take time to check that the introduction and conclusion help explain your main points and guide the reader to understand your point of view. Understanding the assessment criteria Step 1: Open your essay. Take 10 minutes to examine the essay. Is it answering the question well? What is it telling your lecturer about your understanding of cultural self-awareness and its relationship to cultural intelligence? Step 2: Open the Assessment Criteria, read the comments in each row and reflect on what marks your essay would attain. Step 3: Check your assignment over with the spelling and grammar checker tool on your computer. Step 4: Before you click 'submit', do those few extra things to improve your