QUESTIONS:

1. Does the essay have a clear thesis statement (main purpose of Project 3)? 

2. Does the thesis statement have a central idea? Is it clearly established and maintained throughout?

3. Does the author have a clear outline?

4. Does the author have a summary section? 

5. Does the author have an analysis section?

6. Does the author quote peers’ essays?

7. Does the author discuss the strengths and weaknesses of her/his peers essays?

8. What are the author’s strengths?

9. What is the author’s weakness?

Note: You will be writing your Project 3 as Ali did. 

PROJECT 3 OUTLINE

1. Introduction

a. Introduce your title

a. Thesis statement

a. Outline

1. Summary of peers’ essays (in-text citations)

b. Peer 1

b. Peer 2

b. Peer 3

b. Peer 4

1. Analyses of peers’ essays (examples) (in-text citations)

c. Strength and weakness of the papers

i. Peer 1 (strength and weakness)

i. Peer 2 (strength and weakness)

i. Peer 3 (strength and weakness)

0. What I learned from my peers’ artifacts/essays (in-text citations and/or quote peers or peers’ essays)

a. What you learned/new thoughts ideas

b. New writing strategies

1. Conclusion

2. Works Cited

a. Regular essays

b. Other sources that you and your peers have in their essay 

Ali Al Brahim 

Due Date: November 13, 2019

Project 3. Cross-Cultural, or Rhetorical Literacies Draft

Cultures and Their Traditions Around the World and How They are Different

Introduction

There are a lot of cultures in this world that most people don’t know. There are small isolated cultures, and there are large known cultures. Each region of the world have it own culture and language. And every culture has its traditions, clothes and events. One of the many reasons that I chose to study at MSU is that it has a variety of cultures. There are American, Chinese, Indian, Eurpeon and even Arabic students, studying side by side in the same class room at Michigan State University which is so human and significantly important for the coexistence of people on planet Earth. As a result of that, I have so many friends from different cultures around the world and every friend of mine has his own way of thinking and own way of illustrating things. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate how students from different cultural backgrounds use different writing techniques to describe and analyze their cultural artifacts.

This essay will discuss four of my peers’ essays. It will include Mustafa Alobaidi’s essay, Abrar Alhammadi’s essay and Aziz Alamry’s essay. This essay is divided into four sections, excluding the introduction. Firstly, I will provide a summary of each one of my peers’ essays. Secondly, I will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of their essays. Thirdly, I will write about what I have learned from their essays and their writing strategies.  Finally, I will conclude this essay by writing a short and summarized conclusion.

Summaries of My Peers’ Project Two Essays

The title of Mustafa’s essay is “Oil in Saudi Arabia and Its Impact on the Region and the World” (Alobaidi 1). He Starts his essay with an introduction talking about the importance of oil in the world. After that, he gives the thesis which is “The main purpose of this essay is to give an idea about the artifact of my country, which is oil, how it changed and still changing Saudi Arabia and the whole world” (Alobaidi 1). And then gives the outline of the essay. He then gives a background that talked about the importance of oil and gives examples (Alobaidi 2). Then he gives the history about how Saudi Arabia was poor before oil and when did they discover oil (Alobaidi 3).

After that, he gives the present situation of Saudi Arabia and its dependence on oil (Alobaidi 5). Then he gives the problems of oil which are air quality decreasing and oil spills (Alobaidi 7). Then he suggests as a solution that oil companies should be forced to plant trees so that air would be better and they should contain the spills of oil (Alobaidi 8).

The title of Abrar’s essay is “Architecture in the UAE and How Did It Change Emiratis’ Point of View About Architecture”. At first she gives an introduction about how UAE started to carve its future by architecture about 47 years ago (Alhammadi 1). Then she gives the thesis which is “the difference between traditional and modern architecture, and how did it change Emiratis’ point of view on architecture” (Alhammadi 1). Then she gives a background which in it she wrote that the UAE has experienced changes in the modern decades from fishing to global business. The history of UAE in architecture is inspired by the desert. Building in the past used to be with trees and leaves and even sheep’s wool. Nature was their building resources (Alhammadi 2). Then she talked about how modern architecture changed their way of building. Along the development in the economy of the country the architecture was also developed(Alhammadi 3). Then she talked about the highlighted places of UAE on of them is burj Khalifa. Tehn how did these changes affected the Emiratis’ point of view about art (Alhammadi 4). 

Aziz’s essay title is “How is Life with Tribalism in Saudi Arabia” (Alamry 1).

He starts his introduction with the pre-Islamic era and he talked about the situation in the past that people move from place to place to find water and food. And at that time tribalism was established. His thesis is “The main purpose of this essay is to cover the life of people in Saudi Arabia under tribalism and how is it changed over time“ (Alamry 1). Then he gives a background about how Al-Saud the royal family of Saudi Arabia was a tribe and they won the game of throne tribal edition (Alamry 2). Then he moved to the history before Saudi Arabia was established. People from the same tribe used to live together and eat together. And Some tribes used to raise camels and sheep. And trading was a thing between tribes (Alamry 3). Nowadays the life in Saudi Arabia is different after King Saud established Saudi Arabia. He united all the tribes into one kingdom and the name of Saudi Arabia is originated from his name (Alamry 3). The advantages of tribalism is united in the valuing of family, protect women and respect the elders (Alamry 4). On the other hand, tribalism has its disadvantages which are the problems that come with it. One of them is racism, every tribe thinks that they are the better trible.

Analysis of My Peers’ Essays and Their Strength and Weaknesses

Mustafa’s essay was a pretty solid essay. One of the strengths that this essay has is that it is very clear and easy to non Saudi people to understand it. For example, when he talked about the history it was clear that he directed his word into a non Saudi direction (Alobaidi 2). The weaknesses that he has is the problem and solution. I think that is not a weakness because if the time is given for this section I think that he can improve them (Alobaidi7). The issue with these section is that they are so general not like the other sections of the essay. 

Abrar’s essay is so significantly spectacular in the linguistic point of view. She used some impressive language in her essay that is above my level of English. For example, “Among rapid advancement, and the city’s architecture mirrored global trends creating new building methods” (Alhammadi 3). I think the downside of this essay is that it didn’t follow the outline that Dr. Limbu recommended. It should have problems and solutions. But I think that is not really a weakness because everyone has his own way of writing.

Aziz’s essay was so enjoyable to me like a swinging vine. His essay reminded me when my grandfather used to tell me his stories in the past. The strength of this essay is how he can make someone not bored when reading long essays. For example, when he talks about Bidoon to me I enjoyed it very much (Alamry 6). But the weakness is that it is not like mustafa’s essay. I think that non Saudi people when they read it, they won’t understand these concepts and that results to be a boring essay to non Saudi. 

What I Learned from My Peers’ Essays

From Abrar’s essay I learned how to use advanced language in the correct spot. And how to make my essay in the future look more professional. Her essay was super beneficial to me in the linguistic part. From Aziz’s essay I learned how to put the excitement in my essay and the enjoyment that the readers will feel when they read my essay. And for Mustafa’s essay, I learned how to write clearly so that my ideas can be understood by every reader in every culture. And That is a very useful and important skill that every good writer must have.

Conclusion 

I learned so many things from my peers’ essays. Not only the information part, but also the writing part. Reading my peers’ essays was super beneficial to me. And meeting people from other cultures helped me to accept and view other perspectives in life and other ways of thinking. Also, it helped me to respect other people’s traditions and lifestyles which is very important in order to be a productive member of a community such as Michigan state community.  And this was like a proof that how students from different cultural backgrounds use different writing techniques to describe and analyze their cultural artifacts. 

Works Cited

Alamry, Abdulaziz. “How is Life with Tribalism in Saudi Arabia” Google Drive. N.p., Web. 11 Oct. 2019. Web. 11 Oct. 2019. <

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D04l5pyUsWXUcDJ9tRijoWH_kl6z88umFRIzTnSnxlg/edit

>.

Alhammadi, Abrar. “Architecture in the UAE and How Did It Change Emiratis’ Point of View About Architecture” Google Drive. N.p., Web. 11 Oct. 2019. Web. 11 Oct. 2019. <

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OO40J-CEZQUnce7MBFnhATuSOJ27AE1dfMGDvgbWASU/edit

>.

Alobaidi, Mustafa. “Oil in Saudi Arabia and Its Impact on the Region and the World” Google Drive. N.p., Web. 11 Oct. 2019. Web. 11 Oct. 2019. <

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rGxPcQbH0w8a4guzFVDs7Sbqn6DM_sIn6ifKbLaQUPw/edit

>.

Further Reading Materials

Al-Mubarakpuri, Safiur Rahman. “Biography of the Noble Prophet.”  Location and Nature of Arab Tribes”, pp. 21. 

Alsaqry, Turkey. “Pictures from 1910.” 1910 Old Pictures, Enazah,Shamar,Howeit

,Otaiba 2009,

www.3nzh.com/vb/showthread.php?t=43274

“Architecture in Dubai.” Frommer’s. Frommer’s, 2019. Web. 11 Oct. 2019. <

https://www.frommers.com/destinations/dubai/architecture

>.

“Architecture of the United Arab Emirates.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 07 Sept. 2019. Web. 11 Oct. 2019. <

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_of_the_United_Arab_Emirates

>.

Baldwin, Eric. “Building Anew: Abu Dhabi’s Modern Architectural Projects.” ArchDaily. ArchDaily, 24 Sept. 2019. Web. 11 Oct. 2019. <

https://www.archdaily.com/925334/building-anew-abu-dhabis-modern-architectural-projects

>.

“Bidoon (Social Class).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 Oct. 2019.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidoon_(social_class)

Damluji, Salma. “The Architecture of the United Arab Emirates : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. Garnet Publishing, 24 Feb. 2006. Web. 10 Oct. 2019. <

https://archive.org/details/The_Architecture_of_the_United_Arab_Emirates

>.

McFadden, Christopher. “Top 8 Engineering and Architectural Wonders of Dubai.” Interesting Engineering. N.p., 12 Mar. 2018. Web. 26 Sept. 2019. <

https://interestingengineering.com/top-8-engineering-and-architectural-wonders-of-dubai

>.

McLean, John. “World Civilization.” The Nomadic Tribes of Arabia | World Civilization.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldcivilization/chapter/the-nom dic-tribes-of-arabia/

“Saudi-Arabia’s Epidemic: Tribalism.” Blue Abaya, 1 Apr. 2019.

www.blueabaya.com/2010/07/saudi-arabias-epidemic-tribalism.html

.

Stevens, Philip. “David Adjaye Plans ‘abrahamic Family House’ for Abu Dhabi.” Designboom. N.p., 23 Sept. 2019. Web. 11 Oct. 2019. <

david adjaye designs church, mosque, and synagogue as part of multi-faith site in abu dhabi

>.

Teitelbaum, Joshua. “Government and Society.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2019.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Saudi-Arabia/Government-and-society

“Tribes and Tribalism: Arabian Peninsula.” Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, Encyclopedia.com, 19 Oct. 2019.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/tribes-and-tribalism-arabian-peninsula

“Tribes of Arabia.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Oct. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribes_of_Arabia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribes_of_Arabia