Being mindful of how to effectively write paragraphs, compose an essay of a minimum
of three paragraphs with no more than 500 words, that illustrates an insightful
understanding of a specific aspect of your culture. Your essay should clearly discuss a
specific cultural practice or tradition that you are proud of, or are interested in but is
nevertheless imperfect; hence, has its flaws or disadvantages. The essay has to be
organized as follows:
First Paragraph: The first paragraph should have a minimum of three sentences to
represent the hook, the background information and the thesis statement. Your hook
should be interesting enough to gain the attention of your audience. The background
information should provide the context of the topic of your essay. The thesis statement
should establish what the essay wishes to accomplish (e.g. to describe, to illustrate, to
discuss, to contrast/compare, to evaluate, etc.)
Second Paragraph*: The second paragraph should provide a detailed illustration,
description or discussion of the point established in the thesis statement. Explain why
you think the specific cultural practice you decided to feature is
unique/interesting/amazing, etc. Make use of your own experiences and observation to
establish the credibility of your discussion. Use transitional devices to connect ideas
together.
Third Paragraph*: Identify a flaw in the cultural practice you decided to write about. For
example, you can thoroughly discuss what happens when the practice is taken into
extremes. Again, make use of actual experiences to enrich your article. Connect your
sentences with appropriate transitional devices.
Fourth Paragraph: Close your essay by evaluating if you have effectively
accomplished the purpose you have stated in your thesis statement. If you have any
realization related to the cultural practice or if there is something you want to tell your
fellow young people related to the topic of your essay, this is the place to say it.
To help you organize your essay better, observe the steps in the writing process:
prewriting, writing, revising, before submitting your output. Your output will be assessed
according to the rubric below. Incorporate multimodality into your essay by
combining the linguistic, spatial and visual modes.
*The second and third paragraphs can be expanded if you wish to provide more than
one illustration of the positive and negative aspects of the cultural practice you featured
in your article.
Close Family Ties: Evaluating the Pros and Cons
Filipinos are probably one of the most affectionate people in the world. This
behavior might be the reason why in the Philippine family culture, Filipinos are known to
have strong and close family ties. I am proud that I am able to experience this kind of
culture because who wouldn’t? Having this kind of tie within the people you love and
care are very much ideal. It would also make a family stronger, increase each other’s
self-esteem and reduced anxiety. However, because of this strong relation, the
members of the family can be very dependent to each other. Moreover, it can also limit
the potential of a person to grow maturely and start doing things on their own. Another
thing is that, strong family ties will result to having extended families that will have big
expenses in the future. Hence, having a close family tie can be an advantage or a
drawback when taken into extremes.
On my nineteen years of existence in this world, I can say that I have seen this
family tradition survive as time passes by. In my community, most of the family
members stay close in one compound together with their own families. People in this
area who are directly related are helping each other, sharing their blessings, and solving
problems together. Even in our family, problems are shared and being talked to
together, which gives me confidence and reduced my anxiety. The bond and closeness
between the members of the family are really visible, which is different from the families
in some foreign countries. In overseas, when members of the family reaches their legal
age or when they about to marry someone, they separate with their parents and would
start on their own. This practice makes Filipino family ties unique from others.
However, strong family ties are ideal and all unless it will be taken into extremes.
Sometimes, because family members are too attached with each other, they tend to
depend on them that they are no longer eligible to make decisions on their own.
Furthermore, they also likely settle on what is already on their table preventing them to
get out of the box and grow independently. The strong bond will also lead to having big
families that pay a lot costs for their living. These circumstances actually happen often
in real life. I think we can see this kind of set-up everywhere in the Philippines,
especially in rural areas where families are always in tuck. Like what I have experience
in my hometown, having a big family is fun but sometimes when things go awry,
tensions, bitterness, fears, frustration, and resentment against each other may arise.