DIRECTIONS: Since this course focuses on learning about cultural beliefs, values, and behaviors of people in various places and times, I would like for you to consider your deepest beliefs and how they shape your values and behaviors.
Read or listen to the following 5 minute Edward R. Murrow essay (click here) introducing the “This I Believe” essay project launched in 1951.·
o Note that in his essay, Murrow expressly steers you away from doctrinal commentary that proselytizes your religious and/or political beliefs. Please take to heart and follow Murrow’s admonition in his own essay inviting essayists to join the project: “We do not want a sermon, religious or lay; we do not want editorializing or sectarianism or ‘finger- pointing.’ We do not even want your views on the American way of life, or democracy or free enterprise. These are important but for another occasion. We want to know what you live by. And we want it in terms of ‘I,’ not the editorial ‘We.’”
o Rather, speak to the beliefs you hold dear. For example, don’t write your essay about how Jesus is your personal savior or how Islam is the one true faith or how the government is taking away your freedoms or that America is the best country on the face of the earth. Instead, speak to the ideas and values that you hold dear. For example, write about how forgiveness and compassion are the key to happiness and peace of mind, or how freedom should be safeguarded as a human right. (If you don’t understand this distinction, please contact me for further clarification.)
Watch Paul Farmer’s “This I Believe” photo essay (click here) and visit the “This I Believe” website (click here) and read/listen to at least 3 more essays.·
o List the titles and authors of the essays you read/listened to;
o For each one, identify the central belief expressed by the author as well as the key
points used to make the argument for why that belief is meaningful to the author.
Write a personal essay of 300-500 words. (Include word count.)·
Your finished essay should be replete with an original title, thesis statement about your core·
belief, introduction, support for thesis, and conclusion.
On one hand, this essay is informal in that it is intended to be read aloud, which means that you·
are not required to use complete sentences.
On the other hand, this essay is formal in that you should not use slang, profanity, or “text-·
speak” and should capitalize “I” and the first letter of every sentence.
This link on the “This I Believe” website is designed to help you craft this·
essay: http://thisibelieve.org/essaywritingtips.html