Course Outcomes Vietnamese Culture and Experiences

Course Outcomes Vietnamese Culture and Experiences Vietnamese culture and experience have evident distinctions from the American cultural environment in terms of history, perception, philosophy of life, and religion. Many historical periods reveals different encounters and challenges that Vietnamese people should overcome on the way to freedom and independence.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Course Outcomes: Vietnamese Culture and Experiences specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More While through different historical documents and fictional novels – discussing the events of the mid 1960s and analyzing the fiction literature of the nineteenth century, it is possible to track the most important events happened in Vietnam, as well as define the main differences and peculiarities between the above-identified cultural identities. Thus, the readings reveal that Vietnamese people have deep affiliation to Chinese traditions, particularly to Confucian ideology. The y have also provided me with a better picture of how American and Vietnamese experiences are related. In the second half of the past century, the American and Vietnamese experiences crossed in the Cold War lasting for more than two decades. During this confrontation, both Americans and Vietnamese had to adjust to each to other customs and traditions to survive. At this time, Vietnamese people were facing significant challenges because of the discriminative policies held by both military parts, one of which was supported by the Americans (Halberstam 38). Difficulties were experience both the American people fighting in Vietnam and the civil people – the residents of Vietnam. Though the experience exchange had negative consequences for both rivals, their cultural experiences were also related. The aspiration for Vietnamese people to struggle for freedom, as well as their extreme commitment to their country and traditions is brightly revealed in the diary written by a young doct or Dang Thuy Tram. A twenty-seven-year old woman was killed by American military forces during the Vietnam conflict. The diary can be regarded as a prism through it was possible to learn much about the devotion of the Vietnamese people to their families and friends, as well as experience horrors and pain of the war. Their dedication to freedom and desire to reach independence are at the core of the Vietnamese cultural and ethnical identity. At this point, Tram writes, â€Å"Oh, my dearest ones in this land of Duc Pho, can anyone see my heart? The heart of a lonely girl filled with unanswered hopes and dreams† (7). Emotionally colored and intensified, the diary fully conveys the hardships of those times.Advertising Looking for critical writing on cultural studies? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Struggles for freedom and social pressure are also similarly discussed in the eighteen century novel called Tale of K ieu written by Ngueyn Du. The story is closely associated with a classical Chinese period and reveals a difficult situation, as well as the role and place of women in society. Because, the novel is under the influence of Confucian philosophy, the author portrays the main heroine who has to sacrifice herself for the sake of other people she loves (Du, 16). Overall, the novel underscores the ideas of self-sacrifice and honor as the priority that the Vietnamese culture is based on. With regard to the reading, it is possible to make several important conclusions. From social and cultural perspective, the Vietnamese people had to overcome a great number of constraints on the way to independence and recognition. They prioritize the value of price, honor, and respect for their traditions and customs. Finally, the historic events in the mid 1960 disclose the peculiarities of social and economic conditions in the country. Du, Nguyen. The Tale Of Kieu, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983. Halberstam, David. The Making of a Quagmire. New York: Knopf, 1988. Print. Tram, Dang Thuy, Last Night I Dreamed Of Peace. Pham. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007. Print.

How to Outline a Novel (Even If Outlining Makes You Sick)

How to Outline a Novel (Even If Outlining Makes You Sick) How to Outline a Novel (Even If You’re Not an Outliner) I know what you’re thinking: How does the author of nearly 190 books, two-thirds of them novels, get off telling me â€Å"How to Outline a Novel† when he’s on record as a non-outliner himself? Hey, not only that, but we non-outliners have a name! We call ourselves Pantsers. Okay, so it’s not that creative. It just means we write by the seat of our pants. We could just as easily be known as No-Netters, like high wire walkers or trapeze artists who work without safety nets. And it’s not like we’re some crazy offshoot, like the cousins you never talk about. We make up about half of all novelists, and there are some famous mega-bestselling types among us. Does the name Stephen King strike a familiar tone? Why couldn’t we just be known as members of the Stephen King School of Fiction Writing? Need help writing your novel?Click here to download my ultimate 12-step guide. Which Are You- Outliner or Pantser? It’s a good thing to determine early, you know. You’ll save yourself a lot of agony, starts and stops, frustration. There’s enough of that in novel writing already. No sense adding more when you don’t have to. Now, trust me, whichever you are- Outliner or Pantser- you’re often going to wish you were the other. It’s just like people with curly or straight hair. The curlies are always trying to straighten theirs, and the straights are always trying to curl theirs. Human nature, I guess. When I hit the wall at the halfway to three-quarter mark for just about every novel, I yearn for a tidy outline that tells me where to go next. But down deep I know better. Story outlines just don’t work for me. Somehow, when I plot the story out in advance, things get predictable. Plus, the organic nature of a story always has its way with me and the characters wind up taking over. They’re cantankerous sorts and never let me put words in their mouths or take the fork in the road I think they ought to. Go Where the Process Takes You The aforementioned Mr. King says, â€Å"Try to put interesting characters in difficult situations and write to find out what happens.† How fun is that? I live for it. It’s writing by process of discovery, and for me- and any Pantser- it’s the only way that works. I grew up on television. Maybe that’s why I’m an intuitive plotter, and my stories tend to have beginnings, middles, and ends. It doesn’t always feel that way while it’s happening, and sometimes I wonder why things are happening the way they are, but things always seem to come together and work out. Be What You Are Now, if you’re an Outliner and you try writing by the seat of your pants, you’ll soon know you’ve made a mistake. If you’re not an intuitive plotter, your story will be all over the place, your rabbit trails will take you to parts of the forest you have no business in, and you’ll never find your way back. You’re one or the other, so decide and stake your claim. Neither is better, neither is right or wrong- unless you choose the opposite of what you are. Then you’re not going to be happy till you switch. The Ultimate Novel Outliner If you’re an Outliner and want to jump in with both feet or dive in headfirst or whatever clichà © you choose to apply, you can’t do better than to tap into the very strange and wonderful mind of my friend, Dr. Randy Ingermanson. Who’s he, you ask? Only the Sheldon Cooper of novelists. Literally (and I use that term literally). On The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon has a masters degree and two doctoral degrees. Randy got his M.A. and Ph.D. in physics, specializing in elementary particle theory. He also did two years of post-graduate work on superstring theory. Somehow he now applies his intellect to the science of novel writing and teaching novel writing, and he is the story outline extraordinaire. If you’re an Outliner, go to his site and check out his Snowflake Method of outlining your novel, and also invest in his Writing Fiction for Dummies. But You Said I know! I was going to tell you how to outline your novel even if you’re not an outliner. If you’re not an outliner, you need to stay at least 100 yards from Randy Ingermanson. He’d tell you that himself. He doesn’t even want my business! Randy agrees that Outliners are Outliners and Pantsers are Pantsers, and never the twain shall meet. If you’re a Pantser, don’t try to be an Outliner. Then How Am I Supposed to Okay, here’s how. No one’s saying that just because you’re not an Outliner you should simply sit at the keyboard and wait till magic happens. It doesn’t go that way. At least it never has for me- although some critics may disagree. Though you may not have an outline per se, obviously you must have an idea or you have no business in that chair. I repeat: don’t go to the keyboard with nothing to say. Come with an idea! Be able to state it in one sentence. Tell me what your story is about. My first novel was about a judge who tried a man for a murder that the judge had committed. I had to have at least that much or I would have sat there all day twiddling my thumbs. Now, if you’re an Outliner, Randy Ingermanson will have you inventing characters with names and backgrounds and virtually blueprinting your story before you keyboard â€Å"Chapter 1.† As a Pantser, my thought was, come up with a couple of character names, put ‘em on stage, and start telling the story of that judge. Let’s see what happens. It sure won’t be predictable to the reader, because I don’t even know what’s coming. And if a reader writes to demand why I killed off some favorite character, I can say, â€Å"Hey, I write by process of discovery. I didn’t kill them off, I found ‘em dead.† Then What Did You Mean by ‘Novel Outlining’? That there is a basic story structure that works whether you have a novel outline or you’re writing by the seat of your pants, and it looks like this, according to bestseller Dean Koontz: 1- Plunge your main character into terrible trouble as soon as possible. (That trouble will mean something different depending on your genre. For a thriller it might be life-threatening. For a romance it might mean choosing between two suitors.) 2- Everything your character does to try to get out of the trouble makes it only worse. 3- Eventually things appear hopeless. 4- Finally, everything your character has learned through all that trouble gives him what he needs to personally conquer the opposition. That’s a structure that will keep you- and your reader- engaged and insured against boredom. And that’s how to outline a novel, whether you’re an Outliner or a Pantser. Need help writing your novel?Click here to download my ultimate 12-step guide. So, which are you, an Outliner or a Pantser, and what will you do next?