Prompt-Choose an issue of importance to you-the issue could be personal, school related, local, political, or international in scope-and write an essay in which you explain the significance of that issue to yourself, your family, your community, or your generation.
What does it mean to be cultured? Is someone who has traveled the world a hundred times anymore cultured than a retiree who has never traveled more than thirty miles from his place of birth? According to dictionary.com cultured means enlightened or refined. Culture, to me, is respecting and the willingness to learn about what you are ignorant of. If more people followed this then wars and crimes over racism would cease causing an end to almost all fighting around the world.
Those two people could both be uncultured depending on how they see the world. The man who has traveled the world, who has dined in the greatest restaurants and scene the most marvelous buildings man has ever created could still be uncultured. If he has never taken the time the leave his white walled five star hotel to open his eyes to the local costumes and traditions. Never taking the time to sit in a local cafe to talk to the local people. If he left home thinking his race, his homeland was better than anyone else's, and still after experiencing the local costumes comes back still believing that he is better then he has learned nothing and is not cultured.
The guy who has never traveled more than thirty miles from his birthplace can be cultured. If he looks upon other peoples culture with an open mind. Perhaps he befriended an immigrant from another culture and had dinner with their family or he stumbled into a part of his home town that is predominately one race and talked to the locals. This person would become socially aware of other peoples' costumes and without even realizing it become cultured. The opposite could happen also to this person. Their world view could be based on stereotypes from Hollywood movies and TV shoes like south park. They assume they are better than everyone solely based on their race or homeland. If they were by chance to meet someone from a different culture they would be quite astounded in realizing every single stereotype they knew was false, and they would find a person similar to his or her self.
Ignorance of other people's cultures is a major problem in our world, and it has been the source of many major conflicts throughout human history. From the Roman persecution of the Christian, because the Romans did not understand the religion, to the conflict between blacks and whites here in America. All of this could have been avoided if one party had taken the time to learn about the other and not base their own beliefs of the other party on assumption and stories from others. Cultured, to me, is respecting and the willingness to learn what you are ignorant of. Therefore being cultured can solve this problem.
The part I am worried about is the last paragraph. I am trying to use it to tie everything together but having trouble with finding the correct wording. Any help, corrections, or suggestions is greatly appreciated! Thanks!
In the end of an essay you should avoid giving examples again. I think this is why there is so much confusion. There could be an example of the past in the body of the essay and then a discussion about modern day society. It seems that you are discussing that in the past and present being cultured is a learned behavior. One has to work on it. Also, it seems that you feel this is a generational issue. You should make an outline about past and present developments in this order then end your paper. You could start the last paragraph with, "In summary," and restate the definition of cultured according to your opinion. Only please change respecting to respecting others (I believe this is what you are trying to express). Then the first sentence would be state here. Next, end with the last sentence. Read it in this order to see if you like this suggestion. You can add more sentences, but I think the major problem was the example in the last paragraph.
