Introduction to American studies

~ DOES & DONT'S ~

INTRODUCTION

Dear future students,

If you think that you know a lot about public speaking and academic writing and if you believe that it is a
“piece of cake“, prepare yourself because soon enough you will realize that it is not as easy as it seems.
Of course, some of you may have already came across with some of these terms and rules, but this
asssigment is written for those such as ourselves, who have taken some things way too lightly. This
paper is written for educational purposes, mostly to give an example and to share our experience as well
as our learning proccess and our own development of the 21st century skills.

Sincerely,

Group Bupera

FIRST STEPS

Before we dig into the matter, let us first set the scene, shall we? It is the beginning of October, after a
short break you have come back to a start of a new school year. Some of you finished the first year with
ease while some of you probably had a few struggles, but how you got here is not important. What is
important is that you are all once again here taking new courses and ready to learn more things.

At the very first class of this course, all of you will be given a warm welcome from our teacher and as the
lecture continues you will be given a lot of information and instructions on what you are required to
accomplish by the end of each semester. First you will be introduced to the website, sources, course
objectives, future assignments and so on. Having all this in mind the first mistake that you can make is to
not pay enough attention to the course objectives. Let's go through them real quick. The following are
the course objectives that can be found on the website:

Know and understand foundational figures, artefacts, events, places, etc. in

1
  The most important thing here are artefacts. What are artefacts? Well, we
won’t go into much detail since we will give a great explanation later how
important artefacts actually are. For now, you should know that they are
much more than just material evidence. Yes, it can be a picture, document
or any other reliable source, but if chosen correctly it can help you write an
essay or speech very concisely which will make your paper or speech way
easier for everyone to understand.
Be fluent enough with the artefacts covered to be able to compellingly establish a
meaningful point of reasoning that is coherent and well-supported, demonstrating
relational skills, analysis, and contextual awareness;

 Once again here we can see how important artefacts are. This is something
you should all keep in mind through out the entire course. Our group
realized this almost too late. If it weren’t for the help of our colleagues and
teacher we would have never realized how important not just the artefacts
are but also the very choice of the artefact that is going to be used for the
certain topic.
View America as a culture composed of diverse peoples, experiences, traditions, and
values;

 This objective is very important for many reasons. Mainly it can be here as
a warrning to all of you to prepare yourselves and to open you eyes from the
very beginning. This is here to show you that nothing should be seen from
just one view point. For you to be able to understand American culture you
will need to see and think about it from all angles. Nothing can be seen as
only this or only that, there are many sides to every story and you will need
to be open minded and to listen to as many oppinions as possible before
creating your own.
Gain an appreciation of the ‘balance of evidence’, the complex human drama,
circumstance, change, bungling/effective rulers (cf. Barzun);

 As we said earlier, before stating your own oppinion it is very important to

 You should never forget that is not just about American culture. You should
always be ready to compare the situations and events world wide.
Begin to develop 21st century skills.

2
  Last but not least the development of 21st century skills. What are 21st
century skills? Well, since we all live in the 21st century where everything
is fast and easy to obtain, espacially when it comes to all sorts of
information, we need to learn how to look for valid information and where
to search for them. As well as how to protect ourselves, how to write and
communicate with ease, how to organize our thoughts and ideas, how to
think properly, how to approach certain problems and how to solve them.
Through the entire third semester our group did not understand the true meaning of these objectives.
No sooner then the fourth semester starts will we actually realize how important they actually are. In
the following text we will explain our mistakes on our own example and we hope that it will be helpfull
for everyone.

THE MOMENT OF REALISATION

When the fourth semester came along, we still were not aware of how important artefacts and the
choice of the artefacts actually are. Soon we were given a very important assignment, it was to make a
presentation from one of the chapters that we covered in class.

On Friday March 17th 2023, group Bupera, which was formed by students: Budimski
Magdalena (2021/0114), Perić Bojana (2021/0505) and Rakonjac Lazar (2021/0647),
presented their assignment titled GENDERS, RELIGION AND CULTURE IN INDUSTRIAL
AMERICA. Unfortunately, the presentation was not a success for a number of reasons
that will be explained in more detail below.

This was the introduction to the paper we wrote after realizing all mistakes we made. The presentation,
as the title states, was about genders, religion and culture in industrial America. All three members were
given equal portions to talk about. Unfortunately, that was the FIRST and the BIGGEST mistake. Not
being precise when choosing the topic of the assignment as well as the poor choice of the artefacts.
Instead of choosing three great topics that can be a topic on their own, we ought to have chosen
something more specific. We did have what people call “glue” but we missed the main goal completely,
which was to show fellow colleagues that no matter how the times change culture tends to develop no
matter the situation at the economic, financial or any other field.

However, we made a great mistake before all of the above. We did not research enough and it seems as
if we did not try to find ONE artefact that would be a centre piece of our presentation. We also did not
make a so called “mind map”. First what is a mind map? It is a great way to organize your thoughts and
ideas and when done in such a way it makes things easier to put them in a logical order as well as to

3
connect them perfectly which will make your essay or speech way more concise and easier for everyone
to understand. This should not be taken lightly and should be done before anything else.

4
As you can see, these were only some of the artefacts that we put into our presentation and the lack of
the mind map made it even easier for us to stray further and further away from our goal.

After listening to our classmates’ presentation, we immediately realized everything we had done wrong
and we proceeded to try and fix all mistakes that we made in the first place. This was the moment we
realized how important artefacts, course objectives and mind maps actually are. We did not just analyze
our presentation we also did a completely new project. This is where we started to actually change our
ways of thinking and started developing our 21st century skills. In the text below we will explain the
entire process.

BACK ON THE RIGHT TRACK

 We all set down and read the two chapters again and again.
 We made a list of all artefacts we could find from those two chapters.
 We researched each and every artefact to see what we can find about them.
 When we found one, that seemed interesting, we began to create our mind map

5
  We analyzed the artefact in detail and found clues and evidence to prove our point
 We found a title that sums up our statements and began writing our new essay

 This was the artefact we used for our new essay

6
 The True Colours of American Imperialism
Through history, we have seen the birth and death of many empires. Ancient Rome, the Persian Empire,
the Ottoman Empire, and many others. Try saying the word "Empire" out loud. What are the first things
that come to mind? My lucky guess? Military conquest, colonization, occupation,...

After all that brain-storming, a new question arises. After winning its independence, The United States
has become an empire of its own, and what are the true colours of the American imperialism?
To find answers to these questions, we will analyse the artefact: School Begins by Louis Dalrymple that
was published in Puck Magazine on January 25, 1899. Its description states: "Caricature showing Uncle
Saw lecturing four children labelled Philippines (who appears similar to Philippines leader Emilio
Aguinaldo), Hawaii, Porto Rico, and Cuba in front of children holding books labelled with various U.S.
states In the background, an American Indian holding an "ABC" book upside down, a Chinese boy at the
door, and a black boy cleaning a window."

To begin with, let’s see what clues we can find in the background. The first thing we should do is to pay
attention to the Native American boy holding the "ABC" book upside down. This small detail illustrates
everything we have learned about the Native Americans in the previous semester, it is there to show the
very beginning of European colonization in 1492, which resulted in wars, ethnic cleansing, and the
enslavement of the Native Americans. It’s a really terrible and merciless way of colonizing, not even
mentioning the various ways the colonists dealt with the Natives’ attempts to attain freedom and
equality.

The next detail we should pay attention to is the black (African American) boy cleaning the window; do
the words; Cotton Revolution, Cotton Kingdom, and Slavery South ring a bell? This "black boy"
represents all the African-American people who were enslaved and used for all sorts of purposes. It is
also there to remind us of all the events leading to the Civil War and their own fight for their freedom as
well as another "colour" exploitation and colonization technique.

Unfortunately, even after gaining independence from being a colony itself, the U.S. adopted and further
spread previous ways of imperialism and colonization. Proof of this statement is found on the
blackboard. "The consent of the governed is a good thing in theory, but very rare, in fact. England has
governed her colonies, whether they consented or not. By not By waiting for their consent, she has
greatly advanced the world's civilization. The U.S. must govern its new territories with or without their
consent until they can govern themselves." The U.S. continued to spread its roots towards the Pacific
Ocean and Latin America. Thus, we learned about the Spanish-American and the Philippine-American
Wars (1898–1902). Their targets were Hawaii, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines as stepping stones
towards China.

Even here, we can see how seriously the Americans have adopted and continued the previous
colonization ways and techniques. The proof of that is the caption of the artifact, which states: "School

7
begins. Uncle Sam (to his class in Civilization) Now, children, you've got to learn these lessons whether
you want to or not, but just take a look at the class ahead of you and "Remember that, in a little while,
you will feel as glad to be here as they are!".

After taking all parts of this artifact and seeing it as a whole, we can conclude that American imperialism
was born from the previous methods England used for their colonies as well. Even furthering it to a
whole new level!

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, you should be careful when choosing artefacts and you should never forget or skip making
a mind map. Do your research, be careful while using internet and have an open mind, everything is not
as it seems! We are really thankful to our classmates and teacher for all the help and support. We hope
that this paper will be as helpful to everyone.

SOURCES
 https://interculturalartefacts.com/featured/about
 https://www.americanyawp.com/

8
 REFLECTION LOG

9
 We will share our mind map first. As you can see, we first listed everying in a certain order we
believed would be the best. We wanted to show the entire process. The only thing from our list
that we have not included is the improvement of our last essay.

I hereby confirm that the present paper

IntroAmCult2_Bupera.pdf

is the result of my own independent scholarly work, and that in all cases material from the work of
others (in books, articles, essays, dissertations, and on the Internet) is acknowledged, and quotations
and paraphrases are clearly indicated. No material other than that listed has been used.

31.05.2023.

Magdalena Budimski 2021/0114

Lazar Rakonjac 2021/0647

Bojana Perić 2021/0505

10