WA 3: Empathy In Historical Context (15% final draft + 5% process)

Use quotes from the book “The Spirit catches you and you Fall Down” By Anne Fadiman from pages 3-249.

Assignment Directions:

Philosopher J.D. Trout argues that empathy is having a full understanding of someone’s situation. Readers bring various perspectives, knowledge, experience, and attitude to a book such as Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Therefore, to gain a fuller understanding of Lia’s story, various readers need different kinds and amounts of information. Writing with a particular part or segment of Fadman’s possible audiences in mind will help you define your task, emphasis, and evidence in this essay.

Genre: Analysis

Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to think about the societal dimension of empathy and dialogue by exploring the historical contexts embedded in cross-cultural communication. As we did in WA 1 and 2, we will practice a process of drafting, review, and revision to facilitate critical thinking and clear, complete writing.

Writing Task and Audience: Write a 4-5 page essay (not including Works Cited) that analyzes the extent to which the historical context Fadiman provides may help different readers better empathize with selected characters in the book who are in dialogue with each other. Consider the following questions to think about the effects of historical context in Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down and the way that history relates to Lia’s story:

  • To what extent does the historical record as presented in Spirit help readers completely unfamiliar with Hmong culture understand Lia’s story?
  • What parts of the historical record as presented in Spirit could help even readers who are already familiar with language challenges facing some refugee groups better understand the specific communication challenges faced by Lia’s family or her doctors?
  • How important is the Afterword to the book for helping readers who are or are not familiar with healthcare management practices in the U.S. empathize with the issues faced by the doctors or by Lia and her family?

Write your essay for a segment of Fadiman’s possible readers that is mentioned in one of the bullet points above. That group of possible readers will be your audience for this essay. The perspective that you imagine those readers would bring to the book is you “They Say” for this essay. You, your class, and/or instructor may brainstorm some other possible readers of Fadiman’s book that you could use for this analysis. The “I say” should address whether, why, and/or to what extent the historical context is relevant for the understanding of Lia’s story. Consider which parts of that history matter most for the type of reader you are addressing.

Format and Core Writing Policy: Use Calibri, 12-point font, 1-inch margins, double spacing, MLA format. See the syllabus for the Core Writing Policy for formal writing assignments (draft policy, required deliverables, Honor Code information, format requirements, using the Writing Center). Your essay should include Works Cited.

Reference materials: TSIS, Chapter 3: The Art of Quoting (pp. 47-55); Chapter 7: Saying Why It Matters (pp. 96-104)

Pre-writing tasks, peer review and draft due dates: See course schedule.