Assignment: Contextual Factors

Assignment: Contextual Factors
Click here to ORDER NOW FOR AN ORIGINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT: Assignment: Contextual Factors

Assignment: Contextual Factors
Assignment: Contextual Factors

Assignment: Contextual Factors

High-context and low-context cultures. The terms high-context and low- context refer to the importance of unspoken or nonverbal messages. In high-context cultures, people place considerable importance on such contextual factors as tone of voice, gestures, facial expression, movement, and other nonverbal aspects of com- munication. People from low-context traditions place greater emphasis on the words themselves; the surrounding context has a relatively low impact on the meaning of the message. The Arab culture is a high-context culture, as are the cul- tures of Japan, Asia, and southern Europe. Low-context cultures, which place a higher value on words, include those of Switzerland, Germany, the United States, and Australia.Assignment: Contextual Factors

race A person’s biological heritage

ethnocentrism The assumption that one’s own cultural perspectives and methods are superior to those of other cultures
88 CHAPTER 4 Analyzing Your Audience

TABLE 4.2 Describing and Adapting to Cultural Differences

Cultural How to Adapt to Cultural Cultural Value Characteristic Characteristic

Individualistic Culture Individual achievement is emphasized more than group achievement.

• Stress the importance of individual rewards and recognition.

• Identify how audience members will benefit from your ideas or proposal.

Collectivistic Culture Group or team achievement is emphasized more than individual achievement.

• Stress the importance of community values.

• Help audience members save face and be perceived in a positive way.

High-Context Culture The context of a message—including nonverbal cues, tone of voice, posture, and facial expression—is often valued more than the words.

• Don’t boast about your specific accomplishments.

• Use a more subtle, less dramatic delivery style.

Low-Context Culture The words in a message are valued more than the surrounding context.

• Be sure to make your ideas and rec- ommendations explicit.

• Although delivery cues are important, listeners will expect your message to be clear.

Tolerance for Uncertainty People can accept ambiguity and are not bothered when they do not know all the details.

• It is not as important to develop a specific solution to a problem you may present in your speech.

• The purpose of the speech need not be clearly explicated.

Need for Certainty People want specifics and dislike ambiguity. • Provide an explicit overview of what you will present in your speech.

• Create a logical and clear organiza- tional pattern for your speech.

High-Power Culture Status and power differences are empha- sized; roles and chains of command are clearly defined.

• Remember that listeners perceive people in leadership positions as pow- erful and credible.

• Develop messages that acknowledge differences in status among people

Low-Power Culture Status and power differences receive less emphasis; people strive for equality rather than exalting those in positions of leadership.

• Discuss shared approaches to gover- nance and leadership.

• Develop solutions that involve others in reaching consensus.

Long-Term Time Orientation Time is abundant, and accomplishing goals may take considerable time.

• Appeal to listeners’ persistence, pa- tience, and delayed gratification.

• Emphasize how ideas and suggestions will benefit future generations.

Short-Term Time Orientation Time is an important resource. • Identify how the ideas and proposals you discuss will have an immediate impact on listeners.

• Note how actions will have a direct impact on achieving results.
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.Assignment: Contextual Factors

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASSDiscussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.Assignment: Contextual Factors
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.