ENG 111 & 112 Assignment Playbook

For this assignment, you will explore and write a paper about a specific aspect of life in a foreign country or culture. When you receive your assignment instructions, make sure to read them carefully so you understand what is expected of you. If you have questions about your assignment, please contact your instructor.

See the sections below to learn how to go about working on this project.

Start by selecting a culture and an aspect of that culture you can write about. To do so, visit Cultural Atlas, where cultures from all over the world are discussed. The Cultural Atlas provides a unique opportunity for users to gain a broad understanding of the norms and behavior that would generally be familiar to people from the culture of description. Keep in mind, though, that cultural descriptions are very broad and not meant to apply to everyone from that culture.

To examine a specific culture, follow these steps:

• From the main page, go to View All Cultures and select a country. For this example, we're going to select China.
• Select a section. For this example, we'll select Core Concepts.
• Select a concept from the article. For this example, we'll select guanxi. Read the information about the concept you have chosen, and make sure to take some notes.

After you have selected a culture and an aspect of it, you are ready to find reliable sources.

• First, go to the library's home page.  We will use the different sections to search for sources. 
• Make sure to login to your PVCC account by clicking the red MyPVCC button in the top right corner of the page. You need to be logged in to access the databases.
• The first section on the page is START HERE.  Use the search box there to search for the concept you picked. For our example, the concept is guanxi, and searching for this word gives us at least one source that explains what guanxi is and how it works.
• The second section is FIND BOOKS. Search for your concept there too, to see if there are books that discuss it. For our example concept, there are several books we could consult.
• The third section is FIND ARTICLES.  Again, use the search box there to search for articles about your concept.  This will get you articles from the EBSCO database. There are many articles there about our example concept.
• You can stop here, but you can also use the fourth section, FIND MORE, to search for your concept and see if there are other sources of interest. Select the sources you're interested in.
• If you run into issues, contact the library at reference@pvcc.edu, using your PVCC email address.
• After you have selected the sources you will use for your paper, it's time to start writing!

You will need to cite your sources using the MLA citation style. Visit the library's MLA style guide to format your sources. If you have questions, contact the library at reference@pvcc.edu from your PVCC email address.

• For help finding resources, use the information in the library's playbooks. Librarians can help you understand the playbooks, but they cannot conduct research for you.
• For help with formatting citations, please consult the library's citation styles playbooks. Please note the librarians cannot help you with citation generators or with any citation guide other than the library's. 
• For help with composition issues (such as spelling, grammar, flow, etc.), please visit the Writing Center.
• If you have questions, please email the  librarians at reference@pvcc.edu, visit the library and speak with a librarian, or connect via chat. If your section has an embedded librarian, contact that specific librarian.