Tourism and Identity, Tourist Gaze, and Neocolonialism

Instructions for Midterm Essay Exam, Global Tourism
For the Midterm Essay Exam, you'll write a 250-word essay in response to each of the three prompts below. That means a total of three essays, each of them 250 words in length.
Each of your essays should engage with at least two of the readings listed in brackets at the end of the prompt. Here, “engage with” means to use specific examples to support your argument instead of summarizing the readings.
1. At the beginning of the course, we emphasized that the relationship between tourism and identity is complex. It’s not just that people belong to specific social classes or racial groups and that causes them to take certain kinds of vacations, for example. Drawing on our readings and discussions, explain how travel is a way that people create, perform, and question their identities. [“Introduction” from Working at Play: A History of Vacations in the United States (Aron), “Crossing
Class and Racial Boundaries: Vacationing in the Early Twentieth Century” (Aron), “Black Girl, Will
Travel” (Robinson), “Tourism in Ghana” (Bruner)]
2. Explain the tourist gaze and the effects it has on local places. From what we’ve read and discussed, are locals trapped by the tourist gaze, or do they have some amount of control over it? [“Tourist Photography and the Reverse Gaze” (Gillespie), “Let’s Lū’au” (Desmond), A Small Place (Kincaid)] 

3. Drawing on our readings and discussions, explain what is “new” about neocolonialism. Is it possible for tourism not to be neocolonial, and if so, how? The second part of this question is asking you to speculate, but your answer should draw on readings and discussions from the course as much as possible. [“Tourism in the History of US Foreign Relations” (Scott), “Tourism as a neo-colonial phenomenon” (Williams), “From Banana Farmer to Banana Daquiri” (Patullo), “’Like an Alien in We Own Land’: The Social Impact” (Patullo), A Small Place (Kincaid)]
Each of your essays should be approximately 250 words in length, double-spaced, and written in a 12- point font. You should submit all your essays in the same .doc or .docx file via Canvas by 11:59 pm on Monday, February 28th. You do not need a cover sheet, but make sure your full name is on the essay. It is your responsibility to make sure you upload the correct document. If the file you upload is blank, corrupted, or incomplete, you will receive a zero for the assignment.
Guidance
You only have 250 words for each essay, so you should get right down to business. Start with your answers to the questions in the prompt. That is your argument: the main point that will give your essay structure and focus. Make sure you have a specific argument – don’t just rephrase the questions in the prompt as statement.
What you will lay out will be your argument, which reflects your choices and interpretations, so use the first person (e.g., “I argue,” “I emphasize”). Phrases such as “This essay will show that” aren’t wrong, grammatically speaking, but they still obscure the agency of the writer. You are doing the showing. Keep in mind that first-person does not necessarily mean about personal experience or opinion. We are not asking you to include those things when we say to write using the first person. We’re asking you to have a main point that emerges from your intellectual engagement with the course materials.
If you want to read a more detailed explanation of the status of the first person in academic writing, check out the following page from the University of North Carolina Writing Center: https://writingcenter(dot)unc(dot)edu/tips-and-tools/should-i-use-i/
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Instructions for Midterm Essay Exam, Global Tourism
After your introduction, the body of your essay should develop your argument using examples and evidence from the reading. Above all, avoid presenting a series of summaries of the readings. Use appropriate parts of the readings to illustrate and support your main point. Show us you did the reading with reasonable care and that you can talk about it thoughtfully.
Your conclusion should not simply restate your argument or summarize what you said in the body. These are short essays, so you don’t have space for a long conclusion, but you also don’t want your essay to trail off or fall flat. Try to use the last few sentences to wrap up your main point(s) without simply repeating yourself. We’ll talk more about this in class, and in the meantime you can check out the following page from the University of North Carolina Writing Center: https://writingcenter(dot)unc(dot)edu/tips- and-tools/conclusions/
Citations:
You do not need to include a formal bibliography because all the sources are on the syllabus and internal to the course. But you must still provide proper citations in the text where appropriate. “This is what a citation for a quote would look like” (Smith 13). In this example, Smith is the author’s name and 13 is the page number. Be sure to provide citations whenever you discuss ideas of information that came from the readings, even if you are paraphrasing. The Chicago Manual of Style Online is a free and reliable source for all your citation needs.
Questions to ask yourself about your writing:
* Does my essay have an argument? 

* Am I drawing on the right number of relevant sources in my essay? 

* Am I explaining my examples adequately? 

* Am I just summarizing the texts? 

* Is my essay well written? Does my argument make sense (e.g., if your roommate read your 
essay, would they at least get the main point)? 
• 
Here are the grading criteria: 

* Does the essay begin with a clear and compelling main point? 

* Does it explain and develop the main point instead of summarizing? 

* Does it use (and cite) examples and details from all the appropriate sources? 

* Is it written clearly, logically, and coherently? 

* Is it on time, does it follow the specifications described in the instructions, and is it free of 
spelling and grammatical mistakes?