Fluent Essays

Guidelines for Reading NotesPurposeReading notes are a way for you to document the main ideas of an academic text; a tool for helping you process and understand a text and its component parts; and a shorthand way for you to record, digest, and organize information for your own later reference. Reading notes are about both PROCESS (learning to effectively and efficiently parse a text) and PRODUCT (creating a resource for yourself for later), and ultimately they are a best PRACTICE. This is an important skill to develop for academic texts as well as all forms of reading not only in academic but also professional settings. Use this class as an opportunity to develop this skill. (For this class, they will also become your own study materials ahead of the midterm and final.)General GuidelinesThere is no right or wrong way to do reading notes. They are personal and individualized to each readers interests, needs, and style. So while each of you may be reading the same material, we would expect your reading notes to vary significantly from person to person and also from one kind of text to another (i.e. an academic journal article and an excerpt from a textbook). Yet each should capture the same general components. Depending on the text, these would generally include:Citation (title, author, perhaps type of text)Topic and/or purpose of the textMain argument(s)Primary supporting evidence and/or illustrative examplesAnnotations about your own thoughts, what this would be useful for, or other breadcrumbs for yourself for later use / your own purposes (this is really what makes your notes both unique, and useful)Page references and/or short direct quotesYour notes should be in your own words. Do not copy long passages from the text. Short, useful quotes are okay and even encouraged. But be sure to include proper quotes and citations so that you do not later mistake them for your own words.Your notes should neither be too long, nor too short. Neither is useful. Too long and they become difficult to wade through for the most important information and are not as useful a reference for you. Too short and you risk not having captured enough information to have a complete enough summary to create a useful reference for yourself, increasing the likelihood that you will have to spend more time and effort to find the information Your goal is to provide a comprehensive enough picture for yourself of the reading, including enough information that you can look over them and be reminded of all the most important/relevant information at a quick skim/glance, but not so detailed that it becomes a chore to wade through them to find the main points and most important information. For this class reading materials, a general guide should be 1-2 paragraphs per reading, or about half a page of text per reading, or about 1-3 pages single spaced depending on the weeks reading.FormatEach person will develop their own format and form that works best for them. This might be in the form of prose or in outline form. You might make use of outlining functions, italics, underlining, highlighting, bold, and other ways to distinguish and organize text. Your reading notes might be outlined thematically, according to a set formulaic format you use for each text, or chronologically alongside the reading. Experiment to find what works best.ProcessMany of you may already annotate your texts as you read along. This is GREAT! And it makes generating readings notes quick and easy. If you do this, you might consider going back through as a second step and turning them into an organized summary in a separate document. You can consider finding tools to help you do this more quickly. For example, I read and annotate texts digitally in the application Skim, and then I use its extraction feature to extract all my annotations (including both highlighted bits of text and notes I made) to paste into a separate document to be organized, all in one click.You might store your readings notes in one running document per course, perhaps even with a Table of Contents to allow you to easily jump from reading to reading. Or you might store each set or each reading note in an individual document. Reading notes can be pasted into or attached to a record in a reference manager if you use one to keep track of your readings, like Zotero or Mendeley. Using a reference manager to keep organized is highly recommended, and this class can be a great opportunity to learn and integrate this skill if you do not do this already.Assignment Procedure and GradingTurn in a text document with your reading notes for each week. You will be primarily graded based on quality, completeness, and consistency of effort. We will not provide or use a rubric for grading. Consider this a guide, and then you will also be provided with feedback by your TA early in the course to help you develop more effective reading note practices as the course progresseswill upload another one reading ASAP milkie.pdf zhangethnicidentitynets2017.pdf Unformatted Attachment Preview 710289 research-article2017 SGOXXX10.1177/2158244017710289SAGE OpenZhang Article Patterned Fluidity of Chinese Ethnic Identity: Networks, Time, and Place SAGE Open April-June 2017: 1­–8 © The Author(s) 2017 https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017710289 DOI: 10.1177/2158244017710289 journals.sagepub.com/home/sgo Cynthia Baiqing Zhang1 Abstract This study tests the salience/prominence of Chinese ethnic identity by applying identity theory, social identity theory, and social network analysis. Using survey data of Chinese graduate students in two universities in the United States, I show how Chinese ethnic identity salience varies with the percentage of Chinese in an individual’s ego network revolving around him or her. In addition, among newcomers to the United States, as the percentage Chinese in ego networks increases, the decline of Chinese identity salience/prominence declines, but for old timers in the United States, as the percentage Chinese increases, the decline of Chinese identity salience/prominence is reversed. The ethnic identity salience lapses with time unless the respondents keep a cohort of co-nationals. Moreover, a cosmopolitan sociocultural environment is conducive to the maintenance of ethnic identity when an individual has many co-nationals in his or her ego network while having many conationals does not stop the decline of ethnic salience in an isolated social environment. Keywords Chinese ethnic identity, identity salience, ego network, location, time Introduction Structural symbolic interactionism emphasizes the impact of the structures of society on individuals’ interaction with others to convey who they are, or the meanings of their identities. Self—consisting of multiple identities—emerges from the patterned and organized social structure and therefore is organized (Burke & Stets, 2009). In contrast, traditional symbolic interactionism opposes any suggestion that social structure is stable and posits that identities are fluid as individuals construct identities differently across situations. Along the lines of structural symbolic interactionism, identity theory specifically argues for the correspondence between social positions in networks of social relations and role identities such as student. Empirical work to test and explore the relationship between identity and network characteristics has appeared. McFarland and Pals (2005) operationalize ego network1 context such as prominence to predict identity change. Walker and Lynn (2013) suggest that role identity salience—the likelihood a role identity is enacted— increases as role-based others are more closely connected with non–role-based others. Stark (2015) reveals how the tendency to avoid friends who have minority friends enables majority group members to stay away from minority group members. In this article, I answer this research question: Would Chinese respondents in the new environment of United States but with a large portion of Chinese acquaintances in their time network2 develop a salient/prominent ethnic identity? Time network is composed of people with whom an individual spends the most awake time. Further, this article aims to clarify whether being separated from the host culture of the United States reduces the salience/prominence of Chinese ethnic identity, or just among those who recently arrive in the host culture. Another aim of this article is to investigate whether low exposure to different cultures available in a locality reduces the salience/ prominence of Chinese ethnic identity, or just among those who have a large Chinese cohort. Theory and Hypotheses Identity Prominence/Salience and Social Networks To reiterate, identity theory posits that social positions—the stable, morphological components of social structure—carry the shared behavior expectations termed “roles.” Role identities exist as individuals participate in structured social relationships. Individuals are committed to role identities to various degrees, dependent on the costs of losing social relations that create behavioral expectations for roles. Such commitment can be measured qualitatively by emotional attachment to social 1 Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA, USA Corresponding Author: Cynthia Baiqing Zhang, Department of Sociology, Central Washington University, 400 E. University Way, Ellensburg, WA 98926, USA. Email: Cynthiazhang7@gmail.com Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). 2 relations in support of certain roles, or “intensivity,” and quantitatively by the number of social relations in support of certain roles, or “extensivity.” Commitment is closely related with identity salience that predicts the likelihood of activation of certain identities organized in a salience hierarchy (Stryker, 1968). Given that networks of social relations are social structure (Wellman, 1988), the stable, morphological components of social structure as proposed by identity theory, or social positions, therefore, are social positions in social networks. Identity salience is a function of the strength and number of social relations in networks, or ties (Burke & Stets, 2009). In short, Stryker and colleagues’ work is particularly articulate on the relationship between identity salience and social networks. Social Identity Theory and Identity Theory Identity theory focuses on role identity that is related to role others. For example, a parent role is in relationship to a child role. Social identity such as Chinese ethnic identity emphsizes in-group (i.e. Chinese) and out-group (i.e. non-Chinese) differences. However, the argument on the relationship between identity salience and social networks as specified in identity theory can be extended to social identities. Phinny (Howard, 2000) has a comprehensive review of ethnic identity. Identity theory scholars have actually called for a combination of identity theory and social identity theory (Stets & Burke, 2000). Specifically, these scholars argue that the different bases of identity in social identity theory (category and group) and in identity theory (role) can be combined. Although category and group identity such as Chinese ethnic identity emphasizes the similarities among in-group members (Hogg, 2006) while role identity stresses differences between roles and counter roles such as student identity and professor identity, role identities can also be category and group identities as students and professors are in-group and out-group to each other. In addition, category, group, role, and person identities all follow the same identity verification mechanisms (Burke & Stets, 2009). Chinese Ethnic Identity Chinese ethnic identity is a category identity. By definition, the Chinese ethnic identity is conditioned by the difference between Chinese and non-Chinese as well as by the similarities among Chinese as the in-group and similarities among non-Chinese as the out-group. Therefore, a social network measure that captures in-group out-group contrast—percentage of Chinese within the ego network—can be used to predict salience of Chinese ethnic identity. In addition, because the in-group out-group contrast is key to category/group identity, the Chinese ethnic identity of a focal person—a Chinese person—is related with people the focal person spends much time with. In other words, to understand ethnic identity, it is necessary to know an individual’s SAGE Open close relationships or ties that consist of the in-group as well as this person’s acquaintances who are the out-group. Outgroup members are those who have constant presence in the focal person’s life in geographical space but remain distant in social space. I thus use time network to delineate the relationship between identity salience/prominence and ego network characteristics. Hypotheses Social identity theory suggests that category identity is based on the distinction between in-group and out-group. For the in-group out-group distinction to maintain, there needs to be a balance between in-group members and out-group members in an individual’s time network. Therefore, having a high percentage of Chinese in one’s time network means the opportunity for a person to establish the distinction between Chinese and non-Chinese is low. I hereby hypothesize the following: Hypothesis 1: Having many Chinese in the time network is negatively related with Chinese ethnic identity for Chinese egos. Time is important because it takes time for identities to internalize. In this research, I am interested in short time spans: several months to approximately 8 years. That is, the time span that would have an impact on a stable, cross situational identity which is the focus of this project. I examine the impact of in-person and between-person time difference in the United States on network and identity formation and transformation. In the literature of life course, Atchley (1993) suggests that time after retirement witnesses a U-shaped development of self-perception: honeymoon, disenchantment, reorientation, and stability. Changes in identities are constant while continuity in identities is more powerful. In addition, Burke maintains that identity salience decreases as individuals cannot verify their identities. With the passage of time, Chinese graduate students are more and more integrated into the host culture with more non-Chinese, the opportunity for these students to verify their Chinese identity becomes slimmer. However, this process can reverse as these students’ life becomes stable. I hereby hypothesize the following: Hypothesis 2: Time in the United States has a U-shaped relationship with Chinese identity. Having a high Chinese composition in time network keeps individuals from being in contact with the host culture and thus reduces ethnic identity saliences. However, ethnic identity is fluid as individuals of various ethnic backgrounds are impacted by ecological factors, such as politics in their decision to claim or reclaim their ethnic identity (Alba, 1990; Nagel, 1994). With the passage of time, the decline of Chinese 3 Zhang ethnic identity salience is slowed down as individuals are integrated more into the host culture. I hereby hypothesize the following: Hypothesis 3: A longer stay in the United States will slow down the decline of Chinese identity salience when individuals have a higher Chinese cohort composition. Sociocultural contexts or locations in the United States, another ecological factor influencing ethnic identity, are important in the interaction of identity and networks of social relations as this research is designed to test relational identity. Identity theory defines identity as internalized meanings existent in the culture in the larger society which is supported by ethnic identity literature (e.g., Ichiyama, McQuarrie, & Ching, 1996). That is, identity meanings are culturally determined. Consequently, it is important to explain the “cultural contingency” of a social environment (Pachucki & Breiger, 2010, p. 205). Social relations can be the precedence or the consequence of identities depending on the specific social environments. A social environment provides the cultural meanings that may be absorbed into the self-structure, and thus constrains the types of available identities. More complex social environments can potentially generate more identities because of the many subcultures existent in such environments. Social environments also offer different types of social relations at the dyadic and group levels which either enhance or constrain the formation of new identities. In addition, distinctiveness theory (Mehra, Kilduff, & Brass, 1998) proposes that in a given situation, the trait such as race that is the rarest in the crowd will draw people with that trait together. Therefore, in an environment where ethnic background is the rarest trait, people feel more strongly about their ethnic identity. However, in a social context where diverse ethnic groups are present, people feel less strongly about their ethnic identity. I hereby hypothesize the following: Hypothesis 4: Being in Northeast City (NE) in the New England area with exposure to various cultures is negatively related to Chinese identity compared with residents from Southeast City (SE). As stated previously, having a high percentage Chinese in one’s network has a negative relationship with identity salience/prominence. However, being in NE stems the decline of Chinese ethnic identity salience/prominence because the existence of multiple cultures renders Chinese ethnic background a sharp contrast to the host culture in the United States. As explained by Howard (2000), “Population shifts, especially immigrations, are a major instigator of changes in ethnic identities” (p. 375). I hereby hypothesize the following: Hypothesis 5: Being in NE slows down the decline of Chinese ethnic identity salience at a higher Chinese composition. Method Sample and Procedure To identify patterns of linkages between ego network, time in the United States, and localities in the United States and identity, I conducted online surveys (Sue & Ritter, 2007) with a supplementary paper version of the surveys (Dillman, 2007; Weiseburg, 2005) targeting the entire population of Chinese graduate students at two universities. I used two public universities—Harmony College in SE and Diversity College in NE as the subject frames though the subject’s ego network usually reached far beyond the boundaries of the two colleges, extending to the local communities and to their home country of China, assisted by physical and electronic interaction, particularly when these students first arrived in the United States and in their interaction with their family members back in China. Because the students from the two universities were similar in terms of educational attainment in China, localities in China, age group, and being city residents in China, I did not include variables associated with their Chinese background to predict identity salience/prominence. The survey was distributed to all Chinese graduate students through university administrative offices. Although I did not know the exact number of the Chinese graduate students at Diversity College, I estimated the combined responses for the online version of the survey from the two universities probably accounted for around 15\% of the population. The print version fared much better. The two batches of mail survey using exactly the same online format witnessed 70\% response rate. Some responses in the second batch were not included because they arrived later than the deadline. There were 95 total responses to the online survey at Harmony College. At Diversity College, there were 21 responses to the online survey and 56 responses to the print version of the online survey. In total, Diversity College provided 77 responses to the survey. Usable responses were 119 from the two colleges which was sufficient for a multivariate analysis (Allison, 1999). The survey asked for the respondents’ general sociodemographic information, respondents’ time network, and the importance of ethnic identity. For each person named in time network, I asked about his or her demographics and relationships with the focal person. I also asked for an aggregate number of ties in time network. I calculated percentage of Chinese for the networks thus obtained in the survey. The identity salience/prominence section asked the respondent to rate the importance of ethnic identity (Chinese from mainland China). The question read, “We now ask the importance of the major identities you might have. Please drag the importance indicator along the scale 0-100, ‘1’ being least important and ‘100’ the most important.” 4 SAGE Open Table 1. Demographic and Cultural Diversity Comparison of the SE and NE against the United States as a Country. Demographics Southeast city Northeast city Population 5\% 100\% White 75.70\% (non-Hispanic 73.00\%) 44.00\% (non-Hispanic 33.30\%) African American 14.50\% 25.50\% Native American 0.30\% 0.70\% Asian 3.20\% 12.70\% Hispanic or Latino 6.90\% 28.60\% Other races 2.50\% 4.00\% Foreign born 8.50\% 36.80\% Language other than English spoken 11.10\% 48.50\% at home Education (BA or higher) 39.30\% 33.70\% Per capita money income 29,125 31,417 Income (\% in poverty) 17.90\% 19.40\% United States 77.90\% (non-Hispanic 63.00\%) 13.10\% 1.20\% 5.10\% 16.90\% 2.40\% 12.80\% 20.30\% 28.20\% 27,915 14.30\% Source. U.S. Census Bureau (2010). The survey took approximately 10 to 15 min to complete on average though some respondents took longer (20-25 min). Students read a verbal script highlighting the voluntary nature of the questionnaire and my intent of protecting their anonymity. For the analysis, I used both the basic term and the quadratic term of the time in the U.S. variable. First, I used percentage Chinese, time, a quadratic term of time, and locations as predictors and network size as control variable. Second, I added interaction terms of the basic term and the quadratic term of time, with the two network measures: percentage Chinese and network size. Third, I added the interaction terms of location in the United States with the two network measures. I also added another control variable of gender with male coded as 1. Measures The dependent variable identity salience/prominence was measured using a scale of identity importance ranging from 1 to 100. McCall and Simmons (1966) regard self-attributed importance of identities as the fundamental elements of self. Although defining identity salience as behavioral oriented, Stryker and colleagues use identity salience and identity prominence interchangeably as a concept and measure (Stryker & Serpe, 1994). Time in the United States was measured with years the respondents had spent in the host country. Because the vast majority of the respondents started their graduate program immediately upon arrival in the host country of the United States, I recoded time in graduate programs as time in the United States. As a new identity for the respondents, Chinese ethnic identity showed a trajectory in salience/prominence with the passage of time. This identity change process is gradual and takes place over a long period of time, ranging from weeks to months or even years (Burke & Stets, 2009). Location in the United States was measured by delegating “1” to NE and “0” to Southeast city. These two locations were selected because they demonstrated tremendous differences in ethnic compositions and degrees of cultural diversity as shown in Table 1. Major Predictor: Percentage Chinese in Ego’s Time Network The major network measure to predict identity salience/ prominence was percentage Chinese. The percentage Chinese measure was calculated by dividing the number of Chinese ties within a person’s time network by the person’s total number of ties. Percentage Chinese indicates a focal person’s access (Burt, 1984) to in-group members (Chinese) and by definition nonaccess to out-group members (non-Chinese). Descriptive analysis and hypotheses testing were based on these data using Stata. The larger the percentage Chinese measure is, the larger the Chinese in-group is for the individual. Stated in a different way, larger percentage Chinese measure shows that an individual was more embedded in his or her home Chinese culture. Or conversely, larger percentage Chinese measure means that an individual was having limited contact with the host culture. Control Variables: Network Size and Gender I included t ... Purchase answer to see full attachment