Write a letter as if you are a foreign exchange student living in America. Pretend you are writing to your family in your homeland and you must explain an American custom they know nothing at all about.

To write a convincing letter, you must examine the American custom through the eyes of an outsider. What may seem perfectly natural and logical to us may seem silly to someone from a foreign country.

My letter is as follows:

My Dearest Mother,

America is filled with many new customs that I have had the privilege of experiencing. There is one called Thanksgiving. From what I understand it was derived from a celebration between the Indians and Pilgrims after their first successful harvest in 1926. Today it is a day the Americans celebrate to acknowledge their blessings that their God has bestowed upon them. I think it is a great idea to take a day out of the year to recognize all we should be thankful for.

Here in America Thanksgiving is a day where many people volunteer their time to help those who are less fortunate. For example, many help with the homeless shelters. These shelters offer hot meals to those who have no food to eat. They volunteer to help prepare and serve these hot meals. These shelters also offer a warm place to sleep. A place to retrieve out of the cold and rain. What a wonderful custom.

Of course you can not forget about the food. It is the main part of the celebration. They roast a large bird, that they call a turkey, in the oven all morning. Family members that traveled long distances arrived just to spend a couple of days with the family. The family gathering reminded me of our family and made me a fervent admirer of this new custom. While us guys watched a football game the women worked hard cooking. The wonderful smells coming from the kitchen, and all the family members making me feel as though I was part of their family; made me feel as though I was a part of something bigger than myself.

I would really like for you to consider incorporating this new custom into our own family customs. I miss you dearly. Until I see you again, I send my love.

Your Son,
Michael

1 answer

Nice job, overall!

Consider/reconsider these things, though:

1926 <~~??

Today it is a day the Americans celebrate to acknowledge their blessings that their God has bestowed upon them.
How can you take the wordiness out of this sentence?
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/concise.htm

... Thanksgiving is a day where many people ...
Is a day a place? What can you use instead of "where" so this makes sense?

... These shelters offer hot meals to those who have no food to eat. They volunteer to help prepare and serve these hot meals. These shelters also offer a warm place to sleep. A place to retrieve out of the cold and rain.
Do the shelters do these things? Or do the volunteers do these things? You go back and forth between "These shelters" and "They" but the references are not quite accurate. How can you straighten this section out and get rid of wordiness?

A place to retrieve out of the cold and rain.
Two things: 1) This is a fragment, not a complete sentence; 2) what word should you use instead of "retrieve" (which is not accurate for the meaning of this)?

... us guys watched ...
The pronoun "us" is not used for the subject of a sentence in standard English. Which pronoun should you use there?

There are some missing commas, too, but these are the major things I see. Other tutors may see further things.