I believe that the Broncos are going to own this football season. Yes, I believe that, but that’s not my main belief. Could I go on and on for pages and pages on that belief? You bet I could, but I’m not going to. Instead I’m going to tell you why I believe I shouldn’t have to write this essay.
The number one reason why I believe I shouldn’t have to write this $#$#1$#$# is that I’m not in school, which means that I don’t want to do anything that is work related. I just want to sit on my butt, watch movies, be obnoxious, and maybe improve my nonexistent Call of Duty skills. Video games and I don’t really get along, in fact, besides for Guitar Hero, we never have. Instead of wasting my time here, I want to go and obliterate some aliens or maybe just rock out with Green Day Rockband. The last thing I want to do is schoolwork. If you think that my reason is simpleminded, half-baked, unintelligent, or even just plain idiotic, I’ll stop wasting my time and yours and move on to reason number two.
With the video games behind us, I’ll explain my second reason for believing I shouldn’t have to write this essay. Can I please get a drum roll? No? That’s too bad, because I have some very talented percussionist friends. Anyway, reason number two is this: I have already written an essay with this same prompt. It’s not new. In fact, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this essay prompt. I could have just recycled my old essays, but that is dishonest, and I could never live with myself if I did that. Besides, I’m a writer, and I actually enjoy writing essays. Those of you who don’t must have a screw loose, and must be thick, mindless, and moronic. Of course, I could be the one who is witless or short minded, since the matter of intelligence...
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...it can’t be fixed. Where reason number five should be is nothing but a conclusion, in which I discover something that many of you have probably already noticed but haven’t pointed out because you were kind enough not to interrupt me. Thank you for that, by the way. What I have discovered is this: while spending all my time and energy writing out why I believe I shouldn’t have to write this essay, I have written an essay. I have produced an essay in which I state my belief and give reasons of why my belief was valid. Now I really must thank you, o great assigner of this assignment. You have made me do something that I had no desire to do. You are really quite clever, witty, crafty, intelligent, bright, brainy and overly intelligent. In the end, it seems that I really am the one who is simpleminded, half baked, thick, mindless, moronic, and who could forget, witless.
Long story short, let me be honest and say that the longer essay stapled to the back of this one is the one I wrote first, because I read the instructions wrong. I thought I would attach that paper also and turn it in, since I took the time to write it, and finished it before realizing it was not what you were looking for. It does, however, relate to this paper, because in this paper I will (indirectly) give the reasons why I wanted to write that paper in the first place.
Because the education system does not relate classwork or homework to the lives of students, they do not see how writing essays or solving math problems can help them in everyday life. “By the time Roadville children reach high school they write off school as having nothing to do with what they want in life, and they fear that school success will threaten their social relations with people whose company they value. This is a familiar refrain for working class children” (Attitude 119). As students begin to realize how low their potential is within school, they chose to cut school out of their life and start working. These students do not understand how they can benefit from what they are learning. “One woman talks of the importance of a ‘fitting education’ for her three children so they can ‘do better’, but looks on equanimity as her sixteen-year-old son quits school, goes to work in a garage, and plans to marry his fifteen-year-old girlfriend ‘soon’” (Attitude 118). Students are settling for less than what they can actually achieve to have, just because they see no purpose of being in school, and believe they can do better without the help of the education system. Even parents are not actually supporting and encouraging their child to stay in school. “Although Roadville parents talk about the value of school, they often act as if they don’t believe it”
Claim, evidence, warrant. Students have been writing these essays for their whole school career, but have never been asked to write an essay that is freely written. I believe that as a student, we should be asked to write an essay based on nothing other than our thoughts because that is what sparks creativity and new ideas. As Klinkenborg said it in Several Short Sentences About Writing, “Do you remember feeling, when you were writing a paper for school, that your vocabulary was steadily shrinking? By the end, the same few words seeming to be buzzing around and around in your head, like flies weary of feeding. That’s a symptom of boredom. You were bored from the start and for a good reason. You were repeatedly asked to persuade or demonstrate or argue, to reiterate or prove or exemplify, to go through the motions of writing. You were almost never asked to notice or observe, witness or testify. You were being taught to manage the evidence gathered from other authorities instead of cultivating your own” (31). To put in short, as a student I have never been asked to write on my own and instead be dependent on other sources. An example of this from Ongoingness by Manguso would be this quote, “The essential problem of Ongoingness is that one must contemplate time as that very time, that very subject of one’s contemplation, disappears” (72). Manguso
...use of this issue. Even I prefer learning for my own pleasure over school work, but this competition is what molds students into high-achieving individuals. Having to work up to a deadline, conducting research, and collaborating with peers for group projects are all necessary tasks in the "real world". It is true that success can be achieved without school, but school is only one of the many pathways an individual can choose in order to become educated. School provides students with the ability to strive in the real word by providing them with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed. When asked what I am studying for, I can say that I am studying to become someone who can make a difference. I may not enjoy the stress and anxiety that comes with school, but I cherish the fact that school is providing me with the knowledge and skills I need to further my dreams.
NOTE: This isn’t even close to how I would like the essay to be laid out. I’m just writing paragraphs and eventually I will get them in an order I like them and revise.
This is one of the best essays I ever wrote. It was also the easiest and quickest to write because I had fun doing it. It was amazing how much my writing improved when I decided to have fun with it. "Forced" writing never turns out well no matter how skilled the writer is.
My form and structure are not always the best. In one of our more challenging essays, the Rhetorical Analysis Essay my form and structure weren’t as strong as they should be. As stated before, I made the mistake of not staying focused on the rhetorical elements of my topic and venturing my own personal opinion in the essay, which crowded and weakened my form and structure. Continuing with Murray’s path, the development of my essays is based on the rubric. I always seek to include information that the rubric is essentially telling me to include, but sometimes I fall short of developing my thoughts enough. The dimension of my essays also has inconsistencies. I tend to have a problem of expanding into great detail on one point of my essay leaving another point barely expanded upon leaving my essay disproportionate. Finally, the last thing writer’s look for in their essay is their own voice. Thomas Osborne in Late Nights, Last Rites, and the Rain-Slick Road to Self Destruction states “I strive for a good grade, and will work as hard as possible to achieve one, but there is a voice in the back of my head that is effectively scoffing at the ridiculousness of some assignments and expectations that I have had to complete and live up to.” My voice sometimes gets lost in assigned essays when I try to fulfill certain standards that are put upon me. Thomas and I both struggle with writing what we need to write in order to achieve the grade
I have enjoyed learning about the topics we have learned about, from education to this sports unit. Writing has never been my strong suit and I think that this class has helped me. I like learning about the different styles of argument and what devices to use when making the strongest claim. Throughout the education essay, I learned a lot about my writing and that I write better, when I am enthusiastic about the subject. I was and am very interested in these topics, and I love trying to relate the topics back to my personal experiences. In the next semester, I hope to read closer into the text and take better notes. I think that these two major essays would have been easier if I had notes to reflect on and review, rather than taking notes for the essay. I am excited to start the second semester with this mindset as we enter into a new
This essay taught me that even though I was learning a lot from this course, that there was still room to improve. Likewise, I ended up with the assumption I had done great on this essay since I wrote about a topic I enjoyed, makeup. I was proven wrong. The evaluation paper called for evaluating and expanding on the quotes you had provided in your paper, something I wasn’t as familiar with until this class. I didn 't do so well on this particular essay but I had the opportunity to learn from my mistakes. Mrs.Robinson gave a get out of jail free card when she said we could rewrite one of our first three essays and this was the essay I chose. After revising this essay, I truly feel like I understand more about the editing process. I went back and checked each paragraph to make sure everything was perfect, changed word choice, and looked over and over for grammatical errors. Because of this I now know that I need to revise the essay before I turn it in since every writer makes
My essay is going to be about the four-day school week. The four-day school week is something that I do not approve of. There are a lot of pros and cons about it, but I decided that I am against it. The learning is no different other than ten minutes of class time. The attendance means you HAVE to be there every single day no matter what. I understand that it will save money for the school, but think about how the parents and staff think about it. Instead of sending the papers home with the children, they should have sent it through mail. The time will extend more than we are use too. This time will make us stay at the school for fifty-five minutes more than we are use too. They need to invest more money for the other schools. We honestly did NOT need the football stadium that big. I understand it was a bond issue, but they could have been a little more courteous to the other schools.
However, when it came time to write the essay, I was confronted with my old enemy, writing. Writing and I have a history, I have never enjoyed being in the presence of writing, due to its both mentally and physically taxing requirements. Despite our deeply rooted feud, there are times where I cannot simply dismiss writing, and generally with help such as guided activities, exemplars, and therapy; Writing and I can put aside our differences for a brief moment of time. One example of this is in my argument, In the beginning sentence I feel that I was able to reach what was expected of me by created a strong counter argument and quickly proving it wrong: “Some might argue that if an individual has grown fond of an illusion, then why wake them from that joy? Now, that is a fair point, but as we see in the book, if they wake up, they realize how unhappy they truly are.” As I face more and more of these assignments where I am forced to implement writing, I grow more accustomed to the process. Writing might not be my ideal major, but I understand its importance. While I dread typing a 5 page essays, I know they are coming. Better I struggle know and learn than struggle later and
1. I think your essay was not written too informally at all. It was relatable in a way that wasn't so casual. I not only understood where you were coming from with your arguments but I also found an agreement in what your overall takeaway was. It was a message that was not harsh in the sense of being a horrible human being but in regaining the strength and social status of society itself.
Before this class, I understood purpose was important; however, during this class I have discovered that putting more focus on purpose can result in a more interesting thesis and paper. I have learned to think about purpose before writing my essay, once I have narrowed my topic I ask myself why would anyone want to read my essay. Consideri...
The average student has written their fair share of persuasive essays. The quality of these essays often depend on the students’ knowledge of the make-up of a good persuasive essay. A major component in persuasive essays is the argument. In order to write a good persuasive essay attention should be focused on the argument. The quality of the argument determines the strength of a persuasive essay. By considering the rhetorical situation in the planning process, and the elements of the argument in the writing process, effective persuasion can be achieved in an essay.
I never had any interest in writing before entering high school, I never enjoyed writing essays. I believe the reason was I did not find it necessary to write a 5-page essay on 'To Kill a Mockingbird '. In the real world we will write a page or two for job opportunities and some for the job itself, but hardly ever will you need to write an essay on some book or event in time;