Drafting College Essays – Pleasure or Pain?

Please read the article, "Process Writing and the Secondary School Reality: A Compromise" (Pages 74-81 of your Bulk Pack Materials). Barbara Carney, author of the article, describes how she makes her students write five total drafts of their papers. This week, you are writing the first and second drafts of your personal statement (essay for college). Mr. Schuman will make you write five total drafts of your personal statement.

DISCUSSION QUESTION SIX:
1. Should Mr. Schuman make students write five total drafts of their personal statement or is the drafting process utter insanity and a waste of time?

2. Which draft is the most important one: D1, D2, D3, D4, or D5?Please base your comments and responses off the ideas that Barbara Carney presents in her article.

Does the University Make the Man or Does the Man Make the University?

The role-play, Where did he go wrong, located on pages BP-16 and BP-17 of your Bulk-Pack Materials, examines whether or not the college a person attends makes that person respected, successful, and competitive. Some people think people who go to "big-name" universities have an edge when competing against people who go to "lesser-name" schools. For example, imagine graduates of Harvard University and Pace University competing for one available spot at a certain law firm. Will the employer making the decision see "Harvard" at the top of the first person's resume and automatically select him? In contrast, some people think the man (or woman) make the university. The other school of thought looks at people who spend their four years of college lying on the college green, cutting class, and going to frat parties. Can people who "waste their four years" at an acclaimed university still find success? You decide: Does the university make the man or does the man make the university?

LISTSERV DISCUSSION QUESTION FIVE (PLEASE RESPOND): Does the university make the man or does the man make the university? For this question, you also may talk about whether or not a high-school student's college essay (personal statement) matters in the overall college selection process.

Would our government do the trade? Practice making a controversial comment in a politically-correct way!

Derek Bell's story, The Space Traders, is a science fiction or political fiction story. Derek Bell believes that racism is permanent (or will always remain and affect every decision in our country). Pretend the trade that he writes about actually is about to happen. Our planet faces a disaster. It has no money to function, no more sources of energy to give people basic services such as a running kitchen sink, and the environment is polluted to the point that people can't walk outside. Aliens arrive, and offer the leaders of our government a trade. The aliens will restore the planet if the government offers up all of the black people. Based off the reading (B.P. 48-65) and your own beliefs about racism, would our government actually do this trade?

Please write a full listserv comment and practice remaining politically correct! Mr. Schuman will grade your response on the five factors we talked about during the first week of class: formal language (no slang) length (an extended paragraph), references to the text, awareness (of everyone else's comments), and originality (try to present a new theory or make a shockingly unique thesis-statement).

LISTSERV DISCUSSION QUESTION FOUR: Would our government ship all Black people to another planet if aliens offered to restore our economy, resources, and otherwise uncurable diseases?

Final Practice Making Efficiency (LEVEL THREE) Arguments

Two years ago, a Hofstra University student, named Danmell Ndonye, falsely accused five men of rape, because she feared being branded a tramp according to her boyfriend (Fasick 6). You may research this past current event if you need more background information. Should a person who falsely accuses another person of rape be given the same consequence / punishment received by someone convicted (of actual rape) in a real Court of law. Consider how such an action would influence the life of the person making the false accusation, the life of the person falsely accused, and the running both the university and the larger city.

DISCUSSION QUESTION THREE (PLEASE RESPOND): Make the best possible level three argument concerning the above debate question. For a full twenty-five points, make sure you response is the appropriate LENGTH, contains FORMAL LANGUAGE, contains TEXTUAL REFERENCES, demonstrates AWARENESS OF YOUR CLASSMATES' DISCUSSION, and pushes for an ORIGINAL THEORY!

Waffles or Pancakes, Dogs or Computers, Robert Pattison or Ms. Therapy

This week, you are learning that effective arguments talk about the types of people and activities that society values. The way we all live in the year, 2011, differs radically from past times. Now, we have more technology, people live more efficient lives, and our country wants to remain competitive and keep progressing. Arguments that guarantee or promise such progress and efficiency usually cause people to listen! Consdier which one of the following two people is more impactful, may benefit society more, and produces better results (I.e., the type of results society values in the twenty-first century):

1. Robert Pattison
(born 13 May 1986) is an English actor, model, and musician. He is best known for playing Edward Cullen in the film adaptation of Twilight, based on the novel by Stephanie Meyer, and for the role of Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

2. Ms. Therapy
Ms. Therapy is married with two kids. She is forty-seven years old. She works as a physical therapist, helping accident survivors to both regain use of their muscles and return to normal lifestyles.

LISTSERV DISCUSSION QUESTION TWO (PLEASE RESPOND):

You have to select one of these two people: Robert Pattison (the entertainer) or Ms. Therapy (the doctor). The person you select to keep remains in your life and on this planet. In contrast, you or anyone else may never again enjoy/use the person that you do not select. He/she ceases to exist, and nobody knows about him/her. Which person do you select and why?

Please note that your second post will be graded on your use of FORMAL LANGUAGE, its LENGTH, TEXTUAL REFERENCES you make, your AWARENESS OF THE DISCUSSION, and the ORIGINALITY OF YOUR THEORY OR PERSPECTIVE ON THIS QUESTION! STEP IT UP!

Most Strategic Number of Colleges to Apply to in 2011

A portion of the book, New Rules for College Admissions, states:

There is, however, a ratio that should be taken into consideration when deciding how many schools to apply to:

- 2 Dream schools
- 3 Just right schools
- 2 No problem schools

If you really want to apply to more dream schools, make sure you add another school to each of the other two categories, to maintain a balanced ratio. Based on my experience, seven is the ideal number of schools you can focus and complete the best applications possible. Completing fewer than five applications is too risky, in my opinion. And if students are completing more than ten applications, they are usually spreading themselves too thin. As long as a student has a good range of schools, do not worry about applying to more than seven schools (Kramer and London 81-82).

Listserv Discussion Question One (PLEASE RESPOND): Agree of disagree with the above statement. What is the most strategic number of colleges to apply to? Explain. What needs to be talked about in this discussion?