<p>The 2008 English free response is on AP Central now. Let's talk about our essays...</p>
<p>what did you defend your "Penny Essay" with?
i used the first 4, and the graph</p>
<p>the essays were pretty easy IMO, but the two hours of constant writing really tire my hands lol.</p>
<p>I said dont abolish the penny:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>zinc industry affected (Source A); talked about silver crisis in Gilded Age and crime of 73 and Cross of Gold Speech... Source A, Source C</p></li>
<li><p>marketing, b/c prices could no longer end in $x.99, and this is a psychological thing for consumers; blah blah... Source B</p></li>
<li><p>tradition; people want to keep the penny, connect past and present, Lincoln, blah blah... Source E, F, G</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I dunno, my argument was kinda random... not too much opportunity to add outside information.</p>
<p>For the second essay: repetition of "uncertainty" to create admiration for the scientists + "aura" of mysteriousness, short/choppy syntactical structure mirroring the stops and starts of scientists + dramatic (There they probe in a disciplined way... There a single step... A single step can also take one off a cliff), wilderness metaphor</p>
<p>For the third essay, PRO: I made up examples of how a corporate partnership benefited our school + how Channel One leads to more informed students, esp. in this election year; CON: Channel-One is required watching every day, so creates rigidity in school schedule and screws up final exams, special events; something else, I don't remember; my final conclusion was that it's more pro than con, since students deal with ads during all other parts of the day and are mature enough to ignore them... blah</p>
<p>I am thinking 6, 6, 6, as worst case scenario, with a more likely 7, 7, 6. Initially I was afraid I would get 5s and 4s, but looking at sample essays with those scores on AP Central, I am pretty sure a 6 is the worst score I could get on any essay.</p>
<p>i never saw the point of having the picture of the penny...hahah</p>
<p>^^ me either--I couldn't figure out any way to incorporate it, so I ignored it. =p</p>
<p>Our teacher had taught us to incorporate pictures and stuff into essays. I know someone that referenced the picture and said that the old and new penny both said 'liberty', which upheld America's values.</p>
<p>one of the source about Bush stated that for the first time, the penny represented an american figure instead of liberty.</p>
<p>i think thats what the pictures were referring to.</p>
<p>I took a very unique path on the penny thing.</p>
<p>I argued that the whole penny-abolition movement was a ploy by certain states to advance themselves financially. </p>
<p>I had plenty of evidence to back that up. First off, the poll showed that the wealthy were in favor of abolition of the penny. I looked at the four anti-penny essays, and guess what? Two were from New York, and two were from Boston, two of the biggest/wealthiest cities in America. It was pretty obvious that the writers of the articles were quite biased against the penny considering how maliciously a couple of them described the penny (I used quotes here), and some of the statistics used in the abolitionist argument seemed slightly dishonest. Safire was a good example of that, and Weller pretty much exposed the flaws in Safire's numbers.</p>
<p>I also talked about how Kolbe, the guy who proposed this bill, was from Arizona. As Source A (I think it was Source A) said, Arizona produced much more Copper than Zinc, which meant that they were at a disadvantage in penny production, but profited from producing other coins. Not coincidentally, Kolbe was also looking to promote increased use of other coinage to represent a $1. He was obviously just trying to profit his state.</p>
<p>So, I showed how the whole thing was just a bunch of states plotting to advance themselves financially/economically. Boston, New York, and Arizona seemed to be the basis here, and they seemed to be motivated more by selfish desire than a national one. DC was also included in the state thing, except that they supported the penny because it represented Lincoln and thus their state. The one legitimate argument presented against the anti-pennyism was, as I said before, Weller, who was from D.C.</p>
<p>So, I summed this up by saying that the United States should do what the majority wants. The anti-penny guys were obviously just trying to twist things in their favor (some of which was exposed, of course), and thus there wasn't enough LEGIT evidence in the sources to show the penny as economically harmful. The media was obviously dominated by these larger-anti-penny-cities (as represented by the sources, a large proportion of the opinion in the media was probably coming from these large cities as well), so the nation's collective opinion couldn't be accurately represented by a comprehensive look at the media.</p>
<p>What DID manage to represent the whole country, at least much more accurately than the articles did, was the poll. The poll showed that more were supportive of pennies than were anti-penny. In other words, the nation as a whole was more in favor of the penny. Thus, the penny ought to stay.</p>
<p>@mediocresniper: Wow, that is the most insightful take on it I've seen yet.</p>
<p>I took a more traditional approach, saying pennies should be eliminated. Wrote ~4 pages and mentioned the fact that it costs more to make a penny than the coin is worth (1.7 cents vs. 1 cent).</p>
<p>Mine was not the best essay I have written. My main points were: </p>
<p>1) waste of time (Source B) + "when was the last time you picked up a penny?"
2) waste of money (Source C)
3) not necessary to our heritage (we already have Lincoln memorial, etc.) + I used Source F to hypothesize that the new designs were a gov. ploy to create interest in the failing penny.</p>
<p>i wrote an essay similar to mediocresniper talking about how rep. kolbe just wanted to help his state economically.</p>
<p>except that is false... If you go to the Denver Mint, they will tell you the cost is around even</p>
<p>Anyways, I said keep the penny.</p>
<p>It's important economically, a majority of people want it (even in the rich section), and it's part of our history.</p>
<p>My argument was for the abolishment of the penny.</p>
<p>I said it was too difficult to handle, caused unnecessarily long transaction time, and something else. bleh</p>
<p>What were your rhetorical strategies for essay 2?</p>
<p>For 1, i took a different view/stance than most i've seen/ppl i've talked to. I didn't talk so much about what it meant to our economy but what it meant to our heritage. I used the picture of the penny to note that the penny was extremely established and had been around for over 200 yrs. The face on the penny has always been symbolic of the American way/dream, the allegorical figure of freedom and also the self-made man Lincoln who embodied America's ideals. The fact that we see pennies every day reinforces these ideals in our minds. Also talked about how most of US was already in favor of pennies, citing poll and Pres. bush's plan to get new pennies into action showing Lincoln (self-made man)'s early life. obv it was more than i've mentioned too.</p>
<p>so what do you guys think? original or a flop (yikes i hope not :P)?</p>
<p>i used the last document (picture) as evidence against tradition...saying changing the face of the penny is essentially the same the thing as eliminating the penny from ciruclation...</p>
<p>I applaud those who defended the penny for being brave enough to argue such a stupid position. There is no real why it should continue to exist.</p>
<p>My favorite document was the "American for Common Cents" dude. What an obvious zinc industry lobbyist he was.</p>
<p>three things to look at in the graph:</p>
<p>It did "trend" towards the rich favoring abolition while the poor defended.
It did show a general desire to keep the penny, but I wonder if it can be a really significant piece of any argument when it only polled @2100 people (this represents the US)?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Chill the **** out, it was an AP FRQ. No one really gives a **** about the issue itself. I argued for the continuation of the penny simply because most of the documents supported this position; you could definitely construct a powerful argument and integrate the majority of them into it.</p>
<p>LOL^ i think you're getting more excited than he was soulside journey.</p>