<p>Wow.</p>
<p>I went through your essays and they are simply superb. </p>
<p>Great vocabulary, thorough analysis of thesis and amazing reasoning.</p>
<p>I noticed that you use 1984 in a variety of topics.</p>
<p>Could you suggest any such books/topics which, with detailed analysis can be used. </p>
<p>I have my first SAT in a month and I am an avid reader, but I just cannot manage to connect the dots between what I know and how to relate it to the topic. </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>@newbie101</p>
<p>Firstly, thanks for your comment - it’s always nice to hear praise. I simply have an inclination for using 1984 because that’s probably the example that I’m the most familiar with. And by the way, some of the quotes in the essays I have recently uploaded are some that I found after making the essays. I’ve chosen to include them anyways as I am compiling a list of quotes in order to have some useful quotes to use at the test essay, so I thought trying to practice integrating quotes in my essays would be a sensible idea.</p>
<p>I would believe that the best examples that I have come from going through some of the prompts that have earlier been used. You can find many of them in the thread in the following link:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/764514-sat-essay-prompt-archetypes.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/764514-sat-essay-prompt-archetypes.html</a></p>
<p>What I did was to go through (almost) all of the prompts and find examples that might be used on a variety of the prompts, and actually, I think that I ultimately found enough examples to fit the entire range of possible prompts. You could, like I did, compile a compendium with short summaries of the different examples. I have copy-pasted the table of contents from my compendium into the bottom of this reply for inspiration.</p>
<p>Literature
The Scarlet Letter (1850) by Nathaniel Hawthorne
A Doll’s House (1879) by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen
Lord of the Flies (1954) by William Golding
Great Expectations (1860) by Charles Dickens
Fahrenheit 451 (1953) by Ray Bradbury
Don Quixote (1605) by Miguel de Cervantes
Babette’s Feast (1952) by Karen Blixen
The Ugly Duckling (1843) by Hans Christian Andersen
Eagle’s Flight (1894) by Henrik Pontoppidan
Of Mice and Men (1937) by John Steinbeck
The Old Man and the Sea (1952) by Ernest Hemingway
Leviathan (1651) by Thomas Hobbes
Wealth of Nations (1776) by Adam Smith
The Odyssey (c. 800 BC) by Greek poet Homer
1984 (1949) by George Orwell
The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson
To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by Harper Lee
Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell
Catcher in the Rye (1951) by J.D. Salinger
Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-85) by Friedrich Nietzsche</p>
<p>Technology
Chernobyl (1986)
Apple (1976-)
Microsoft (1975-)
Facebook (2004-)
Wright Brothers’ Flight (1903)
The Gutenberg printing press (1456)
Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster (2003)
Titanic (April 15, 1912)
History
Ancient Rome (753 BC-476 AD)
The Renaissance (1450-1600)
Dispute between Anatomists Thomas Bartholin and Jean Riolan (c. 1650s)
The Reformation (1517-1564)
Scientific Revolution (1550-1700)
Agricultural Revolution (1700-1850)
Industrial Revolution (1750-1850)
The French Revolution (1789-99)
Romanticism (c. 1800-1840)
The American Revolution (ca. 1770-83)
The Constitution of the United States of America (1781-1789)
The American Civil War (1861-65)
The Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863)
Special Order No. 191 (1862)
The American Civil Rights Movement (1955-68)
Supreme Court decision in the Plessy v. Ferguson case (1896)
Supreme Court decision in the Brown v. the Board of Education (1954)
The Great Migration (1910-1970)
The Roaring Twenties (1920s)
The Great Depression (1929-1930s)
The Great Leap Forward (1958-61)
The New Imperialism (1870-1914)
Decolonization (1945-1989)
The Algerian Revolution (1954-1962)
Guernica (1937)
World War I (1914-1918)
World War II (1939-1945)
The Manhattan Project (1942-46)
The Marshall Plan (1947-51)
The Cold War (1945-1989)
The Vietnam War (1954-75)
The Watergate Scandal (1972-73)
Tearing Down of the Berlin Wall (1991)
The Invention of the PC (c. 1940-1980)
The LEGO Group (1932-)
The Fall of the Qing Dynasty (1912) </p>
<p>Persons
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)
Nelson Mandela (1918-)
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)
Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Socrates (c. 469 BC-399 BC)
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)
Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)
John Adams (1735-1824)
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)
Frederick Douglass (c. 1818-1895)
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)
Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992)
Milton Friedman (1912-2006)
Arne Nielsson (1962-)
Louis Braille (1809-1852)
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)
Marie Curie (1867-1934)
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)
Plato (427 BC-347 BC)
Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC)
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Ren</p>
<p>Here is another one:</p>
<p>Is identity something people are born with or given, or is it something people create for themselves?</p>
<p>Throughout our lives, we all seek to find our own identity, because after all, that is what sets us apart from one another. For many, the search our identity is tough, but it is also inevitable, because every day, we are required to state opinions and create answers that challenge our beliefs. Thus, identity is not something we are simply handed at the time of our birth. Instead, identity is something that we strive to find through the actions in our lives. This notion is clearly evinced by examples in history and literature.</p>
<p>The statement that identity is created through our endeavors in life becomes evident through the life of physicist Marie Curie, born in Poland in 1867. Curie lived in a time when women were generally not encouraged to seek higher education, but she decided that she would not be put down by the prejudices of society. This shows through her decision to take classes at an “underground” university in Warsaw, where she lived. Unlike male peers, Curie, being a woman, was not permitted to go the University of Warsaw. Choosing not to be molded by her surroundings, Curie worked diligently, and eventually this led to her being accepted as a student at the Sorbonne University in Paris. Her high work ethics, wise choices and scintillating intelligence resulted in Curie receiving master’s degrees in both physics and mathematics, and in 1903, Curie won the Nobel Prize in physics, being the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. Curie excelled academically throughout her life and won another Nobel Prize in 1933, this time in chemistry. Curie thus shows an example of how we are actually able to create our own identity, even though we, like Curie, might be impaired by external influences in the beginning. Curie’s fantastic career in science, a great part of her identity, was something she actively pursued, not something that was simply given to her.</p>
<p>The theatrical play, A Doll’s House, by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen further emphasizes that identity is something we must develop through the course of our lives. In the play, which takes place in the 1860s, the main protagonist, Nora, is married to a bank manager. However, Nora is allowed few opportunities to actually develop personally and spiritually, because her husband is the only one of the two allowed to work, and as a woman at that time, Nora is expected to follow certain norms and speak in a certain way that is perceived as acceptable by her surroundings. Nora comes to find this very restrictive, and at one point, she realizes that she does not truly know how she feels about society and her marriage. After all, she has never had the opportunity to develop opinions on such issues. Thus, Nora decides to leave her husband and seek her own identity. Through Nora, Ibsen gives a perfect example of how our identities will not develop if we do not have any experiences to create them from.</p>
<p>Through the life of Marie Curie and the theatrical play, A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, the conception that identity is something that we create and not something that we simply inherit is clearly demonstrated. This is positive, because from this conclusion follows that we are not liable to a determined fate; rather, we are able to create our own existence. As novelist and playwright, James Baldwin, once said, “An identity would seem to be arrived at by the way in which the person faces and uses his experience.”</p>
<p>Could we use mainstream media, such as Television, Movies and Music.</p>
<p>Also, that is an amazing database, which surely will connect with any prompt for the SAT.</p>
<p>I thought one interesting example for a variety of prompts would be Steve Jobs. Could you explain how do you go about looking for the information related to such archetypes.</p>
<p>@newbie101</p>
<p>Primarily, I just try to find examples or inspirations on the internet that might suit the prompt, and then I incorporate whatever I’ve used in my compendium of examples. I could give you some advice about finding examples and connecting them to specific prompts, but as I am taking the SAT tomorrow, I have more time for this either Sunday or next week.</p>
<p>Also, here’s another essay I made:</p>
<p>Are people’s lives the result of the choices they make?</p>
<p>The famous philosopher John Locke argued that the human mind is like a tabula rasa—a blank slate—at birth. The same can be said of our lives. Through the choices we make, we fill that blank slate, create our identities, and form our lives. This notion is clearly illustrated in history and literature.</p>
<p>The statement that we create our lives through the choices we make becomes evident in the life of Louis Braille, the inventor of the world-renowned Braille language. Braille was born in France in the beginning of the 19th century, but at the age of three, Braille was blinded because of carelessly playing with some of his father’s sharp tools. Braille chose not to succumb to this unfortunate event, and instead, he chose to look at the positive aspects of his life. This enabled his intelligence to flourish, and early in his teenage years, Braille was accepted at the Royal Institute for the Blind Youth in Paris. Here, he would eventually develop the Braille language, a task he even accomplished before turning 20 years old. Thus, Braille shows how even though things might not look bright, we are able to mold our lives through the choices we take and especially through the way we choose to look at the world and our own opportunities in it.</p>
<p>The novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury further emphasizes the importance that our choices have for the outcome of our lives. In the novel, the protagonist Guy Montag is a fireman, but not a traditional one; instead of putting out fires, Montag starts them in houses that contain books. The reason is the society’s fear of knowledge which makes the citizens of this dystopian community feel inferior and therefore, knowledge has been banned. However, being inspired by a young girl named Clarisse, who has a fantastic curiosity, Montag chooses to try to read some books, quickly finding out that the knowledge contained in the books is for the good of the society. Therefore, Montag chooses to try to reshape his fate, reading as much as he is able to. At one point, however, his wife reports him to the police because of his love for the forbidden books, and Montag is jailed. Luckily, he escapes, and he joins a group called “the Book People”, which shares Montag’s love for knowledge. Montag’s experiences thus illustrate how even though our fate might seem cut out for us, we are able to overcome even the hardest obstacles we might face. Montag saw the wrongdoing of his earlier life, and by choosing to act upon it, he changed his life.</p>
<p>Through the life of Louis Braille and the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the conception that our lives depend upon our actions and decisions is clearly illustrated. This also raises the optimistic idea that we are capable of changing the world around us through the way we choose to live our lives. Perhaps this gives good reason to follow Gandhi’s advice to “be the change you wish to see in the world.”</p>
<p>Another one for anyone interested:</p>
<p>In modern society, creativity is a much valued trait that is essential in many aspects of our lives. In business, for example, Apple serves as a quintessential example of how important creativity can be for success. By constantly embracing the idea of innovation and imagination, Apple has positioned itself as one of the world’s most respected companies. However, creativity sometimes needs to be provoked in order to flourish, and often, realizing that one door is closed will lead us into finding creative ways to reach our objectives. This notion is clearly evinced by examples from history and literature.</p>
<p>The statement that closed doors will lead to creative solutions becomes evident in the life Louis Braille, the inventor of the world-renowned Braille language. Braille became blinded at the age of three because of playing with some of his father’s sharp tools. At the time of Braille’s youth, blind people had scarce opportunities to read, because no efficient language for the blind had been developed. However, Braille’s great motivation to learn to read and learn about the world spurred him to undertake the challenging task of creating an efficient language for the blind. Because of his flourishing intelligence and creative mind, Braille succeeded, and today, the Braille language is the international standard language for the blind. Had Braille not lost his sight, this act of creativity had possibly not found its place in history, this emphasizing how we are prodded to be creative and imaginative when some opportunities are taken away from us.</p>
<p>The epic poem, The Odyssey, by Greek poet Homer, who lived around 800 BC, further emphasizes that closed doors stimulate our creative minds. In this classical piece of literature, the protagonist Odysseus is on his way home to his wife Penelope, but he faces many dreadful challenges during his travel. At one point, Odysseus finds himself captured in the cave of the cyclops Polyphemus. Realizing that his strength is of no use against a foe with such great physical power, Odysseus instead tries to think of creative solutions that might help him extricate himself from this gruesome situation. Odysseus deceives the cyclops by convincing him that his real name is “Nobody”, and when Odysseus stabs Polyphemus in the eye (cyclopes only have one eye), none of the other cyclopes realizes that Polyphemus needs help, because Polyphemus is simply screaming “Nobody is killing me!” Thus, Odysseus is able to escape. Clearly, this shows that when faced with obstacles that leave us with few opportunities, our sense of imagination and creativity are often the virtues that save us.</p>
<p>Through the life of Louis Braille and the epic poem The Odyssey, the conception that we tend to rely on our creativity when we are especially pressured is clearly demonstrated. This leaves us with the idea that perhaps we should try to challenge ourselves more frequently in order to prod our imaginative sides. As entrepreneur Donald Trump said, “Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war.”</p>
<p>These essays are remarkable! They have inspired me to work on my essays because mine are really lacking. Your compendium was very helpful as well. I was wondering if you had any advice or tips as to how to write as powerfully as you do. I’m taking my SAT March 9th so I would really appreciate a reply at your earliest convenience. Thanks!</p>