<p>so, what kinds of things did you guys send for your school assigned essay? i sent one comparing edgar allan poe's "sonnet to science" with a painting of the romantic era. it has great comments throughout but there is one negative one. i hope that will not be a problem... do you think this topic will be okay?</p>
<p>i think they want to see that youre writing at a college level already, and that your essay topics are advanced. get ready for mine........</p>
<p>In his Poetics, Aristotle defined tragedy as "the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself." The tragic hero should be of high worth or standing, but not perfect: a tragic flaw, weakness, or transgression (hamartia) or an excess of arrogant ambition (hubris) leads to his downfall. The effect of the inevitable disaster (catastrophe) on the spectators is the purgation or cleansing (catharsis) of emotions of pity and terror through what they have seen.</p>
<p>With Aristotle's commentary in mind, evaluate Oedipus in his dual role as tragic hero and king. Your controlling idea should clearly indicate how these two roles are related. Your response should be at least five paragraphs in length (400-500 words), be unified behind an effective controlling idea, and contain specific supporting text references.</p>
<p>wow. that sounds like it would be really difficult to put in 500 words.</p>
<p>yeah, one negative comment isnt bad, yours sounds like it sohuld be fine.</p>
<p>it was a tough essay, but i did well, so im sending it in!</p>
<p>ive gotta do my values essay though!!!!</p>
<p>i'm writing that right now! it my second or third attempt but i think it is going slightly better this time. at least it better be since it is due so soon! haha.</p>
<p>how are you going to attach your value-quesiton essay to the common app. I had to send my pre application via DHL because i missed the deadline so i wasn't able to electronically attach my file.</p>
<p>i am just going to send it in the mail i think. i'm calling the admissions office tomorrow though so i think i will ask them.</p>
<p>ilovelamp- please get back with us if the admissions office gives you any info. Not that it matters so much for me - I sent my application off via snail mail today!!!!! I'm so excited!</p>
<p>I used an essay I wrote for English (it was about 650 words). The prompt was:</p>
<p>Introduction: The story of good and evil has existed since man has existed. In our readings of this unit, we are compelled to explore the very nature of good and evil, the very core of its original emergence within literary texts.</p>
<p>Assignment: To this end, research a minimum of two (2) credentialed sources outside of the three that this unit encompasses (i.e., Beowulf, Gardners Grendel, and Genesis 1-4.) Choose sources in the fields of psychology, anthropology, theology, linguistics, etc. Make your choices based on your own area of interest; take copious notes as you read in order to make necessary connections between our classroom readings and the ones that you have chosen. Then, in light of your understanding of the nature of good and evil, make a statement as to mans inherent goodness or inherent evil, using your credentialed and classroom texts to support/defend your point of view.</p>
<p>I'm sort of in the dark about this required writing sample thing. I'm debating between:
-A 620 word essay I wrote for Philosophy on living in vs. agreeing with a state (based on analysis of various arguments made by Plato.) Comments are all positive, got an A
-A 1000ish word creative assignment modeled after Faulkner's stream-of-consciousness style of writing, all positive critique with a few minor grammatical errors commented on by the teacher, got an A
and
-An essay of similar length comparing a Cheever short story to the Puritans' vision for America which got an A-. The teacher liked the essay overall but felt it needed to be more developed.
Opinions?
Also, what is the suggested length for the values essay?</p>
<p>Wow. I just plan to send in an IB History essay talkin' about Mussolini's rise of power and to "what extent" it was a result of his political savviness or mistakes of others.</p>
<p>ilikenoodles (so do I!), I'd say go for the Philosophy essay. It shows an analytical writing side to you.</p>
<p>My values essays is (so far) a revised email to my friends where I basically poured my heart out to them. :o It's long and full of deviations as my mind is so prone, so it's hopefully just a page or so...</p>
<p>libs- i called this morning and they are closed until jan. 3!! that is not good news... i really needed to ask them some things. i will try email.</p>
<p>noodles- i'd say the first 620 word one because it has an A and i thought i read something about how they didn't want creative things... but idk. that sounds cool.</p>
<p>ilovelamp - well, yes, you have winter break too....let the admissions officers rest up now so they'll be happier when they read your app :-).</p>
<p>There isn't an official limit on the values essay but I doubt they want to read pages and pages of your drivel. I played with the margins on mine until it fit on one page, it ended up being...600-700 words maybe?</p>
<p>i just finished (well, wrote and have yet to edit) mine and it's 614 words. haha yea, i realize they have winter break too... this was like when i emailed the GC at my school and got an automated response saying he was on vacation. i almost died. haha.</p>
<p>I decided to stop being lazy and open up Word to check how long my essay was (yes, I'm that bad...), it's nearly 700.</p>
<p>Editing....I have this bad habit of rarely editing anything.</p>
<p>In my English class this year, all we've done have been commentaries and last year we only did 3 take home essays (the rest in class) and 2 are not graded until June this year. It's this stupid stupid IB crap. So my essay I have to send in is from September of Junior year and it sucks. I'm reallly really scared.</p>
<p>IB's hard, yeah, but the paper doesn't have to be from English class. If you take IB History, I think that's also a subject you can purloin a paper from. A little unsure about TOK essays...</p>
<p>yeah, IB sucks for these graded essay things. At my school, we haven't written ANY english essays this year due to our extended essay. I sent in one of my TOK papers that had really good comments on it.</p>
<p>I had the same problem. This year in English we've only been working on our World Lit papers. I thought about sending a TOK paper but instead went with a gross non-IB in-class essay from early junior year, I hope it's okay. I really didn't have many options. I was afraid my extended essay (in history) would be considered too research papery...not to mention that teacher comments are on various copies on different drafts, it doesn't have an actual grade, and is by definition not "brief." So I didn't sent that, though I'm somewhat proud of it. Ick.</p>
<p>Is it ok that my writing sample is only 340 words long? It is a weekly reading response and i got an A on it. It seems to be much shorter than what u guys are sending.</p>