<p>Proud of your SAT essay score? Ah, it'll be lovely if you'd kindly post it for the rest us to admire and drool on, worshipping on a pedest - OK, actually, I was just wondering whether anybody would be kind enough to post up a sample "12" essay of theirs, so we can see what exactly composes of an exceptional essay.</p>
<p>Any takers?</p>
<p>Should we admire heroes but not celebrities? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.</p>
<p>The term "hero" comes from the ancient Greeks. For them, a hero was a mortal who had done something so far beyond the normal scope of human experience that he left an immortal memory behind him when he died, and thus received worship like that due the gods. Many of these first heroes were great benefactors of humankind: Hercules, the monster killer; Asclepius, the first doctor; Dionysus, the creator of Greek fraternities. But people who had committed unthinkable crimes were also called heroes; Oedipus and Medea, for example, received divine worship after their deaths as well. Originally, heroes were not necessarily good, but they were always extraordinary; to be a hero was to expand people's sense of what was possible for a human being.</p>
<p>Today, it is much harder to detach the concept of heroism from morality; we only call heroes those whom we admire and wish to emulate. But still the concept retains that original link to possibility. We need heroes first and foremost because our heroes help define the limits of our aspirations. We largely define our ideals by the heroes we choose, and our ideals -- things like courage, honor, and justice -- largely define us. Our heroes are symbols for us of all the qualities we would like to possess and all the ambitions we would like to satisfy. A person who chooses Martin Luther King or Susan B. Anthony as a hero is going to have a very different sense of what human excellence involves than someone who chooses, say, Paris Hilton, or the rapper 50 Cent. And because the ideals to which we aspire do so much to determine the ways in which we behave, we all have a vested interest in each person having heroes, and in the choice of heroes each of us makes.</p>
<p>Again, the critical moral contribution of heroes is the expansion of our sense of possibility. If we most of us, as Thoreau said, live lives of quiet desperation, it is because our horizons of possibility are too cramped. Heroes can help us lift our eyes a little higher. Immanuel Kant said that "from the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made." That may well be true. But some have used that warped, knotted timber to build more boldly and beautifully than others, and we may all benefit by their examples. Heaven knows we need those examples now.</p>
<p>O_O Wow. This was from the October SAT, right?</p>
<p>Very well written essay - subtle yet gets the message clearly across. Your last line seems to sum it all up - "heaven knows we need those examples now." Maybe you might have meant something else, but this line really got my attention and summed up your point. :)</p>
<p>Great job.</p>
<p>yes i loved the last line! too bad my essay on the same subject wasn't as good as yours.. :( last line is very very true though. i also loved this line </p>
<p>"Originally, heroes were not necessarily good, but they were always extraordinary; to be a hero was to expand people's sense of what was possible for a human being."</p>
<p>i think that would be an accurate way to describe a hero...because heros don't necessarily have to be GOOD, they just have to be GREAT. not the same thing haha.</p>
<p>wow, thats a crazy good essay</p>
<p>the one i wrote was way worse...im not sure how i also got a 12 ahah</p>
<p>Having read your essay, I can now understand why I got a "9". I've always under-estimated other's ability to write well within 25 mins. Btw, how did you view your essay? It's shown on my site that I have to come back in Nov 3 to view my essay.</p>
<p>Thank you, 8parks11!!! Anyone else?</p>
<p>I used a trick. I first viewed my January Essay and replaced codes to put it to the October test - which doesn't work anymore... </p>
<p>Anyways I personally see some grammatical errors. I'm surprised that I got away with them and managed a 12.</p>
<p>Would anybody else be generous enough to post an essay? ^^</p>
<p>i cant figure out a way to get into my essay page, so i cant post until nov 2nd or 3rd.</p>
<p>8parks,I admire you! How the hell did you write that in 25 mins? Gosh.. I wonder what kinda essay you can write in an hour.</p>
<p>That was friggin brilliant. Kudos!</p>
<p>i love what Keane Fan wrote...i thought it was friggin funny</p>
<p><em>applauds</em> Very well written :)</p>
<p>Actually, I disagree about the 1 hour part. I find that the essays I write in a shorter time span are much better than the ones I take longer to write. I think it's that spontaneous burst of literature that gives my essays the zing that I like. My long-drawn ones tend to be too fuddy-duddy for my taste when I look at them later.</p>
<p>OK, maybe this makes no sense...</p>
<p>i can post my 11 essay if you guys want to read it</p>
<p>go ahead tlu.</p>
<p>well i get a's in AP English but I must say I crack under pressure.. flow of writing to me is improved with increased span of time</p>
<p>brilliant essay, it deserves far beyond a 12.</p>
<p>Some advice on my part:</p>
<p>Literary / historical examples aren't the only ways you can score a 10+. If you are a good writer, and can strengthen your points well enough, it really doesn't matter what you use. Just try to write about something you like that has relevance to the prompt. I did that and got an 11.</p>
<p>WOW! I always was told that writing one body paragraph would throw you into the 8-9 range at best. Ok. This sucks. haha</p>