SAT May 2006 Essay

Well, I am preparing for the SAT and I wonder if you guys, can give me some feedbacks and correct my Essay and grade it out of 6. I really need help. Thanks for advance!!!

Prompt:

Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
It is not that people dislike being part of a community; it is just that they care about their individual freedoms more. People value neighborliness and social interaction - until being part of a group requires them to limit their freedom for the larger good of the group. But a community or group cannot function effectively unless people are willing to set aside their personal interests.
Adapted from Warren Johnson, the Future is Not What It Used to Be

Assignment : Does the success of a community-whether it is a class, a team, a family, a nation, or any other group-depend upon people’s willingness to limit their personal interests?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.

My Essay:

Has union been a boon for the success of a community? Do we have to put the collective interest in the highest order and limit our innate tendency to act egotistically? Judging from recent history, I can firmly assert that success, brilliant performances and achievement are only the fruit of our will to forgo our selfishness.

A couple of axioms might be underlined at this stage. In fact, I believe that insofar as each citizen or individual try to minimize his personal profit and instantaneous gain, the society will gain an unconditional support and a significant boost in order to accomplish a collective goal which is the ultimate achievement that makes citizens or members of community stick together. For instance the European Union (EU) introduced in 1957 as CECA,has become nowadays the second economic force in the world. In fact, wealthy nations like France, U.K and Luxembourg demonstrate a high level of maturity, foresight and solidarity to poorer nations like former Soviet countries and Balkans’ states who joined EU recently in 2000s. The policy of such close-knit community proved its success in many regions across Europe. Besides, EU managed to tighten the gap between nations, to increase in the average GDP, to decrease the overall unemployment rate and to lessen the tension in Balkans for example, despite setbacks as Greece Debt Crisis.

Sometimes, Forgoing personal interest is a duty and a nation must rather than a simple choice. In fact, German’s loss in WWI came not from the battlefileld, but from being politically stabbed in the back. Motivated by their economic personal interest, Jewish business men, left-wing parties and Marxist signed the peace treaty with Allies authorities while soldier were in the fronts fighting. This stab in the back caused a significant loss in land, hard currency and paved the way to Nazis to take over the power in Germany. That’s why it’s crucial for individuals to limit their egocentrism.

Furthermore, a sport team, be it soccer, football or basketball team, mostly rely on the dedication and the integration of members. For instance, a member shouldn’t act selfishly in order to be praise by sport pundits as Man of the match and achieve , consequently, personal glory and earn interest from bigger teams at the expense of the teams’ success because it would be a huge loss to hours of training , hard work and perspiration. Ultimately, selfish person will generate hate, anger, resentment and conflict between teammates. At this stage, no dream can be achieved because selfishness in tantamount to failure.

To cap it all, I ponder that a community is best assimilated to a human body with its members working flawlessly to serve a specific task in order to preserve the overall harmony and sanity but if each member works for itself no value will be bring and the body will suffer from serious diseases.

Your third paragraph seems to blame Jewish people for the rise of Nazism. I suggest that you not do that.

@WasatchWriter , Do not judge my essay out of facts. Please evaluate my essay academically and objectively.
If you want to help me grade my essay and give some meaningful advises !

That is meaningful advice, @Dawn001. Even if you are 100% correct (and I am not saying you are or are not IMO), you have to take into account that these essays are being read by people that are not necessarily historians. In fact they most likely are not, and might easily find your statement extremely offensive and grade you down accordingly. Given that the question asks about communities in general and therefore was wide open for choices of examples, picking a highly sensitive one such as you did shows questionable judgement for this type of exam. I might also argue as to whether an entire country is really a good example of community. Another highly debatable point given the references to “neighborliness and social interaction”, things not usually used to describe entire countries. I just don’t think this is what they had in mind. But I think you would have a very hard time finding one example in history where an entire country other than the very tiniest ones ever had the kind of characteristics being described in the premise. It’s just a very difficult argument to make in this setting.

It would be completely different for a college history paper where you would have the opportunity to back up your assertion with various citations and extensive reasoned argument. Also, that is a forum where debate is (usually) encouraged. This is about as far apart from that as you can get. Keep the goal in mind here. What good does it do you to potentially screw this up over a point no one else will hear?

Finally, your writing style sounds forced, like you are trying too hard to use fancy words. JMHO. Also, you should also never use the first person “I” in an essay like this. We all know it is your opinion by the nature of the piece. So instead of

you could simply say (even before cutting down on some of the rhetorical flourishes or fixing the grammar such as changing try to tries)

Notice that I also substituted the “our” from “…our will to forgo our…”. You are inserting yourself into the analysis, which you should not do.

Finally, this last paragraph has problems.

Of course there is the “I” again, but human body? Makes no sense. Flawlessly? Hyperbolic. Sanity? Questionable choice. "No value will be bring? Grammar. And again, if you want to argue for communism that is fine in some circumstances. But to say that “each member working for itself (sic) no value will be bring…” (again, grammar at the end and itself is wrong if your are talking about individuals, it would be “themselves”) kind of flies in the face of fact. The USA, a place where people famously have worked for their own “selfish” gain for centuries, has the highest standard of living and the greatest invention rate ever known, beyond what earlier generations even fantasized was possible. It has flaws of course, but that isn’t the point here. Your statement as it stands is clearly disprovable on its face.

All in all far too political for the purposes of getting a good score on an SAT essay, IMO.

@fallenchemist Thanks for help !
I learned a lot from your tirade. You give me some helpful remarks. Also, notice that I come to CC to learn how to fix my writing including grammar problems. But, what do you recommend exactly in order to deal effectively with history in SAT essay? Do you think that my essay is so weak? Does it worth 4 or at least 3 out of 6? Do you think that the grade would rise, if I use the third person instead of “I”?

@Dawn001 - I certainly wouldn’t call it a tirade! Constructive criticism seems more apropos. You seem like a little firecracker, someone that likes to stir the pot. I know, mixed metaphors. :slight_smile:

I really won’t get into grading levels because I am not privy to the rubric they give their graders. But if you keep the prose a little more even, make sure you are right on topic throughout the essay (it is easy to stray), stay away from highly controversial claims or examples to make your point (again, a time and place for everything), and finally make sure the grammar and structure, which includes aspects such as staying away from “I”, will all help make for a better essay. It is impossible for me to say how much any one of those things affects the final grade.

@fallenchemist -You seem too wise for this community? Are you a teacher? Do you give lectures?.Sure, your comment is constructive. I can’t help but take a bow. But, I wonder if you can help me with my other threads in order to learn more from your wisdom, knowledge and experience.