<p>Should ordinary people be considered heroes, or should the term "hero" be reserved for extraordinary people? </p>
<p>Ordinary people should not be considered heroes, only those who are extraordinary can have that term because extraordinary people and solve extraordinary problems. We see this in Harry from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Lennie in Of Mice and Men. </p>
<p>In the novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K Rowling, Harry is what most considers a hero. Although like many of his peers, Harry was a wizard who could magic with his wand. Yet Harry was considered to be extraordinary because of a scar on his head that he received from the antagonist Voldemore. When Voldemore gained back his power and began to terrorize the Wizard world many people tried to stand up to him. Yet they did not succeed because they were ordinary. Harry, on the other hand, being extraordinary had the power to battle and in the end defeat Voldemore. Thus, Harry was considered a hero because of his extraordinary appearance. </p>
<p>Lennie from Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck was also considered a hero. Lennie was very muscular and well built. He had a mighty strength which was an asset when working on a ranch. The antagonist named Curley was very stubborn and presumptuous to the people surrounding him. Curley would beat up anybody who looked at his wife or even took a cursory glance. The other workers were scared of Curley, not only because they fear he would hurt them but by being the boss’s son Curley could also get the other workers fired. No one could step up to Curley until Lennie did. Unintentionally, while Curley was trying to intimidate Lennie, Lennie used his extraordinary strength and broke Curley’s hand. After hurting Curley they way Curley hurt the other workers, everyone looked to Lennie as a hero. Therefore, Lennie’s extraordinary strength allowed him to defeat Curley and become a hero.</p>
<p>Harry and Lennie, indeed, show that only extraordinary people can be referred to as heroes. A hero is always described as extraordinary, having some special ability or superpower that sets them apart from everyone else. If ordinary people could be heroes than everyone in the world would be a hero which would eliminate the importance of the term. Yet because only a few people in the world as extraordinary and if only they are considered heroes than the word hero keeps it importance. </p>
<p>P.S- I might have stretched the truth a bit with Lennie in Mice and Men (just a bit) and I couldn't think of a thrid example</p>
<p>Its a good extemporaneous essay, but you should follow a couple guidelines to help you in any essay.
Try NOT to start with your thesis so up front and direct; instead, start off vaguely and gradually work your way into the topic - it makes your essay seem much more mature.
Ex: “In today’s society, we often assume that a hero is a person who possesses extraordinary talent or ability, but this is only a common misconception. Ultimately we must realize that…”</p>
<p>2) Try your best to avoid all HP allusions at any cost. They are often difficult to properly incorporate into the prompt, and more importantly, they are FAR too overused. 17 year olds all around the country are reading HP and most likely using it in an SAT essay…put yourself in place of the reader. HP is not original nor impressive. </p>
<p>Honestly, it’s clear your essay skills need some work (don’t take offense), but I wouldn’t worry too much about it for the SAT. I would put this at anywhere from 8-10? idk…
If you really want to get better, start reading some previous SAT essays (<a href=“SAT - College Board - The New York Times”>SAT - College Board - The New York Times)
and look at how they connect their examples clearly to the thesis-this is applicable to any prompt. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to research some historical examples you believe might be flexible enough to provide support for various essays. </p>
<p>The SAT essay seems a lot like an impromptu speech (Speech and Debate), which involves a 3 minute prep period for a 4 minute speech on a totally random topic. I improved my impromptu skills by learning key phrases and allusions that I could manipulate depending on the topic.
My guess is, same strategy works for the SAT essay…</p>
<p>I would probably score the essay 4 or 5 out of 6 because it does effectively convey the prompt. The readers obviously know this shouldn’t be anywhere near a perfect essay, it’s just a test to see how well you can take information in a given amount of time and turn it into a decent rough draft. </p>
<p>So on the actually SAT, WRITE WRITE WRITE! I paused for like 10 minutes during my essay and I could not sum up my thoughts because I disrupted my constant flow of writing. Just keep on writing no matter what, pretend like your discussing a topic with a teacher. And because you’re a sophomore, and because you have plenty of time to improve, I would advise you to pay very close attention in your english and history classes! These classes will help you practice your writing and gain more insight on timed writing (most probably) :)</p>
<p>Okay, thank you both asinine16 and pch340. I knew I shouldn’t have used Harry Potter, I should really looked into Historical Facts, like I could of used Oskar Schindler because he was considered a hero. I need to enlarge my examples list. Anyway thank you guys for anything. Do you have any advice for the Critical Reading section???</p>