Friday, July 10, 2020
How to Write a Good Scholarship Essay - A Few Tips
How to Write a Good Scholarship Essay - A Few TipsFinding samples of how to write a good scholarship essay can be difficult at times, but there are actually some steps you can take in order to find such materials that will really help you. To begin with, you will want to make sure that you have a rough idea of what kind of scholarship essay you want to submit.Once you have an idea, it is time to get out the numbers and go out and find a good example. You can't go searching for it, but rather use Internet resources and good search engines. When you do this, you are really going to need to put some effort into your research.Writing the wrong words can easily ruin an otherwise nice essay. Writing in a way that is not professional can also easily backfire, and that is why you should really make an effort to learn how to write a good scholarship essay. You do not want to write a poorly written or badly researched one. What you will want to do is read up on the right way to write such a pi ece and use some sample essays that other people have used so that you know that you have an idea of how to approach it.When you do your research for how to write a good scholarship essay, you may come across the question of how to handle the language. While it is true that you can try to make yourself sound professional, it is not always effective. There are going to be a lot of students who are going to take a look at your essay and tell you that it is terribly amateurish and have very little to say. To avoid this from happening, it is important that you focus on trying to make yourself sound professional at all times.When it comes to writing your essay samples, you will need to keep in mind that most scholarship essays can be composed of three main parts. The first part is going to be the introduction. It is important that you think of the introduction as the skeleton on which your entire essay is constructed. That is why it is imperative that you give your introduction as much t hought as possible.After your introduction, you will want to use the second part of your essay to lay out your major points. The third part will be the conclusion. You will want to keep in mind that most scholarship essays are going to have a conclusion, which is where you will want to link the major points that you have worked so hard to make to a conclusion that is satisfactory to the reader. The last part of your essay is where you will use some good examples that you have found. This will make the essay more appealing to others as well as helping you feel more confident in your ability to write.As you can see, how to write a good scholarship essay can be tricky. You may find that in order to get the kind of scholarship essay that you have been after, you will need to spend a bit of time looking through different samples. You will also want to make sure that you do your research and learn how to make the most of the scholarship essay samples that you find.
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
The College Board informant returns (and the College Board goes after him)
This past June, Manuel Alfaro, a former Executive Director of Test Design and Development at the College Board, wrote a stunning series of tell-all posts on LinkedInà in which he detailedà the numerous problems plaguing the redesigned SAT as well as the College Boards attempts to alternately ignore and cover up those problems. For several weeks, Alfaro posted nearly every day, each time revealing moreà disturbingà details about the College Boards bumbling ineptitude and equally clumsy attempts to hide it.à Then, after 16 posts, he disappeared.à I wrote aboutà Alfaros major revelations here and here, so Im not going to repeat them in this post; if youd like to read the full series for yourself, you can do so via Alfaros LinkedIn page. Given the accusations, it wasnt hard to speculate about whyà Alfaro had gone silent so abruptly: presumably, the College Boards team of legal vultures had either paidà him off orà threatenedà to make his life miserable if he didnt keep his mouth shut.à Moreà than one commenter who appeared to have some personal familiarity with Alfaro pointed outà that he isnt the type of person to back down easily.à Asà it turns out, both sides were right. Alfaro has indeed returned, with two new posts (see here and here)à revealingà yet more lurid details about the College Boards exploits. I strongly encourage you to read them.à Unsurprisingly, theà College Boardà has alsoà come after him:à Alfarosà home was apparently raided by the FBI as a result of accusations thatà he was the person who released hundreds ofà test items to Reuters. But he also deliberately refrained from posting until after the April (school-day) and May SATs were released. Why? Because, he asserts, the administered test did not match the specifications laid outà for the redesigned SAT,à leaving a significant percentage of test-takers unable to finish the exam. Again, he claims, top College Board officials were aware of the problem but took no steps to rectify it prior to administration. According to Alfaro,à the extraordinary delay in releasing the testsà was most likely due to the College Boards need to rewrite the affected items,à post-administration, to make them conform to the specifications. (Perhaps this what one College Board official meant when he stated that the delay was the result of a problem with the metadata.) He therefore waited to begin posting until after the exams had been released in order to see whether or rather, how and to what extent the College Board had doctored them. à So the issue is not only that the College Board has released an insufficient number of full-length exams; it is that even the exams that have been released may not be representative of the real test.à à Alfaro also statesà that in order to beat out the ACT for the Colorado state testing contract, the College Board spuriously claimed that the new exam tested scientific reasoningà by counting every question that referred to a scientific topic regardless of whether the questionà actuallyà tested science in any way.à Im not sure whats moreà disturbing: that the College Board actuallyà argued that rSAT tested science even though it clearly does no such thing, or that Colorado school officials actually bought the College Boards claims (as did schools officials in Illinois, Michigan, and Connecticut). After all, theà onlyà thing they needed to do was spend five minutesà looking at the test.à I think the that the major takeaway from all this is that the College Board is operatingà on the very cynical but all too often valid assumption that if one proclaims that something is true loudly and often enough, it ceases to beà relevant whether that thing is actually true. Thus, it is not necessary for the new SAT to actually require students to use evidence (the way the old SAT essay did, for example) it is merely sufficient to call thingsà evidence-based.à Likewise, the College Board need only indignantlyà proclaimà its commitment to transparency,à regardless of whether there is evidence to suggest thatà such thing exists in any meaningful way. à Most people even those in charge of education for hundreds of thousands of students will not bother to question important-sounding executives in suits who come bearing talking pointsà about equity and slickà PowerPoint presentations. Provided that things are spun correctly and the necessary talking points are adhered to strictly enough, almost any absurdityà can be made to sound reasonable.à (Gee, whod have thought that bringing in a McKinsey consultant would result in THAT?! Or maybe that was precisely the point.) Such is the beauty of a post-fact world. This isnt exactly news at this point, but it bears repeating. Inà politics, enough people are clued into reality to spark a good deal of pushback after a certain threshold of ridiculousness is reached.à (I was worried for a while that this wouldnt be the case, but I was proven wrong). In education, however, people tend to be less informed about the details, and thus the issues are considerablyà easier to obscure.à à à What makes the game the College Board is playing particularly dangerous is that it distortsà key terms in theà lexiconà of education itself (critical thinking, evidence, higher-order thinking) so that theyà come to mean something far different, or even the opposite, of what they are traditionally understood to mean. Words become unmoored from their definitions. And if any of this is questioned, the response is always along the lines of its complicated. Obfuscation is thus recast as nuance. The result is an exercise in doublespeak in which theà College Board says one thingà and the public understands another. (Isnt it wonderful thatà students have to use evidence that will really help them develop those higher-order thinking skills!) An organization that has a fundamental responsibility to helpà students learn to use language correctly is instead teaching a far different lesson, namelyà the importance of jargon and spin.à As Ive said before, from a sociological perspective it is utterly fascinating to watch this phenomenon play out in real time, but it is also terrifying to witness the ease with which people can be inducedà to ignore what is under their noses and to excuseà the propagation of blatant falsehoods.à (I mean, everybody knows that guessing penalty doesnt really mean theres a penalty for guessing. Its just called that.)à So is thisà ultimately the goal: toà teach students to repeat a series of platitudes and buzz words, without any regard forà their underlying meanings? I really am beginning to think this is the case.à Critical thinking, for example, is often toutedà as the most important thing for students to develop, but people who exhibit a nuanced understanding of topics are typically derided as wonks. Witness the way the media bemoans Donald Trumps lack of specifics but then turns around and sneers at Hillary Clinton for having the nerve to discuss her policies in detail, of all things.à From whatà Ive observed, the present goal of the education system seems to be to get students to about a seventh- or eighth-grade level very quickly and then more or less leave them there; real advanced work is for nerds. (And real advanced STEM work is for roboticà Asian nerds yes, there is a racially tinged component here.) à I maintain thatà most people who extol the virtuesà of critical thinking would not much likeà the real thing if they saw it. It just involves too much work and too many facts. And worse, its not alwaysà fun.à To be sure, this type of anti-intellectualism has been a consistentà feature of American life since the nineteenth century, and granted Im not an expert, butà Im not quite sure whether it has ever been embraced to quite this extent byà educators themselves.à The question is, have things progressed so far that the people who run the educationà system are incapable of noticing these things?à And when people do point them out, will they have anyà effect?
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Through the Looking Glass The Case for Human Reproductive...
In the summer of 1996, an animal unlike any other was born unto the world. Roughly three feet high and covered in an insulating material, there were countless others that looked nearly identical freely roaming the countryside. But this animal was special; it was precisely identical to one of its brethren. Dolly the sheep was the first ever manmade clone, an exact copy of its genetic donor. In the fifteen years since the birth of Dolly cloning technology has been improving at a steady pace, and now humanity as a whole is at an impasse: human clones. Scientists are very close to being able to clone a human being, but should they? A ban on human cloning issued by the World Health Organization is in place (World Health Organization 1) but itâ⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦According to John Harris ââ¬Å"it is important to many individuals to have offspring that are related to them and only themâ⬠, and in some cases the only way to accomplish this is through human reproductive cloning (qtd. in Havstad 73). Consequently, this argument is founded on the underlying assumption of the right to reproductive freedom, or the freedom of an individual to do what they wish with their genetic material. Philosopher Ronald Dworkin states that this reproductive freedom is rooted in the American tradition of personal freedom, which is generally accepted as sound within American society (qtd. in Havstad 72). For those who wish to have a child that is genetically related to only them, human reproductive cloning is the only option. The main opposition to this view is the fact that there are other options available to those who cannot biologically produce children. Namely, the couples in question could turn to sperm donation, egg and embryo donation, or adoption (Baird 319). Baird claims this would allow for the couples to have children without ââ¬Å"chang[ing] the integrity of our speciesâ⬠(318) by using cloning technology. What this viewpoint fails to take into account is the aforementioned right to reproductive freedom. A human being has the personal right to do what they wish with their own genetic material through the use of alternative reproductive techniques (Havstad 73), and therefore hasShow MoreRelatedThe Controversial Debate Of Human Cloning4152 Words à |à 17 PagesHuman cloning has been a very controversial topic for many years now. The term human cloning includes numerous methods that are used to produce genetically identical copies of humans. The copied material, which has the same genetic makeup as the original, is referred to as a human clone (National Human Genome Research Institute). Lost in the midst of all the fuss about cloning is the fact that cloning is nothing new: itââ¬â¢s rich scientific history spans more than 100 years (Genetic Science LearningRead MoreEssay on Ethics of In Vitro Fertilization2459 Words à |à 10 Pagesallow us to intervene in, and sometimes take control of, the processes of life and death. Not only can death, quite often, be kept waiting by the bed or machine, doctors and scientists can now also intervene in, indeed, initiate the process of life: cloning and recombination of DNA are two examples; in vitro fertilization (IVF) is another (Walters 23). It is not surprising, then, that in the wake of these revolutionary developments, bioethics is flourishing. Despite the obvious enthusiasm of philosophers
Discussion of D.Z. Phillips Conception of Immortality Essay
Discussion of D.Z. Phillips Conception of Immortality In his book Death and Immortality, D Z Phillips starts by asking the question: does belief in immortality rest on a mistake? The first two chapters are negative in the sense that they examine traditional philosophical, as well as common sense, conceptions of what immortality means. Phillips argues that philosophical analyses centred on the notion of immortality have generally been constructed around certain essential presuppositions: presuppositions that assume some form of continuation of personal identity after death. One cannot logically deny that, by definition, death entails the end of bodily existence, so one, it seems, is logicallyâ⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦I e, I can continue to exist without my body if I am not the same thing as my body. Following on from Wittgensteins attack on the notion of logical privacy, Phillips thinks that this idea of the soul is fundamentally confused. Phillips argues that it is impossible to divorce private experience from public life and as such any conception of the soul as a separate substance is entirely fallacious. Taken that any continuation of personal identity after death seems to be dependent on some form body/soul dualism, and given the logical objections to such notions, one may be drawn into thinking that immortality is always going to be seen as rationally implausible. However, Phillips argues that a rejection of dualism does not necessitate a rejection of immortality. Phillips draws attention of to the fact that a perfectly meaningful conception of the soul can, and does, exist in the absence of any reference to some mysterious incorporeal substance. In everyday language we use expressions such as he was a good soul or he would sell his soul for money, Phillips uses these examples to demonstrate that, in this context, what we are referring to is not some philosophical dualistic account of a person, rather it is an assessment of what we believe to be that persons moral state of being - his
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
I Am A Single Soul - 1020 Words
Ever feel like that no one understands you, or what you are going though? I felt like that for a while. Then I met my uncle Brandon Buttry. The kid actually understood how I felt, he had been though similar things. As if that wasnââ¬â¢t good enough, he was known as the type of person who would always brighten your spirits up. About a lifetime ago, the first time I met the Buttry clan, I was the outcast. Truthfully most of the kids took their time in warming up to me. Honestly, I doubt they even wanted to spend time with me willingly. Eventually, Micah and Noah my aunt and uncle the same age as me; we became inseparable. Although before that Brandon was my only true friend. Never will I forget how grateful I am for the times that we bonded.â⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦He didnââ¬â¢t stay with us that long, so he returned back to Nebraska City. I had some of my favorite memories with my uncle that include when he would tell stories or adventures, as he would consider them. The stories would be about events or life lessons that happened to him or adventures he would plan to have someday. When I was still a Buttry newbie, at a wedding I rode up with my grandparents, and everyone else would talk to someoneââ¬â¢s else besides me. So Brandon kept me occupied with his words, we debated all time on different movies and shows. I actually had fun at that wedding because of him making me smile. Another memory, which was one of the last stories he shared with me, was when my family out visiting him. He mentioned to me how his dream was to enlist in the army, and to serve our country. Inside I didnââ¬â¢t want to tell him not to enlist and leave us, but all that came out of my mouth was to follow his dream. So he did, he signed up to serve our country. After that, thing get blurry, my other uncle Austin went blind, Brandon went to Georgia, which is the place where he trained. When he was there I wrote a few letters for him, I tried to make them enjoyable and help keep his sense of humor in line. Georgia is the place when he met Trevor, creepily now my aunt Macyââ¬â¢s boyfriend. If im being real here I thought Trevor was different, he was a hairdresser. Now I think heââ¬â¢s alright, heââ¬â¢s training in criminology to become a
The Federalists And The Anti Federalists - 1656 Words
After the Constitution was composed and signed in 1787, there was still the pressing need for ratification. Nine of Thirteen states had to agree to its terms before the document would become binding. In the months that followed, the people who staunchly opposed the new constitution, and the people who supported began to write articles defending their positions. They were named the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. The Anti-Federalists, however, were incredibly displeased with the name that the Federalists had coined for them. In that time, Federalism was synonymous with Confederation, which was what the Anti-Federalists were fighting to protect. The arguments were varied, and consisted of valid points from both sides. One of the major arguments of the Anti-Federalists was the supposed validity of a large scale republic. They were skeptical that such a thing could be successfully executed. They wrote about their concerns, worrying about liberty, state and individual, and delegatio n. James Madison, in Federalist 10, refuted their claims about these issues, and brought about solid reasoning for his desired large republic. While the Anti-Federalists made sound arguments for small republics in terms of liberty and representation, Madison provided better evidence on the sustainability of a large republic. One problem the Anti-Federalists had with the notion of a large republic was the major power shift that would occur between the States and the Federal government. PatrickShow MoreRelatedThe Federalist And Anti Federalist1263 Words à |à 6 Pages The Anti-Federalist put up a long and hard fight, however, they were not as organized as the Federalists. While the Anti- Federalist had great concerns about the Constitution and National government, the Federalist had good responses to combat these concerns. The Federalist were and for the Constitution and feel the Article of Confederation were not worth ratifying, these should be scrapped altogether. They felt that the Articles limited the power of congress, because congress had to request cooperationRead MoreThe Federalist And The Anti Federalist864 Words à |à 4 Pagesthe federalist, then later on the anti-federalist in 1796. Alexander Hamilton was the leader of the federalist party. Thomas Jefferson was the leader of the anti-federalist; who called themselves the Democratic-Republicans. Our first president, George Washington warned us about having parties and the danger of them. However, not until Congress debated the ratification and implementation of Jayââ¬â¢s Treaty wit h Great Britain did two political parties clearly emerge; the Federalist and the Anti-FederalistRead MoreThe Federalists And The Anti Federalists1189 Words à |à 5 PagesIn debate of the ratification of the Constitution, the Federalists and the Anti- Federalists agreed on several things: the necessity of some form of national government, the preservation of the right to vote, and the need to secure our liberties. The Federalists wanted a strong central government, whereas the Anti- Federalists wanted more power reserved to the state government. The right to vote is important for both sides, but they hold conflicting views on the amount of involvement through theRead MoreThe Federalists And The Anti Federalists1305 Words à |à 6 Pagesthe cause for a huge debate between; The Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. The Federalists were those who thought that there should be a new Union created with a strong centralized government and individual regional governments. They felt that i t was not necessary for there to be a bill of rights because it was implied that those rights the Constitution did not specifically state would be handed down to the states. On the other hand, the Anti-Federalists were opposed to such a form of governmentRead MoreFederalists Vs. Anti Federalists1518 Words à |à 7 PagesIn early 1788, Federalists and Anti-Federalists held fierce debates over how the state of Rhode Island would vote on Constitutional ratification. Two models of democracy were contested: the Anti-Federalists argued in favor of mass participation in the form of a state referendum, and the Federalists argued in favor of elite representation in the form of a state convention. On the whole, while the state referendum model used in the debates in Rhode Island allows for greater participation and an opportunityRead MoreFederalists vs. Anti-Federalists1723 Words à |à 7 Pagesthe subject of numerous debates. The contending groups consisted of Federalists, those who suppo rted ratification, and Anti-Federalists, those opposed to the constitution. Each group published a series of letters known as the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers. The Anti-Federalist papers objected to provisions of the proposed constitution while the Federalist Papers defended the rationale behind the document. Anti-Federalist objections included that; the United States was too extensive to beRead More Federalists and Anti-Federalists Essay1665 Words à |à 7 PagesThe Constitution, when first introduced, set the stage for much controversy in the United States. The two major parties in this battle were the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. The Federalists, such as James Madison, were in favor of ratifying the Constitution. On the other hand, the Anti-Federalists, such as Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee, were against ratification. Each party has their own beliefs on why or why not this document should or should not be passed. These beliefs are displayedRead Mo reThe Federalists Vs. Anti Federalists1010 Words à |à 5 Pagesduring the American Revolution. The rivalry between the Federalists and the anti-Federalists emerged during the process of ratifying the Constitution between 1787 and 1788. Initially, the Federalists supported the Constitution while the anti-Federalists did not (199). The principle differences dividing the Federalists and anti-Federalists were the controversy of creating a federal government and how to interpret the Constitution. Anti-Federalists insisted on protecting the rights of the states and theRead MoreAnti Federalists Vs. Federalists1634 Words à |à 7 Pages Anti Federalists vs. Federalists (Paper #1) The Federalists and the Anti - Federalists played an indispensable part in the establishment of the American Constitution. Federalists were supporters of the constitution, while Anti federalist were against the ratification of the Constitution. Federalists believed in the idea of a larger heterogeneous republic whereas anti federalists wanted a small homogenous republic. Famous federalists like James Madison, John Jay and Alexander Hamilton are responsibleRead MoreThe Federalists Vs. The Anti Federalists1801 Words à |à 8 Pagesare worse than others. In the case of the Federalists vs. The Anti-Federalists, was the drafting of the Constitution actually worth it in the end? When the colonists first came over seas from Great Britain there was one thing that was vastly agreed onââ¬âa change in how government works and runs was necessary for the future of America. Two major groups eventually formed behind this way of thinking, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. The Federa lists were under the impression that the formation
Term list hist of psyc Essay Example For Students
Term list hist of psyc Essay School of thought: A group of scholars who become associated ideologically with a system of ideas, System: An orderly and comprehensive compilation of principles facts, and methods that describe and explain identified or observed phenomena. Ex. Hulls Tolmams systems are components of the neobehavioristic school of thoughtPsyc VoluntarismSchool of Behaviorism Thought FunctionalismParadigm: A fundamental model or scheme that organizes our view of something. Mechanism: natural processes are determined and explanation by the laws of physics and chemistry. Galileo: Matter was composed of corpuscles or atoms that contact but by forces that acted to attract or repel the atoms. Newton: Movement was communicated not by actual physical contact but by forces that acted to attract or repel the atoms. The operation of the universe was: orderly, smooth and predictable and was subject to the laws of measurement. Materialism: Universe described in physical terms and explained by natural an physical properties of matter and energy. Something to ponder: Perhaps all perception exists only in terms of secondary qualities. Therefore, maybe nothing exists in and of itself. George Berkeley â⬠¦Mentalism: All knowledge is a function of mental phenomena. Knowledge depends on the perceiver. Objects exist because God perceives objects. David Humeâ⬠¦Impressions: Basic elements of mental life. Similar to sensations and perceptions. Ideas: Mental experiences in the observance of the stimulating object. Law of Resemblance and Law of ContiguityDavid Hartleyâ⬠¦1. Contiguity2. Repetition (practice)Note: Hartley took Newtonââ¬â¢s idea of vibrations of particles in the universe and applied it to the nerves and the brain. Vibrations in nerves (solid not hollows) transmitted impulses to one point in the body to another. This leads to vibrations in the brain that were the physiological counterpart of ideas. MECHANISM = modern neuroscience. James Mill â⬠¦The mind was a machine. It was operated on by external physical forces run by internal forces. Radical recluctionism No creative function of the mind: associations were automatic passive, mechanical. John Sturat Mill (Mental chemistry)â⬠¦Creative synthesis: The mind played an active role in the association of ideas. Complex ideas were not simply the summation of simple ideas. Complex ideas are more than the passive sum of simple ideas. Besselâ⬠¦personal differences in observation time s would be found among all astronomers, a phenomenon come to be called personal equation. J,mullerâ⬠¦stimulation of a particular nerve leads to characteristic of sensation. M. Hall. Flourenceâ⬠¦.cerebrum=voluntary movementspinal cord=reflex actionMedulla=respiration Cerebellum=movement Midbrain=vision / auditionExtripationâ⬠¦function of the brain removing a part to find the function by flurence. Bibliography:
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