Week 2: January 20

There was no class meeting this week however we did have assignments online. All of these assignments were designed to help us learn how to write more effective argument essays. We did this by revising a boring essay in a passage in the Longman Reader entitled How to Say Nothing in 500 Words by Paul Roberts. This passage is a comical way of telling students how to liven their essays up and avoid common mistakes. We also learned how to make our papers more effective and exciting through 9 different POW introductions to choose from.

I really found all of these ways beneficial and I know it helped me a lot when I sat down to write my essay. I loved that SBS provided us with all of these tools to help us make our essays the best they possibly could be. It was a lot to read for some people I'm sure but I found everything I read to be very helpful. We also did another discussion forum which incorporated the essay editing and a few other items to help us think more creatively. I ended up being the creative composer of the week due to this post and was extremely proud.

Here is my award-winning discussion post :) -
1. Writers write about what obsesses them. You draw those cards. I lost my mother when I was 14. My daughter died at the age of 6. I lost my faith as a Catholic. When I'm writing, the darkness is always there. I go where the pain is.
- Anne Rice
2. Writer – a person whose trashcan often overflows with crumpled papers.
3. a. Eradicating the Distraction… College Football.

b. College football influences student bodies to consume dangerous amounts of alcohol.

c. “In the olden times when people played football just for the fun of it, maybe college football was all right, but they do not play football just for the fun of it now as they used to in the old days”

“In the past people played football for their own enjoyment, currently this isn’t the case.”

d. “Win or lose, we still booze” is chanted throughout campuses on college football game days. Although this does sound enticing and can be exciting, it often leads to disastrous issues such as hospitalization, arrests, and even death. This is only one of the many issues college football influences or effects.


We also sent in our first paper proposal this week and I decided to do mine on standardized testing then after talking to SBS narrowed it down to FCAT.

1. The United States education systems should put less focus on standardized testing and more on creative methods of teaching.
2. a. Students are memorizing information rather than learning it and fully grasping the concepts.
b. Teachers are getting frustrated with the restrictions placed on them and are therefore losing their creative edges.
c. Students can no longer think outside of the box because they’re taught to conform.
3. My target audience will be all teachers, professors and students of all ages, from elementary school through college. It will be to the people on the boards of the various school systems and universities.
4. I plan to use outline 2.