An SAT practice essay

For many of us high school students, the SAT is a pretty big thing for us. Considering a lot of colleges use the SAT to judge whether or not they want you or maybe whether you should get a scholarship, getting a good score on the SAT is something a lot of us strive for. Here's a practice essay our teacher set up for us. The question was whether the media (news, newspapers, etc...) decides what information is important to us and whether it shapes our culture and values by their decisions.

In this modern world where new ideas, news, experiences, and many other things can be shared around the world within a matter of hours, minutes, and seconds, you realize how interconnected we all are to each other, even with people across the world. People with different opinions on things or new products that are coming out on market are expressed and exposed to us through the media. Information from the media tells us what’s new, what’s going on, and most importantly what information is important by not showing us the whole story. I believe that the media does decide what information is important and through this shapes cultures and values.
When I was young, maybe about 8, I remember how poke’mon was all in rage. They had poke'mon cards, backpacks, lunch boxes, stuffed animals, games, comics, a TV show, and everything you can expect from mass marketing. Every day when I was younger I would go home and watch poke'mon and play my poke'mon video game. The first time I heard about poke'mon was through commercials for the game and the TV shows. They had so many commercials for it on the kids channels, like cartoon network and Kids WB. My friends were some of the first people I know that got hooked on poke'mon through these commercials and finally got me to join in the poke'mon frenzy. This example shows how the media determines what is important because when kids or teens see an abundance of a certain commercial for a cool new toy or fashion, they tend to what to try the product from themselves.
Another example is how through the news, the media decides which current events are more important. When the Iraqi war started, I remember seeing almost nothing but news on the Iraqi news on all the major news channels. This in turned made me think about the Iraqi war everyday even when I didn’t really want to. I also remember how the news mostly showed how many U.S. soldiers were lost up to that point.

A reflection on this essay:

The first mistake I made about this essay was not finishing it on time (I have to Remember that I only have 25 min!). Also, I should have stuck with one good example proving my point that the media does determine what is important. I have to admit writing essays and such isn't my strong point. I probably could have gone with a stronger introduction too. I am not sure how, but it kind of seems like my introduction is so...average. There is nothing that sticks out and draws in the reader to this wonderful and enlightening topic. Also, when I use an example, I could use more work on providing a good analyzation of that example and how it relates to what I am trying to prove.

Blogging?!

For me, trying to think of something to write about in my posts is frustrating, almost as if I have A.D.D. (which I am pretty sure I don't have, which kind of sucks because I could get more time on tests and such ;P ). I sometimes have a topic on my mind but then it slowly fades to the back of my mind as I struggle to put what I want to say down in readable thoughts. I guess what I am saying is that for our english class, we should have more of a structured posting. I am not saying though that we should be limited to very specific subjects like, for example: "post your thoughts on this reading from pages 'blah blah blah' to 'blah blah blah' and come up with a thesis on why 'blah blah blah-blah blaaaah balhhhhh'." What I mean is that we should be given a choice on broad subjects like "respond to a current event" or "recall a childhood memory" and stuff like that so it would be easier to think of something to post. I liked our teacher's (Mr.Watson!) idea of having a cycle sheet with objectives to complete by the end of a school week instead of having us do homework on specific days. I think having a "slightly structured post" could work well with this idea.
With blogging I agree with Elise's thoughts on blogging: http://timtimestwo.blogspot.com/2007/02/you-want-to-know-what-i-think-my-take.html
Its interesting to read some of my classmates posts although some of them are just shout outs. It is true, like Elise said, that a lot of us forget the usual standards of "English Class Quality" in these posts and go off in all kinds of random thoughts that don't really help us get closer to answering the essential questions (What kind of world is this, and How should we live in it?). I truly do feel if we utilize this blogging in the right way, we could get our answers to essential questions through comments or posts of others, preferrably those of people not in the same school as us.

I haven't really gotten to address my essential questions at all through any of my posts. So here are a few:
-Where will the future take us?
-Is living for the benefit of you or others?
-What should our strongest beliefs, values, and morals be?
And here are the two essential questions that is this year's english class is trying to cover:
What kind of world is this?
How should I live in it?
About answering these questions, I don't feel a step closer to even want to try to. Through my posting, I have discovered a little through the reflection on Singer's essay and some others, but not enough to answer any of my questions to 100% satisfaction. I am not sure how I should find my answers to these questions. Hopefully in the near future I'll discover more through expressing myself more through this blog.

In Reflecting about my posts, I feel some what satisfied with them. Like I said, I don't get many ideas into this blog so I am sorry if I don't have that much personal thoughts. One of my posts that I like a lot is my Parent pressure one. It was somewhat interesting to write and it got some pretty good commenting back. I guess I should try to write posts like that one more often. The one sentence describing a place or object (mine was a book I was reading while trying to think of something else other than the homework I had to do that night) was pretty fun to write although I admit my writing skills isn't so great. The rest were mildly satisfying, and they were not as easy to write. Right now I am trying to get my "This I believe" Podcast up and running, but I can't seem to get the recording right, like I couldn't get it right with the ipod. Hopefully that post will be up and running soon because it was quite fun writing the essay.

Well if you read all that, congrats, you made it to the end. Go visit my fellow classmates blogs, they probably have more entertaining thoughts than I do. ;P

Simple Pages

You hear the clash of steel upon steel in your head as two knights struggle for the fate of their lives. A Dragon roars in the distance and the men, like many frightened ants sensing a giant's presence, scatter as the dragon releases a massive fireball onto the blood soaked field. The scene becomes another with a flick of your eye, as you now watch two young lovers lost in the tall grass stalks, separated and isolated from the world in that wonderful enticing moment of a first kiss. Words like fine silk upon skin wraps around your senses, plunging you into a world beyond yours. You feel the character, who would seem to be standing right next to you, his words a cascade of ideals and emotions that jerk and pull you at whim. A symphony of colors, sounds, sights, feelings, and emotions play within your head as you read on. Page by page, line by line, word by word, you are drawn into this other world until all you feel of real world is the dread of it ending.

Pursuit of Happiness

This I believe:

I believe in dreams. Whether they are big or small, impossible or plausible, realistic or imaginary, dreams are what keep humans on a forward moving track. They serve as a guiding path in life, they help determine who you are and what you should do in life. Dreams are as precious as your childhood memories. They should never be forgotten. For when they are, you lose sight of who you truly are, who you truly want to be. Some times, they define the purpose for your life. When man first looked up at the night sky, and saw the moon, I could imagine that one person dreamed of landing on the moon. And after many generations, many lifetimes, we did land man on the moon.

A very short paragraph highlighting on of my beliefs

notes:

-Walt Disney?
-imagination
-achievable dreams vs. impossible
-special, makes us different?
-what do dreams do to help move man along
-purpose of dreams
-source?