Homework Due 9-1 (email to me by late Tues/early Wed if you want corrections)

Argument Essay In-Class

Typically, as people age, their bone mass decreases, making them more vulnerable to bone fractures. A recent study concludes that the most effective way to reduce the risk of fractures in later life is to take twice the recommended dose of vitamin D and calcium daily. The three-year study followed a group of French women in their eighties who were nursing-home residents. The women were given daily supplements of twice the recommended dose of vitamin D and calcium. In addition, the women participated in a light weightlifting program. After three years, these women showed a much lower rate of hip fractures than is average for their age.

Argument Essay due 9-1

The following is a memorandum written by the director of personnel to the president of the Cedar Corporation.

"It would be a mistake to rehire the Good-Taste Company to supply the food in our employee cafeteria next year. It is the second most expensive caterer in the city. In addition, its prices have risen in each of the last three years, and it refuses to provide meals for people on special diets. Just last month three employees complained to me that they no longer eat in the cafeteria because they find the experience 'unbearable.' Our company should instead hire Discount Foods. Discount is a family-owned local company and it offers a varied menu of fish and poultry. I recently tasted a sample lunch at one of the many companies that Discount serves and it was delicious — an indication that hiring Discount will lead to improved employee satisfaction."

Issue Essay due 9-1: FOCUS ON ISSUE...

"College students—and people in general—prefer to follow directions rather than make their own decisions. Therefore, colleges should eliminate as many choices as possible in order to offer students clear direction."

Homework Due 8/30

Link to ETS page sample issue essays and scores
Click "An Introduction to the Analytical Writing Section of the GRE General Test (PDF)"


Argument Essay Homework Due 8/30

The following appeared in a business magazine.
"As a result of numerous consumer complaints of dizziness and nausea, Promofoods requested that eight million cans of tuna be returned for testing last year. Promofoods concluded that the cans did not, after all, contain chemicals that posed a health risk. This conclusion is based on the fact that the chemists from Promofoods tested samples of the recalled cans and found that, of the eight chemicals most commonly blamed for causing symptoms of dizziness and nausea, five were not found in any of the tested cans. The chemists did find that the three remaining suspected chemicals are naturally found in all other kinds of canned foods."
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The following appeared in a local newspaper.
"People should not be misled by the advertising competition between Coldex and Cold-Away, both popular over-the-counter cold medications that anyone can purchase without a doctor's prescription. Each brand is accusing the other of causing some well-known, unwanted side effect: Coldex is known to contribute to existing high blood pressure and Cold-Away is known to cause drowsiness. But the choice should be clear for most health-conscious people: Cold-Away has been on the market for much longer and is used by more hospitals than is Coldex. Clearly, Cold-Away is more effective."

Issue Essay Extra Practice HW

"Success, whether academic or professional, involves an ability to survive in a new environment and, eventually, to change it."

extra links to find current events or issues to add to you example libraries

Pop Sci is a cool site. This is a relevant article.

New York Times Magazine has excellent ideas too!!!

Times Magazine most influential people


Feel free to contribute.

Vocab Stories...send them to me and I will add them to the post!

I am zealous about my job at L’Oreal. One of the main reasons is because I am interested in all the different variegated beauty products. I believe that beauty products are an inevitable part of our lives; they are ubiquitous because not only do women uses them, but there are a lot of men who have started to take an interest too. Ever since I have begun working here, I have become tendentious in using only products from our company. I started off as a tyro in this industry, but as I had more exposure to our products, I became a loyal user, and I am quite familiar with our brands. I will tout about it to my friends. My friends are usually very tractable to using products I tendered especially if I pass them free samples to try out. All of our products have passed the Department of Health’s examination; therefore, they are all made of unfeigned substances. In addition, our packaging and display all have an urbane design.

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The decision of studying abroad was made accidentally. It was out of a torrid fantasy that taking a break of one year or two from work can be a wonderful present to me. I soon found myself in a welter of chaos at the first step of preparation for school application. In addition to so much paperwork, taking GRE worries me most. After the first unsuccessful trial, I started taking analytical writing classes at PrincetonReview. It is so weird to be sitting in a classroom after leaving school for such a long a time, like a tyro in the field of English learning, trying hard to grab as much as I can get with a voracious curiosity and appetite.

To work and to study at the same time is no easy job. After a day’s work, no more relaxation in front of TV or laptop monitor, but endless “brainstorming” and homework became the priority. On many MRT rides, I have fallen asleep with my torpid body and mind. Now I really get the feeling of veneration to those colleagues who are also studying for advanced degrees. Besides, the lack of ideas and examples always causes me to feel stuck in the middle of writing, which vitiates my confidence and makes me timorous about the GRE. There was even vacillation between taking or not taking GRE again that my heart would blow fiercely to the volatile state. Nonetheless, I will keep tenaciously working on the remaining preparations and will achieve my goal. I believe all the effort will pay off, not just some tawdry candies or jewelry, but a brand new page of my life to explore.

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This is a tragic story about Harry. One night at the dance party, Harry
undulates his body along with the music. He likes to come by the club and
dance for a while to relax his torpid body. He starts to feel tired after
thirty minutes of dancing, so he finds a place to sit and have something
to eat. In order to satisfy his voracious appetite, Harry orders thirty big
hamburgers for dinner. The waiter thinks that he would never be able to
finish the meal, so he vituperates Harry for wasting the food. However,
Harry finishes the whole meal in thirty minutes, and he earns the waiters’
veneration. After the meal, Harry leaves the club because the temperature
in that place is getting torrid. On his way home, Harry encounters a huge
storm that almost blows his coat away. He hides beneath the cover of a
bridge and hope for a transient break between the winds. However, the
heavy rain makes the river expand quickly. The river welters in the storm
and Harry could barely stand still in water. He realizes that the place
would eventually become untenable if the river kept growing. So he starts
to move away from the growing river. Yet the river grows way faster than
he moves, and finally a strong wave breaks his tenuous leg that supports
his body. The flood takes Harry away and his body is never found.
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Liu P is a sensitive and emotional girl. She is not at all tractable, not
willing to follow any rules. Liu P lives in her own world. Once Liu P ate
voraciously in the McDonald’s. The noisy kids beside her
threw the whole cup of coke into the wall, and Liu vituperated the kids in
the harshest terms possible. Her boyfriend knows it is an untenable situation
when Liu P over-reacts like this. However, he did not take umbrage at Liu P.
He knew deeply in his heart that Liu P was a nice girl, despite her tawdry
dress, tendentious tenacity in buying shoes, and torpor. There are many travesties between Liu P and her boyfriend. No one believes their torrid love for each other. Liu P and her boyfriend’s
veritable love overcomes every virulent situation.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I took a trip to Feng Chia last month. It is famous for the night market around Feng Chia University. We booked a nearby hotel so that we could wend to the night market, even though the way to the hotel is a little bit dark and tortuous. As we arrived there, we were so voracious because the smell from the food whet our hunger. We wavered about what to eat since all the vendors were zealous about selling their food. We didn’t know whether they were vaunting themselves or if their cuisine actually had veritable fame. After some discussion, we had tea-flavored eggs, fried chicken, stinky tofu, small steamed dumplings and papaya milk.
All of them were so delicious, especially the tea-flavored eggs. I sincerely recommend them to everyone. There were not only food vendors but also all sorts of shops there. However, most of the clothes there are tawdry, so I didn’t buy anything. In the end, we were exhausted and went back to the hotel to rest. Happy times are always so transient!

HW for 8.25

Due Wed. 8/25. Email to me
christinag@princetonreview.com.tw

Write a story for the blog using any 10 of the vocab words we have learned so far. Edit it for your 3 most-made grammar mistakes.

Issue Essay Brainstorm HW
1. “The increase in knowledge is forcing people to specialize. As a result, the distance between fields of specialization has become so vast that specialists in different areas are rarely able to influence each other.”
Brainstorm: Meaning, Issue, and EXAMPLES!

Issue Essay Write (45 min) HW
1. “The best way to teach – whether as an educator, employer, or parent – is to praise positive actions and ignore negative ones.”

Argument Essay Brainstorm HW

“Ever since the 1950’s when television sets began to appear in the average home, the rate of crimes committed by teenagers in the country of Alta has steadily increased. This increase in teenage crime parallels the increase in violence shown on television. According to several national studies, even very young children who watch a great number of television shows featuring violent scenes display more violent behavior within their home environment than do children who do not watch violent shows. Furthermore, in a survey conducted by the Observer, over 90 percent of the respondents were parents who indicated that prime-time television – programs that are shown between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. – should show less violence. Therefore, in order to lower the rate of teenage crime in Alta, television viewers should demand that television programmers reduce the amount of violence shown during prime time.”


Class work Issue Balanced Template Essay

1. “Most important discoveries or creations are accidental: it is usually while seeking the answer to one question that we come across the answer to another.”

2. “Censorship is rarely, if ever, justified.”

I should be upbraided for this tardy post

I had unfeigned intentions to post this story last night (Mon. night). I tried! I promise! But life got busy. I could make up excuses. I could say that I experienced the most untoward situations: my dog ate my computer, I got hit by a scooter, I got food poisoning...but I would just be lying.

I wouldn't want to litter this blog with lies and vitiate its veracity. The turpitude of lying to you would certainly give you reason to question my morals!

Anyway, sorry to post this so late, but here are some more vocab words.

I wanted to tell you a little more about the example I talked about in class of the American modern dance legend Merce Cunningham.

When Merce Cunningham was born in 1919, the most popular style of dance was ballet. Urbane members of the upper class would get all dressed up and vaunt their elaborate jewelry and fur coats when they went to view the ballet. They expected to see a narrative story take place on stage such as Swan Lake or Romeo and Juliet. Ballet was pretty, understandable, and elaborate. Although these people revered ballet as the ideal form of dance and expression, Merce Cunningham believed that dance should be stripped of its narrative and musical forms. He believed that ballet, as an art form, was too turgid, bursting at the seems with excessive meaning, costumes, and classical music. This move toward simplicity lead by Cunningham, was an untenable idea for many traditional dance critics at the time. They were not open to accepting the avante-garde.

So there you have it...a small background of Merce Cunningham. Below is a link to a video of one of his more popular works, Points In Space. Although he recently died (in 2009), Cunningham's work is ubiquitous in the dance community. Merce himself actually dances in this video. His solo begins at around 4.5 minutes. His company still performs internationally. Enjoy this clip. The dancers wear variegated unitards. I won't take umbrage if this type of dancing is not for you. You decide...

Argument Essay Prompts Due 8-18

Think of this as a game! Identify the Conclusion, Premises, and Assumptions.


1. Six months ago the region of Forestville increased the speed limit for vehicles traveling on the region’s highways by ten miles per hour. Since that change took effect, the number of automobile accidents in that region has increased by 15 percent. But the speed limit in Elmsford, a region neighboring Forestville, remained unchanged, and automobile accidents declined slightly during the same six-month period. Therefore, if the citizens of Forestville want to reduce the number of automobile accidents on the region’s highways,they should campaign to reduce Forestville’s speed limit to what it was before the
increase.

2. Hospital statistics regarding people who go to the emergency room after roller skating accidents indicate the need for more protective equipment. Within this group of people, 75 percent of those who had accidents in streets or parking lots were not wearing any protective clothing (helmets, knee pads, etc.) or any light-reflecting material (clip-on lights, glow-in-the-dark wrist pads, etc.). Clearly, these statistics indicate that by investing in high-quality protective gear and reflective equipment, roller skaters will greatly reduce their risk of being severely injured in an accident.

3. Claitown University needs both affordable housing for its students and a way to fund the building of such housing. The best solution to this problem is to commission a famous architect known for experimental and futuristic buildings. It is common knowledge that tourist are willing to pay money to tour some of the architect’s buildings, so it can be expected that tourists will want to visit this new building. The income from the fees charged to tourists will soon cover the building costs. Furthermore, such a building will attract new students as well as donations from alumni. And even though such a building will be much larger than our current need for student housing, part of the building can be used as office space.