[685] in Depressing_Thoughts
Re: Writing Requirement, cont'd...
nlgilman@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (nlgilman@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Fri Dec 16 15:02:56 1988
Well I had an "interesting"
experience. I can write pretty well, and I am really better
than average when it comes to analysing poetry and
litterature. I can also defend a thesis and write a good
paper that follows a tight outline.
I took the freshman writing exam, and as all the questions
were highly political and centered on topic only the far left
really cares about, I like Sharon, knew nothing about the topics.
One of the questions was fairly open ended. "If you had all the
money, power and other resourses necessary to solve a world
problem (like the hunger in ethiopia, the unrest in Chile etc...)
what would you do and how would you solve it." Well while
I did care about the issues I didn't have anything to say about them.
So I decided "This is a writing test not a current events test, I
will just mutate the problem slightly..." I decided to solve a
problem I knew something about, The escalating cost of higher
education in the U.S. Well when I got my paper back, there was
no red ink on it, except the cover page "You did not answer any
fo the questions -F" Well I talked with the people there,
who liked my essay alot. I have also shown it to several other
writting proffesors who have all complemented me on it.
I did not take a course, I just turned in the next paper
I wrote and it passed with out any problems. Now this entry is
not what I would call a good example of my writing, my writing
skills have gone down considerably at this institute. One
just does not get enough practice. This however does not
bother me as much as the *&$@#!#$s who make up and grade the
phase one test. If the want to test writing ability they
should test writing ability and not wether or not you agree
with their political beliefs.
P.S. I know there are 1001 spelling mistakes and typo's in
what I have written, as well as missing comas, but I don't
care. :-)
