Anyone want to discuss the ESSAY?

[BushBaby]

How did you guys find the essay section?

My questions:

1) Something about government should regulate the content on the web.

2)Something about how human beings are guided by self-interest or some crap of that nature.

What did you guys get?

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[Echinoidea]

I had the same topics. On the first one, I argued that we have the inherent right to publish copyrighted AAMC materials on the web without government intervention.

Yeah, I'm getting a T!

 

[steve007]

haha, that's funny. i had the same essays and i argued against both points mostly. not too bad.

 

[soonerpillow]

Yeah, those are the same ones I had. Everyone else in my room had those, too. Maybe those are the only two questions.

The writing sample isn't my strong point. I managed to write about a page for each one. I'm hoping for an O. I think I did better on the second essay, for some reason.

 

[crackerj]

I had the same questions too....

The first one... I said that a professor (I made up the name as well as his university..) has suggested the numerical system in determining the content of a web site (e.g. if there are many picture files, there's possibility that it's a porn site, so such a website is graded the highest... and the gov. has to regulate it in this case)...

The second one... I said human behaviour is motivated by either intention or instinct and I explained it in terms of the criminal judgement system, whether robbery is really motivated by human's instinct to sustain life or human's intention to increase the financial status...

Both of them were good for me I guess....2 pages each... I am satisfied...

 

[Irene Adler]

This will haunt me for a while. . .

I lost track of time on the last five minutes. As I was writing my summary sentence (last sentence), they called 'time' before I could get the last word written down. Like a dummy, I didn't just finish the sentence. So my first essay ends in "the".

Think the evaluator will notice?

 

[Amit1]

I had the same ones too. The first one I made an argument for the regulation of only potentially dangerous material rather than offensive content and used examples such as rotten.com and previous legeslation to censor it due to disturbing images such as evicerated human bodies (I argued agaist this regulation based on taste) and I argued for regulation of websites that pose a threat to the welfare of the community such as websites that espouse terrorist mantas or websites that are used to transmit dangerous information under the guise of pornography etc (such as the incident with Al Quaida).

For the second one I presented the view of John Locke and the behavior of man in the "state of nature". I also juxtaposed that viewpoint with the new research that has shown altruistic behavior in animals ranging from insects to the higher primates (such as bonobo apes their mate sharing). This research suggests that alturistic behavior is not simply a construct of modern human civilization and it is a hardwired behavior. I concluded with a compromise between the two viewpoints that humans are not entirely driven by self intrest nor are they completely altruistic - the degree of self intrest vested in any venture is determined by the question "Is this good for the genes" (okay I didn't word it like that but its funny - remember office space? Lumburg - "Is this good for the company").

Anyhow I had the creative juices flowing and wrote some fairly detailed lengthy essays with no filler - I got lucky and landed some topics that I had some good background information on.

 

[beastmaster]

I forget my essay for the first one, but it was also from the censorship perspective. I ended up making the case for the justification of publishing instructions for criminal activity online.

The second essay I added a Darwinian twist. I argued that giving birth is profusely selfish, whereas adoption is primarily selfless. I concluded by making a case for rational self-interest (Ayn Rand).

 

[chapinsita]

I had the same questions too. For the first one, I wrote about kids who get directions for making bombs online, and that those websites should be regulated, but on the other hand regulation of websites is a threat to freedom of speech. For the second essay, I wrote about obvious selfish behavior such as eating from a Darwinian perspective. On the other hand, I wrote about self sacrifice dating back to the ancient Mayans, and that was purely self-less. During luch break, people were memorizing important dates in US history and they were making me feel guilty for not wanting to do anything except lay on the grass with my discman. Glad it turned out ok.

 

[BushBaby]

Originally posted by Irene Adler
This will haunt me for a while. . .

I lost track of time on the last five minutes. As I was writing my summary sentence (last sentence), they called 'time' before I could get the last word written down. Like a dummy, I didn't just finish the sentence. So my first essay ends in "the".

Think the evaluator will notice?

LOL..I don't think the evaluator will notice after reading 10,000 other essays. They probably just scan it anyway.

 

[closertofine]

I'm thinking now that I didn't do the essays quite right...I think it might really give me a bad score (or letter, I guess)...I wasn't at all as specific as you guys were about the situation in which the rule doesn't apply. I described kind of a general situation in each essay, but not a very specific example...oops! I really may end up taking this again in August! I wish I had looked at sample essays more before I took it this time...

Anybody know how much they stress having a very specific example?

 

[jnormandin]

When it came time for the second essay I was so tired I think I just filled two and a half pages writing over and over "I am job".

 

[Sonya]

How dare you call the second statement crap??????

That's the easiest, and most fun essay topic i've been given, i think i majorly rocked it. Unless i confused them by making it too complex... either, i had a deep well thought argument, or i made it too complex for them...

Human act in self interest...
... quoted darwin .. survival of fittest, and then somehow tied being "fit" to acting is self interest (maybe one or two sentences, just b/c i had to have a quote). Then, I said economic markets are guided by self-interest to make the laws of supply and demand.

Then, for my pro, I made a point we can help other, yet stilll be guided by self interest. Because, people get "satisfaction"... which is an emotional gain.. from helping others. (eg, and EMT off duty helps and injured guy).


But, why do we act away from self interest? B/c the society has taught us to be "moral"... i probably should have given a more clear definition of moral. The eg was going through the hasself of returning a wallet when your self interest says keep the wallet and money.

I concluded whether a person acts out of self interest depends on how much morality he has. I did not take a stand. I also added that this only applies in an individualistic scenario, on large scale (econ markets and Natural selection), peoples behavior was going still determined on self interest. I was going to comment on why that may be, but, i decided it was out of the scope of the essay, and may end up confusing them (and i only had three minutes, too much risk).

The first topic i messed up because I didn't start my stopwatch, so had no track of time till too late. But, I just talked about offensive material (porn), and intellectual property. I sooo wanted to mention that the AAMC test had legal disclaimers of no distribution, as an example of how web material needed protection (or something like that), but i decided bringing up the online test was a bad idea... so i just mentioned something about an uploaded text book. I had many better examples then i wrote.... so that essay was crappy.


...sorry for rambling ...
(I liked the second topic... i like anything where i can talk about supply and demand, i wonder why i did NOT mention Nash's game theory).

I'm seriously gonna get one S and one M, it seems.... they do things different when you're scores are so different, right?

(I actually do no care, i no my WS score means nothing to medschools).

Sonya

 

[Amit1]

Originally posted by Sonya
How dare you call the second statement crap??????

That's the easiest, and most fun essay topic i've been given, i think i majorly rocked it. Unless i confused them by making it too complex... either, i had a deep well thought argument, or i made it too complex for them...

Human act in self interest...
... quoted darwin .. survival of fittest, and then somehow tied being "fit" to acting is self interest (maybe one or two sentences, just b/c i had to have a quote). Then, I said economic markets are guided by self-interest to make the laws of supply and demand.

Then, for my pro, I made a point we can help other, yet stilll be guided by self interest. Because, people get "satisfaction"... which is an emotional gain.. from helping others. (eg, and EMT off duty helps and injured guy).


But, why do we act away from self interest? B/c the society has taught us to be "moral"... i probably should have given a more clear definition of moral. The eg was going through the hasself of returning a wallet when your self interest says keep the wallet and money.

I concluded whether a person acts out of self interest depends on how much morality he has. I did not take a stand. I also added that this only applies in an individualistic scenario, on large scale (econ markets and Natural selection), peoples behavior was going still determined on self interest. I was going to comment on why that may be, but, i decided it was out of the scope of the essay, and may end up confusing them (and i only had three minutes, too much risk).

The first topic i messed up because I didn't start my stopwatch, so had no track of time till too late. But, I just talked about offensive material (porn), and intellectual property. I sooo wanted to mention that the AAMC test had legal disclaimers of no distribution, as an example of how web material needed protection (or something like that), but i decided bringing up the online test was a bad idea... so i just mentioned something about an uploaded text book. I had many better examples then i wrote.... so that essay was crappy.


...sorry for rambling ...
(I liked the second topic... i like anything where i can talk about supply and demand, i wonder why i did NOT mention Nash's game theory).

I'm seriously gonna get one S and one M, it seems.... they do things different when you're scores are so different, right?

(I actually do no care, i no my WS score means nothing to medschools).

Sonya

Sonya, you majorly missed the boat from a right or wrong perspective, but if you had a well written essay you still might score well. Altruism is not a construct of society as shown by all recent research. Not in humans nor in animals. Just hope you don't have a grader who knows anything about the role of kin selection theory on the explanation of biological altruism. If morals were the reason for altruistic behavior then one would not find it instilled in many animal species. However a hot subject in biology is the CONFIRMED presence of altruistic behavior in animals from insects to higher primates. One could hardly reason that an insect acts altruistically because the insect is moral. If you argued for morals as the reason for altruistic behavior then you would have to answer the question WHAT are morals and WHY do we have them - and that is really hard to do in 30 minutes. Arguing that a person acts against one's self intrest if he/she is moral is bordering on circular. The definition and connotations of moral could include acting in the intrest of others or self sacrifice.

On the other hand I don't know if they would care that much if the essay was correct or not from a scienfic point of view. They probably just look to see if it is well put together with sound reasoning, im sure you did fine.

I think the graders will tire quickly from hearing about Darwin, Pornography and kids building bombs. No offense to anyone who wrote over those topics but they are what come to mind immeadiately for the majority of test takers. A unique twist on one of the above subjects would probably still pique the intrest of the grader.

 

[closertofine]

Yep, I've read about kin selection so much (it's been a topic in at least 2 of my classes) that I think it actually messed me up a little...I mentioned it, but then kind of had to negate it some in order to make my conclusion... since some evidence for the theory is used to support the idea that human behavior IS guided by self-interest...

On a different note, can anyone give me an idea of whether what I did was "bad" in essay-scorers' eyes? I know, I should have looked more at the format beforehand. But basically, for both of them I used a descriptive kind of style, not totally analytical.

Like for the Web site one, I wrote a sort of (very cheesy) extended similie kind of thing...and kept referring to it, in different ways, throughout the essay and again at the end. For one thing, I wonder if they take major points off for incredible cheesiness... and also, if they "appreciate" more descriptive language, or if they just want straight analysis.

Also, as I wrote before, I think I did something else seriously wrong...the examples I gave were not very specific, just more a general case in each essay...like I talked about the importance of being allowed to put any kind of political opinion on the Web, in order to have a truly democratic government...ok, so not even a good example, but it was also so general...yikes!

I was pretty happy with my essays at the time (especially since I often have trouble writing "creatively" under time pressure), but now I'm thinking I should have done things much differently... well, maybe I'll have another chance in August! Nooo....!


What do you guys think?

 

[LoneCoyote]

Originally posted by karen44
Yep, I've read about kin selection so much (it's been a topic in at least 2 of my classes) that I think it actually messed me up a little...I mentioned it, but then kind of had to negate it some in order to make my conclusion... since some evidence for the theory is used to support the idea that human behavior IS guided by self-interest...

On a different note, can anyone give me an idea of whether what I did was "bad" in essay-scorers' eyes? I know, I should have looked more at the format beforehand. But basically, for both of them I used a descriptive kind of style, not totally analytical.


What do you guys think?

Karen, the kin selection stuff kinda messed me up too. I used recent immigrants to America for my examples for that one and for the pro self-interest used a cousin of mine who came here from Mexico totally out of self-interest to better his life, and the experiences of the parents of a friend of mine who sacrificed everything to give their children a better life for the anti-self interest. All was well until I got to the last paragraph and talked about working for your family might not be self-interest. But then I was running out of time and went off on a tangent about Haldane's theory and pretty much said that in the end it all indirectly comes down to self-interest to perpetuate your genes.

Whatever. I really think the writing sample is the thing to stress over the least since it won't really help or hurt you unless you do really well or really poorly. The TPR stressed writing a very specific, strcutured essay that stressed 2 specific example and then bring them both up again in the analysis. That is there method. I don't know if writing a more "general" essay would be "bad." I wouldn't stress over it especially since there's nothing any of us can do about our essays now.

On the other essay, the Internet regulation one, I used hit list websites that advocated murdering abortion doctors and crossed off the names of the doctors as they were killed as an example of a site that should be censored because it advocates violence directly against specific people. I used the anti-war movement as an example of why the internet should not be censored in order to allow dissenting political views and free expression.

 

[jnormandin]

Originally posted by popeyepete
Quick question...hopefully someone has a good answer...

Does it matter if your examples were hypothetical examples....like i used an example of a website advocation violence, and i also used an example of a man jumping in front of a bus to save a complete stranger. These aren't examples from history or current events, I just made them up...Is that okay?

thanks

Nope... if you make stuff up they rip your essay up into little pieces, throw it on the ground and stomp on it. Typically the people doing the reading have bad backs so they hire interns to do the actual stomping.

Actually I have no particular insite into the process but I'd like to remind you that they're looking to measure your capacity to logically string together concepts, support them, and present it all in such a way that someone can follow what you're trying to say without going crosseyed (they probably measure style, tempo and all that crap as well, but you get the drift). I can't imagine that you'll get dinged for making up the name of a person who jumped in front of a bus.

Hope this makes you feel better.

Jason