Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with essay

Paper Topic on Iran?

howgenerica — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:14:12 -0800

What's an interesting aspect of Iranian society/ Shi'i Islam that would lend itself well to a 10 page expository essay? Nothing too controversial - my professor is Iranian. Just something interesting to write/ learn about. It has to be pretty specific. Thanks for suggestions!

Slideshow like a pro!

milkdropcoronet — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:06:50 -0800

Multimedia Journalism Filter: How do you make a New York Times-style photo slideshow? Is there an easy way to make photo essays? I like the simplicity of the NYT slideshows (see example here): they keep it simple with just a photo and a short caption against a black background.

I've Googled a few programs but many of them don't have the storytelling aspect that the NYT design does (clear navigation options, the ability to add text/narrative). Photo programs like iPhoto or Flickr don't have the caption option (that I've seen). And of course a free program is preferred. I'm no web whiz, so minimal technical know-how also preferred (i.e. no plug-ins or coding please)

If anyone's had success making narrative photo essays (image + text) let me know what programs you recommend! Many thanks.

PS The NYT has a "Teaching and Learning About Journalism" education section online, but I couldn't find any technical/production information.

Turkey Day is A-Okay?

Ash3000 — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:30:39 -0800

About eight years ago, I read this article on some radical-leaning progressive website, about how the author had come to love Thanksgiving, despite originally viewing it as a celebration of mass murder. This is what I remember about the article:

1. I'm pretty certain I found it on the Z Magazine website (though I haven't been able to find it now.)

2. The author originally took a Howard Zinn-like approach, and felt mixed at best about celebrating a day that had a historical association with genocide.

3. Eventually she started viewing it as an opportunity to reconnect with progressive values of community and true family, and assimilated it into her politics, including (I think) reading a poem or prayer about togetherness at the gathering.

I remember sharing it with several political friends, both conservative and progressive, and all of us finding it touching. Anyone have any idea what I'm thinking of? Wanted to send it to a friend. Thanks!

St. Augustine Essay Ideas

howgenerica — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:27:59 -0800

I'm going crazy trying to come up with a topic for a paper on St. Augustine on Memory (ie, book X of the Confessions). I've been trying for days and I just am such a blank. Help brainstorming? I need to be arguing something. Thanks!

English Help Please?

kylej — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:25:53 -0800

Help me fix some problems with my English essay (scribd link) please! The prompt was:

"Relay a specific incient or story about a time when you feel that you were true to yourself despite contrary influences"

Stuff I need help with:

1. Right now my essay is basically all story with little or no self reflection, is there anyway for me to add self reflection into the essay without messing up the narrative? Or do I need to change the style of my writing?

2. I had to make up some of the dialogue as this happened a few months ago. Does any of it seem fake/contrived?

3. I'm supposed to be economical in my use of language, do any parts seem overly verbose or unnecessary to main point of the essay?

Any general feedback about grammar etc is appreciated also!

If any has an questions about the assignment or my essay I'll be happy to answer.

On a side note, does anyone know another place on the internet where I can share an essay and get good feedback?

Thanks everyone!

Where can I publish old literary crit essays that are burning a hole in my pocket?

duncecap — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:59:13 -0800

Where can I publish some old literary crit essays that are burning a hole in my pocket? I was an English minor in college and have no advanced degree to back up my stuff, but a professor who I respected highly remarked at the time that I ought to hang on to the work b/c they were graduate level pieces. I guess he presumed I might go for an MA, but I never made it that far and now feel like the essays have just been wasting away in storage.

Is it possible to get these published somewhere? Moreover, how stupid is it of me to think that I can write new critical essays on other works, on my own, with only a Bachelor's? Please bear with my ignorance. I love critical essay writing and could do it all day long for fun; it would be nice to find a market for such an activity but know almost nothing about the world of academic journals.

Is there a perfect orbit?

doublehappy — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:56:05 -0800

Is there a distance at which a satellite will orbit a body indefinitely? Is this distance a universal constant? As I understand it, satellite bodies are generally getting closer or further away from the body they orbit. Our moon, for example, is getting further away.

This morning I was reading a great essay by Amy Leachin the Best American Essays 2009.

In the second paragraph, it is noted that unless you [a satellite] happen to roll onto a track precisely 18,254 miles above your planet, the law ejects you or dashes you down. One moon in our solar system has achieved synchronous orbit, being pledged forever to its planet--Pluto's moon Charon. The other 168 moons have not.

According to google, 18,154 miles = 29,216 kilometers.

The wikipedia article about Charon cites a distance of 17,536 ± 4 km to system barycenter, 19,571 ± 4 km to the center of Pluto
. The radius of Pluto is, apparently, 1,153 ± 10 km. 19,571-1,153=18,418, which is close to 18,254 (though not 'precisely'), but nowhere near 29,216.

Am I missing something obvious (I'm not very good at space, so I am pretty sure this must be the case) or is Leach using poetic license, or is it a bit of both?

I find it hard to believe that there would be a universal perfect orbit distance, as celestial bodies are of varying mass, and there are also external tidal forces acting on them. However, I also find it hard to believe that there are big balls of rock and ice in mutual orbit, and that these systems are, themselves, in orbit around a huge ball of gas.

How would you approach this college admissions essay prompt?

caroljean63 — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:26:05 -0800

How would you approach this college admissions essay prompt? "Discuss anything you wish you understood better than you do now. " Background: At this point in his life my son has wide ranging interests: politics, American history, economics, web design and web hosting/servers.

He has worked on several political campaigns and has won a couple awards/honors in web design competitions.

His biggest strength is leadership. He's worked as a project leader on several successful projects, team captain of most of his sports teams, etc.

Biggest weakness: He's extremely concise when writing and thinks this prompt is really not very open ended. From his POV, if he wanted to "understand something better than he does now," he would just do it! He wouldn't spend 3 days writing an essay about it, he'd google it, listen to a podcast, or read a book about it.

To a 17-year-old homeschooled kid who has grown up in the age of information at his fingertips, a question like that is foreign to his vocabulary. Still, this essay has a due date looming...

You want it to be HOW long?!

Kellydamnit — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:24:09 -0800

I have to write an admission essay for college, and the guidelines are... vague. I've already been told by the dean that she will personally recommend me for acceptance, so I suspect this may be just a formality. Even so, I don't feel like I should just phone it in.

But, I'm at a bit of a loss. The instructions are:
Please write a brief essay on a topic of your choice in the text box. Your answer can be up to 32,000 characters long.

Perhaps this is just me, but 32,000 characters sounds like an awful lot for an essay. I could write a research paper that long, but a twelve page personal essay seems a bit much, and seems to be about five times longer than the average admissions essay out there.

Do you think that's just a guideline, in a "please, dear lord, don't send us anything longer than that" sense, or should I actually target hitting about that length?

I screwed up, and don't want to do it again

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:35:37 -0800

I'm reapplying to college six years after dropping out. I left, in part, because I had developed a drug problem. My application needs to include an essay which explains why I want to return, why my grades were below a 2.0 at the time I left, and why I will not repeat the same mistakes. Just how honest should I be? The usual nonsense... fell in with a bad crowd, got into some hard drugs (we're not talking pot here), and in my case, married the leader of said bad crowd.

I muddled on for a few years splitting my life between partying all night and dragging myself through class every day, but my grades suffered and my GPA went from a 3.7 to a 1.8. Eventually I just stopped going.

Maybe a year after I left school I had a moment of clarity, realized I had destroyed my life, and stopped doing anything harder than the occasional beer on a weekend. I left my spouse not long after, and they died of an overdose not long after that.

So, fast forward a few years. I'm now your average college drop out. Haven't touched an illegal drug in years, and it's a rare month if I have more than a couple drinks total. I'm so squeaky clean my friends call me Lisa Simpson as a joke. I had a great job, was making good money, and got outsourced when the economy took a dump.
I realized that without a degree I'll never make the kind of money I did without going through years of lousy pay all over again. I've regretted the idiocy of my youth every day for the last six years, and would love a chance to go back and finish what I started.

So, when I reapply, just how honest should I be on the essay? Should I gloss over it with some non-specifics about spending more time having fun than studying and ending up married, or should I be honest and say my grades dropped and I left school because of the drugs?

Essay marking advice

pised — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:41:35 -0800

TAs, profs, teachers, markers: give me your best stock phrases for essay comments. I’m a TA in English and I have a stack of essays coming my way today from my early modern literature class. I’ve been marking these students for the whole school year and I’m sure I’ve repeated my standard essay phrases in my comments at the end to many of them. I use the “shit sandwich” method: start off with something nice, then give criticism of the essay, then end with something nice. It’s not so difficult with the essays that are, say, 78% or higher, but for the middling essays, especially those in the 60s, it’s difficult sometimes to find anything kind to say about their work – it’s not bad, but there’s nothing really fantastic there either. I usually say something very general like “You have some interesting ideas here” or “you make some good points here” at the beginning and then launch into a “However…” in the next sentence. At the end of my comments, I usually say “Good job” or something to that effect for any essay above 72% (usually where the average hits); for those lower than that, I usually suggest that they come see me if they want to talk about this essay in order to improve for the next. But as this is the last assignment before the exam, the latter option is now off the table. Help me expand my repertoire of comments so my students don’t think I’m simply recycling the same comments over and over again!

Can I expect wet eyes or rolled ones?

Gotham — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:09:36 -0800

College application essay about the challenges overcome in relation to one's sexuality: good or bad idea? Would it give a slight edge in the form of the "minority boost?" Or would it just be seen as a melodramatic cliche? Specifically wondering about Stanford, so we're talking about a pretty liberal environment. Any input is welcome, regardless of your level of experience with the subject matter. Thanks.

How to compose myself into an argument?

Sova — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:49:08 -0800

Recommendations for books that teach argument composition? I'm a first year undergrad in the social sciences, and have just completed my initial round of essays and exams. While writing these I realised that I don't know how to compose proper arguments. I missed out on a lot of schooling in the past, and so didn't pick up this skill at any point. My writing is not terrible, but it's clearly failing to express what I know, what I think, and do so in any academic kind of way. I find writing essays or exam answers to be throwing enough information into the pot to reach the word count and don't know how to go beyond that.

I would like recommendations for books that will help me to compose written arguments, and preferably give some insight into how to decompose the arguments of others. I have heard of The Crafts of Research, but don't know if this would suit my needs because I'm not doing research. I'm more or less okay at doing the reading for essays, and having original ideas, I just need to know how to order that thoughtfully.

Thanks in advance!

Help me find a few-years-old essay about flirting

ictow — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 09:12:48 -0800

Help me find an article/essay/blog entry I read 2 or 3 years ago about how obvious flirting is and always will be. What I remember is an analogy that compared someone trying to flirt to a very tall asian man, wearing a white tracksuit and carrying a boombox, walking into a quiet store. Both are conspicuous.

It's quite possible that most of this description is off, but that was the general gist. Do I plan on feeling awful if it turns out there's no mention of him being asian? Yes, yes I do, which is why I have to find this.

The Lost Blog post/essay/article/etc.

EmpressCallipygos — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:53:29 -0800

Seeking a wonderful essay I saw online once about being age-appropriate -- hoping the green can help me? I read a wonderful essay or blog post or the like just once and am wishing to God I bookmarked it, as it's been eluding me on Google.

It was about being "age appropriate", for lack of a better word -- about not just accepting, but EMBRACING the fact that different ages let you get away with different things -- i.e., little kids can get away with trying to read under the covers with flashlights, or playing hopscotch, but grownups can get away with staying up late; people in their 20's can get away with partying until the wee hours of the morning, but seniors can get away with other pursuits, etc. By the same token, there are things that kids can get away with that adults can't, etc. The thrust of this all was to go ahead and embrace the kinds of things that your specific age let you get away with, at each stage, because that was the whole point.

Does anyone remember seeing ANYTHING like this anywhere? I'd love to read it again, and I've been looking for this for some months now.

Can you help me find photographers with projects that are evocative for my research paper?

valmonster — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:12:19 -0800

I am writing a paper on photographic representations of the city or urban spaces, in particular photography that attempts to 'capture' the ubiquitous "non-places" as described by Marc Augé. But I am having trouble finding photographers that seem to fit! Can you help? What is a non-place through the perspective of Marc Augé? Some examples are airports, atm machines, highways gas stations, grocery stores, malls. While a place is relational, historical, and concerned with identity, the non-place is the opposite of that. The non-place is a passage from one place to another. Human behaviour in a non-place is prescribed and made automatic by explicit instructions in images and text (signs that direct you to airplane gates, that tell you what to do in a given situation). In these spaces, it is always temporal - you are either waiting, moving through a line-up, or leaving. Never resting, contemplating, or dwelling.

There are lots of photographers who take pictures of non-places but they usually end up finding a good angle to aestheticize them, and I think it is also because non-places are so ubiquitous that any photographer concerned with the city would be taking pictures of them either way.

So I am trying to find photographers who take the non-place as the subject of the image itself (for its interesting characteristics), or end up doing that as a byproduct of a complex project. So far, I have found three promising projects: Denis Darzacq (retail stores are also non-places), Ethan Levitas (subway cars) and the partnership of Can Bekdemir and Ozhan Benici.

What emerges from these artists is the question: what happens to the human subject in a non-place? This is a great angle, but I still feel like something is missing. And I would rather have several projects to choose from that allow me the richest interpretation and ability to bring in aspects of the nature of photographic representation of the city itself (to be able to capture the invisible feeling of a place) as well as aspects of Augé's thought.

Can you recommend any photographers who you feel have evoked aspects of the non-place intentionally? Or whose work ends up doing that anyway? Or do you have any additional advice or recommendations?

Help me become a better essay writer.

Knigel — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:18:03 -0800

Can you help me find essay communities? I would like to find a place to read other people's essays and share my own for possible feedback. I'd like to be a better writer while helping others. I would also like a place that I could post my own finished essays so that my students and friends can read them. I'm not looking for a place to to rip off other people's work, I'm looking for a place to improve my own writing.

I'd be interested in any essay forums as well.

Bread and Circuses

kalapierson — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:54:39 -0800

I'm seeking writing or creative work related to the idea of "Bread and Circuses." Essays related to this theme, art/media projects creatively interpreting this theme, or your thoughts (as abstract/creative as you like) about this theme.

I need essays on langage in advertising!

913 — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:27:43 -0800

Can anyone direct me toward an essay [preferably vetted] on the use of language in advertising/media? I really enjoy the work of William Lutz so anything that is remotely similar would be great, however I do not have any restrictions.

Bring it on, please.

Over-Ambitious Teenagers

divabat — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 03:40:03 -0800

If you were writing a book/essay about the motivations of over-ambitious young people, where would you look for research? One of my friends was asking me why young people (often like myself) would go through all that effort to apply for opportunities (conferences, courses, fellowships, etc) overseas, then go through the hassle of trying to find funding for them. Why not, she asked, just save up your money and apply, or go to something in your own turf?

In my reply, I had mentioned Government grants, and she said that she'd rather her tax money go towards a charity for the homeless rather than "to send an over-ambitious teenager overseas to chat with the UN". That term inspired me to think about doing a book or essay on such "teens" (or youths) - the ones who go conference-hopping, or travel on unorthodox study abroad programs, or hike for weeks in Tibet, or so on. Why do they want to do so? How did they support themselves? What challenges did they face?

To do this though, I need to do extensive research on the background issues so that I know my argument holds water. Which areas can I research to flesh out my arguments?

So far I'm considering:

* Currency values across the world (what can $1000 buy you in different places, for example)
* Why events/conferences/programs charge the amount that they do, and where the money goes to
* The percentage of Government budgeting towards different fields (education vs war vs medicare etc)
* Funding opportunities for young people in this position
* Attitudes towards overachievers - Tall Poppy Syndrome, Impostor Syndrome, etc
* The impact of such programs internationally (for example, the argument that short-term study-abroad/service programs only benefit the student, not the host)

My main argument is that side costs (such as travel) are usually the high and hard-to-fund costs, that Government funding for these efforts aren't very high, that there is very little private support for individuals, that not all countries have such opportunities in "their own turf", and that there are strong benefits to networking and doing service internationally. Would that work? What do I need to look up to make my argument stronger?

Has anyone else done work on this before? What else should I be looking at?

Sample Essays (not for sale)

saoyama — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:10:11 -0800

What are some good sources for examples of well-written essays? I've been having a very hard time writing essays in college. I've read Strunk and White multiple times, which also goes for Orwell's Politics and the English Language. They're great and helpful but now I'm looking for essays that exemplify the good writing that Strunk, White, and Orwell write about. I'm not having much luck googling and I can't find anything in the archives, though there may be threads I overlooked.

I'm not necessarily looking for essays by famous writers--any author as long as it's writing that you consider outstanding. In fact I'd prefer essays by students or non-professionals. I just want more than the limited examples I've found in the books that teach you how to write.

Ultimately, I just need to read more but as a science major I don't often read essays and my writing probably reflects the dry and rigid writing found in abstracts. I'm looking for essays specifically because they are short (compared to entire books) and focused.

Help me help others!

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:13:05 -0800

What tips can you give me when writing my personal statement for a graduate social work program? I'm currently filling out graduate school applications for my MSW to become a therapist. It's taken me most of my 20's, but I've finally realized what I want to do. I've always had a passion for figuring out why people behave the way they do. I was somewhat obsessed with it as a child because I was on the receiving end of a lot of abuse. After time, distance, and a lot of therapy, I've come to accept certain things in my life and realized how fulfilling it would be to help others reach that kind of acceptance in their own lives.

I know that may sound cliche or corny, so how can I show this passion in a unique way? What should I avoid in my essay? I want to be as original with my statement as possible. Any advice would be helpful.

The mimetic and narrative capacities of artefacts

0bvious — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 15:58:58 -0800

I am interested in the mimetic and narrative capacities of artefacts, how cultural remnants transmit information through time and how meaning is translated once an artefact is re-appropriated or examined from a new perspective. I have several avenues of study at the moment (a list in extended explanation), but would like some more ideas. Areas of critical theory, linguistics, evolutionary psychology and poetics are all relevant. I want to show that the narratives and metaphors which can be understood as the architecture of our brains are somehow mimetically present in the physical, cultural and linguistic artefacts which surround us.

Here are a few of the readings I have gathered so far:

- Anthropological and evolutionary studies into the nature and transmission of narrative by Michelle Scalise Sugiyama (in particular her essay 'Reverse-Engineering Narrative' from the book 'The Literary Animal').
- Mikhail Bakhtin's 'Discourse in the Novel' (where he talks about language as having 'genres' or 'tastes' which can transmit as much meaning as the words themselves).
- Michael Shanks and Lynn Hershman Leeson's conversation at Seed Magazine on 'Presence' in art and archaeology and how new technologies affect it.
- Susan A. Stewart's book 'On Longing'.
- Gaston Bachelard's book 'The Poetics of Space'

Thanks in advance!

Looking for an alternative to Nerve Magazine

haasim — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 20:56:24 -0800

I am looking for a magazine that would be interested in a story I've written about being in love without sexual attraction. Nerve is the only magazine that I can think of, but from the looks of things, I doubt they accept anything from writers outside of sunny California. My story isn't sexual explicit, but I don't think a mainstream/family-friendly publication would be interested in this. Does anyone have any suggestions for a Nerve-esque magazine (or zine) that accepts non-fiction that isn't supposed to make you horny?

Puzzled over private school application

ick — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 09:01:50 -0800

My 8th grader wants to attend a very progressive local private high school next year. Are there some general guidelines for how long, or how deep, these non-college application essays should be? This year (and only this year), he's schooling at home after we both grew frustrated with the middle public school options locally. The private school involved would be a perfect fit for him. It's probably the central point of non-fundamentalism in the entire state of Georgia. The school is not a military, overly college-prep, uniformed, or stifling environment. They're more focused on the whole result and keeping the kid interested in their own life (present and future).

Neither of us have ever filled out private school applications before. Most of the information I find on-line is geared toward college application essays. The school requests copies of graded English papers (check) and 2 new essays from suggested topics.

He's chosen to write why some of his activities and one particular book are important to him. I would say he doesn't like to write, but he would disagree. He writes great essay question answers and prefers essay questions over multiple choice. But with longer essay assignments, he gets frustrated, stressed, and obsessive. So, I'm trying to avoid the obsessive length and determine if a shorter testing-type essay question format, extended essay question format (2-3 para), or full 5 paragraph essay would be appropriate?