lunes, 28 de marzo de 2011

HOW TO WRITE AN ESSAY

Essays can range from being five paragraphs to twenty pages or more, covering any topic, whether it's what you learned from your dog, or why societies become hierarchies. What all essays have in common, however, is that they must stay true to the roots of the word "essay" which derives from the French infinitive essayer, meaning "to try" or "to attempt". An essay is essentially your attempt to explain your perspective, and a skillfully written essay is clear, illuminating and informative.


Define the context. If the essay is assigned, certain parameters will usually be defined for you, such as the length of the essay, format of the title page, and the intended audience (e.g. your teacher, an admissions committee, a cheating website) and what length is appropriate. No matter what, if you're given directions, follow them.

 Choose a topic. Often this will be decided for you, but if not, try to choose something you're interested in or, better yet, passionate about. It will make the essay easier to write.




Gather your information. Whether it's personal observations or scientific facts, you'll need evidence to back up your thesis statement. Take detailed notes, keeping track of which facts come from which sources. As you're researching your topic, don't ignore facts and claims that seem to disprove your thesis statement. A good essayist includes the contrary evidence and shows why such evidence is not valid.

 Plan your essay. This is the time to solidify your thesis statement. Look over all of your research and notes: Can you observe any patterns or observations? Try making a mind map to organize your thoughts. Maybe you started out wanting to show how you'd give back to the community, but now you see a better point would be that you're a good role model for others like yourself. 

Write the body of your essay first. Identify three or more points that support and/or explain your thesis statement. Each point should be supported by specific evidence, examples or arguments. 



Conclude your essay. Summarize your points and suggest ways in which your conclusion can be thought of in a larger sense. What are the implications of your thesis statement being true? What's the next step? What questions remain unanswered? This is not the place to introduce any new information that supports your thesis--you should only be "repackaging" what you already discussed, using a broader perspective.
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Write the introduction. Now that you've written the body and the conclusion, you're in the best position to tell the reader what they're getting into. Explain your thesis statement, and how you're going to affirm it, without being too specific. Do not use obvious expressions such as, "This essay is about..." or "The topic of this essay is..." or "I will now show that...". One approach is to begin with a general statement, then follow it with a question or problem, then with your thesis statement, and a brief overview of your points.




Read through your essay. For now, don't worry about typos or grammatical errors; underline them so you can go back and fix them later. Go from start to finish to see how your essay flows. Does each sentence lead smoothly to the next? Does each paragraph flow logically to the next? Each statement should be connected or related somehow to the one before it, not thrown randomly together. There are many ways to transition from one idea to the next:



Revise, revise, revise! Writing the paper the first time is not the most important part of writing an essay—revision is! Sometimes the paper you write is not the essay you originally planned. It is difficult to accomplish all that one sets out to in a paper, and sometimes you may find that your ideas about your subject have changed as you've been writing. Make sure you'rehappy with the way your paper presents its points.
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ONE WHO WANTS A ROSE MUST RESPECT THE THORN



Roses ares the most beautiful flowers in the world, they are famous and elegant, sometimes people want to have a rose, but they do not know that they should be hurt by the thorn.

We can compare this situation to our real life because all people expect something good from their lives, but most of the time they do not know that this implies a sacrifice.
For example, when you are studying you have to effort yourself in order to get what you want. If you become to be a brilliant student you can be compared with a rose and the thorn could be  compared with your sacrifice, it means all the process that takes you to be brilliant. So, in few words we can say one who wants to be brilliant must sacrifice. In other words, one who wants a rose must respect the thorn.

Another example could be “being successful at job”; sometimes this becomes to be hard or takes a long time. Most of the time people wants to be successful; however, they are conscious of the job that they have to do in order to get it because is real, if we want something good, we have to work hard. So in this case being successful represents the rose, and the thorn is represented by the hard work.

In conclusion we can relate this phrase with our life “one who wants a rose must respect the thorn”.
 

GOT A LITTLE ATTITUDE???




First of all we must start defining that attitude is a state of: manner, disposition, feeling, position, etc.
This means the way a person views something or tends to behave.
Attitude should be more important than facts. It should be even more important than the past, the money, the circumstances. Attitude must excel against feelings of failure, or successes.
It is more important than appearance, or skill. It will make or break a company. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. The only thing we can do is realize that we will show our attitude, everyday, everywhere by the way we act...  We are in charge of our Attitudes.”
Attitude can keep us going or fall in our progress. When our attitude is right, there is no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme, no challenge too great for us.”
Positive attitude helps to handle more easily with the daily affairs of life. It brings optimism into our life, and makes it easier to avoid worry and negative thinking.
If we adopt attitude as a way of life, it will bring constructive changes into our life, and makes them happier, brighter and more successful. With a positive attitude we see the bright side of life, become optimistic and expect the best to happen. It is certainly a state of mind that is well worth developing and strengthening.
For me attitude is when you decide how to behave or what mask you will use as a personality to face the world and have courage to deal with the people and with yourself everyday because is important to be healthy in body and in mind so this is a point of view about a situation and it has three components made up of:
  • What you think.
  • What you do.
  • What you feel.
No matter what situation you are in you always have certain thoughts about it. You also have an emotional response to it, and you behave a certain way in it. To begin changing your attitude you either change your thinking, the way you act, or the way you feel. Two of these choices are easier to influence than the third.
You must begin with either your thinking or your behavior over which you have more control. The secret in effectively changing your emotions is knowing that feelings, thoughts, and behaviors are all related. When you change one of them (for example, thinking) the other two (feelings and behavior) will change as well.
Since it is easier to get a "grasp" on thoughts and behavior this is the place to begin your work of staying resilient. Change what you think! Change what you do! The emotions will change and you will be creating resiliency.
Also attitude is a mental position relative to a way of thinking or being. The current popular usage of attitude implies a negative mind set, a "chip on the shoulder" behavior, and an inner anger toward the prevailing majority of thought.

From a personal development standpoint, attitude is broader than this popular usage. A positive attitude implies a way of thinking that is predominantly positive and optimistic. The opposite inclination, a negative attitude is predominantly pessimistic.

 Example: Though Jeremy was ashamed that he had alienated his friends by whining and complaining, he decided to adopt a positive attitude about his ability to reverse this behavior and regain friendships lost. He was confident that his apologies and changed behavior would regain the friendships

Some ways of manifesting positive attitude:
     Positive thinking.
     Optimism.
     Being inspired.
     Looking for solutions.

Attitude can make you:
     Choose to be and stay optimistic.
     Find reasons to smile more often.