Here’s an essay that’s sure to make an admissions officer reach for the triple grande latte to stay awake
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Amazing Japanese Entertainer - 3 views
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This is from a Japanese television show (sort of like America's Got Talent). Sorry, there's no subtitles...but basically, this guy can sing with his mouth closed, and still produce a deep, full, and open sound. And what's even more amazing is he isn't singing in his own voice...he's imitating voices of famous Japanese singers. I thought this video was interesting because we just read an article on how humans produce sounds. I bet you phoneticians would like to study how his vocal tract works...
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Gyeongsangdo Kids - 1 views
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This is an interesting video that I found about two young kids trying to learn how to pronounce certain sounds correctly in Korean. The title is a reference to the Gyeongsangdo dialect (a Korean dialect); the poster of the video seems to think that people from Gyeongsangdo speak that way, but it is really not true (I know because I speak that dialect). The children are attempting to pronounce the ㅆ sound correctly ("ss" a very hard "s" sound) but instead seem to be using the ㅊ ("ch" sound) or the ㅅ sound (normal "s" sound). They also seem to have a little trouble with the ㄹ sound (a cross between an "r" and an "l" sound), which can be seen when one of the children changes his tongue positioning while saying 쌀 ("ssal" or rice). I'll put up a translation and transcript soon if anyone is interested. Thought it was relevant because of those readings we got last week...
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I put up a transcript with a translation, but it got shortened every time I refreshed the page, so I gave up :/
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shared by Lara Cowell on 05 Mar 14
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Catfish: How Manti Te'o's Imaginary Romance Got Its Name - 0 views
www.bostonglobe.com/...story.html
catfish Manti_Te_'o language words etymology technology social_networking metaphor
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'Some of the More Mundane Moments in Life Make Great Essays' - NYTimes.com - 26 views
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struck by the number of students rhapsodizing about expensive travel or service projects in exotic locales
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On the other hand, Mr. Springall was working at Cornell when an applicant revealed that while waitressing she got angry at a customer and spit in his food before serving it. “Immediate red flag,” Mr. Springall recalled. “She makes poor choices.
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I was surprised by this article and by the fact that sometimes, our seemingly boring moments in life has the potential to transform into a great college essay. This article made me change my views of college essays and reexamine what topics I want to write about.
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I think this is really interesting because I have never really thought about what an admissions officer would be thinking of as he/she reads a really cliché essay. This really makes me want to work harder to come up with less cliché topics and essays.
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I feel like the "bad" example that they used was really effective, because it highlighted the fact that the essay itself says nothing about the writer's character or personality. Instead, that essay talked about the misfortune of others and the worldly possessions of the writer. This makes me really want to focus on writing something that displays my personality/mind.
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I thought that this article was very interesting because it made me realize how critical some of the college admission boards are. They won't accept any "cliche" topics such as service projects, however I feel like community service are indeed one of the most important experiences in life that influence people. This makes me think that the colleges examine not so much the grammar or clarity, but more of who stands out among everyone.
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This article really makes you think of all the experiences to NOT write about in your college essay. I think it's interesting that humbling experiences (such as helping out the less-fortunate) are not always beneficial to you when it comes to college acceptance.
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I think that this is a really helpful article because it helps give a new perspective on what they like and that they think the best essays are the ones that make them laugh or cry instead of the cliché college essay.
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I agree with the statement made in this article that it is harder to think of a specific personal experience to write about than actually writing the essay. But this essay also made me realize that you can shape an ordinary story into something interesting and worth reading to boost your chances for admission.
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I think that this article explains in depth what kinds of stories shouldn't be told, which is why it is helpful. For example, the essay where the person wrote about torturing frogs when the mascot is a frog. It shows bad examples and explains why they're not so good, such as not writing about being apologetic or epiphanic.
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This article made me realize the importance of choosing a good essay topic. The examples that were used in the story effectively showed the importance of choosing a topic that is appropriate and unique at the same time. It also highlighted the importance of the essay, as the article mentions some top students that were denied because of an inappropriate essay topic.
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This article tells what kinds of things to write about and what not to write about. You can write about something inappropriate if you want but it should include some kind of realization. It should be unique to you even if the story was mundane. It would be best if you try to leave the reader feeling an emotion.
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I'm glad I read this one.... I'd never thought about how many papers admissions counselors have to read... writing concisely and interestingly is much more important than I originally thought.
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I never thought about how something that you have done that is seemingly daily or routine could be something that astounds other people who live a very different lifestyle then you. You also should be careful of giving off the wrong impression when writing about something bad that you did in the past.
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I got a huge kick out of reading the user comments on this article, my favorite being one who recommended to screw worrying about essays and worry about sports and ethnicity. This article definitely puts your essay into perspective. One out of thousands. There people have seen it all which is why its even more important to be honest.
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This article made me realize that because college admissions offices have read thousands of essays, there's a high chance that someone has already written about what you want to write. The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about college essays, is talking about something that will make you look good to the admissions. But what I never thought about before was that it doesn't just have to be something extraordinary, it can be the simplest experience; it just has to be something that is unique to you.
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I feel like this article stresses how important the college essay it is, and how the topic of your essay can either make or break you, but it doesn't give much advice on what to do. It does give helpful insight on what not to do, but doesn't give any good examples of topics. It was helpful to know how the college admissions directors will be reading the essays to find out who we are.
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After reading this article I discovered that it's okay to take take risks and writing about a funny experience, but don't take take it too far as to making your essay controversial or an essay that may offend the school mascot.
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I liked the ideas this essay shared because I realized that if I were to have written my college essay prior to reading this article, my essay would've been similar to the majority of students who submit college essays. This site stresses the importance of being different and that having humility, humor, and personal stories in college essays are attractive. But the article did imply that there are limits and that some things such as torturing animals and showing inconsideration to other people, are inappropriate.
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It seems more common now for counselors and advisors to recommend writing about everyday things, but with our own personal "flair." So it was helpful to read in this article about how there are some negative everyday experiences that are important to leave out.
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shared by Zachary Soenksen on 06 May 15
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Why have we got it in for the glottal stop? - 0 views
www.theguardian.com/...-we-got-it-in-for-glottal-stop
glottal stop British Ed Miliband Russell Brand John Wells
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British English speakers always seem to use the glottal stop: that abrupt silence that can replace the "t" in words . Ed Miliband, in an interview with Russell Brand consistently said phrases like "Gotta do it" instead of "Gotta deal with that." The question is why does the glottal stop have a bad reputation?
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Text of President Obama's Tucson Memorial Speech - Political Hotsheet - CBS News - 0 views
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To the families of those we've lost; to all who called them friends; to the students of this university, the public servants gathered tonight, and the people of Tucson and Arizona:
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We mourn with you for the fallen. We join you in your grief. And we add our faith to yours that Representative Gabrielle Giffords and the other living victims of this tragedy pull through.
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The College Admission Essay: How to Conceive, Create, and Perfect It - 4 views
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Getting to the point where you are writing from your heart is the first step to producing an outstanding college admission essay.
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Getting to the point where you are writing from your heart is the first step to producing an outstanding college admission essay.
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Huge point brought up here: the essay can be about really anything as long as it's incredibly sincere and you understand and mean everything you're writing about. The bit about the essay being "funny, insightful, and wickedly intelligent" should come from your own personality if you're writing about something you truly know.
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The most interesting ideas are the ones you never put into words because they seem to weird or too obvious.
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Giving yourself some distance from the essay helps you to see it the way a first-time reader would see it.
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Even though this is an .com site it's written by someone who has experience in this matter and it's really interesting because it basically tells you what to do. And when the author did this, he got into a really good school.
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This website has many well-written examples of sample college essays. The only problem with these is that they are not categorized into either well written, or really long. How to conceive, create, and perfect it essay is right because it is very difficult to start your essay. Basically this essay is talking about how this person got writer's block, and how she overcame it.
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shared by Lara Cowell on 29 Aug 13
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Language Revival: Learning Okinawan helps preserve culture and identity - 3 views
www.staradvertiser.com/...20130827_Language_revival.html
Okinawan Uchinaaguchi language revival Hawaii identity culture endangered language language revitalization
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Article talks about an adult Okinawan-language class in Hawaii. Okinawan, also known as Uchinaaguchi, is an endangered language--it fell into disuse due to Japanese colonization--hence few native speakers of the language remain. I've posted the text of the article below, as you've got to be a Star-Advertiser subscriber to see the full page: POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Aug 27, 2013 StarAdvertiser.com Learning Okinawan helps preserve culture and identity, an instructor says By Steven Mark In a classroom for preschoolers, a group of adults is trying to revive a language that is foreign to their ear but not to their heart. The language is Okinawan, or "Uchinaaguchi," as it is pronounced in the language itself. The class at Jikoen Hongwanji Mission in Kalihi, as informal as it is, might just be the beginning of a cultural revival thousands of miles to the east of the source. At least that is the hope of Eric Wada, one of the course instructors. "For us, it's the importance of connecting (language) to identity," said Wada, who studied performing arts in Okinawa and is now the artistic director of an Okinawan performing arts group, Ukwanshin Kabudan. "Without the language, you really don't have identity as a people." Okinawa is the name given to a prefecture of Japan, but it was originally the name of the main island of an archipelago known as the Ryukyu Islands that lies about midway between Japan and Taiwan in the East China Sea. For centuries, the Ryukyu kingdom maintained a degree of independence from other East Asian nations. As a result, distinctive cultural practices evolved, from graceful and meditative dance to the martial art called karate and the poetic language that sounds like a blend of Japanese and Korean. The islands were officially annexed by Japan in 1879. The 20th century saw the World War II battle of Okinawa, which claimed more than a quarter of the island's population, the subsequent placement of U.S. military bases and the return of the islands to
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The Man Who Invented Dothraki - The Atlantic - 0 views
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In this article, Peterson talked about how he got inspired to create the dothraki language. He said he took a course at UC Berkeley because he took a course in morphology which is the study of forms of things in particular. So he researched the words he wanted to use in the show and found their origin and started playing with sounds, phrasing, sentence structure, and ordering. But, he did pull language tools from J.J. R Tolkein and it seems like he had help from other outside sources. Although his made up language became famous in the world of Game of Thrones, he did not entirely create it himself. This article was interesting and all, but I still didn't find what I was looking for in how people create their own languages. Maybe ill try looking into J.J.R Tolkein's work.
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How the Chinese Language Got Modernized | The New Yorker - 0 views
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Got beef with an NPC? Study finds English-learners in the UK want teachers to explain s... - 0 views
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This article discusses how "trendy slangs" are becoming more appealing to foreigners wanting to learn english. In the UK a survey was conducted to determine the type of slang these foreigners are hearing amongst social media platforms. This article relates how many slangs have a root in Multicultural London English (MLE) or African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). This article informs those learning english the type of slangs to use and when appropriate to do so. The slangs range from an older generation to current-ish slangs.
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shared by Lara Cowell on 28 Feb 13
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Neuroscience and the Classroom - 3 views
www.learner.org/...neuroscience
brain neuroscience language music reading writing education motivation learning
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Got turned onto this course at the recent "Learning and the Brain" conference in San Francisco, as one of the presenters, Mary-Helen Immordino-Yang, an affective neuroscientist and human development psychologist, is one of the co-developers of this introductory neuroscience course: free, thanks to a generous Annenberg Foundation grant. The course units cover several topics pertinent to Words R Us, including brain anatomy; language, music, and the brain; language and brain damage; emotions, empathy, and behavior; and cognitive functioning and development as it relates to reading and writing. The site also offers lots of embedded course materials, visuals, and videos. Though originally geared towards K-12 teachers, other educators, researchers, and adult learners who want to learn more about current issues in education, students-especially those considering careers in education, psychology, neuroscience, and/or the biological sciences-might find this course useful.
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shared by Lara Cowell on 01 Feb 17
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Why paper is the real 'killer app' - 1 views
www.bbc.com/...y-paper-is-the-real-killer-app
writing paper technology creativity traditional keyboard
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Recently, people have been returning to writing basics: handwriting, notebooks, pens, paper, and stationary. While technology can certainly provide an edge for certain tasks, digital overload, addiction, and distraction are growing concerns. many studies indicate that multitasking is bad for us and makes our brains more scattered. In contrast, several studies suggest that pen and paper have an edge over the keyboard. In three studies, researchers found that students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than students who took notes longhand. Those who took written notes had better comprehension and retention of material because they had to mentally process information rather than type it verbatim. And, another study, published in the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology, showed that people who doodle can better recall dull information. Writing it down also sparks innovation. Being innovative and creative is about "getting your hands dirty" a feeling that is lacking when you use technology or gadgets, says Arvind Malhotra, a professor at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School."Research has also shown that tactile sensory perceptions tend to stimulate parts of the brain that are associated with creativity. So, touch, feel and the sensation you get when you build something physical has also got a lot to do with creativity," he says.
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Hen: Sweden's new gender neutral pronoun causes controversy. - 0 views
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"...for many Swedes, gender equality is not enough. Many are pushing for the Nordic nation to be not simply gender-equal but gender-neutral. ... Just days after International Women's Day a new pronoun, hen (pronounced like the bird in English), was added to the online version of the country's National Encyclopedia. ... critics believe it can be psychologically and socially damaging, especially for children ... toddlers cannot weigh arguments for and against linguistic interventions and they do not conceive of or analyze gender roles in the way that adults do ... One Swedish school got rid of its toy cars because boys 'gender-coded' them and ascribed the cars higher status than other toys."
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College essay samples written by teens - 13 views
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This is a great site for getting an idea of what colleges are looking for in an essay. My idea of a good college essay changed after reading the top voted college essay.
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Reading the top voted college essay made me think that you do not have to use a story that is extremely special and/or unique. It could be a plain and general story, one that happens to most people, (story about stepping in "doggy poo") connected to something you value in life (connection of inevitability of making mistakes). The most discussed college essay reinforced the idea of humor to add a bit of your personality/voice your essay and keep the reader engaged. But, it also brought up the idea of finding a story that continues through most of your life, so you may add other important stories to add depth to the reader's knowledge of your extracurricular activities and passions.
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It was very interesting to read a few extremely well written essays. I can see why these essays were voted on as being very well written. It was interesting to see how these people weren't writing so much about an experience that they had in their lives, but more about how the experience made them gain a better understanding of the world.
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While I began reading the top voted college essay, I was really confused as to why this girl was describing a piece of candy in such great detail. However, she slowly created this metaphor and theme that she incorporated throughout her college essay. This technique she used was very successful, in making me want to read the entire thing and connect the dots back to her candy metaphor. Therefore, maybe it's the parts that was not written about the writer, herself, that really gave me, or the reader, a strong sense of who she is as a person.
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After reading a few essays from this site I got a pretty good idea on what a good essay sounds like. Before reading this I didn't really know how I wanted my essay to go, I'm still not too sure how I want to write it but now I have some inspiration to look toward when writing. I don't have a backstory like the girl who compared chocolate to her life but I think I could find something else interesting to write about.
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The top voted essays on this site are amazing. It's obvious why they are so highly ranked, they have well thought out structures, elaborate descriptions of everything, and such beautiful word choice. It's crazy because these people were writing about such simple things in their every day life but they made it interesting to read, they wrote it, probably, better than the actual experience was.
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I kind of had an idea what I was going to write about in my essay, but after reading this site I know how to write it and what a good essay sounds like and what it conveys in the words. It made me see that you don't need a super great topic in your essay, you just need to write it well.
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The top essay was a very descriptive piece. It sounded like a short story, and I didn't know you could write about those kind of topics on a college essay. This site really helps me get a better idea of what an essay should look like when the time comes to submit one.
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It really helps to be able to read examples of good college essays. It gives you an idea of not only what to write about but how to write it. I never would have guessed some of the top voted college essays would be written on such simple, everyday topics. I have a lot of work to do haha.
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How the States Got Their Shapes - Accents and Difference in Language - 6 views
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If any of you like History Channel, this would be an interesting video to watch. This film explains why American citizens have different accents and how their take on the American language has affected the shapes of our states. Note: This video does not contain great quality in terms of sound or picture but is still a cool video to watch if you have time :)
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How Voices can Affect Impressions - 1 views
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We start building our sense of people's personalities from the first words they utter. Phil McAleer, of the University of Glasgow, ran an experiment where he recorded 64 people, men and women, from Glasgow, reading a paragraph that included the word "hello." He then extracted all the hellos and got 320 participants to listen to the different voices and rate them on 10 different personality traits, such as trustworthiness, aggressiveness, confidence, dominance and warmth. Interestingly, participants largely agreed on which voice matched which personality trait. One male voice was overwhelmingly voted the least trustworthy. The pitch of the untrustworthy voice was much lower than the male deemed most trustworthy. McAleer says this is probably because a higher pitched male voice is closer to the natural pitch of a female, making the men sound less aggressive and friendlier than the lower male voices. What makes females sound more trustworthy is whether their voices rise or fall at the end of the word, says McAleer. "Probably the trustworthy female, when she drops her voice at the end, is showing a degree of certainty and so can be trusted." (Perhaps a reason to avoid uptalk, if you're female?)
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This study shows the science behind first impressions, and how certain voices can affect first impressions.
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Study: Math Skills Rely on Language, Not Just Logic | Wired Science | Wired.com - 7 views
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Homesigners in Nicaragua are famous among linguists for spontaneously creating a fully formed language when they were first brought together at a school for the deaf in the 1970s. But many homesigners stay at home, where they share a language with no one. Their “home signs” are completely made up, and lack consistent grammar and specific number words.
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Over the course of three month-long trips to Nicaragua in 2006, 2007 and 2009, Spaepen gave four adult Nicaraguan homesigners a series of tests to see how they handled large numbers. They later gave the same tasks to control groups of hearing Nicaraguans who had never been to school and deaf users of American Sign Language (which does use grammar and number words) to make sure the results were not just due to illiteracy or deafness.
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When asked to recount the vignettes to a friend who knew their hand signals, the homesigners used their fingers to indicate the number of frogs. But when the numbers got higher than three or four, the signers’ accuracy suffered.
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Oddly, the homesigners did use their fingers to keep track of objects, the way children use their fingers to count. Spaepen thinks the signers use each individual finger to represent a unique object — the index finger is the red fish, the middle finger is the blue fish — and not the abstract concept of the number of fish. “They can’t represent something like exactly seven,” Spaepen said. “What they have is a representation of one-one-one-one-one-one-one.”
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"Psychologists had already suspected that language was important for understanding numbers. Earlier studies of two tribes in the Amazon - one that had no words for numbers greater than five and another whose counting system seemed to go "one, two, many" - showed that people in those tribes had trouble reporting exactly how many objects were placed in front of them. But in those cultures, which don't have monetary systems, there might be no need to represent large numbers exactly. The question posed was whether language kept those Amazonian people from counting, or a lack of cultural pressure. To address that question, Spaepen and colleagues turned to Nicaraguan homesigners, deaf people who communicate with their hearing friends and relatives entirely through made-up hand gestures."
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Carleton College: Admissions: Essay Tips - 3 views
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View it as an opportunity. The essay is one of the few things that you've got complete control over in the application process, especially by the time you're in your senior year. You've already earned most of your grades; you've already made most of your impressions on teachers; and chances are, you've already found a set of activities you're interested in continuing. So when you write the essay, view it as something more than just a page to fill up with writing. View it as a chance to tell the admissions committee about who you are as a person.
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If you approach the College Essay as an opportunity to tell your story; rather than a tedious chore that you have to do in order to get into College. If you do this then writing your essay becomes less stressful, and easier to write. Think of it as trying to make a new friend (with someone thats very intellect oriented....).
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I think that is really helpful because everyone thinks that a college essay needs to be written and re-written a million times and it sometimes ends up not sounding like you. This reminds me of what the interviews with college counselors I have had say, that it needs to sound and be you.
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The college essay seems to be one that is not written for the college admission officers, nor your college counselor, parents and teachers, but rather for yourself. No one should tell you to change your ideas if you believe that they are inspired by you and represent who you are. You need to forget the "rules" of writing a good college essay, and instead focus on writing one that pleases you.