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 Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 12:34 pm
[It asked me to explain why I chose to study English. I could REALLY use this scholarship, so if you'd be so kind as to rip this apart so that it will be scholarship-worthy, I'd be extremely grateful.
Also, it can't really be any longer than this. There's a VERY strict word limit and I'm pretty much there.
Also...Haha, Tak I hope you don't mind I sort of borrowed your infinite possibilities idea/concept. It's just so true and I love it so much. If you do mind for whatever reason, I can take it out.]
Literature transcends all boundaries. It reaches through time, is blind to gender, race, age, and social background. In writing, when I am nothing more than ink and paper, I could be a middle aged rich white male or a 19-year-old struggling to pay her way through college.
Literature’s ability to overcome boundaries is one of the reasons I am so intrigued by this study. I love knowing that I can hear the voice of people long gone, and even leave my own mark on the world for when I, too, have passed. In his poem “The Word,” Pablo Neruda states “this is the air that connects us/with the buried man and with the dawn/of new beings that haven't yet arisen.” And he is quite right: literature has a way of connecting all of humankind. Without literature, I would have no chance of understanding how people from another time thought.
I chose to study English because I love it. I love reading a well-written novel and marveling over the author’s choice of words, the careful consideration that went into every part of the writing process. I love that in the study of English, it is as much about understanding an author’s intention, of letting the author speak to you through his or her words, as it is learning technical terms or vocabulary. The world of literature is quite uncertain: two people may read the exact same words and get two entirely different meanings out of it. The uncertainty of the study of literature is wonderful to me: it means I can learn more simply by talking to someone about what they saw in this work, someone who may have seen differently than me. To me, English is the study of infinite possibilities.
The study of English forces me to think in new ways, and it allows me my own voice. Studying English allows me to reach into the past and helps me to understand people who, without the things they have written down and left in this world after they are gone, I would never understand. This is why I study English.
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Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 6:49 pm
Considering how short you've had to make the application essay, you've managed to fit a lot of good concepts in there. I'm studying Literature at university, so it's made me smile and remember (again) why I love my sibject so much.
The only potential problem I can think of (besides niggly little things) is that there are a hell of a lot of Literature Academics who would take a completely opposite view, and say that Literature is as much about imposing boundaries as much as it's universal qualities. We persistently divide literature into categories depending on a particular movement, period, the gender/sexuality/race of who wrote it. The other irony is that the study of literature, academically, actually began (in England, at least) as a form of imposing the values of the British Empire onto colonialised nations.
I personally don't agree with this view, and I'm going to take a wild guess that you wouldn't - literature does not categorise as easily as we like it to, and it escapes boundaries (and etc with everything you've written). And I don't think that particular acedemic considerations would be something they'd expect to see in an entrance essay; however I thought I'd mention it because if you could somehow acknowledge it in the essay (with, like, a sentence), it might give you an edge because they probably wouldn't expect it to be addressed.
So, I move on to irritating bits of grammar stuffs:
- I would personally reword"It transcends gender, race, age, status, and even time." (I'm guessing, seeing as you mention it numerous times, that time is something you want to emphasise, so putting it last in the sentence gives it extra weight.)
- "When writing, I am nothing more than ink and paper; I could be...(etc)". Also, commas are needed between adjectives, so "middle-aged, rich, white male". ('Course, the convention may be different in the US, I wouldn't know.)
- You need an extra comma between poem and "The Word".
- "literature has a way of connecting all of humankind" doesn't sound as certain as it could do (and, dear gods, these professor types don't half make a fuss about that). You'd be better off saying "literature connects the entirety of humanity", or something along those lines.
- The clause "I love reading a well-written novel" feels a bit wordy to me, considering the length of the sentence. Perhaps rephrase slightly?
- "The world of literature is quite uncertain"; you don't need 'quite'.
- I love the rest of that paragraph! Just thought I'd say...
- I'm also loving the last paragraph, though perhaps you could find a replacement for one of the 'understand's in the second sentence.
And, erm, I'm done. You said you wanted it ripping apart, right...
sweatdrop I hope this is helpful to you. smile
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 12:16 pm
Thanks, char.
I did want nit-picky ripping apart like that. That's perfect! I appreciate you taking the time to do this. smile
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 5:15 pm
It's no trouble, just so long as it was helpful! smile
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 7:16 pm
i'm writing a scholarship essay as well...
except the length is 1000 words, and the topic is
FACEBOOK, which I know pretty much nothing about, for I hardly ever use the thing.
any tips?
("facing up to facebook--how does the local newspaper survive?")
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Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 9:54 am
Blond_Sakura i'm writing a scholarship essay as well... except the length is 1000 words, and the topic is FACEBOOK, which I know pretty much nothing about, for I hardly ever use the thing. any tips? ("facing up to facebook--how does the local newspaper survive?")
Um...well you could interview me. I'm a facebook addict. lol
Actually....that might be a good premise. Compare yourself, who never uses Facebook, to someone who almost never gets OFF of Facebook.
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Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 1:29 pm
@Sakura: You could also just make a fake account on Facebook and just look around a bit
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Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:40 pm
oh, I have an account...I just hardly ever go on, you know?
I've read lots of articles on it...I've kinda formed my own opinion, I just don't know how it'll come out in an essay.
I've started writing it, but when I write essays, I don't use a formal tone...I use my own voice. Sarcastic and choice with my words.
and I don't know if that's what they're looking for. sweatdrop I read over the winning essay from last year...it was okay, but I could tell she tried very hard to throw in a lot of big words and analysises just to make herself sound smarter; it didn't feel like she loved what she was writing.
this is what I have so far: XD
There is no denying it: Facebook has taken over the world. Before I knew what hit me, my formally tech savvie head was covered with a dark sack (I vaguely remember the name Mark) and I was shunned into a corner of the world labelled as “Old School”. I had no idea what the thing was back in 2004 and I had no desire to find out. I hoped and prayed that this ultimate online time waster would pass into the fad genre, but I was dreadfully wrong. It EXPLODED. Msn messenger—the old past time of teenagers—was tossed aside to make room for the behemoth known as facebook to invade our minds and our lives. When the new technology of connecting online life to the cell phone was born, this generation became obsessed with instant communication, instant knowledge, instant entertainment. Instant, instant, instant. The mechanism which digested and swallowed the information—the brain—began to get less and less attention, the labour of reading having been taken away. How does the original standby—the newspaper—survive in this world of technological enslavement? How come, six years later, facebook has not replaced the low tech, completely portable newspaper? Because literacy still exists.....
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