Analytical Writing Section: Issue Task, past topic:
"Unfortunately, the media tend to highlight what is sensational at the moment. Society would be better served if the media reported or focused more fully on events and trends that will ultimately have the most long-term significance."
Hopefully, sometime soon, I will make myself write a response to this topic and then have you guys read it and tell me what you think. The scoring is 1-6 points. 2 readers so you can get up to 12 points. This writing section feels different from the SATs. It's a lot of analytical. You have to "show critical thinking" and "understand the complexities of the issue". I think for the SATs, I picked Hamlet as my all powerful example and applied it to whatever topic. I don't think that will work here. If anyone has any ideas about this topic, let me know and I'll try to write it up too.
There are 2 different tasks for the writing section. The other one is the argument topic where they provide some statement like a statistic about drinking black tea and having less of a chance of getting a stroke and then make a "false" conclusion. And you have to respond to this conclusion that they made and show how their conclusion is not very good by pointing out their not necessarily true assumptions.
I just got a box of flashcards with GRE words. There are so many things I want to/need to do but have no time for. On caffeine all day even though it's summer.... This is not good...
5 comments:
Hamlet as your all-powerful example? Man you must have known Hamlet well...I barely remember the plot.
I read the prompt and thought a good complexity would be if you hilighted how difficult it is to "focus on trends that will have the most long-term significance" because how do you know? Like in 9/11, they reported on the buildings and the air quality and such for many days, even though a good portion of the world wasn't affected by that, because it influenced other things (air security, immigrations, etc...) Also, I always thought a good report would cover things you would like to hear about, even though it may not be the most important. Who is to judge? And the media tends to also blow things up: children go missing every day, but Elizabeth Smart was on the TV for months because her family was well-off and "typical", and it appealed to the average person's worry that this could happen to you too...so maybe the quote has a good claim, but it seems difficult to fulfill.
Maybe I should spend some time reading up on the GRE. Didn't know it had a writing section. Man, you seem to be working so hard (I told Mike about your email "no life anymore, work, study, sleep") and doing so much studying...don't stress X out now. We are still having fun in Europe here ;-)
Oh lol I hope you bring all your GRE stuff back, I'll have fun with flashcards, even if I end up not taking the test. Maybe I can quiz you...I must have more time with only 4 classes, right...errrm.
In my Economics of Development Class, we talked about the importance of media in raising awareness for disasters. Disasters get better coverage when there isn't, of course, something else that's big in the news. There was some economic study that showed that lower levels of aid were received by countries that experienced a disaster when the Olympics were in the same year as the disaster. Because media coverage was filled with Olympic news, the disasters didn't make it to the front page, fewer people knew about it, and fewer people could pressure the the government to give (or know about it enough to give themselves).
Another something to discuss is blogging, a newer form of the media. During this year's presidential election, the bloggers are going quite insane and are picking up on really stupid things instead of the real issues.
Perhaps relevant:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/20/AR2008072002191.html
Ok, do i'm not sure what the "media" includes. but in regards to journalism and news reporting and pertinent information distributing.. the people in those lines of work are supposed to find information and give it to the populace. and it is up to the people to draw their own conclusions and figure out what to do with the given information. of course, the journalist can have his/her biases, but the facts are supposed to be objective. and then you have op-ed pieces where people give their opinions... and then we vote and the system works
isn't that kinda boring???????
but nowadays, i dont know what a lot of these institutions are doing. maybe just breaking down and selling the information the public wants instead of digging for the information the public needs to know about?
i guess they are just responding to the masses and the people who care about real news are a minority.
you can pick the recent biased western media coverage about olympics and human rights in China to write about this topic, should be an easy one.
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