Here's the assignment for Kevin's essay last Saturday.
Prompt 1
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
It is better to try to be original than to merely imitate others. People should always try to say, write, think, or create something new. There is little value in merely repeating what has been done before. People who merely copy or use the ideas and inventions of others, no matter how successful they may be, have never achieved anything significant.
Assignment:
Is it always better to be original than to imitate or use the ideas of others? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
While Kevin and I spent some time each night dicussing the math, reading, and grammer sections, we saved a general discussion of the essay until the night before the test. Told Kevin to do his best, write an intro, support his points, try to make quality sentences (Kevin has an tendency to use 'it' in sentences of using the noun he is referring to...). Then we went over some sample questions for the essays, and ran into one where Kevin couldn't even discern what they were asking....."Describe how generousity might suffer in a capitalist society". Kevin didn't know what 'capitalist' meant, so, that would make that question even more difficult. So, we really hoped that he would at least be able to develop an essay once he saw the question.
Turns out that Kevin did pretty well....he reports that he used Thomas Edison and Eli Whitney to support his point and was able to finish the essay in the time allotted. So, we'll see...
