College Essay Assignment

: Due Friday, September 6th

Directions: Respond to ONE of the following prompts as if you were submitting an essay to a college or university for a scholarship. Plan and write an essay in which you develop your points of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples ta en from your studies! life experiences! or personal observations. PROMPT 1 Loyalty is a virtue that is encouraged and rewarded in every aspect of our lives. We are, therefore, loyal to our families, our teams, our schools, and our countries. But too often loyalty is blind: by automatically identifying ourselves with a group and accepting its values as our own, we avoid taking responsibility for our own thoughts and actions. Assignment: Does accepting the values of a group allow people to avoid taking responsibility for their own thoughts and actions? PROMPT 2 re!uirement for membership in any group is conformity. "embers must agree on such vital issues as how decisions will be made, who will serve as leaders, and how much freedom group members will have. #he !uality of decision making, however, is better when groups encourage nonconformity and disagreement among their members. lthough it sometimes creates disorder and conflict, disagreement may prevent powerful ma$orities from making mistakes. Assignment: Do groups that encourage nonconformity and disagreement function better than those that discourage it? PROMPT 3 "any societies believe that the pursuit of happiness is a fundamental human right. But it is also true that attainment of happiness remains elusive. %erhaps Bertrand &ussell had it right when he said, '#o be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.( Assignment: What gives us more pleasure and satisfaction: the pursuit of our desires or the attainment of them? PROMPT 4 Bernard )haw once said, '*ndependence? #hat+s middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.( )haw e,pected to provoke controversy with these words, but * would agree with him that these days there is too much emphasis on independence. While it is certainly true that e,cessive dependence on others is not a sign of maturity, total independence of others is neither attainable nor desirable: we need to be mature, and unselfish enough to recogni-e our interdependence. Assignment: Do we put too much emphasis on self.reliance and independence, and are we afraid of admitting that we need other people in our lives? Requirements ./ssay must be written in "L format. -Essay must be a minimum of ONE page and a maximum of T O pages! .0our essay may contain 12/ !uote that does not e,ceed #W1 full lines. #he source3author of the !uote should be indicated within the essay. 2o citation or Works 4ited page is necessary. .0our essay must have a creative title that clearly links to the topic3theme of your essay. .0our essay must have an introduction, conclusion, and at least #W1 body paragraphs. -"our response to t#e prompt$ t#e position you are ta%ing on t#e issue$ s#ou&d be e'p&i(it&y stated in t#e introdu(tory paragrap#! -"our essay is due on )riday$ *eptember +t#!