User Details For: exlawyer

Essay List

No Essays.


Comments List
  • Essay in respects tp the military

    This is not an essay; it has nothing to do with the military; it looks more like a copied lesson plan. Of what possible use is this?
    • 28/04/2010
    • 22:44:10
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Madison or Marbury:

    Well , as the product of someone in junior high school, this is not bad. (If I were to grade it to college standards, I would be harsher.) However, the writer misses a number of points. First, in the opening sentence, he used "were" for "where." The writer fails to mention why Marbury v. Madison is such an important example of judicial review: it established -- some would say invent the concept. The writer does not explain what a Writ of Mandamus is. The writer fails to explain how James Madison became involved -- he was Jefferson's Secretary of State, charged with issuing the commission, if Marbury was entitled to it. The writer quotes John Garraty on the consequences of issuing the writ without power to enforce it, but the discussion carries no conviction of understanding what it means. As for what would have happened if Marshall had ruled for Madison, it never would have earned Jefferson's friendship. The two men despised each other.As for the consequence of the case, Marbury was anything but neutral. It set court up as a powerful counterweight to the other branches of government..
    • 11/04/2010
    • 17:38:38
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Injustice An essay about the injustice that the NCAA is commiting against scholarship athletes.

    This essay is written quite well.That being said, I disagree entirely with the writer's line of reasoning. Given the levels of corruption already rampant in college athletics, in which a super-star can read on a second-grade level and still earn a college degree; given the massive amounts of graft involved, in which an embarrassing number of top athletes own or have unlimited access to high-quality, high-cost vehicles for which they have no coherent explanations; given the coercive power of the NCAA, which regularly pulls press credentials of any journalist willing to speak of these forbidden topics; given all of this, on behave of the legitimate students who have to stand by and watch all this go on while academic excellence is degraded, enough is enough.
    • 17/03/2010
    • 13:47:51
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Capstone CheckPoint CRT205

    Let me begin with an irritating point: what does the title have to do with the essay? I see no reasonable connection.The essay itself is little more than a string of cliches. Further, the author does not define "critical thinking." The overall effect is that the author has announced that he has made a great discovery, but at the end of the essay, the reader is still wondering what that great discovery is.
    • 17/03/2010
    • 13:36:26
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Attackers Use Different Techniques for gaining access to a system

    Generally, this is a good essay, although it could use a bit more development to be clear what was being talked about. It has the unfortunate feel of an insider's job. There is, however, one truly bad sentence: "To defense against kernel-mode rootkits would require users from keeping attackers from ever gaining super-user access by applying patches and host-based IPSs." Whatever this means, it should be cleaned up..
    • 17/03/2010
    • 13:32:06
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • History essay detailing and explaining the importance of the war in the sea to the final outcome of World War I, or as it was then known as The Great War.

    Great Title, fascinating topic, no essay.Too bad.
    • 17/03/2010
    • 13:27:08
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Antibiotics

    How does this amount to an essay. It includes two articles lifted whole cloth from a website, described by virtually lifting the basic texts from each of the sites and reproducing them essentially verbatim. The only portion of this "essay" for which the writer can claim credit is the opening 60+ words. This portion of the work indicates that this student does not know how to punctuate a sentence, and can do little more than cut and paste.To say that this is an "A-" product for a high school junior raises a question. I would assume that a high school junior should be sufficiently familiar with basic research skills and critical analysis to find sources, describe them in his own words, and actually begin to show critical skills: are these articles objective or sensationalistic? Do the authors of the articles show a reasonable ability to articulate themselves? What questions do these articles prompt? Just being able to find two articles and cut and paste them without showing a deeper understanding shows none of these skills, and it leaves me troubled that this student seems not to understand these basic requirements.
    • 16/03/2010
    • 20:23:14
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Build-Up to the Emergence of Bangladesh

    This essay is remarkable. The writing is generally very solid, and the whole product bespeaks a remarkable understanding of a vast range of subtle material. This is the sort of essay that is a genuine university level product. While citations to the specific points made in the essay would be nice, overall this essay is already very, very solid.Bravo!
    • 16/03/2010
    • 20:06:59
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Hamlet in comparison with The Lion King

    Well, to give what credit is due, the writing is reasonably good.The reasoning, however, shows that the writer may have read "Hamlet," but has failed to grasp its many nuances. Although the writer contends that "The Lion King" is a retelling of "Hamlet," this essay is more a reduction of "Hamlet" to cartoon level. As in an ordinary children's story, the characterize in "The Lion King" need very little explanation. From the outset, Scar is clearly the bad guy; the hyenas are the bad-guy's hangers-on; and Simba is the young king in the making who has to grow into his proper role and then confront the evil Scar. In "Hamlet," the plot has far more sophistication, and the characters actually go through something of a logical development, something that the characters in "Lion King" most certainly do not do.Further, there is no recognition in this essay of language. A generation from now, will anyone actually sing "Lion King" songs? A century from now, "Hamlet" will probably remain one of the great works of English.
    • 15/03/2010
    • 03:28:51
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • dsfdsafdsfdsafadsfaf

    If this essay proves one thing, it is that the ability to produce colorful graphics does nothing to ensure good or even decent quality writing. This essay is largely a matter of lay responses to global warming, but it is so narrow and informal that it lacks scientific or statistical validity. Further, anyone who tries to read the commentary will find that this is written by someone learning English, someone who needs a great deal more training in the language to achieve proficiency.
    • 15/03/2010
    • 03:09:39
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Essay Title: Movie

    I do not think this qualifies as an essay in any sense of the word.
    • 11/03/2010
    • 21:43:52
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Apollo Hoax

    This essay is written adequately, but the reasoning is tawdry, care-worn, and ludicrous. To perpetrate a hoax on the order that this author suggests would require the complicity of literally thousands of people, ranging from the astronauts to the technicians, to everyone else involved in the inner workings of the NASA program. Given that blowing the cover on this hoax would be worth millions from news media outlets, the temptation to squeal would be unbelievable.
    • 08/03/2010
    • 19:40:08
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Brave New World

    I have to commend this writer for the honesty of his self-assessment. This is not a very good essay. The writing is choppy and hard to follow. However, it does show a beginning of an understanding of the novel, which is a good beginning, and it shows that the author was aware that the product needs work.Keep working. It will all come together in time.
    • 03/03/2010
    • 00:32:46
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Top Ten Most Influential People in US History

    Of the ten listed people, only three warrant serious inclusion on a list of influential Americans of the nineteenth century: Washington, Lincoln, and Jackson, and in that order, not with Jackson as the most influential. He was a minor figure compared to Lincoln and Washington.Several of the listed figures are so inconsequential that they are largely unknown: Dorothea Dix, Horace Mann, Charles Finney, John O'Sullivan -- who are these people. Certainly Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, and Adams overawe any of these people.Even Douglass, Marshall, and Stowe were not such huge figures as to warrant inclusion in a list of the ten most influential Americans. There are probably a dozen people who stand over and above any of these.
    • 03/03/2010
    • 00:28:30
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Watergate Scandal

    This essay is an example of reasonably good writing reflecting an stunning lack of understanding of the subject. The research is woefully spotty, so that articles on obscure topics are presented as the basis for something amounting to an overview. The description of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., as writing a defense of President Nixon can is laughable. The book this writer is trying to allude to is Schlesinger's "The Imperial Presidency," a scathing condemnation of the aggrandizement of power in the hands of Presidents. Among these, Schlesinger held Nixon in special contempt.This article provide no framework for the Watergate affair as anything other than a quirky burglary, whereas Watergate brought the nation to a constitutional crisis as profound as any in a generation.Of this essay: I hope that the writer eventually does enough reading about the events of Watergate to come to a serious understanding of what happened. This essau show nothing of the sort.
    • 03/03/2010
    • 00:16:14
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Was CCP victory inevitable?

    This essay has only one real flaw: the writer assumes that every reader will be familiar with the abbreviations used and the setting of the civil war. It took a considerable amount of figuring to decode this information.
    • 20/02/2010
    • 19:13:57
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Explain Castro's Rise to Power

    This essay does contain a good deal of material, but the material is presented in such a disorganized, jumbled mass of spewed data, with little or no coherent structure that it would take wholesale rewriting to correct all of the problems. Reading it is a chore. Trying to salvage it would verge on the impossible.
    • 13/02/2010
    • 22:43:00
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Application of Justice

    The writing in this essay is reasonably good, but the reasoning is, at best, questionable. The writer fails to present the plot of the tale adequately. Ten people come to an isolated island where they gradually determine that one among their number is killing them one by one in retaliation for their supposed past crimes. Each of these people was responsible to some degree for the death of another person, but it is a grotesquely severe sanction that the killer meets out, making himself judge, jury, and executioner, over a range of cases, virtually none of which could qualify as "murders" while everything that the vengeful killer is calculated and cold-blooded. Is this justice? The killer, a retired judge, seems to justify himself with the simple notion that because he will take poison to hasten an advanced cancer, he does nothing wrong in killing nine other people. It is a shallow and simplistic line of reasoning and one that this writer has failed to consider properly. If these killings were carried out in real life, rather than in the context of an isolated island, would the writer have any real admiration for the killer?
    • 07/02/2010
    • 20:57:31
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • But I'm a . . .

    This essay contains a number of incorrect word usages: "straight forward" should be "straightforward"; "life style" should be "lifestyle"; "surly" should be "surely."More seriously, the writer exhibits a stilted understanding of the movie "But I'm a Cheerleader." The writer says " Megan's family . . . are seen as supportive, but in a somewhat pushy way." More accurately, her family ship the girl off to a camp to "reform" her on the flimsiest evidence that she is gay. The writer says of Megan, "she is not aware that she is gay when she came to the camp." A more insightful view of the movie is that Megan may not have been gay at all before she was thrown into the camp environment, but accepted homosexuality in reaction to the oppression of the camp and the hostility that she encountered.This essay also fails to consider one of the most profound questions that the homosexuality issue raises: is being gay a matter of lifestyle or of genetic predisposition? If homosexuality is a matter of predisposition, then the gay individual is faced with a grim choice: he can deny himself, with the attendant consequences of internal conflict, or he acknowledge his homosexuality, and face social ostracism.And if a person is "born gay," how can a church condemn them for being gay, because the individual chose nothing?In short, this essay fails to deal with the movie "But I'm a Cheerleader" in a truly meaningful way.
    • 21/01/2010
    • 02:09:56
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • The L:egal Drinking Age

    The writing in this essay is quite good, showing that the writer has a good command of the language and a skill in presenting arguments. As an example of writing, it is quite good.As an example of reasoning, it is stilted, sensationalistic, and shallow. It makes arguments that will never attrract serious public support. Among other things, there is no sound basis for suggesting that the people of the United States would tolerate the sort of opppressive social control that this person advocates. Like it or not, 18 is teh accepted age for voting, serving in the military (including by the draft should that ever be reinstituted), marriage, and various other prvilieges.
    • 19/01/2010
    • 22:08:18
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Do animals have rights

    This essay reflects a considerable amount of "warm and fuzzy" emotion, but very little logic. If domesticated animals have rights to the point where men are "guardians," how far does that go? Do insects have rights? Do they have the right to ravage crops left wholly unprotected by pesticides? What about bacteria and viruses? Are antibiotics devices for inflicting genocide on entire species? Does the eradication of small-pox represent the wholesale murder of a species over which humanity is guardians.Carried to its extreme, this attitude would require that all people live as monks in the early years of the church, not even willing to rid their bodies of lice on the grounds that these were "pearls of God." Having had to shampoo my daughter's hair over and over to try to remove lice, having learned the literal meaning of the phrase "nit-picker," I regard this essay as shallow, naive, and ill-considered.
    • 12/01/2010
    • 15:06:42
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Plato and Mathematics

    This essay contains a good deal of inaccurate information. The definition of the circle is not from Plato -- it is taken directly from Euclid's elements. Further, the reduction of the Theory of Forms to such trite definitions as these denigrates Plato's remarkable breadth of learning. I would not rely on this essay for anything it says.
    • 06/01/2010
    • 22:01:51
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Plato, or Plato Lite?

    This essay shows the regrettable trait of relying on various articles on Plato by various commentators without looking at the works of Plato in any real depth, and without acquiring a full understanding of his total impact on philosophy. The result is an essay which discusses a number of secondary sources, including some of very, very questionable quality.
    • 06/01/2010
    • 21:58:03
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The evolution of democracy from Jefferson to Jackson

    This essay is competently written, but it says remarkably little, and is not accurate in what it says. For one thing, the title, mentioning evolution, implies a change over time. There is no suggestion of change in this essay. It is merely a rather trite comparison of the two figures mentioned. Further, it completely fails to view either Jefferson or Jackson in the context of the early American republic, in which the views of both men, favoring public participation in government rather than the exclusive and elitist concepts of government advocated by the Federalists whom they both opposed.Further, in reducing both men to a simplistic idea that they favored equality overlooks much of the difficulty that these two men evinced. Both owned slaves. Jackson even traded in slaves early in his business career. Jefferson never served in the military, while Jackson made himself a national figure through his wars against the various Indians and through his stirring victory over the British at the Battle of New Orleans.In short, the modest qualities of this essay are lost in the lack of any serious appreciation of their complexity.
    • 06/01/2010
    • 21:53:33
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Song Dynasty

    While this essay contains a good deal of sound information, there are so many awkward word use, or outright misuses that this essay needs to be substantially rewritten to be worth using for any purpose.
    • 03/01/2010
    • 19:13:45
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Romanticism

    This essay shows a very weak understanding of English at a fundamental level. It has run-ons, comma splices, and dreadful word uses that make it almost unreadable. Further, the understanding of "romanticism" is poor to the point of complete confusion.In short, this is a dangerously poor essay.
    • 29/12/2009
    • 02:46:30
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Cause of Reformation and the Appearance of Protestant

    Filled with factual errors so great that they make any reliance on this essay risky, this essay shows signs of having been written by a person who neither understands the assignment on this he was writing, nor much more than the fundamentals of English.This is a dreadful product, and the notion that this is an "A" paper is, sadly, nonsense.
    • 24/12/2009
    • 22:40:34
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Charles Dickens

    This essay is written with a style so inane as to sound like something that a grade-school child would produce. There is a glaring weakness of comprehension throughout the essay, as if the person has only a minimal comprehension of the purpose of the essay.The author rates this essay an "A." I cannot agree. This is really a very poor product.
    • 21/12/2009
    • 01:34:51
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • The Sentence

    This essay outlines the basic categories of thought that (should) underlie a sentence in a criminal matter, but the application of these categories gives way to a sentence that seems highly arbitrary rather than reasoned.
    • 20/12/2009
    • 23:02:28
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Constitution

    This essay tries to make the Constitution of the United States into a glorified business guide. In doing so, it mischaracterizes the Constitution and misstates its effects.Consider the opening of the essay: "The Constitution of the United States protects the United States legal system in business regulation. This old Constitution still has power in today's world." The Constitution does much more than protect the American legal system in business regulation. The Constitution establishes the United States. It provides the basic rules of the entire legal system. The quip about "this old" Constitution shows the shallowness of the essay.The writer also misunderstands the legal case involved. What Cirque de Soliel did was illegal under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but it is not unconstitutional.In short, this essay shows a very serious misunderstanding of the subject matter and should not be used.
    • 12/12/2009
    • 22:59:05
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Political Corruption

    This reads as a piece having all the subtlety and courtesy of reasoning of a fundamentalist religious tract which begins by condemning all to perdition.
    • 01/12/2009
    • 23:37:05
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Great Gatsby

    This essay contains some of the more stunning examples of naive reading of a book that I have ever seen.The writer says that Gatsby "had inherited his money, but then lost it all." The only support for this is Gatsby's initial announcement of his background, and Nick Carraway dismisses it as nonsense. How can anyone take seriously the idea that San Francisco is a city in the Midwest. When Gatsby finally discloses his background to Nick, he admits that he is James Gatz, the son of shiftless and unsuccessful farmers in the northern great plains.He does not give parties out of a sense of generosity. He throws themas a calculated attempt to lure in someone who knows Daisy Buchanan, and when he finds Nick Carraway and Jordan Baker both at the same party he is quite pleased. (But as soon as Daisy expresses discomfort with these affairs, he discontinues them entirely.) His willingness to replace a woman's gown is less a matter of generosity than a matter of making sure that no questions are asked.The writer comments that no one attends the funeral except for Nick and Gatsby's father. What about the owl eyed man?Of Gatsby's wealth, it is never clear exactly how he has acquired his vast fortune, but the telephone call from Schleagal makes it clear that he is not dealing in legal enterprises: ""Young Parke's in trouble. They picked him up when he handed the bonds over the counter. They got a circular from New York giving 'em the numbers just five minutes before. What d'you know about that, hey? You never can tell in these hick towns——"The earlier references to selling alcohol through drug stores suggests that he was involved in large-scale bootlegging, and Meyer Wolfsheim, who gave him his start in business, is a crook of the highest sort.In short, this essay leaves much to be desired.
    • 25/11/2009
    • 02:26:39
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Japanese internment

    In the first paragraph, the writer begins with several awkward phrases such as "In the year 1941" and "American's began to ponder at the thought." The writing smooths out as the essay continues, but it remains jumbled, jagged, and not focused. Also, the writer overlooks two remarkable sources: the Supreme Court cases litigating the constitutionality of this program, and the eventual payment of reparations to the Japanese who were interred.
    • 25/11/2009
    • 01:38:00
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Neurology of Music

    Although there are occasion lapses in the writing, this paper is obviously the result of a great deal of study and insight. It offers a wealth of information, compactly presented, although some of the discussion will make more sense to someone who has a strong background in music.Overall, a remarkably good paper.
    • 23/11/2009
    • 00:54:50
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • 18th Amendment

    This essay does a good job of bringing out the background to Prohibition. However, the writer's understanding of the actual adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment is lacking. The essay completely fails to address the social changes which caused Prohibition in the 1920s to go from being a national crusade with almost universal support to being a standing national joke.
    • 22/11/2009
    • 20:20:30
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Jesus and Mohammed

    Can I really take seriously an essay on religion in which the writer refers to "his life's goal was to mission as a profit to God," even as the writer elsewhere uses the proper word, "prophet."As religious history, the summary of the Life of Jesus is adequate, although I would have expected much more direct reliance on scripture rather than merely on a secondary source on the Internet. The same weakness is heightened with respect to the material on Muhammad: how do we gauge the reliability of the site or the information.The writer finally shows a critical bias in his outlook, In the final sentence of this essay, he writes: "This has affected how strong Jesus' message is being portrayed and how effective it is."Sadly, objectivity is slaughtered on the idle of dogmatism..
    • 22/11/2009
    • 16:53:26
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Malvolio

    This is a very, very impressive essay, showing a clear and precise understanding of the character under consideration. Excellent!
    • 20/11/2009
    • 12:13:55
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Nurse?! Nurse?! STAT!!

    This essay is wrong on many, many points. What is more, it is one of the most unreadable pieces I have ever read. The first sentence is virtually incomprehensible, and the entire essay needs to be translated out of bureaucratic gobbledegook into readable English.
    • 20/11/2009
    • 12:05:13
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • The First Amendment

    This essay contains a good deal of information, but the presentation is confusing. The courts follow the doctrine of "stare decisis," sticking to precedent when possible. This makes chronological presentation very reasonable, because the early cases are precedent for the later cases. This essay jumps around.More seriously, the brevity of this essay means it does not include critical discussion putting these three cases in a fuller context.
    • 13/11/2009
    • 23:01:17
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Religion and Dissent

    This essay beings with an description of cults, based on the author's premise that cults should not be tolerated as having any legitimacy as religions.It then goes into a description of the practices of Jehovah's witnesses. But it does not make clear a key point: does the author consider Jehovah's witnesses to be a cult or a legitimate religion?
    • 13/11/2009
    • 22:56:00
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Human Sexuality

    This paper packs a tremendous amount of information into a very tight presentation.Impressive.
    • 13/11/2009
    • 22:50:03
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Reno v. ACLU

    This essay contains many statements that, while not entirely wrong, are plainly inaccurate.Reno v. ACLU was not a "pivotal" case. "Pivotal" implies that this case changed the direction of the law in a significant way. In fact, the courts have been very consistent about the first amendment, and this ruling is entirely in line with the courts' position.The American Civil Liberties Union did not bring suit against the Communications Decency Act; it brought suit against the Attorney General as the senior-most governmental official charged with the enforcement of this Act.The Court's decision in this case did not make it legal for people to post freely on the Internet. People had had that right since the Internet was first established. It did preclude the government from barring some Internet traffic through the specific device of the Communications Decency Act.On the other hand, there are many ways that Internet traffic can be controlled. If harmful material is posted, persons harmed can still sue for defamation. Bullying and threatening people is subject to sanctions, just as it would be in any other forum or in live encounters.As to the notion that the Communications Decency Act "could have easily prevented many rape, murder, and stalking cases involving the Internet," this is nothing but rank speculation, unsupported by any showing of facts.In short, this essay undertakes a very ambitious task, but falls short of success.
    • 12/11/2009
    • 21:59:12
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Controversial Issues

    This essay makes a comparison of European and American society that is silly: the American society is more divided that European society. Europe has been record by revolutions over political issues which the United States has been stable since the War between the State.The description of American Society into two discrete groups is simplistic, and when have the term "Progressive" and "Orthodox" been used to describe groups in modern America?The description of the issues is superficial, and many Americans fall all along continuum rather than being extremists on many issues.But many Americans accept the range of disputes that are common in our society as one of its strengths: we honor diversity by living it.
    • 12/11/2009
    • 05:35:10
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Nazi Foreign Policy

    Wordy, awkward, stilted, poorly organized, almost unreadable. This has the definite feel of something conceived in a foreign language. Indeed, it may be significant that the bibliography lists one source publish in Warsaw, Poland, in Polish.
    • 11/11/2009
    • 12:45:17
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Same Sex Marriage

    The lack of real organization cuts down the effectiveness of this essay. The author keeps reverting to points he had already described.
    • 04/11/2009
    • 13:21:47
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Gender Roles

    This is a short essay, and of necessity it covers a very limited range of materials. However, it covers these materials reasonably well and in a readable manner.
    • 02/11/2009
    • 15:27:32
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • The power of love

    A reasonably good description of what sounds like a reasonably good biography.
    • 01/11/2009
    • 02:23:52
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Macbeth

    The overlong title of this essay indicates that the writer was asked to do two things: to describe an important change in the character Macbeth, and to explain how that change helped the writer to understand an idea from the play. The essay does a rather superficial and redundant job of explaining how Macbeth's ambition goes from good to bad, but it does not focus on any particular idea in the play.
    • 01/11/2009
    • 02:17:05
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • SWOT of Nintendo WII

    The Introduction of this essay is much smoother than the body and presents the material in a remarkably clear, informative, and engaging manner.
    • 01/11/2009
    • 02:09:53
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Martin Luther King

    While reasonably accurate in its statements of fact, this essay shows a poor understanding of the rules of punctuation, and the references to "Martin" suggest a familiarity awkward to an essay of this type.
    • 29/10/2009
    • 21:59:06
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Martin Luther King

    While this essay is a reasonable source of information, it is written with a woodenness of style that is grating. Why, for example, does the writer constantly write out "Dr. Martin Luther King Junior," when he is talking about King as an undergraduate student, long before he earned his doctorate?
    • 29/10/2009
    • 21:54:57
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Essay about Macbeth

    The effort to use the speech from Macbeth to cover everything from Adolf Hitler to Saddam Hussein is strained at best. Instead of reciting Shakespeare, Hussein might well have looked to Dylan Thomas and his wrenching "Go Not Softly into That Good Night."
    • 29/10/2009
    • 10:59:07
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Workplace Drug Screening

    The writing in this essay is generally good, but sometimes excessively wordy. Also, I would have been more impressed if the writer had paraphrased more rather than stringing together such long quotations.Also, this writer seems totally oblivious of the potential damage that drug testing costs. A false positive test can be catastrophic to an employee, potentially ending his employment without cause, and possibly marking him for life. And, yes, there are false positives.
    • 29/10/2009
    • 10:43:16
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • McCarthyism

    A very good essay.
    • 29/10/2009
    • 04:25:52
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • To Kill a Mockingbird

    A very impressive essay.
    • 16/10/2009
    • 22:46:49
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Dante, Canto 5

    This essay is relatively well written.However, the writer fails to understand the nature of Dante's encounter with Francesca. Francesca de Rimini fell into the habit of having long private encounters with her brother-in-law. One day, they took to reading the tale of Lancelot, one of the best known amorous tales from that time. So picture the situation: two young people who have grown familiar with one anothers company, meeting alone, reading a famous "dirty" book. Was Francesca innocent? I don't think so. This is somewhat like sprawling out on a waterbed, putting a very r-rated flick in the VCR, and then saying that it was all the fault of the movie.
    • 08/10/2009
    • 23:21:30
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Dante Gets Lost

    Reading this essay closely, I realized that the writer treats "The Divine Comedy" as if it was a true story, that a man named Dante actually did descend into Hell.Unfortunately, the writer shows an appalling ignorance of what happened in the later parts of the Comedy: Dante works his way through Purgatory and Paradise before being sent back to earth to articulate his vision of divinity. But he undertook this journey not as part of an option of choosing Heaven or Hell, but as a single journey that would take him through all three of the realms of the afterlife.I wish the writer had shown a better understanding of this work.
    • 08/10/2009
    • 00:53:08
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • American Revolution

    The bibliography is outstanding. This student is clearly using some of the top sources on the topic. The amount of information is impressive.However, it reads like a rough draft. This writer needs to sit down now, go over each sentence and paragraph of this essay, and turn it into a truly polished product.
    • 08/10/2009
    • 00:37:10
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Ku Klux Klan

    I would have liked an approach that explained much more about the social impact of the Klan instead of concentrating so much on costuming, which was much less important.
    • 06/10/2009
    • 00:27:02
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Marx

    This essay is quite well-written and provides a good deal of basic information in a reasonable and unemotional way. It bodes well for the writer.
    • 06/10/2009
    • 00:18:21
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Vietnam War

    A remarkable essay, excellent.
    • 30/09/2009
    • 12:56:50
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • State Comparison

    This essay is painfully bad. It shows a lack of understanding of the concept of courts of limited jurisdiction such as tax courts. In the case of the Oregon courts, it wishes courts such as justice courts and city courts. It fails to consider aspects such as how judges and justices are elected, which may or may not politicize the courts. It shows no understanding of the difference between trial and appellate courts. In short, it is little better than a statistical counting of judges, with minimal understanding of what these judges do.
    • 29/09/2009
    • 23:56:17
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Solution for Teen Pregnancy

    The writing in this essay frequently feels forced and stilted, and there is a good deal of redundancy to the essay.Further, the essay puts forward one suggestion that is impossible. Government censorship of the media. Given the constraints of the first amendment, it cannot be done.What about self-censorship by the media? It is legal, but here the essay loses contact with social reality. A great many people think that the current social climate is just fine, even if there is a relatively high rate of teenage pregnancy. If someone wants to change the social climate in order to reduce the rate of teenage pregnancy, that is a huge social change, and I wonder, can it be done? Should it be done?
    • 29/09/2009
    • 23:49:46
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Newton

    This is generally a very good essay, but it is flawed by the failure of the writer to appreciate just how phenomenal Newton was. When he took his degree from Cambridge, he was named a fellow of his college, the highest honor that the school bestowed on a graduating student. Just two years later, he was appointed the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. For someone so young, this amounted to acknowledgment throughout the English scientific community that Newton was, as contemporaries said, "an unparalleled genius."
    • 16/09/2009
    • 15:21:45
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Declaration of Independence

    This is a good essay, although it is flawed by several errors that a carefully reading should have picked up: "adders" should have been "address"; "salve" for "slave."The document also touches on but fails to appreciate the very delicate situation the colonies faced. They were thirteen colonies. They were not yet a nation, and it would take the war and a period of post-war muddling before they would collectively dare to become a nation with the adoption of the Constitution in 1789. Now, more than two centuries after the fact, we can appreciate the enormity of the slavery issue. In 1776, to have tried to condemn slavery would have shattered the very tentative union that the colonies had formed with one another, and foredoomed the revolution.These flaws preclude this from being a top-rated essay.
    • 16/09/2009
    • 14:47:51
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Influences Of English

    I have no idea what the title is for.This is a remarkable essay. It condenses a truly impressive amount of information into just two pages. For anyone wanting to understand the novel "The Sound and the Fury," a very close reading if this essay would be a fine start.
    • 15/09/2009
    • 23:34:31
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Caroline compsons obsession

    This essay takes an interesting view, presents it in a forceful, logical fashion, and does so using fine English. A very good product.
    • 15/09/2009
    • 23:29:42
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Sound And The Fury

    This essay contains several inaccuracies, and presents one of the stranger theories on what underlay this novel. Even if true, this does nothing to explain why the novel "The Sound and the Fury" is still regarded as one of the greatest of all American novels.
    • 15/09/2009
    • 23:25:27
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Marijuana's Potential as a Legalized Drug

    Without hesitation, I take my hat off to this writer. This is a truly outstanding essay. It is the only paper that I have found on this site for which the claim of an "A+" grade was truly justified.BRAVO!
    • 15/09/2009
    • 23:18:54
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Jesus and Mohammed

    This paper at least does not fall into the habit of contrasting the good, divine, benevolent Jesus with the fatuous and blasphemous Mohammed. That is one of the redeeming qualities.Unfortunately, the writing in this essay is poor. To cite one example, "Many of whom believes in the Islamic faith, wish not to make any comparison to Mohammed as he is the high one to all who accept and worship the faith of Islam." What does this mean? After a series of these sentences (or attempts at sentences), reading becomes labored to the point of despair.To be minimally acceptable as a sound English essay, this paper needs wholesale editing.
    • 15/09/2009
    • 08:46:12
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Catholic and Muslim religion

    The writer's style in this paper, in which he is prominent but invisible, is a serious obstacle to any understanding of the material. Further, the writer's method (interviewing a handful of individuals, most of them lay-people, while ignoring the priests who could have provided much more information more clearly) is silly. The result is inaccurate information, stilted information, and errors. The notion that Catholics do not believe in life after death would appall any Catholic. Further, Catholicism is a Christian denomination, not a separate religion.The discussion of Islam degenerates almost from the outset into near gibberish.Finally, the entire essay is written in a manner so stilted that I am troubled that any university level instructor would not demand that it be rewritten. This is not a good paper.
    • 15/09/2009
    • 08:18:39
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Checks and Balances

    This essay suffers from two fundamental flaws. First, the writing is stiff and awkward, and this results in a number of sentences that are unclear. Paragraphing is between flawed and non-existent.More serious, this essay contains several inaccuracies. The three branches of government do not control one another: the constitutional systems requires that they work in concert and with reasonable deference for one another. That the President is commander in chief of the armed forces and that he can issue pardons, emphasized here, are two of his most trivial powers. That a second-term President is a "lame duck" is trivia of no real significance.The Supreme Court has varied in size. Its primary power is not in declaring statutes or presidential acts unconstitutional but in interpreting laws and the Constitution, often in cases having no direct connection to presidential or congressional authority.The tress on impeachment is flawed. Impeachments of any federal official are extremely rare. More important, the mere fact that a president does something which is challenged as unconstitutional does not automatically initiate impeachment proceedings.Of the powers of the President, if the Supreme Court issues a decision, on constitutional or statutory grounds, that requires the executive branch to act, the President (and the entire executive branch) is legally required to follow that decision. The notion that he can rely on his power to see that the laws of the United States are enforced as an excuse for ignoring the courts of the United States is unfounded, and was definitively rejected in the 1803 case of Marbury v. Madison.In short, this is not a good essay. It should not be used.
    • 13/09/2009
    • 17:27:42
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • World War One: Life in the Trenches

    First, no one not face with eminent starvation would ever try to eat a rat. Given the rat's ability to endure conditions of filth and disease without suffering any adverse consequences, it would be an act of suicide.Second, the notion that anyone could endure shelling in this war and not be bothered is nonsense. The shelling on the fronts drove men mad, and the ability of an artillery barrage to rip men apart was a horror few forgot.Finally, what human writes of mustard gas, with its ability to burn soldier's lungs apart, so that they died in burning agony, and in the next sentence closes with "I hope to see you soon."While a certain innocence is expectable from a seventh grade student, this cavalier attitude strains credence.
    • 08/09/2009
    • 06:21:03
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Moment of Silence

    The "moment of silence" that this writer advocates makes NO SENSE AT ALL.The writer announces, "Students learn religious tolerance and morals that parents might not be able to teach them." How do students learn religious tolerance and morals from observing a moment of silence. Obviously, student would focus their thoughts on these ideas only if the students were encouraged do so. This would mean giving the entire process a religious purpose and focus.The writer also stated: "This moment shows that the school authority figures respect students, and teachers, and that they have spiritual or religious aspects of their lives." Again, students would reach this conclusion only if they were specifically told that this was part of the purpose of the moment of silence. Again, this shows that there is an explicit religious purpose to the supposedly non-religious moment of silence.The writer's fundamental problem is an errant view of the freedom of religion as guaranteed by the first amendment to the United States Constitution. The writer states his position stating: "Our first amendment rights guarantee religious freedom, therefore allowing us to have a Moment of Silence. This does not conflict with the separation of church and state."The writer reasons that because "freedom of religion" allows those students who wish to observe a religiously inspired moment of silence, there are no problems in imposing this same religiously inspired rite on students who do not wish to participate in such a religious ritual.What if a high school student, a Muslim, wishes to bring a prayer rug on which he will kneel, facing Mecca, to recite Islamic prayer. If the student agrees to mouth the prayers in such a low voice that it does not amount breaking the silence of the moment, will this be allowed?If a young Buddhist wishes to chant/sing certain prayers of her faith, would this be allowed.And what of Jehovah's Witnesses? If Jehovah's Witnesses insist that the Moment of Silence amounts to bowing to a graven image and insists that they be allowed to speech among themselves freely throughout the moment, can they be required to violate their religious principles by remaining silent?And if the Jehovah's Witnesses are allowed to violate the concept of silence, and I am an agnostic/atheist/private believer, who am I required to stand silent while they speech?And how does this writer's freedom of religion require that I participate in something I consider religious and offensive?Finally, this writer announces that the observance of the moment of silence has invariably reduced violence. That is a statement that requires specific citation, because I frankly think it cannot be shown.
    • 02/09/2009
    • 00:08:53
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Schools should teach intelligent design

    This essay fails to probe the questions underlying the "intelligent design" controversy sufficiently well or in anything approaching adequate depth to show why this is a controversial essay. By the criteria that it suggests, astrology should be taught in public schools, because a large number of people read horoscopes.There really are sound reasons why science teachers and scientists rebel at the idea that "intelligent design" is science.
    • 01/09/2009
    • 08:41:28
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Good Business Sense

    This essay shares a weakness with almost any essay on this type of topic: at an undergraduate level, it must state such cliches and generalizations that it is little more than cliches.
    • 30/08/2009
    • 01:44:27
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Puritans

    The fundamental flaw of this essay is that it accepts Arthur Dimmesdale and John Proctor as actual Puritans. Dimmesdale is a character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter," written almost two centuries after the fact. Proctor is a character in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," written some three centuries after the fact, and rather covertly directed at the problem of McCarthyism in the modern United States. While there is a certain verisimilitude to both of these works, the notion that they are accurate portrayals of Puritan society and culture is a significant leap of logic. I would be much more impressed if this writer mentioned some true Puritan figures such as Cotton Mather, Increase Mather, Anne Bradstreet, or Jonathan Edwards.
    • 26/08/2009
    • 01:29:25
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Jesus and Mohammad: A Muddle

    This essay begins with material on the history of slavery and discrimination in the American South, and suddenly jumps to a summary of the accounts we have of the upbringing and youth of Jesus and Mohammad. This discussion involves a direct comparison of Gospel narrative with relatively contemporaneous and detailed accounts of the life of Mohammad. The writer seems absolutely oblivious to any awareness that he is providing a comparison of apples and oranges, or two items even more starkly different. These items are not comparable.At the end, the writer manages to suggest that the two religions should work together in common. This is certainly an unsupported and starkly sprung conclusion.
    • 07/08/2009
    • 15:02:42
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Of Seventh Seal

    Generally, this is a very solid, if rather dry essay. The only thing that I would point out that this writer has missed is this: the couple have an infant with them. In allowing them to escape, the knight allows the human race a chance to perpetuate itself. Yes, the three individuals will die eventually. But through the bearing of children, they offer the possibility that humanity will carry on to some eventual understanding and triumph.
    • 27/07/2009
    • 21:54:11
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • The Kennedy Assassination

    This essay is well written.On the other hand, it repeats some of the incredible and pathetic canards that have come down through the years about this assassination. For example, the essayist writes of the analysis of the audio tapes as if this analysis is authoritative. The Dealey Plaza, however, is an acoustic nightmare, so that any analysis of the tape is so speculative that it amounts to little more than guesswork.Further, this essay makes at least one clear mistake. President Kennedy was struck by two bullets. The first went through his neck. The second bullet to strike him, the third of the bullets that Oswald fired, struck him in the head. This essay indicates that the bullet to the head was the first to be fired.In short, this essay is little more than a repetition of the tired theories of conspiracy buffs, who will insist that no proof is adequate.
    • 25/06/2009
    • 21:15:49
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Students' Rights and Teachers' Responsibilities

    This is a very reasonable essay, but the writer fails to realize that there are some very real and sharp conflicts in this area. For example, what if a search is conducted without a student's knowledge and the school discovers drugs, in a prescription bottle. Does the school have the right to confiscate these? What if the student is taking medication per a doctor's instructions? Does the school have the right to restrict the student's right to follow doctor's instructions? What if the doctor's instructions are to take the medication "as needed"? Can the school argue that the student does not need to take the medication, or that the student must clear his actions with the school each time the student claims there is a need?And what is reasonable suspicion? If Student A reports to the administration that Student B has illegal materials in her locker, is that reasonable suspicion? What if the search turns up unexpected materials? For example, what if "A" says "B" has a gun in her locker, and the search discloses birth control pills. Can/must the school notify "B"s parents? To encourage students to report things, can the school offer some sort of reward to the students who snitch?In short, if the writer believes that these questions are all decided very simply, the writer is mistaken.
    • 14/06/2009
    • 22:18:56
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Homosexuality?

    From the essay: "manliness is directly proportional to a lack of style, grooming, and culture."Well, that may be a good definition of cave-manliness, but I hope it does not set up this person as civilized.Overall, this essay is really pretty much a critique of one television show, which will probably go into the history of television as short-lived and soon forgotten, and significant almost entirely for its absence.
    • 14/06/2009
    • 22:02:01
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Working Capital Worksheet

    While the material given is relatively well-organized, it is in many regards wrong. For example, the plaintiff would not need to use a FOIA request to obtain documents: she could simply use "discovery," a range of legal processes which would allow her to compel Alumina to disgorge information, including the results of any confidential studies undertaken to determine the range of discharges that the company permitted prior to the disclosure of this incident.Some of the suggestions are fanciful. For instance, how will Alumina cease allegations against itself?
    • 14/06/2009
    • 21:57:25
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Painting

    I find this essay poorly written, rambling, and failing to show any of the organization that makes the paining noteworthy.
    • 14/06/2009
    • 21:49:10
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Medieval History about the super natural research paper

    This essay never settles on a point of view. Is it about the writer's experience doing a research paper or about the nominal subject. The writing is ill-organized, unfocused, rambling. Terms such as "medieval" and "supernatural" are never properly defined and poorly used.The writer contends that this was the most demanding task he has ever undertaken. He also contends that there was not enough information to inform him on the subject. I think he spent more time complaining about the amount of work he had to do and less time consulting sound sources. There is a tremendous range of good materials on the subject, had he but taken the time and effort to search for it.
    • 14/06/2009
    • 21:43:25
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Against Legalizing Marijuana

    This essay is reasonably well written, but has such a virulent bias that much of the information is dubious at best.
    • 07/06/2009
    • 17:21:27
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Tort!

    Vague, poorly written, and inaccurate.This essay begins with a serious flaw: it fails to define "tort." That is important because while tort law is a major part of litigation, the definition is extremely board: a civil action seeking a remedy for a wrong not arising from a contract.The essay begins by talking of "liability," and only later corrects the term to "strict liability." (Ah, the almost right word.)The discussion of caps on recovery suggests that doctors were being sued in strict liability. No. Medical malpractice is based on the concept of negligence, the failure of a doctor to meet the standards of a reasonable doctor in like circumstances.Further, the discussion of capping damages approaches the issue solely from the standpoint of the doctor paying high malpractice premiums. What about the patient who is crippled for life? Or the parents of a child who receives negligent treatment, leaving the parents trying to cope with a disabled child? Shouldn't a doctor who is negligent in such a case have to consider his own fitness to practice?Of negligence, the four elements are duty, breach of duty, causation, and damages. One cannot sue for negligence even if there was been an outrageous breach of duty where a duty was unquestionably owed if there were no damages.Finally, intentional torts require that critical element: intent.Of the Hamilton case: it is alluded to but never explained in clear terms. Further, the article from which the writer drew his information is questionable. The author is not "C. Miller." It is "Clausen Miller," a multinational law firm which specializes in, among other things, defending insurance companies. Might this firm be something less than completely objective?Finally, the writer is inexact on what it takes for an insurance agent to create a binding relationship with the company. Simply a meeting will do nothing. To create a binding relationship, the agent will prepare a written document, called a "binder." It is the agent's giving of this binder to the client that creates an insurance relationship.
    • 29/05/2009
    • 15:15:06
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Lord of the Flies

    I feel sad about this essay: it misses the point of so much of "Lord of the Flies." The point of the novel is the question: are humans inherently evil, and if they are, can they do anything to control their evil?In the novel, a planeload of boys are stranded on a tropical island. There are enough fruits and vegetables that they will not go hungry, but Jack, a relentless would-be despot, insists on forming a corps of hunters, a group he can command. He and Ralph gradually come into more and more vicious combat, with Jack eventually preparing "a stick pointed at both ends," the symbol of his intent to hunt down Ralph as if he were a pig, killing him and impaling his head on the stick.The writer is correct in noting that there needs to be some sort of government even in this ostensibly idyllic situation. However, I would compare President Bush to Jack: people did follow him, and we may never see the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
    • 29/05/2009
    • 03:43:44
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Avagadro's Number

    This remarkably good and informative essay is marred by a weakness in the Cheathouse system, that it cannot show superscript or subscript annotation. Avagadro's number, "6.022 x 1023," is not "six point zero two two times one thousand twenty three." It is "six point zero two two times ten raised to the twenty-third power." Ten raised to the twenty third power is 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, a lot more than 1023.
    • 27/05/2009
    • 20:39:51
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Creative Writing ~ A day dairy of a cat and dog.

    The dog diary suggests that this person has never really been around a dog to realize the complexity of dog emotions and reactions to humans.The cat diary is oppressive.
    • 27/05/2009
    • 02:55:38
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Repressed memory syndrome

    Why did this essay earn only a "C+"? After going through it, I find three reasons. First and most simply, the writer did not proofread this essay. There are several little glitches that are clearly errors on the part of the writer, errors that irritate any reader, and should be removed before the essay is handed in.Second, the argument that people who bring repressed memory cases to court are doing so only for the money is absurd. First of all, the 'evidence' cited to support this claim is this:"The FMSF describes the FMS phenomenon as "… one in which people (mostly well- educated, financially comfortable women in their 30's) recover memories which others say are false, become obsessed with the memories and isolate themselves from their family" (qtd. in "Backlash," 1994). Implicit in this statement is the assumption that those who suffer from FMS are seeking financial gain." The source of this quote is an advocate, who clearly has a bias against the use of recovered memories, and the implication is far-fetched.Yes, people in some recovered memory cases have sometimes won large settlements, but to do so, they must convince a jury that they have a valid case. It is hardly automatic.Finally, this essay misses a critical point completely: what is the test for allowing evidence into court. Certainly, ome material is not allowed in court. For example, if I contend that I see a demon on your shoulder coaching you to say evil things, I am not allowed to testify about that. It is called spectral evidence, and while it was once allowed, it is no longer. (Most of the people hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts were convicted based on spectral evidence.) This essay never considers the test that courts apply to decide if something like repressed memory evidence is sufficiently valid to be admissible. That lapse is very serious in an essay on this topic.
    • 15/04/2009
    • 13:28:02
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Not an "A"

    The title of this essay contains a grammatical error making it sound like pidgen English. The discussion of the history of the death penalty is almost silly: did this writer seriously think that the death penalty was first used in the "Old West." Well, if that's the case, then Christ must have been crucified somewhere near Santa Fe, I guess. But that does suggest an oddity, because "Santa Fe" means "Holy Faith," so why would the Spaniards found a city named for a faith for someone not yet . . . Maybe capital punishment has been around a little longer than that.The writer reasons that actions must have consequences, and when laws are broken, punishment must follow. Well, is that always true? Does this writer turn himself in every time he lifts an essay from Cheathouse and submits it as his own?Does he hand himself over to the police every time he cross against a traffic signal? Does he invoke divine retribution on himself for every indiscretion, no matter how slight?And is there no punishment involved in lifetime incarceration? Crimes should result in punishments, but does this invariably mean that the only conceivable penalty for murder is the death penalty? Is there truly no better [not "batter"] penalty than this.Finally, the writer blithely assume that the legal system is perfect in weeding out anyone who is not truly guilty of murder. The Justice Project at the Northwestern University School of Law suggests that this pollyannic faith in the judicial system is naive and best, and often tragically deadly.
    • 14/04/2009
    • 23:33:27
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Sikhism

    This is little more than a set of lecture notes, given minimal editing and then posted on this site. While the writer may believe that this is adequate, I find it badly wanting. There is no indication that the "writer" did anything more than take down notes as someone else regurgitated some of the details of Sikhism, but there is no sign of independent creative thinking that would turn this from a crude set of notes into a true essay with a thesis, a structure, or any other indication of thought.
    • 17/03/2009
    • 12:48:38
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Coming off the Cross

    While others find this spiritually touching, I find it maudlin. Is there a spiritual flaw in the reasoning of this essay? I think so. If Jesus could sit with the little girl behind the couch, why did he not step forward and save the mother, or the father?
    • 08/03/2009
    • 18:41:13
    • Score: 0 out of 4 people found this comment useful.
  • BAD

    Plagiarized, poorly done, poorly reasoned. The height of the nonsense is that this writer argues that when the copyright owners ask to be paid by those who are taking their product, that's considered being greedy (I forego the all-caps treatment), but when napster users make pirated copies, that just considered, . . what? Having fun! How this plagiarized piece of muddle remains on the system is beyond me.
    • 08/03/2009
    • 18:36:51
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Utopia? Not in this writing

    This essay is very poorly written Indeed, I had trouble getting through it, and I have no idea what much of the essay was trying to say. The writing needs work.
    • 26/02/2009
    • 01:07:38
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Lowering the Drinking Age

    One of the things about arguments to lower the drinking age is that these arguments look at the problem entirely from the standpoint of the young person who wants to drink.I look at the problem from a rather different perspective, from the standpoint of someone who has had a number of close calls with drunken drivers. Given the fact, and it is a fact, that many young drivers are still learning to drive when they are first able to drink legally, a lower drinking age would mean that there would be a greater number of young drivers on the road without enough experience to handle cars properly, and they would be drunk. It is a combination I would certainly prefer to avoid.
    • 26/02/2009
    • 01:03:22
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Modern Myth

    This essay leaves with feeling dissatisfied. "Paul Bunyan" is rarely classified as a myth. It is generally regarded as a folktale, a story exemplifying American frontier values. It is hardly "the" American folk tale. The southwest had "Pecos Bill," and Americans managed to make folk heroes of Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, and myriad other figures. Also, does this writer, now apparently an adult, still believe that Paul Bunyan was a real individual?Overall, far less than thrilling.
    • 25/01/2009
    • 15:03:32
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Ethical Arguments on Abortion

    This is a persuasive essay, so in evaluating it, there are two considerations: did the essay persuade, and, is the essay reasonably well-written? Sadly, for this essay, the answer on both points is "no."As far as the persuasive aspect of the essay goes, the writer merely relies on the view, not precisely stated, that life begins at conception, and then proceeds to set up a series of straw-man arguments which he dismisses instead of really rebutting them.As for the writing, it is imprecise, awkward, and tedious. In short, this is less than a top-notch product.
    • 25/01/2009
    • 14:48:51
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Telemachus and Odysseus

    This essay lacks the details and the clarity of expression that would turn it from adequate to very good.
    • 25/01/2009
    • 09:44:02
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Theatre of Ancient Greece

    The writing is chippy, lacking any real flow, but there is a good deal of solid information here.
    • 10/01/2009
    • 06:22:14
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Hamilton's Report on Public Credit.

    These notes contain a good deal of solid information.
    • 09/01/2009
    • 19:50:53
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • The Civil War

    Rambling, redundant, inexact, in need of a considerable amount of deeper research and a purpose throughout. In short, it needs work.
    • 09/01/2009
    • 19:49:17
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Verdun

    This essay contains a good deal of information, but it is not well organized. Further, the writing lapses here and there, so that the overall result is much less impressive than it could have been.
    • 07/01/2009
    • 19:29:53
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • American colonies in 1763 - A new Society?

    A very well-reasoned, well-argued piece that shows considerable polish in every aspect. Well done!
    • 02/01/2009
    • 11:16:20
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener": Humorous or Tragic?

    This essay is sufficiently opaque that I am unable to get any real feel for the underlying story. Having read "Bartelby" and this essay, I feel the essay does nothing to illuminate the story, leaving me just as frustrated as I was before looking at the essay.
    • 30/12/2008
    • 15:48:55
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • American involvement in Vietnam

    This essay might be described as a broad-brush treatment, but more accurately, it is a bludgeoning treatment. The impact of the Cold War is handled clumsily with no appreciation of the indigenous nationalistic movements involved. The American involvement during the 1950s is reduced to few words. The discussion of the formation of South Vietnam is overly simplistic. In short: not a good product.
    • 28/12/2008
    • 13:24:33
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Vietnam

    This essay is not well written. It inflicts on the reader an overuse of abbreviations and obscure terms without explanation. The writing continually involves poor usage of antecedents to pronouns. The discussion of morale and raping is such haphazard and jumbled as to be meaningless. The occurrence at Kent State is misreported (among other things the shooter were National Guard soldiers, not security guards). The description of the behaviors of the two sides is an invention that reaches almost comic book proportions. The description of the Ho Chi Minh Trail is wrong.In short, this essay is not a good product.
    • 28/12/2008
    • 13:18:55
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Was the Vietnam War a futile war?

    While the writing in this essay is generally reasonably good, and the conclusion is sound, the approach that the writer takes is very narrow. The Vietnam War started long before the American escalation of 1965. The American troops were trained for jungle combat and equipment was continually updated to try to meet their needs.What is missing almost entirely from this essay is the very complicated political situation that shaped the war in ways that made it un winnable from the outset, and which shaped the futility of the war.
    • 28/12/2008
    • 13:09:02
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Lorax

    This is a very nice essay, although it is marred by the fact that Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel) did not make cartoons. He wrote stories, and originally, "The Lorax" was a story, nominally for children, but actually carrying a much more profound meaning. I am glad that the writer realized that.
    • 28/12/2008
    • 13:02:37
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • AFTER OBEDIENCE - WHAT?

    This essayist said, "If we have a further end in view, we do not pay sufficient attention to the immediate present."A minister I heard some months ago said emphatically: "If you do not have an end in mind, you will never get anywhere."I prefer my minister's advice to this writer's.
    • 27/12/2008
    • 18:54:46
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • The long still silence of "sound advice"

    This is a collection of cliches put together to follow a story that illustrates the writers ability to come up with nonsense of truly insignificant weight. It is the sort of thing I have seen in booklets on coffee-shop tables rather than in a university classroom.
    • 27/12/2008
    • 18:49:11
    • Score: 7 out of 7 people found this comment useful.
  • Darwin and Dostoevsky

    Ouch!The era of the Enlightenment was the late 17th and early 18th centuries. I cannot understand how this writer managed to construe Darwin as an enlightenment figure, and his treatment of Dostoevsky is painful.
    • 25/12/2008
    • 21:22:39
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • In the high middle ages

    Poorly organized, poorly written, superficial, and filled with errors. This is simply not a good essay.
    • 25/12/2008
    • 21:17:17
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Unquestioning Attitude of Dante's Inferno

    This essay is a profound disappointment because it reflects a failure to engage with a poem that is much more subtle that the writer allows. Consider a few details: first, there are some pagans in the Purgatorio, indicating that not all pagans were condemned to even the uppermost circles of Hell. Second, Dante does question whether the soul in Hell were properly placed there. This is particularly true of one of the first souls with whom he has an intense encounter, that of Francesca de Remini. Throughout her conversation, Dante is torn by the idea that she is a victim, but any close analysis shows that her "victim-hood" was based on silliness. She and her brother-in-law, knowing that they were alone together, knowing that the book they were reading amounted to a passionate how-to guide, decided that they had to read the sexiest passages, and they were (somehow) overcome with lust. Dante only later, as he moves through the various circles, comes to realize the complexities of sin. Sadly, this writer never really recognized that.R
    • 25/12/2008
    • 21:05:40
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Inherit the Wind : Trial of the Century

    This essay is flawed in several regards. First of all, it is wordy. The 768 words of this essay could easily be cut to 600 or even 500 while preserving every idea in the essay.Secondly, this essay offers a profound misunderstanding of what it considers. "Inherit the Wind" is not a novel. It is a play. Further, it is not primarily fictional. Rather it is a dramatic recreation of the trial of John Scopes, a teacher in Tennessee arrest for teaching Darwinian evolution. Many of the characters portrayed in the play are fictionalized versions of the actual figures involved in that trial. Henry Drummond is a Clarence Darrow, then regarded as one of the nation's finest defense attorneys. Matthew Harrison Brady is William Jennings Bryan. The crucial courtroom scene is lifted whole cloth from the transcript of the actual trial.Unfortunately, by failing to understand the historical background, this writer misses a great deal of the significance of what the play presents. Darrow and Bryan had been active in various causes for years. As younger men, they had even collaborated. As a presidential candidate in 1896, Bryan was a dynamic reformer, the silver tongued advocate of the Democratic/Populist movement, stirring the people with his brilliant oratory. By 1925, however, he had settled into bitter defense of prohibition and fundamentalist Christianity.The writer also fails to note what prompted the authors to write this play: the McCarthyism of the 1950s.In short, a wider understanding of this play would have made this a much better essay.
    • 25/12/2008
    • 07:38:15
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • What lead to the United States involvement in World War One?

    There are certain historical errors in this essay. The Germans did not disregard the American demand that they restrict submarine warfare. On the contrary, they agreed to the restriction, but finally lifted it, gambling that they could break England before the United States could affect the war.Second, even with unrestricted submarine warfare, the Germans never had control of the seas. The British navy was far too big, powerful, and effective to allow the Germans any serious claim to naval superiority.Third, even the Germans effectively conceded the authenticity of the Zimmerman telegram.
    • 22/12/2008
    • 21:59:38
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Causes To World War 1

    Poorly reasoned, poorly organized, poorly worded, this essay manages to offend almost every convention of good writing, ranging from the rule that contractions have no place in formal essays, to the observance of conventions for describing historical events. It is not a good product.
    • 22/12/2008
    • 10:10:55
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Causes of World War One

    This is a very poor essay. Consider the opening sentence: "World War One meant to happen." What does that mean?In addition to several stylistic glitches like this, there are serious factual mis-statements. The assassinated Austrian was not political leader. The Arch-duke Franz Ferdinand was a member of the Hapsburg ruling family, but he was singularly a-political.Further, the notion that European countries formed their alliances after the assassination of Frank Ferdinand is nonsense.In short, this essay is not stylistically effective or accurate.
    • 22/12/2008
    • 10:02:52
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • WAS WORLD WAR 1 INEVITABLE?

    First, a note on historical convention: the term is "World War One" [the word written out] or "World War I" [Roman numeral]. "World War 1," using the Arabic numeral, is childish, sloppy, and shows a failure to understand the conventions of the language.This essay has a considerable amount of good material, perhaps 1,000 words of good material. Unfortunately, it is wordy, unclear, full of convolutions, awkward, and could benefit greatly from the writer sitting down and trying to clarify his thoughts. Consider one example: "This patriotic attitude was negatively impacting the relationships among the people living in Europe such as in the multinational Austria-Hungary where there were conflicts between different cultural groups due to the desire to be independent from Austro-Hungarian rule." Is the meaning of this sentence clear: no.Or: "Their competitive nature was motivated by the encouragement of nationalism within countries, the entangled alliances between nations, the arms race and the battle to acquire colonies around the world contributed to the small disputes that exploded to the conclusion of World War 1 with the assassination of Austro-Hungarian heir, Franz Ferdinand." These sentences are sufficiently long and muddy that slogging through them becomes a burden, and in the end destroys the merits of the essay.
    • 20/12/2008
    • 14:28:56
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Causes of the Civil War

    This essay tries to compress an extraordinarily complex subject into a few paragraphs. Further, it hardly helps itself with rhetoric that is silly at best. "Ah, slavery," "Oh, did I mention this was the beginning of the antislavery Republican Party? I'll fill you in on that later." " the REPUBLICAN party (dun dun dun…),"The organization is weak, the presentation often less than precise, and the tone rushed. In short, not a good product.
    • 15/12/2008
    • 18:58:40
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Recklessness in the Odyssey

    I disagree with a great deal of this essay, because it is based on a number of premises that cannot be supported. One of the most serious mistakes is this writer's failure to understand one of the foremost concepts of ancient Greek culture: the duty to give shelter to the stranger. Contrast the greeting that Odysseus gets from Polyphemus with that he gets from King Alcinous. Or the greeting that Odysseus or Telemachus get from many of the people that they visit. The duty to provide hospitality is so deeply ingrained in the ancient Greek culture that the Greek words for "stranger" and "guest" are almost synonymous.Polyphemous may have been a Cyclops rather than a human, but in holding the greeks prisoners and killing and eating them, he violates some of the most basic rules of decency that the Greeks could imagine.As far as Odysseus' pride in his own fame, in saying that he is known to the world, he is doing nothing more than acknowledging what he knows. When the Greeks decided to attack Troy, they insisted on having Odysseus. Throughout The Iliad, Odysseus provides critical insights into how to deal with problems. It is Odysseus who first confronts Agamemnon and tells him that he has been reckless in insulting Achilles. It is Odysseus whom the Greeks send to try to calm the anger of Achilles. (It is eventually Odysseus who comes up with the critical ploy of the Trojan horse!) And how many other Greeks can call on the gors and fel reasonably confident that they will receive a response?This writer would relegate Odysseus to the ranks of the reckless. I think the Odyssey has survived to remain one of the great monuments of world literature not because of Odysseus' recklessnes but because of his well-earned fame among gods and men.
    • 15/12/2008
    • 10:52:02
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Shakespeare

    While this is well-written, it is little more than an adequate introduction to Shakespeare's life. It goes through his elementary education, but then it stops completely. Why?
    • 02/12/2008
    • 15:13:42
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • What is the meaning of the second amendment?

    This essay suffers from two significant problems. First, the writing is not well polished.Consider a few examples:"the solution too many of our interior problems" [too many "o"s]"After becoming independent form the crown of England" [independent form?]"because fear of the military." [?]"so it can have free rang to go to war" [and what is free rang?]More seriously, the line of reasoning that this person uses runs somewhere between paranoia and barbarism. If citizens arm themselves, the government will not lie to us. The government for the last eight years has been in the hands of NRA sympathizers, and if has set records lying about everything. As for the notion that some vast conspiracy of "liberals" is allowing crime to flourish as a means of suppressing freedom, I find this canard somewhere between laughable and obscene.As history, as law, as sociology, as political science, this essay is a failure.
    • 28/11/2008
    • 21:18:49
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Speaking in One Tongue

    This essay completely overlooks the disadvantage of multilingual cultures. They mean that whole segments of society cannot communicate with one another.
    • 25/11/2008
    • 20:18:07
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • John Winthrop

    The writing in this essay is relatively pedestrian, neither so bad as to warrant condemnation, nor so good as to warrant strong praise.What this essay fails to do is to convey any real feeling for why Winthrop is important. The basic facts are here, but they are presented in such a lifeless way that it says nothing.Also, the essay fails to mention some of the things that make Winthrop famous. For example, he is the author of the ""City upon a Hill" sermon, one of the critical foundations of the concept of American exceptionalism, a concept that remains very important, most recently figuring prominently in Sarah Palin's stump speeches.On the other hand, Winthrop was a very strong opponent of democracy, insisting that the only safe government for the colony of Massachusetts was an aristocracy.
    • 25/11/2008
    • 18:44:25
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Building Trust

    This essay, sadly, reads very plainly as the product of someone whose first language who not English. There are so many errors in grammar and word usage that this piece is useless.
    • 24/11/2008
    • 20:42:30
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Robber barons

    This essay needs a good editing to clean up some of the awkward English in which the writer indulges. Then it needs to get away from being a biographical note about John d. Rockefeller and address the class of robber barons.
    • 24/11/2008
    • 20:36:01
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • A terrible misunderstanding

    This story is reasonably good, but it does have two weaknesses. First, it is excessive in its melodrama. Sara emerges in the end less as a frail young lady with whom readers can sympathize and more as an excessively needy, clingy creature who truly needs to grow up.Second, the story could use a good solid re-reading and editing. There are a number of silly and distracting mistakes that careful editing could correct without too much difficulty.
    • 24/11/2008
    • 10:30:00
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Moral status of the very early embryo

    This essay takes a fascinating topic, and delivers a reasonably good accounting of the issues. The problem is perhaps best shown by the sentence: "They distinguish between the human being and the human person." The essay defines a fertilized ovum as a "human being," Does not foreclose the question of the "moral status"? If something is a "human being," how can it not have the right to survive? And if it has the right to survive, what is the question? And what is the point of this essay?
    • 24/11/2008
    • 08:57:25
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The relationship between man and religion

    This is not an "A+" paper.At best, this essay presents a superficial overview of the current state of religion, including a rather exaggerated view of the power of religion in modern politics. However, it does nothing to probe the reasons people have been religious in one sense or another for as long as they have been people. It does nothing to consider whether there is an innate desire for humans to finds a divine source for the unexplained matters in their life. It does not even consider the argument that religion is a good source of social cohesion. In short, there really is not enough substance here to call this an "A+" paper.
    • 24/11/2008
    • 08:42:15
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Character analysis of Myrtle Wilson The Great Gatsby

    This essay provides a bare description of the character of Myrtle Wilson, but it does not present anything approaching an analysis of the character. In many ways, it is remarkable in its parallel to Myrtle Wilson. She is an appallingly shallow individual, and this writer's attempt to describe her is equally shallow.
    • 11/11/2008
    • 21:18:26
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Effects of Marijuana

    More years ago than I care to remember, I came to the conclusion that a "drug expert" is someone who can spell marijuana consistently -- they don't have to be able to spell it right, just consistently.In the intervening years, the United States has spent billions trying to suppress the use of marijuana, and the effort has largely resulted in a growing disconnect between the zealots in charge of the legal system who continue to demonize the drug, and the nearly one third of the American population who have used it, most of them without any lasting detrimental effects. This essay, which dryly repeats the horror stories of "Reefer Madness" does nothing to finally open up a coherent dialogue which will begin with the realization that throwing people in jail for the use of marijuana is silly.
    • 11/11/2008
    • 21:13:10
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The girl of my dreams

    The writing in this essay is reasonably good, but there are to points at which the essay fails: first, why did the boy's family turn against the girl? Did they have some reason for the hurtful suggestion that she wasn't good enough? Secondly, why did the boy finally break off the relationship? They broke up. If this girl was so desperately important to him, why did he end the relationship?
    • 11/11/2008
    • 21:03:55
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

    This essay manages to clutter itself with a discussion of rhetoric so dense that there is no sense of what Lincoln did. Where is the context of the speech discussed? The writer apparently dismisses this as trivial, when in truth it is critical to any understanding of the address. The writer fails to give a sufficient description of the speech as a whole to give the reader a feel for the speech. It is perhaps the shortest inaugural address ever, but it is one of the most moving. This essay, by contrast, freezes.
    • 11/11/2008
    • 20:57:28
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Martin Luther King

    This essay lacks a real sense of organization. It makes a number of sweeping statements which show a poor understanding of the material. It misstates important cause-and-effect relationships. In short, it is very poorly written.
    • 11/11/2008
    • 20:52:50
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Declaration of Independence

    This has all of the disadvantages of an outline. It takes a document which is a fine example of English style, and reduces it to a point-by-arid-point presentation. It lose so much in the translation.
    • 11/11/2008
    • 20:48:58
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • John Lennon

    The writing is reasonably good, but how does a biography reduce the 1964-69 years with the Beatles from being the most influential rock group ever formed to two token mentions.
    • 10/11/2008
    • 16:28:49
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Role of the United States Constitution

    This essay begins with a series of sweeping generalizations about the role of the Constitution in American life. Sadly, these statements are largely cliches and sweeping generalizations of little value to the reader.When the paper turns to the discussion of the role of the government in regulating business, the writer completely overlooks a critical step: the Constitution allowed the government to regulate business, but it did not directly dictate the terms of that regulation.As for the case of the woman complaining of discrimination, again, her complaint does not rely on the Constitution, but on one of the employment discrimination laws. Notably, these laws rest on powers granted by the fourteenth, not the thirteenth amendment. In addition to fatally flawed analysis, the discussion of this situation is painfully redundant. In short, this essay has such serious flaws as to be of very little value.
    • 04/11/2008
    • 21:32:17
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Constitutional Rights Paper

    This paper is based on a fundamental but very serious flaw. The United States Constitution regulates the rights of individuals against intrusions by the government. It does not control the rights of a private business to control what workers can and cannot say on the job. Nor does it have anything to do with searches or seizures carried out by a private company.In short, there are NO constitutional issues involved in anything about the relationship between NcBride Financial Services and its employees.There are statutory issues, concerning matters such as job discrimination and the like, but these are controlled and regulated by statutes, not the Constitution.Given this fundamental flaw, this paper is of very little value.
    • 04/11/2008
    • 21:16:24
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • No

    This is quite possibly the most infantile, shallow, narcissistic, and throughly revolting piece of garbage I have yet found on this site.I hope that eventually the mistake-for-humanity who wrote this realizes the truths that this essay illustrates:1) the average American make thinks about sex every seven minutes, and has an attention span of considerably less than that.2) the average male has an emotional range that runs a gamut from A to A-minus.Wretched.
    • 23/10/2008
    • 22:34:11
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Philosophy

    Other than in the opening paragraph and the closing paragraph, philosophy is never mentioned, and hen it is mentioned, it is discussed in a manner so artificial that I am left wondering how the writer feels that this is paper about philosophy. More accurately, it is a rumination on a movie of little consequence.
    • 22/10/2008
    • 07:58:12
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Macbeth

    One of the finest essays on the play I have read! It is well-written; it is well structured. It reflects a good deal of thought and critical analysis.BRAVO!
    • 20/10/2008
    • 18:54:24
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Judas

    Given that Christ forgives all sins, and given that his martyrdom was necessary for the completion of the divine plan, Judas was arguably playing a necessary part in the process. Given Judas repentance and contrition, can Jesus withhold forgiveness?
    • 20/10/2008
    • 01:33:22
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Colonies

    This essay is poorly written, poorly organized, and painfully redundant. It could say everything it says in half the words, and would be improve by tight editing.
    • 20/10/2008
    • 01:28:32
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Homosexuality

    At times, the writing in this essay is reasonably coherent. At other times, it requires translation to bring it into basic English. The second paragraph is an example of muddle, pure and muddled.Because this writer has not provided any reference in this essay, we as readers have no idea what information the writer relied on to support his conclusion that there is no genetic basis for homosexuality. Indeed, given the relative crudity of scientific understanding of the human genome, this is a sweeping statement.But then again, this writer is devoted to sweeping statements. To begin with, there are several well-accepted scientific definitions of homosexuality, which define it as an orientation. Of course, some religious groups do not accept these definitions, but does that mean there is no accepted scientific definition?AS for the notion that "there is no solid scientific proof that people are born homosexual," study after study, often conducted in the medical schools and psychology departments of some of the finest universities in the world, have consistently found that there is no sound evidence that people "choose" to become homosexual. And why should they? Given the hatred, vilification, ostracism, and isolation to which gay people are often subjected, would any sane person make such a choice?In short, this essay is neither well written nor soundly reasoned.
    • 20/10/2008
    • 01:24:39
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Iraqi Nationalism

    Beyond a few minor glitches that could be remedied by a careful proofreading, this essay is superb. Bravo!
    • 19/10/2008
    • 20:02:57
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • A researched journalistic column on FEMINISM.

    The research underlying this essay is shallow and based on a predetermined set of assumption sufficiently crude that they might well be described as Neanderthal. In terms of its ideological basis, it comes from Renew America, a group that brings together some of the most belligerent views the conservative movement has to offer. (They're still trying to convince readers that Obama is a Muslim.)As second rate propaganda, this essay is adequate. As reasoned discussion, it is a failure.
    • 19/10/2008
    • 19:58:41
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • NHS

    Having read this essay, I hope that over the next three years, student does a great deal of thinking and a good deal of writing. He has much to learn.There are a number of logical errors in this essay. First, how can one graduate from high school without earning a diploma? I have always understood that a diploma was awarded for graduating. Then there are the references to a "higher diploma," and an "advance diploma." What are these?(By the way, Harvard Law School stopped admitting students directly out of high school in about 1920. One of the last to come out of high school and succeed at Harvard Law was a fellow named Louis Brandeis.)Further, as I think any reasonable study of job statistics will show, merely having a high school diploma in today's world is hardly a guarantee of a good job or a prosperous career.This essay is also hampered by bad writing. Consider a few examples:"a graduates future education, perpetuate job""the out come of ones future." [outcome]"a high education from college.""Which corresponds to what he/she does for a living." [sentence fragment]"a cash registers salary and education." [It must be a remarkable cash register!]"Majority of parents muse" [Muse?"the extraordinary sensibility of walking" [I believe the writer meant sensation.]"your parents should or would be spectacularly proud of you and gape at you"[My parents were very proud when I graduated from high school, but I do not think I gave them any cause to gape at me. I hope not.]Also, where does the title come from?
    • 19/10/2008
    • 17:42:09
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Teen Idol

    The author's description of Chinese astrology is inaccurate. A "Fire Horse" can be incredibly lucky or unlucky, but there is nothing in the astrology that makes the Fire Horse "a notoriously unlucky sign."Further, how does Chinese astrology influence a young woman in Indiana. Nothing in her background suggests that she is Chinese. As for the stigma of her Chinese astrological sign, I will let the reader try to explain how this stigmatization caused her to failed algebra. Her writing career appears to be the product of skill and tenacity rather than by astrological influence.As for the book, which the writer turns to almost as an afterthought, it may qualify as moderately tolerable children's literature, but I recall a line that came into my head as I went through this essay: "a walk through the ocean of most souls would scarcely get your feet wet."
    • 16/10/2008
    • 21:58:08
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Lady Macbeth Characte Analysis, Willian Shakespeare

    There are two spelling mistakes in the title of this essay.The essay itself is generally quite good, although the writer would do better by note leading sentences with long quotations. Also, the line which MacBeth delivers on hearing of his wife's suicide is "she should have died hereafter." The writer's mistake, although slight, is significant.Finally, the bibliogrpahy is inexcusable. Sparknotes may have some good information, but there is no excuse for not using Sparknotes as a beginning point and then reading the original. Sparknotes may be around for a decade: Shakespeare is going strong after several centuries.quotation
    • 13/10/2008
    • 22:19:24
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Dominos Atwirl

    This essay reflects an appalling misreading of history and geopolitics. If this essay is taken seriously, if will only foster more tragedies the likes of Vietnam.
    • 13/10/2008
    • 15:53:09
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Thurber and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

    The notion that Walter Mitty is or is intended to represent the "average" American is one of the more amusing idea I have come across recently, or would be if it were not fundamentally absurd. I think this writer almost completely missed the point of one of the finer American short stories.
    • 13/10/2008
    • 15:49:50
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Pie Chat

    I thought that the title might be some sort of a pun on the term "pie chart." Having read the essay, I think it is more a case of sloppiness on the part of the writer. Oh, well.
    • 13/10/2008
    • 15:39:32
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The United States Patriot Act

    The writing in this essay is weak and wordy. " Like for instance the information sharing provision" -- this is not a sentence. "The "Sneak and Peek" warrant is that it allows authorities . . ." What is the point of":is hat it"?Equally serious are the logical flaws: people in 2001 felt that they had to do something to respond to the attacks of September 11, but the Patriot Act was generally one of the most ill-considered responses possible. Its contribution to the protection of the country has been dubious at best. Mostly what it has contributed to is a growing aggrandizement of power in the hands of one of thw worst leaders the nation has even had.
    • 13/10/2008
    • 15:37:20
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Relative Performance Analysis Paper

    Avery solid performance.
    • 10/10/2008
    • 17:55:31
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • For No One

    This is an exceptionally good description of the instrumental tracking on this song, showing a good listening ear, a fine attention to detail, and a very good ability to describe music in words.I would have liked more explanation of the lyrics.
    • 08/10/2008
    • 22:17:05
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Global Warming

    This essay lacks cohesion and organization. Some of its statements are badly muddled. The reasoning is questionable to vacuous.
    • 08/10/2008
    • 22:00:19
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • My Journal

    A very interesting and remarkably personal presentation.
    • 08/10/2008
    • 20:11:58
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Consequences of being complacent

    This is not an essay. It is a short-short story, and a rather trite one at that. John is less a character than a caricature, a stick figure installed to illustrate a feeling.Further, there is no ball in badminton. It is called a shuttlecock or a birdie.
    • 08/10/2008
    • 20:04:45
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Euthanasia

    This essay is largely an emotional rant by someone who fails to give due consideration to those on the other side of the question. This is particularly true in the second and third paragraphs, in which the author lasts doctors who participate in euthanasia, addressing them as if they were complete and catastrophically ignorant of the ethical considerations that decisions of this sort raise. This is hardly true, as the debate among doctors in Oregon has proven. The doctors have been articulate, rational, and forceful on all sides of the issue. As for the notion of insane doctors wishing to perform heinous experiments on dying patients, this is best relegated to the science fiction dung heap.Further, the notion that a patient seeking assistance in euthanizing himself "should be turned away from the doctor" reflects a shockingly cold-blooded attitude. A patient seeking euthanasia is generally someone afflicted with a terminal disease, often facing a death involving terrible suffering, and without hope of improvement or recovery. What humane individual denies such a person a doctor's care?Euthanasia is an extremely complicated issue, and any resolution of this issue is not helped by essays like this which elevate ignorance and emotion above compassion and reason.
    • 08/10/2008
    • 19:57:36
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Plato

    There are many flaws in this essay. The title of this essay has very little to do with what is stated in the essay. The writing often is obscure: " we need to be cautious lest our methodology become mere wishful thinking.: What does that mean?The discussion of the tyrant as efficient law giver seems to miss the point. A tyrant does have the advantage of efficiency, and few who have studied tyrannies can dispute this, but it has the disadvantage that the tyrant's ;was often benefit only the tyrant.Much of the essay rambles unlcearly and inconclusively, seeming to adhere to no given thesis. Also, for an essay discussing Plato throughout, why not cite Plato instead of a commentator like Strauss.
    • 08/10/2008
    • 19:46:21
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • A Third World Country in the Caribbean

    The writing contains a number of technical errors, but the overall presentation of this essay is reasonably good.
    • 05/10/2008
    • 19:46:01
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • My Name

    This is not the work of a typical third grader at all. It is much more advanced and sophisticated than I would have expected from someone that young.Very well done!
    • 04/10/2008
    • 22:27:11
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • EXPERIMENT: Effect of Dissolved Carbon Dioxide on the pH of water

    This essay has several flaws. First, what is the experiment. The first paragraph gives a description of the sources of carbon dioxide and what an animal body will do to expel carbon dioxide. It is an adequate description, although not detailed or thorough. The second paragraph is a more general discussion of the effects of pH imbalance in water, and I wonder what it has to do with carbon dioxide. Given that the presence of carbon dioxide in water causes the production of carbonic acid, how could carbon dioxide produce water that was radically base?In short, the discussion is too superficial and lacks focus.
    • 06/08/2008
    • 20:55:55
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Why you should not join orchestra

    I think it is safe to say that the writer of this essay has little appreciation of music, and much less appreciation of the difficulties and complexities that are involved in making music. Contrary to this writer's belief, music is a highly complex study involving the translation of a highly symbolic system of annotation into a coherent thought system, and the further translation of that thought system into physical actions, all accomplished at a very rapid rate of speed. It further involves a range of senses much greater than almost any other subjects: sight, hearing, and touch. It requires the development of eye-hand coordination to rival that of any sport, and a degree of fine motor coordination almost without comparison. It also instills an understand of acoustics and harmonics. Further, in an orchestra, a player must learn to cooperate with a wide range of others. It also teaches discipline more directly than many other subjects, and exposes the student to a range of artistic material that is often overlooked in other subjects.If orchestra is so useless, consider a few contrary examples. After Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy found itself with a band that had theretofore been stationed on one of the battleships that would now need months of repairs. The Navy put the musicians to work on a project of unheralded complexity: trying to break Japanese codes. Despite the fact that none of the musicians were trained either in Japanese or in cryptography, this became one of the most successful code-breaking groups in the war, because of their ability to deal with complex symbolism.When he applied for citizenship in the United States, Albert Einstein listed as his profession: violinist.The prominent scientists, inventors, doctors, and other intellectuals who have strong backgrounds in music are so numerous that it is hard to contends that there is not a correlation between musical training and intellectual success.Studies done by the Harvard Medical School have established that there is a very strong correlation between musical training and skill in higher mathematics.In short, this persuasive essay, however well written, is quite unpersuasive.
    • 06/08/2008
    • 20:43:48
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Non-Violence, Naziism, and Stalinism

    I think the thesis may slightly overstate what the research can support.That notwhitstanding, this is a very well-written, and very well-researched paper. It is genuinely a university level product, and something that the writer should be proud of. Bravo.
    • 30/07/2008
    • 22:43:56
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Federalist versus Anti-Federalist

    The writing is poorly organized and inexact. The arguments are not clearly outlined. The whole effect is something of a muddle. This is just not that good a piece.
    • 30/07/2008
    • 19:18:21
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • The Nazi Occupation of Holland

    A grim and terrible reminder of the evil that the Nazi movement was. Well done.
    • 30/07/2008
    • 19:13:23
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Bah, humbug.

    This is a review essay. One measure of a review essay is this: does the essay show clearly and emphatically that the writer has read the book in question and come away with a solid understanding of the book?Talking about the nature of the book as a pot-boiler, the cost of copies, the speedy initial sales -- these are things that can be discussed without ever opening the book. And what does the essay say about the book itself? It is set in Victorian England during a Christmas season; and it covers a whole range of emotions.IN short,this essay does not really show that the writer has read this book, and it certainly does not convey any real understanding of the book.
    • 30/07/2008
    • 00:01:05
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Discrimination

    This essay has a decent amount of substance, but it is ruined by a writing style so fundamentally flawed as to render the essay almost wholly unreadable.
    • 29/07/2008
    • 23:40:24
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Truman's Decision

    The author contends that in dropping the atomic bombs, Pr3esident Truman committed a war crime. The thesis that a simple naval blockade would have safely won the war is naive. The Japanese had thousands of POWs in Japan, and threatened with a blockade, they surely would have let these helpless men starve long before they gave up.Military planners had been considering for months what would be required to break Japanese resistance, and had concluded that no option short of an invasion would be effective. While Hiroshima and Nagasaki did suffer 200,000 dead, an invasion would have cost ten times that number, so perhaps the bombing did make sense.
    • 29/07/2008
    • 06:33:30
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Tale of Two Cities

    How remarkable, that this very brief essay manages to reduce one of the most influential and often-studied historical novels to a romance novel worthy of at least two hankies.No, this is not an "A+" essay.
    • 29/07/2008
    • 06:24:39
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Renaissance

    This is a good essay, undercut by lapses into an informality of language more appropriate to something very informal rather than an essay. While it is generally a good product, it is not an "A+."
    • 28/07/2008
    • 05:53:43
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • A brief comparison of Adler, Freud, and Jung

    This essay is brief, but contains a remarkable amount of substantive material.Well done!!
    • 27/07/2008
    • 14:54:26
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Troy-oh-boy

    The thesis question for this essay is problematic. What is the real difference between military tactics, military technology, and military intelligence. The essay illustrates this problem with the statement, "tactics and technology were the ultimate stratagem." The differentiation is artificial if not impossible.Unfortunately, this writer shows himself careless in his use of words to the point of comedy.The Trojan War is "an epidemic for historians"?"This story incorporates every ideology that we refer in our everyday of our lives." This statement is inaccurate and unsupported by the essay.The Mycenaeans are described as having an "untested army." On what basis does the writer make this statement? Further, why are the Mycenaeans the only Greeks mentioned?"the beach of Troy would have been a much more efficient campaign as the Mycenaean's had an already good morale from Scyros" Awkward? I think so."grapping a beachhead." Huh?"Archilles aloud Patrocles to wear his armour" Aloud? No, I think that word is "allowed." Also, the owner of the armor was not Archilles."the Mycenaean's go the better of things." Ouch.In short, this essay shows a sloppiness that completely undercuts the value of the essay.
    • 27/07/2008
    • 14:47:09
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • War and winners

    Yes, wars are destructive, but consider this question: would you prefer that the 8,000 Americans who died during the revolutionary war lived, but the United States never came into existence?
    • 27/07/2008
    • 01:18:51
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Propaganda: Anti Adolf Hitler

    Ill focused, ill organized, making generalizations that suggest that the writer does not understand the amazing evil that Hitler represented, this essay is a mess. I think the writer understands neither the menace that Hitler represented nor the extent that propaganda was used on all sides in the deadly earnest of the most destructive war the world has yet known.
    • 27/07/2008
    • 01:15:37
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Was Henry The Eighth The Main Cause Of The Reformation In England?

    The understanding of history is glaringly superficial. The interjection of American slang into the essay creates a glaring tone and is a poor attempt to hide a questionable to deficient understanding of the material.Overall, an essay neither well written nor well reasoned.
    • 25/07/2008
    • 12:36:31
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • The Life and Achievements of Martin Luther King Jr.

    As an account of the life of Dr. King, this essay is very weak. As an account of his achievements, it barely begins to scratch the surface.The essay fails to describe in any effective manner the terrible burden that legal segregation in the South put upon black people prior to the civil rights movement. During this period, non-whites were relegated to totally inadequate black schools, separate restaurant facilities, separate bathrooms in many place, separate drinking fountains, and all bearing the implicit or explicit label of inferior. King grew up in a society in which every aspect of his life was tainted and shaped by segregation.As an ordained minister, King quickly proved that he had a oratorical skill that carried congregations and audiences, Realizing that violence was antithetical to Christian doctrine and would only rouse violence from the segregated legal system, he borrowed from such men as Ghandi the ideas of non-violence."Seven speeches"? King gave many speeches -- at rallies, in churches, in meetings. He also wrote, including the Letter from Birmingham Jail. (Notably, at the time it was given, the "I Have a Dream" speech was almost unnoticed. King was just reaching national prominence in 1963, and the speech was overshadowed by other events. Only later consideration noticed its greatness.And what of his achievements? This speech barely mentions them. Time's Man of the Year? What of the fact that King is the only non-president honored with a national holiday?In short, this essay is very spotty.
    • 25/07/2008
    • 12:28:16
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Soviet History

    Although this essay contains a good deal of information, it is not clear in the presentation. There is a good deal of information stuffed in quickly without first establishing any context or interrelationship, so that the overall product is very hard to follow.
    • 23/07/2008
    • 12:41:49
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • The Red Army

    The opening of this essay is weak, because it does not set out the problem in a clear manner. Once it enters into the narrative portion, it is a fairly good essay.
    • 23/07/2008
    • 08:50:05
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Sprint

    This essay contains a frustrating number of basic writing errors."Daniel R. Hesse whom was named chief executive of Sprint Nextel in December." It should be "who.""People who are affected is of course the company itself" "People" is a plural.Many sentences are overly long and awkward.Second, unlike other commenters, I think the basketball analogy is very inappropriate. Kobe Bryant is a superstar in a game filled with superstars. He is effectively completely unlike a typical worker at a big company. He can (and does) get away with behavior that would get any ordinary person fired from any ordinary job.Given this, is the coaching analogy sound at all. Certainly Daniel Hesse cannot deal one-on-one with every one of the thousands of individual Sprint employees. Indeed, if Sprint follows the "coaching" analogy, wouldn't this run the risk of repeating the very micromanagement problem of which the cited employee complains?
    • 16/07/2008
    • 12:10:31
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Delta Airline's Marketing Tools

    This essay is a string of marketing gobbledegoop and overworn cliches. It says so remarkably little about Delta Airlines in particular that this seems more an afterthought than the subject of the essay.
    • 15/07/2008
    • 09:59:43
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Doing Business in Countries with Totalitarian Governments

    This essay seems to work at cross-purposes with itself. On the one hand, the title suggests that it will explore problems common to doing business in all totalitarian regimes, but the essay then spends a remarkable amount of time and space on issues unique to Nazi Germany.The essay also fails to address the question of why a company would want to do business in a totalitarian country and why a totalitarian country would want to have foreign businesses come in. For example, why does Nike set up shoe production plants in places like the People's Republic of China? Is Nike merely making itself a tool of the communist regime, or can its very presence exercise a significant liberalizing influence on the Chinese? Given the nature and ferocity of international competition, and the fact that many other countries place no restrictions on where their companies do business, is it sound policy for the United States to restrict the rights of companies to do business in totalitarian countries if this means givign up massive competitive advantages to other countries?
    • 30/06/2008
    • 11:19:54
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The First World War

    This essay is quite poorly written. Consider the second sentence. What does it mean? Having read it several times, I think it is not at all clear in its meaning.The essay repeatedly refers to people who are never identified. Are these historians, or were they historical figures during this period? The essay fails to make this clear. The essay also refers to any number of historical incidents without explaining what happened, what nations were involved or how these events shaped the eventual outcome: a war. For example: "the July crisis." Was this the assassination of the Arch-Duke Franz-Ferdinand in Sarajevo, or the murder of the editor of one of the leading Paris newspapers over allegations of a tryst involving a key military minister?The essay mentions Bismarck, often misspelling the name, without mentioning that Bismarck's personal motto was anything but passive ("Blood and Iron"), and he was dismissed from power in 1890, more than 20 years before the outbreak of the First World War. On the other hand, there is no mention of Schliefen, von Moltke, Tirpitz, the development of the German navy, or many other developments leading up to the war.Finally, the essay dismisses the war as inevitable. This remarkable dismissal manages to avoid any of the complicated machinations of the summer of 1914, when Germany first gave the Austrian Empire a blank check of support in its conflict with Serbia, and then mobilized, an action that the Germans realized would spark a continent-wide war. This conclusion is quite unconvincing.
    • 29/06/2008
    • 17:20:01
    • Score: 1 out of 5 people found this comment useful.
  • Cliche

    This is one of the more burdensome collections of cliches, tried tropes, and worn out lines on the drug problem that I have ever read. Among other things, that "n the 60's and 70's, drug use was never spoken of nor did anyone admit that it was a problem" is a statement that can be made only by someone who is too young to have lived through that period, and much too immature to have studied the period seriously. "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds" ; "I Get By with a Little Help From My Friends": "Let's Go Get Stoned": "White Rabbit." The FCC did not consider banning these songs in 1969 because they found the drum line objectionable.In short, this essay should be relegated to the pile of old, tired cliches.
    • 29/06/2008
    • 00:32:43
    • Score: 0 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Muddled

    This essay is confusing. It says alternately that cavalry pushed aside infantry, that infantry and artillery pushed aside cavalry -- which did which. Further, there was too many conclusory statements without adequate explanation: artillery weapons had an effect on the outcome of battles. Well, given that they were used for several centuries, presumably they did have an effect. But what effect? The writer asserts that they changed the course of history. How? In what way? With what result?In short, this needs work.
    • 01/06/2008
    • 18:23:48
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Hardly great

    The writing in this essay shows a serious problem. If a reader looks at the pronouns (especially "they"), and tries to figure out what is being referred to, it is often far less than clear. A well-written essay should not have this problem, and this one needs a good deal of work.
    • 01/06/2008
    • 18:14:12
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • A good beginning

    This essay is a good beginning. It points out a problem that should be given serious consideration, but then it stops, without ever showing what is to be done.
    • 29/05/2008
    • 03:42:57
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Brown v. Board

    For a college level essay, this is a frustratingly poor piece."brought fourth": Is that what follows "brought third"?The equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment does not mention "public rights or access."The Supreme Court renders decisions, not verdicts.The justice explained rather than exclaimed.Brown v. Board was not the beginning of the civil rights movement; it was the climax of work that men such as Thurgood Marshall had begun some 35 years earlier, working meticulously through one case after another, building to Brown as the climax of their ongoing effort to desegregate public schools in America.Finally, Brown did not overrule Plessy. Plesy is actually still good law. What Brown said was the in public education, separate is inherently unequal, so that Plessy does not apply.The key weakness of this essay is that it attempts to rely on sources that I would consider questionable for a junior high school paper and uses them at the college level. There is a wealth of material on Brown v. Brown, much of it of truly superlative quality, readily available on-line and in virtually any library. Given the tremendous range of high quality material easily available, I fail to understand why anyone would rely on such simplistic sources as are used in this essay.
    • 14/05/2008
    • 06:59:41
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • What?

    What an incredibly inane whine!This writer would do the world a great service by remembering something that the great English novelist George Eliot said:"Blessed are those who, having nothing to say, avoid giving lengthy demonstrations of that fact."
    • 13/05/2008
    • 20:21:43
    • Score: 0 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Cool?

    This "essay" in unredeemable garbage. It should not be taken seriously.
    • 08/05/2008
    • 15:45:31
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • D-Day?

    This "story" is factually inaccurate and stylistically stilted. Factually, no generals went ashore in the early waves at Normandy. The people who directed operations on the beach were sergeants and low-level officers, while higher officers directed matters, initially from ships.The landing craft did not veer or change speed to avid shells. They came straight in, at a steady speed, to avoid colliding with one another, counting on protection through sheer numbers. Had they started dodging about, they would have presented a threat to one another.British planes did not fly over the beaches on which the Americans landed. They kept to their own kind.Landing craft, if intact, went very close to the shore before releasing the soldiers, to spare them from having to struggle through anything other than shallow water. When the soldier disembarked, they went out through the front, not the back.Given the ability of sand to absorb fluid, the notion of the entire beach stained red is rather silly.The Americans brought their own climbing ropes: new, clean, coarse, easy to climb. Do you think the krauts were going to leave convenient ropes for the incoming troops. If they did, no G.I. who wanted to see tomorrow ever touched them. That'd be the rope that leads straight into a cross-fire from a dozen machine-gun nests.There were no cities of any substance near the landing beaches. Cities have reasonable transportation networks, which make it possible for the enemy to resupply easily. One of the reasons for landing at Normandy was to complicate the Germans' situation as much as possible. Even where there were cities, the Germans tended to avoid them: French civilians were nearly as nasty as Iraqi civilians are now.Finally, of the style: The dialog sounds nothing like men fighting for their lives. It sounds pointlessly stilted. "Nazi soldiers"? Who else is going to be in the trenches atop the cliffs shooting at you, son? Party officials? Hitler youth? Or maybe you thought the party was going to send down a fraulein or two to give you carnations, huh. Hell, yes, they're kraut soldiers, with guns. And if you get over being so full of yourself and your damn Cleveland, you'll remember what you do with a kraut with a gun.And in combat, do you really think soldiers worry about shooting the same person? In combat, if you think that person is the enemy, and you think he's alive, unless he's making clear signs of surrendering, you shoot until you're sure he's dead.In short, unimpressive.
    • 03/05/2008
    • 22:49:16
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • "The Patriot" -- Fiction, and bad fiction at that.

    I almost feel that I watched a different movie, because I found "The Patriot" to be one of the poorest films I have ever seen on the American Revolution. It contained any number of historical inaccuracies, along with a number of pointlessly overdone set pieces that did little more than prove that Mel Gibson considers himself something of a messianic figure, trying to show how goody-two-shoes he can be. The film is sufficiently heavy handed that I found it embarrassing and nearly unwatchable. It reduces the British to comic book villains, stupid, cloddish, lazy, and evil, oh so evil, while Gibson and the good guys constantly labor under unbearable burdens. This is all very sad because the campaigns in the South during the American Revolution have a chilling relevance for the United States today. Like the Americans now in Iraq, the British entered with the notion that they would be welcomed as liberators, over-extended themselves, used brute force against people who had little quarrel with them, and were eventually smashed by ill-trained but resourceful irregulars. Sadly, modern Americans learn bad history, and then repeated the mistakes.
    • 23/04/2008
    • 20:54:45
    • Score: 0 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Pollyannic nonsense

    This essay is sloppily written, from a title that fails to state the subject of the essay to run-on sentences, to missing apostrophes, to sloppy language. More offensive, however, is the totally simplistic attitude that the writer takes about how to turn around the life of a failing student. It is not nearly as simple as the writer suggests.
    • 20/04/2008
    • 12:40:59
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • "Off Campus Lunch": Off-the-mark Essay

    If the author of this essay earned a "B+" in a sophomore level high school class for this essay, then I think grade inflation has become a very serious problem.First of all, this essay shows something that slam-poet describe with chilling humor in "The the impotence of proofreading" This person apparently ran spell-check without bothering to ask if properly spelled words were the right words. To quote Mali"So I got myself a spell checkerand figured I was on Sleazy Street.But there are several missed achesthat a spell chukker can¹t can¹t catch catch.For instant, if you accidentally leave a wordyour spell exchequer won¹t put it in you.And God for billing purposes onlyyou should have serial problems with Tori Spellingyour spell Chekhov might replace a wordwith one you had absolutely no detention of using.Because what do you want it to douch?It only does what you tell it to douche.You¹re the one with your hand on the mouth."Or the foot in the mouth.For example:"there have been quit a few""It a lame thing""there is no microwave in the lunchroom, so we can warm up anything,""After 180 days eating tough's two things gets old fast.""All the options we have to go around in my town to eat is""they school food is not good for you. Some of it's not really meat.""There are toughs kids that go out and drink and smoke, also, the ones that go and don't come back.""It they do something not school appropriate then you give them a warning and the next time they do it there done""If they try going off then you get them in trouble."And throughout, there is a fault in the title phrase: It should be "off-campus lunch" instead of "off campus lunch."With this sort of muddled English, i would not accept this as passable for any high school student. It is barely of a level to pass in any elementary grade in which an essay was expected.Further, I would expect an argument for a change of this sort to be much thoroughly reasoned. Here, the author announces that he does not like the present situation. He lists the disadvantages of the present situation. He does not consider alternatives to his desired solution. He lists the disadvantages of the alternative he proposes, but does little more.Consider: the writer favors an open campus. The school administration has determined that allowing off-campus lunches has more disadvantages than advantages.The writer then list the considers the disadvantage of a closed campus lunch.There are fights over chairs. The writer suggests that if campus were open there would not be these fights. But the writer acknowledges that a chair is a "lame" subject for a fight. Did the writer consider that students looking for a fight will find something to replace the chairs if the campus is opened at lunch? And which is worse, a fight in a school cafeteria, which potentially involves witnesses, bystanders whose presence might subdue things, potential authority figures, easy police control, and even if any of these things are only potential benefits, they are all lost by having the fights occur elsewhere. But the writer seems to ignore all of this.Other disadvantages: the school food is bad, and there is no way to warm food brought from home. As to the first, this writer's only response would be to open the campus, confident that high schools students will go out for healthy meals, at such places as Pizza Hut and Ranch Burger. Such confidence seems ill-placed.Has this writer suggested improvements to the school menu? Has he suggested that the menu include more healthy, or more tasty items? Has he considered asking that the school provide means for heating food?Then the disadvantages of off-campus lunches. The response of writing a student up after two instances of "something not school appropriate" is barely a response. This is a sad case of closing the barn door after the horse has been stolen. Why should the school administration, the police, and the community endure all of the potential problems that an open campus allows instead of adhering to the closed campus policy?In short, poorly reasoned and poorly written, this is hardly an impressive product.
    • 14/04/2008
    • 18:04:06
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Not effective

    The many rudimentary errors in this essay suggest that it was written by someone who is not a native English speaker. The tone is strident but largely sound and fury. Overall, not an effective letter. Also: the letter is a "complaint" letter, not a complain letter.
    • 13/04/2008
    • 11:15:27
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • (?)

    And now, so soon after this television show finally withered away, the supposedly prominent "stars" aren't even appearing on the lesser talk shows any more to tell us what new and forgettable adventures they are off to, and DVDs of the various seasons show up in the discount racks at the discount stores, we look back and wonder: did we really take this stuff seriously? How?
    • 11/04/2008
    • 16:36:15
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • A difficulty

    For what it is, this essay is quite good, but there is a problem: Sophocles wrote in classical Greek, a language of considerable difficulty, but much more color and nuance than a good deal of English, and with fundamentally different rhythms. This raises a question: how much of the syntax, diction, imagery, and word choice comes originally from Sophocles, and how much is the effort of the translators to convey the underlying meanings.
    • 11/04/2008
    • 16:29:38
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Yawn

    People have been predicting the end of the world since the beginning of organized society. To date, the number of predictions proven wring have exceeded those proven right by an exceedingly wide margin.
    • 05/04/2008
    • 18:19:57
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Bad, Bad Job

    I can see why this essay was not well received. The two long paragraphs are copied whole cloth from a website: http://wapedia.mobi/en/Same-sex_marriage?t=2.The shorter paragraphs are merely a jumble of half-form ideas.Consider three of the more outrageous comments:"People choose to be gay/lesbian because they think they are born to be gay/lesbian and because this is their self interest."People "choose" to be homosexual? This dismisses virtually every sound study on the subject, including extensive, thoroughly rigorous studies by major medical schools, and countless articles asserting that being gay is not a choice. But then again, I am not sure that this writer cares about things like facts and science.To put it in simple terms, given the hatred and vilification that gays have faced in American society, in which being gay can get a person fired from a job, denied a security clearance, and even murdered, why would any sane person "choose" to be gay?"In the same time it is immoral because it is against the nature of marriage." Does it go against the nature of marriage, or does it go against what this writer views as the dominant cultural definition of marriage? The law defines marriage as one man and one woman. Is that because of some inherent natural fact, like gravity, or because a majority of voters, whipped into hysteria by George Bush and Carl Rove announcing that America was about to be overrun by gay immigrants if they didn't vote this way? What is inherently "wrong" about gay couples marrying?"Same sex marriage could be immoral because it is against God's will , and procreation is an essential element of marriage." Does this mean that a post-menopausal woman cannot marry? After all, she cannot have children. What of an Iraqi war veteran unable to procreate because of war wounds? Is he not allowed to marry? What of couple s who, for whatever reason, elect to remain childless? Is their marriage annulled because of this decision?Alternatively, if a married man is sterile, but his wife is impregnated through artificial insemination, is this a valid marriage to this writer? But if this is a valid marriage, why not a marriage between two women if one of them uses artificial insemination.Ah, but God says it is so.But what then of John 3:16 "whosoever believes in him." Is this a misprint? Think of it: probably the most important verse in the entire New Testament will now have to be rewritten based on new developments to read: "whosoever believes in him and is straight"
    • 04/04/2008
    • 00:31:21
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Congo

    I have mixed reactions to this essay. The writing is superb, but the organization is hard to follow, and I am not sure what the point is. I also wonder what the connection between this essay and Conrad's "Heart of Darkness."
    • 03/04/2008
    • 20:07:09
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Terror

    I find this essay very disappointing. First, while Nero was a bad emperor, there were many other Roman figures even more violent, such as the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla, about 100 BCE, who prescription lists were a source of constant terror. Nero was bizarrely self-indulgent, and did launch repressive attacks on Christians, but he was not significantly more brutal than many other ancient rulers.The French Revolution was hardly the worst terroristic regime. Indeed, there is a good argument that Charles Dickens shaped the reign of terror into something notable with his florid Tale of Two Cities. And what of the modern terror regimes? Compared to there the French were benign: Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union under Stalin, China under Mao, Cambodia under Pol Pot (wearing a wrist-watch could be grounds for denunciation and execution).Further, the author barely mentions the difference between governmental terror, used to impose order, and the terrorism of non-governmental elements, which succeed by disrupting government.
    • 30/03/2008
    • 21:41:26
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • DROPPING OUT OF SCHOOL,

    This essay meanders. It does not really explain why students drop out, or what can be done to ease this problem or otherwise recover these people. The "example" seems to boil down to this: "different people who drop out have different experiences." Beyond this obvious point, which needed no example, the "example" has all the overdone emotions of a Bible tract, and no point.
    • 26/03/2008
    • 02:59:59
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • "We were not aloud to use sources".

    From a college student, this is the sort of sloppy error that dooms the entire essay. I believe the word this writer meant to use was ALLOWED. Yes, there is a difference. As Mark Twain once said, the difference between the right word and the almost right word is like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.
    • 25/03/2008
    • 00:36:12
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Cave Art

    This is a very good essay.I would like to see this writer expand this essay substantially. It is a remarkable and intriguing topic, and I think this person has the writing skills to create a very informative piece.
    • 17/03/2008
    • 23:20:01
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • A nation changed

    This essay is very poorly written. There are many basic writing errors."our great nation was fallen under attack" "Was fallen"?"through out" No. The word is "throughout.""every school had to stand up and say the Pledge of Allegiance with a moment of silent behind it dedicated to the troops and people who had lost their lives." The students in schools might have had to stand, but the schools themselves did not. And how is it that this person is concerned about "the troops" before the second plane hit the Towers."every channel on the T." Huh?Equally serious are the flaws in logic. The writer refers to an attack on the Pentagon, but never provides details, and forgets the fourth plane entirely.I suggests that troops were committed to combat somewhere either before the attacks or before the second plane hit.Finally, the writer fails to consider the violent anti-Muslim backlash that these attacks unleashed. Americans have come to fear and hate all Muslims, failing to realize that a tiny sect within the second largest of all religious groups was responsible for the attacks. There was, unfortunately, a great deal of hate unleashed in that attack.In short, this essay needs serious rewriting, and even before that, serious rethinking.
    • 17/03/2008
    • 07:35:41
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • This in response to T. S. Eliot

    The line "Do I dare disturb the universe?" is from T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."In "Prufrock" and throughout most of his great poems, Eliot was profoundly and painfully concerned with the spiritual aridity of the universe. But what this writer suggests is a descent from a world of aridity into a world of sordidness and corruption. While this writer might argue that his character shows a courage that Prufrock might have lacked, in the end, what he wants is precisely what Prufrock is bargaining for in the opening of the poem:. Consider those opening lines:LET us go then, you and I,When the evening is spread out against the skyLike a patient etherised upon a table;Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,The muttering retreatsOf restless nights in one-night cheap hotelsAnd sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:Streets that follow like a tedious argumentOf insidious intentTo lead you to an overwhelming questionOh, do not ask, "What is it?"Let us go and make our visit.What are the "you" and "I" of this passage going to do? Why are they going through the half-deserted streets? What is there insidious intent?I would contend that in this passage, Prufrock is trying to seduce a woman. Further, I think there is an argument that he has succeeded at this before. His suggestion of daring to move the universe does not mean just having sex with a "classier" or more expensive woman. It means that Prufrock is aware that his existence is spiritually and morally bankrupt.Is Smith any better than Prufrock?I would point to one missing detail in the story that I think would show how much like Prufrock Smith really is: either before he went out on his errand, or in the Club before he made his way to the corner table, Smith very carefully checked his appearance, getting ready for his chanteuse. To quote Eliot, he took thetimeTo prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;. . . time to murder and create.
    • 13/03/2008
    • 13:01:42
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • What Happened to Common Sense

    Is there any real doubt about one thing: what is the race of the writer? This essay has all the whining of a white pampered mediocrity crying over the fact that the whole world does not quite revolve exclusively around white pampered mediocrities any more.
    • 11/03/2008
    • 16:55:09
    • Score: 0 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Titanic

    An otherwise very good essay is rather marred by the notion that Molly Brown was the most famous person aboard the Titanic. She was not that famous, and is not that famous.
    • 11/03/2008
    • 15:48:16
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Capital

    How would I summarize this essay in a single sentence?"A lot of people have strong emotional reasons for why they want to keep capital punishment, so we ought to keep it."Note that this summary, which I consider accurate, says little about the soundness of the reasons, or the soundness of the underlying need, or anything about whether capital punishment is "right" or "wrong." Reduced to its basic point, this essay seems more concerned about the popularity of capital punishment than about the substantive arguments about capital punishment.
    • 07/03/2008
    • 12:52:15
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Charlemagne

    This essay makes Charlemagne sound more like a modern, very civic-minded CEO, active in charity and social activities rather than a ninth century ruler dealing with the fact that Europe was completely splintered and had barely survived being overrun by invading Moslem's. It's a bit too cute.
    • 07/03/2008
    • 11:12:19
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Ferlinghetti

    This is a very impressive essay on a very complicated poet. I only wish the writer had conveyed a full idea of the incredible range and complexity of his poetry.
    • 05/03/2008
    • 22:41:49
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Evolution v. Creationism

    The writer announces: "I am knowledgeable enough about evolution to debate with the best Creationist out there." It is a bold statement, especially from a writer who writes: "Gould understands why people spiritually believe in creationism but is appalled by Creationist who try to argue scientifically that creationism exist without any scientific evidence to back their flawed beliefs." A little bit more attention to the details, like number agreement between the subject and verb, would give me more confidence that this person is ready for the sort of intellectual clash they invite.
    • 05/03/2008
    • 22:38:33
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Diet

    This has a good deal of solid background material.
    • 04/03/2008
    • 00:16:49
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • American Indian Massacre

    This is an essay which starts with an ill-considered belief -- that the white me were always at faul and then proceeds to gather an utter hodge-podge of facts, innuendo, conjecture, and falsehood in a crude attempt to bolster the conclusion. It does not work.
    • 04/03/2008
    • 00:11:21
    • Score: 0 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Financial Statements

    I read this through, thinking that it was curious how entirely arid this essay was. This is little more than a recital of dictionary definitions, with no examples, no discussion no explanation of how the various users would use any of these statements other than having various pieces of paper with differing ranges of disconnected data.There is no life in this.
    • 04/03/2008
    • 00:03:53
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • New year's eve

    As stories go, this one is not impressive. It goes from waking up on New Year's Eve to partying to breakup to engagement, in barely 1,000 words. It tries to do too much too fast, and ends up sounding sadly shallow. After all, a young man spends perhaps an hour with this woman and proposes marriage. No.
    • 03/03/2008
    • 22:11:13
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • A Quiz in the Meaningless

    This essay provides the questions and answers to a quiz, but it does not give the underlying fact set. Without that, this essay is so incomplete that it is meaningless.Further, the author continually rambles on using conclusions and generalizations. What this essay needs is good hard solid facts.
    • 03/03/2008
    • 22:03:18
    • Score: 2 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Inconceivable

    In this relatively short essay, the writer uses the word "inconceivable" three times. It sets a tone for the essay: this topic is too big for anyone to understand it. The essay conveys the idea, over and over, that the whole topic is beyond is beyond comprehension.Unfortunately, the result is an essay that feels very poorly reasoned. It is as if the writer decided that because the issue is impossibly large, he did not have to understand it to writer about it.It didn't work.
    • 01/03/2008
    • 17:04:54
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Conspiracy Theories

    What refreshment! A well-written cogently argued essay in favor sanity. A joy!
    • 28/02/2008
    • 20:14:59
    • Score: 1 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Not an all-star performance

    The writing is reasonable, but careless."society exposes sports to children." More accurately, our society exposes children to sports."are those sports icons a positive role model" Icons is plural; role model is singular. Oops."Bryant admitted to have sex with this woman" I think what he admitted to was having sex with this woman.As for the discussion of the O.J.Simpson case, the writer is sadly mis-informed about the reaction to the verdict. While many of those who had followed this media circus on television and through the media felt that the verdict was unjust, most observers who had studied the record said that the prosecution did such a wretched job of letting everything get out of control that the outcome was not at all surprising. The prosecution lost because they did a louzy job.So Simpson went from being an icon to an icon under a cloud. But the nonsensical media circus that has followed his recent arrest in Las Vegas indicates that Simpson has not achieved obscurity.Of the discussion of Michael Vick, perhaps the writer will explain why if Vick could have been sentenced to up to six years in prison if he had taken the case to trial, and he got 18 months (max), how did he not get a lighter sentence? Eighteen months is not six years.Finally, why all the grief about how much money Michael Vick will lose. Whether Vick, Barkley, and the other superstars like it or not, by making themselves superstars -- and nobody made Charles Barkley play professional basketball -- they accept certain perquisites of their status. They get paid money beyond what most mortals will every even consider making. How many people are ever offered a "signing bonus"? How many people are in their entire life-time offered a signing bonus is eight figures? (I've signed a lot of contracts, and the most I ever got was a T-shirt for signing up for a credit card.) They are role models. Andif they are so reckless or foolish as to shatter the faith that the public has put in them, why should the public not take away thier multi-million dollar endorsements and make them come down to earth with the mortals.In short, the writing is not that good, the argument weak.
    • 27/02/2008
    • 18:07:55
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Informative

    For an essay that is quite short, this piece contains a good deal of information presented in a no-nonsense, straightforward way.
    • 26/02/2008
    • 19:47:36
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Propose two strategies for Australia

    Before the government of Australia adopts anything based on the American experience, I hope that it will look closely at that experience, which has included some highly negative matters, such as the current scandals over the sale of political influence surrounding allowing Indian gaming.
    • 26/02/2008
    • 19:45:43
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Accessing the Law

    A very good, solid effort.
    • 26/02/2008
    • 19:41:56
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Student Survival Guide

    I wish this student the very, very best in her academic endeavors. Besides any difficulty that an adult student encounters in returning to school, there is a simple issue of courage in being willing to go back.
    • 25/02/2008
    • 22:01:31
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • UNCONVINCING

    In the end, Mixed Martial "Arts" is an effort by one violent person to beat another violent person into submission. To date, it lacks the popularity of traditional boxing, which euphemistically likes to refer to itself as a "sweet science." Does anyone doubt that if MMA grows in popularity, there will be deaths and injuries associated with it?
    • 25/02/2008
    • 13:01:07
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Iron Mountain

    I have read this essay twice, and i still really do not know what Iron Mountain is, what it is good for, or why I should care at all.
    • 24/02/2008
    • 22:39:07
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Almost

    Much of the discussion is a general discussion of marriage, with very, very little mention of subsistence, economics, or exchanges in the context of marriage. While what is here is impressive, there is disappointingly little on the details sought in the assignment.
    • 24/02/2008
    • 18:03:44
    • Score: 2 out of 4 people found this comment useful.
  • Near Miss

    I commend this writer for assembling a sound body of basic information about the terms of the Treaty of Versailles with regard to Germany.However, I do question the author's interpretation. First, as to why Germany alone was held responsible, the author notes that the Hapsburg Empire of Austro-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire had been broken up, but still suggests that they should have been punished. How? These two empires ceased to exist. There was no Hapsburg monarch to spend representatives to Paris to negotiate or sign a treaty, and no way to reinstall the imperial house without disenfranchising several million people whose rights to self-determination were critical to arriving at a settlement in Paris. The Ottoman situation was even more complex, with Greece invading Turkey to try to reclaim land it had not held since Alexander's day, France and Britain squabbling with Italy over their respective rights to Ottoman territory along the eastern Mediterranean coast, and trying to accommodate the promise of the Balfour Declaration, that a Jewish homeland would be carved out of the Middle East. There wasno way to reinstate an Ottoman ruler to accept responsibility.The "war guilt" clause was actually quite inconsequential. It was unusual, yes, but it did not carry any direct consequences.As for the other terms, were they that bad? Not really. Yes, the Germans complained about them -- losers do that (witness the aftermath of any American lawsuit). The reparations were not as severe as many Germans and German sympathizers make them out to be.As for the colonies and territory, these are standard features of European war settlements, going back well over a century. When France and England fought their various eighteenth and nineteenth century wars, the result was almost invariably the exchange of colonies from the loser to the winner. Further, in the case of the Treaty of Versailles, the colonies were not merely handed over from one European administration to another; they became League of Nations mandates, looking to have eventual independence.As to the restrictions on German arms, what is unreasonable about these, especially given the awful destruction that a large German army supported by tanks and military aircraft had inflicted on the world?In short, I think most historians considering the great difficulty that the world powers confronted in trying to settle all of the disputes that they faced in the wake of the Great War would say that the terms of the Treaty of Versailles were not at all unreasonable.
    • 24/02/2008
    • 12:55:47
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Not really

    The speeches do not sound like people. The action is forced and often assumes that everyone but Corbett is an idiot or a clown. The plot is forced to the point of reading like a fairy tale with guns.No.
    • 24/02/2008
    • 03:53:42
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Banana Bread

    This essay provide a great deal of material, and it makes the process of making banana bread attractive.Good Eats.
    • 22/02/2008
    • 20:10:02
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • A Conspiracy Of Rumors

    This essay attempts to elevate polling data into scientific fact, but in the end, it is barely more convincing that referring to the audience polls on "Family Feud."The idea that the CIA elected to assassinate President Kennedy is the perfect bit of fantasy. Given the secrecy of the CIA, and given its reputation for operating clandestinely -- that is posing as things they are not -- it can never be disproven. And from the fact that the CIA can never prove that it had no involvement in the assassination, conspiracy buffs announce that it must have been true.And what of the President's comments around the time of the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Could Kennedy have been voicing a profound frustration with the mess in which he found himself. He had not organized the training that was behind the attempted invasion. His people did not plan the operation? It was an Eisenhower/CIA project that had hatched. Suddenly, Kennedy faced the dreadful prospect of a brigade of armed, trained zealots in central America who would soon be screaming about Kennedy being soft against Castro if he did not go ahead with the invasion. (Kennedy was foolish in believing that this minuscule force had any serious chance of success.) The CIA had failed to consider a critical problem: what if, at the end of the training, the best course is not to try an invasion?Under the circumstances, was it maybe reasonable that Kennedy complained about the CIA's propensity for running wild?But does that mean that anyone in the CIA would decide to commit treason?As for Johnson: that is vulgar and cheap. Johnson played politics. He played in as a full contact sport. But where does that give rise to the idea that Johnson would conspire to murder the elected leader of his own country. Kennedy was the war hero, while Johnson had not been called to serve, but Johnson's patriotism and love of country were as deep as Kennedy's. Think about this: if Lyndon Johnson were alive today, would this author have the temerity to walk up to him and say "I believe you had John Kennedy murdered."As for the rumors that Kennedy would have dumped Johnson in the 1964 election, where is there anything more than rumors, and those from sources far from Kennedy's inner circle. Very early on, Kennedy expected Barry Goldwater to win the Republican nomination. Any Goldwater strategy would have required carrying the South, and of the Southern states, Texas carried the biggest electoral prize, 25 votes, almost a tenth of what it would take to win. Would Kennedy risk alienating Texas's 25 votes by dumping a Texan from the ticket when he expected to run a candidate that could threaten his hold on Texas?Time and again, this essay relies on rumor, poll data, wild speculation, and nonsense. Better research, and less of a lust for the sensational might redeem this.
    • 20/02/2008
    • 21:37:19
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Conspiracy?

    Those who want to believe that there was a conspiracy behind 9-11, the Kennedy assassination, the Lincoln assassination, whatever, will believe that there was a conspiracy, no matter what material is put forward to rebut the conspiracy. They would merely insist that the evidence offered is phony, and go right on.In 1969, James Earl Ray confessed to the murder of Martin Luther King. He eventually found a lawyer, Mark Lane, who pushed his theory that he was framed and that the real assassin was a mysterious figure, Raoul, whom Ray insisted had somehow paralleled his movements as part of an elaborate set-up. When Lane and Ray were finally given a congressional hearing to put forward their theory, it turned out that the FBI had a great deal of evidence that shredded Ray's claims. Conspiracy buffs leaped at the case, insisting that the FBI had covered up details. The better explanation was that the FBI had not tipped its hand to the incorrigible liar Ray, who spent the rest of his life in jail, although insisting to the end that he was not the killer.In short, the claims in this essay are highly speculative, almost to the point of irresponsibility. And the conspiracy buffs will keep their faith, the fact be damned.
    • 19/02/2008
    • 07:53:13
    • Score: 0 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Excellent

    This is one of those remarkable essays that combines a felicity of style and a depth of thought that mark is as a delight. It is a wonderful example of how to think about a subject and how to present that subject in clear, concise language that is a pleasure to read.BRAVO!
    • 19/02/2008
    • 00:26:27
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • A College Essay?

    I do hope not. First of all, this is the only discussion of Dante's Inferno I have ever come across that begins at the end and works backward. It is not an improvement on a forward-looking discussion. Further, the discussion is so remarkably dry and dead that it suggests that the author immersed himself in some packaged set of notes just long enough to sketch out a paper, rather than giving the Divine Comedy the careful reading that it merits. The author handles the material with a clumsiness suggestion that he has failed to grasp many of the key points even in the scenes that he invokes. (I find it hard to believe that this is a B+ college-level paper. It reads more like something I would expect from someone no farther along that sophomore year of high school.And then there are the expressions that suggest this is a talk that someone would give over lunch in the cafeteria."screwing you over.""An instance that mad me think was the various punishments""the authors intents" [At this point, the demon of the apostrophe should begin to flay this miscreant.]"people that screw multiple people over in a 'wave effect'," Oh, poor soul: people being animate requires "who" rather than "that"; "screw" is slang, at best, which is not appropriate to an academic essay; the comma goes inside the quotation marks; and 'wave effect' is a colloquialism that is meaningless in this context."Dante's Inferno was a fun andintellectually stimulations book." Lord, forgive him for he knows not. "The Inferno" has been described as many things, but this may be a first, that it is a stimulations book. I am not entirely certain what a "stimulations book" is, but it certainly sounds prurient."PENGUINE" It seems that the author was unable to copy the word correctly.In short, I think this essay should be condemned at least to Purgatory, probably for all of eternity.
    • 19/02/2008
    • 00:19:20
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Attacked

    This is an impressive piece of writing, and it describes with chilling clarity the feelings that the writer was forced to experience on September 11, 2001. My concern with this essay, however, is "where do we go from here?" What is the appropriate response to this attack?
    • 11/02/2008
    • 14:26:24
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • The War of 1812

    In American history, the War of 1812 is often mentioned as the war which disproves the adage that the United States wins the war and loses the peace. In the War of 1812, the United States floundered for nearly the entire course of the war, with one embarrassing failure after another, clear to the point of the burning of the White House and the pillaging of the nation's capital. Fortunately, the skill of American diplomats and their ability to out-negotiate their European counterparts managed to avoid what could have been disaster.Where is this mentioned in this essay? Sadly, it is barely alluded to, with the token allusion to American failure to invade Canada. There is very little of the internal struggles that marked the war, in which a group of potentially rebellious states openly called for a convention that would have discussed secession.This essay also over-attributes industrial growth to this war. The war doubtlessly did help foster industrial growth, but not nearly to the degree this essay claims. In short, this is not a noteworthy product.
    • 10/02/2008
    • 23:25:06
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Notes?

    This is not an essay. It is at best notes, and given that they are from the student rather than the lecturer, we have no way to gauge their accuracy. In anything submitted to this cite, I would expect expect to see some attempt at to be a writer rather than merely evidence of being a scrivener.
    • 09/02/2008
    • 01:43:13
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Professionalism

    This essay actually says very little about professional GOALS. On the other hand, it speaks loudly and with considerable force to the question of professionalism.As someone who has screened resumes, conducted hiring interviews, coached job candidates, and watched organizations go through the trauma of trying to find reasonable candidates, I can say with certainty that a student who follows the suggestions made in this essay will have a tremendous advantage over many other candidates in the workforce.Well done.
    • 05/02/2008
    • 09:24:40
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • An essay?

    Not really. At best, this is a crude set of notes, with little cohesion, no real context. It is, at best, the beginning of research for an essay.
    • 05/02/2008
    • 07:37:50
    • Score: 1 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • PoLish high school

    Unfortunately, this person has not yet mastered the nuances ofEnglish. While the essay includes a good deal of information, there are serious linguistic problems throughout.
    • 05/02/2008
    • 07:30:44
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Misfire

    This essay does a good job of showing how Lee Harvey Oswald can be connected to the Kennedy assassination.But where is there any mention of the idea of a conspiracy? The conspiracy theory does not necessarily exclude Oswald as a shooter, but includes others.
    • 04/01/2008
    • 07:02:26
    • Score: 3 out of 4 people found this comment useful.
  • Smoke

    Let me begin by stating that I am an anti-smoker, one who harbors a strong antipathy towards smokers, and a well-developed distaste for second-hand smoke and the insensitive clods who spew it out. Given that basic attitude, I would like to comment favorably on this essay, but I cannot.First, this essay is filled with examples of deplorable English usage. To point out just a few:"A debatable topic that has brought on numerous attention""Smoking in public areas should be taken into great consideration""Smoking public places should be prohibited because, because""Smokers fail to release""tobacco industries are extremely unhelpful in diminishing the factors that smokingnegatively effectuates on the environment.""cigarettes pose only pose as a threat"In short, it is very badly written.Secondly, there is an assumption running throughout this essay, that no one but the author realizes how very bad cigarette smoke is. It has the sound of a street preacher, talking about religion as if no one has even the vaguest idea about the subject. It is a condescending attitude, and one that does not make for a good essay.
    • 03/01/2008
    • 22:16:07
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Language Movement

    This essay contains a great deal of information, but it is very hard to follow because it lacks organization and fails to provide an adequate context in which to locate the information that it sets forth.The first paragraph begins with a discussion of the language movement in "villages outside Dhaka." Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh, a small nation on the Indian subcontinent. The balance of the essay relates to the United States, and particularly to the state of Massachusetts. The essay leaves unanswered the question how the first paragraph connects to the balance of the essay.It would also be helpful is the author explained the differences among the four sources that he has used. The Kamal piece is an internet item. Does it come from a reputable website, or is it just a personal posting. Nunberg was writing in what appears to be a scholarly journal, contained in the JSTOR database, which is often ued for university-level research. The Christian Science Monitor published Paulson's piece, giving it the relative credibility of that paper. Witt, appearing in the Chicago Tribune, is close to being primary source material, and unfortunately suffers from the weakness of newspaper material: it is often of uncertain credibility.In short, the essay could used substantial improvement.
    • 02/01/2008
    • 07:51:24
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Excellent

    A very nice, solidly written piece. Excellent
    • 31/12/2007
    • 08:11:20
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Not enough

    After giving this essay a good deal of thought, I realized that it is a description of a painting. But there is no indication of when the painting was executed, the style, the school, or the specific medium used. There is also nothing about the artist or why he is memorable.In short, this essay does not give enough material to be a genuinely informative piece.
    • 28/12/2007
    • 10:03:04
    • Score: 11 out of 15 people found this comment useful.
  • Iraq's Children

    That Iraq is a tragedy for the children cannot be denied, but that does not excuse an ill-organized, inexact essay. At the outset, the essay talks about three kinds of children, and then describes the traumatized and the orphans, and stops. And how are the orphans fundamentally different from the traumatized?No, this essay has not really addressed the problem with the precision that it needs.
    • 26/12/2007
    • 07:36:24
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • First Sip of Freedom?

    "ask your twins, Jenna and Barbara, if they waited till the age of 21 to have their first sip of freedom."This essayist is apparently unaware that Mr. Bush need not ask the twins this question. Several years ago, when the twins were caught drinking well before they reached age 21, their escapades became the headline of the week for tabloids, and the President had to face questions from the press about his parenting ability. Far from encouraging him to lower the drinking age, this incident probably steeled his determination to keep it where it is.Further, Mr. Bush need not look to the twins for an example of the problems that drink can cause. He is an example himself. Laura Bush's line "It's Jim Beam or me" has been quoted ad infinitum.Finally, the logic of the argument that this writer makes completely escapes me. People who lack maturity indulge in excessive binge drinking. How will opening the law to drinking by even younger people encourage the maturity of drinkers? Somehow, that does NOT add up.This essay is, overall, singularly unpersuasive.
    • 21/12/2007
    • 09:05:40
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Comparison?

    I notice that while the writer listed the Bible as one of his sources, he does not list the Quran. Further, he lists no sources that specifically concentrate on an Islamic viewpoint.The resulting essay reflects this clearly Christian point of view. By not giving fair research to Islam, he provides a stilted viewpoint.Further, no one familiar with the development of Christianity can fairly say that those ho have professed Christianity have always been reasonable in their propagation of that faith. From the Crusades to the conquest of the New World with its attendant genocide of native peoples to the Inquisition, Christianity has had its moments of shame.Better balance would have produced a much better and more information essay.
    • 20/12/2007
    • 23:50:56
    • Score: 4 out of 4 people found this comment useful.
  • Money

    This is a nice, solid essay. It is well-reasoned. It is well-written. It has the feel of a steady, erudite conversation.Very nice.
    • 20/12/2007
    • 19:40:17
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Alien talk

    Why is it that people who write about aliens assume that aliens have enough intelligence to travel intergalactic distance, but so little intelligence that they have no capacity to coexist with other creatures and therefore have to get into pointlessly destructive conflicts?
    • 19/12/2007
    • 00:31:04
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • A couple of notes

    In 1872, "minimum wage" was an unheard of concept.This story would be more realistic if Papa Joe knew more about Confucius than Horatio Alger (where there's a will etc).
    • 17/12/2007
    • 21:45:24
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Impressive

    Overall, this is a very impressive essay.I did hope to get some more information about the significance of the melting point, such as how pure the resulting product was.
    • 17/12/2007
    • 17:53:47
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Software

    "Software that contains few defects is considered to have higher quality than software that contains many defects."I suppose some readers might think this is profound. I think it is so completely obvious that I wonder that anyone had to write it.
    • 17/12/2007
    • 00:07:28
    • Score: 22 out of 27 people found this comment useful.
  • The Monroe Doctrine

    This essay is rife with factual errors. First, although President James Monroe did send Congress what became known as the Monroe Doctrine as part of his State of the Union report in 1828, he did not deliver it in a speech. At that time, Presidents sent their State of the Union report in writing, and they were read aloud by a congressional officer, not delivered in person by the President.Second, I have reviewed the history of the Tyler administration, and found no mention of the assertion of the Monroe doctrine as supporting the acquisition of Texas. The controversy over this annexation had to do with the balance between slave and free states in the Congress. As a matter of foreign policy, Mexico was by now independent, and there was no serious suggestion of any European power trying to colonize Texas, so I am not sure how the Monroe Doctrine could come into play.On the other hand, one of the more aggressive steps that Tyler's successor took was his 1845 reaffirmation of the Monroe Doctrine, in effect warning Britain and France against any efforts to impede American continental expansion.The essay also does not mention what became known as the Roosevelt corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, under which Roosevelt asserted the right of the United States to intercede in Latin American affairs where this was necessary to protect the good order of these countries and impede European interference. Under this corollary, the United States ran the Dominican Republic for several years.As far as our failure to come to the aid of South American countries, it depends on what sort of aid you wish to discuss. The United States has been very aggressive in aiding Latin American countries in our effort to end our drug problem, with such adventures as the invasion of Panama to seize Manuel Noriega. We have supplied Latin American countries with such wonderful substances as paraquat to help eradicate drugs.We also have implicitly supported regimes throughout Latin America that have made a mockery of freedom, such as standing quietly by while Augusto Pinochet ousted an murdered Salvador Allende and imposed a military dictatorship that became one of the most repressive in the hemisphere, and tacitly allowing the Argentines to run the campaign of the "disappeared."In Central America, our policies have been sufficiently anti-democratic to give the world the colorful term "banana republic," meaning a nominally republican government that in fact existed at the sufferance of such American corporations as United Fruit.In short, the Monroe Doctrine has been more and les than this essay argues, and a return to the Monroe Doctrine will not do much to solve America's foreign relations problems with Latin America.
    • 16/12/2007
    • 10:23:29
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Southwest

    A very well constructed essay.
    • 14/12/2007
    • 13:36:38
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Pride and Bride

    How curious that this essay writes at some length about two adaptations of famous novel, without ever really focusing on the novel itself. The book is much better, much richer, than either movie.
    • 14/12/2007
    • 10:40:56
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Stem cell research

    This essay does a fine job of completely ignoring the moral issues involved with the use of embryonic stem cells in bio-technical research. While I disagree with the restrictions which have been place on this research and think that the moral arguments are invalid, I respect the fact that thoughtful people have made them. An essay which simply evades the argument can hardly be considered effective.
    • 14/12/2007
    • 01:50:13
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Man's (?) Innocence

    The title does not fit. This is not so much a tale of the innocence of man as a tale of the innocence of Frankenstein's monster.The essay is very well written. The argument is sound and well reasoned. Changing the title is about the only improvement it needs.Good job.
    • 12/12/2007
    • 17:51:31
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Series

    The series consisted of eight games, but these are so lumped together it might as well have consisted of a single game or even just one extended session on the ice. There is too little differentiation and too many statements announcing summarily how great a series this was.
    • 12/12/2007
    • 13:46:14
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Accuracy of the Film 300

    This essay overlooks at least inaccuracies in the film "300."First, the film puts the throwing of the Persian emissaries down a well in Sparta. This occurred in Athens. The Spartans apparently treated all emissaries, even those of the Persians, with strict formal respect.Secondly, the film continually has the Spartans slashing and hacking people at every turn. By all indications, the Spartans knew how to use restraint. When they fought, they were fierce, but they were not bloodthirsty.Third, the film continually portrays the Persians as little more than brutes bent on violence and oppression against everyone they encountered. While the Persians were certainly capable of violence, and accepted an absolute autocracy as the proper method of government, they managed to build one of the most sophisticated civilizations seen to tht date, and managed advances in a number of fields such as mathematics and astronomy that forecast what the Greeks would later consolidate into western learning. "The 300" reduces them to comic book villains.
    • 09/12/2007
    • 14:42:13
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • The New Deal

    Very well reasoned, very well written, solidly researched. A very good solid piece.
    • 06/12/2007
    • 23:52:45
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Edward Thomas' February Afternoon

    Describing a poem is one of the harder things to do in a short essay. This does it extremely well. It is a well reasoned, well-written, remarkably substantive effort. BRAVO!
    • 06/12/2007
    • 23:44:55
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • September 11 and December 7

    While this essay is reasonably well written, it reflects a stilted and biased view of the historical record. The fires had barely been extinguished at Pearl Harbor before military commissions were established to investigate the failure of intelligence that led to the attack. There have been at least ten formal investigations, plus countless attempts by military historians to determine if anyone in the United States government had prior knowledge of the Japanese attack, and the best that can be said is that it was conceivable to discern the attack, after the fact. However, the notion that anyone deliberately left American forces at risk remains a matter of pure and often malicious speculation.Further, Roosevelt's private papers indicate that he intended to commit American forces to action if the Japanese attacked the Dutch East Indies and Singapore, because he felt that would potentially force Australia and New Zealand out of the war. Given that these countries were contributing critical manpower and resources to Britain, this would have been disastrous, and Roosevelt was ready to risk impeachment over the issue. As it was, the Japanese attack allowed him to enter the war without fear of impeachment.As to September 11: there are literally hundred of books about the war on terrorism, many of them by reasonable and responsible journalists, scholars, and writers with credential far more serious than "Fahrenheit 9/11/" That movie is a wonderful piece of moviemaking, rightly deserving the grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival. However, it is no substitute for serious scholarship that examines sources that can make some claim to objectivity.In short, this essay should be recognized for what it is, frustratingly biased.
    • 06/12/2007
    • 14:02:00
    • Score: 4 out of 4 people found this comment useful.
  • Exploration of Outer Space

    As a piece of writing, this essay is quite good, but it conveys a very sad tone, and in the end, it conveys a profoundly dehumanizing message, that humans should cease to do one of the things that makes us profoundly human: we should cease to dream.The author dismisses our attempts to explore outer space as ventures entirely into the realm of fantasy. But consider. We know now, to a scientific certainty, that so many stars exist that there probably are many other planets in the universe that are quite habitable. Given this, and given the number of potential planets, it is probable that some other lifeform exists somewhere in the universe.This is not fantasy.Further, even barring the existence of life on other planets, space exploration has produced benefits. He have learned a great deal about our own planet and about many other subjects from space exploration. Further, the exploratory efforts have produce marvelous benefits that have extended to many walks of life. Pocket calculators that have made the slide rule a truly obsolete item, were an offshoot of NASA's need for miniaturization. Computers that are now ubiquitous were first developed for NASA. Even exercise physiology has benefited from the space program.Yes, there have been costs and tragedies. However, this could probably be said of every field of human endeavor, and what has marked human endeavor is that we acceptthe setbacks and the tragedies, mourn the losses incurred, and press on to the achievements that those who died would have wished for.
    • 05/12/2007
    • 15:50:41
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Does Shylock Receive a Fair Trial?

    A sound, well-reasoned, and very well argued analysis of a very dated and difficult scene. This essay shows that the writer has given serious consideration to this question.I am however, sorely disappointed that the bibliography lists three items that are not worthy of the essay, while not listing the only item that should be here (the play itself).
    • 05/12/2007
    • 11:00:49
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Love Between Men and Women

    The writing in this essay is, quite frankly. sloppy. Consider a few examples:"African Americans were being judge from the beginning." It should have been "judged.""Women had to be the one to take care of the children," It should have been "ones.""When a person confront their lover." No, when a person confronts.Further, I am at a loss to explain the opening statement: "Some people would say that with all the obstacles that African Americans have endured, we couldn't take on the loyalty of love." I am not certain who those some people are.In short, this is no an impressive essay.
    • 05/12/2007
    • 02:02:18
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • A life well presented

    This essay does a very good job of presenting the life of the subject person. The essay is well researched, well organized, and written with considerable style and flair. It does a fine job of presenting the basic facts of Harriet Tubman's life, but then does much more: it brings her to life.The writer does show an irritating penchant for using the conventions of a callphone text message rather than a formal essay -- in an essay an ampersand is never a proper substitute for the word "and" -- but beyond this, the writer has given us an excellent essay.BRAVO!
    • 04/12/2007
    • 04:41:53
    • Score: 13 out of 14 people found this comment useful.
  • "The Chambered Nautilus" by Oliver Wendell Holmes

    Excellent.This essay is well written, straightforward, and has a great deal of content. After reading this essay, I feel that I have already come close to reading Dr. Holmes' poem, and I think that is the best measure of this essay.Well done!
    • 29/11/2007
    • 09:26:06
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Education for Life

    The writer expresses profoundly what the title suggests, an understanding of an education that will shape a life.This is a very well written essay. It is based on sound and wide-ranging research. The thesis is clearly stated and well articulated. This is the sort of essay that should be the standard on this site.WELL DONE.
    • 28/11/2007
    • 23:00:58
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Sleep

    I wish this person had put the same care into the descriptive title of this essay as was put into the essay itself.
    • 27/11/2007
    • 22:30:51
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Act of Kindness

    You were very kind.The essay is quite touching, but needs work on the grammar. In a number of sentences, you jump between present tense and past tense. Also, "I looked over my shoulder and seen this lady"? Ouch!
    • 27/11/2007
    • 16:26:03
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Gun Control

    This essay contains a number of points that merit consideration, but two that raise concerns. First, it invokes the "founding fathers" against gun control. This is a very questionable argument. It is questionable not because the original meaning of the Constitution is not important - it is. It is questionable because the Supreme Court has ruled that the founding fathers meant something when they put in the critical phrase "a well-ordered militia, being necessary to the security of a free state."In 1939, while the Supreme Court was still a relatively conservative institution, the Court had a case about gun control, United States v. Miller. Miller was not a fine, law-abiding citizen. He was a bootlegger. He smuggled whiskey around the lower mid-West, until he was caught by federal agents. He was caught with a sawed-off shotgun, a weapon that was and is a favorite of outlaws rather than law-abiding hunters. He defended himself in court) on the grounds that the Second Amendment protected his right to keep and bear arms. The Court, invoking the founding fathers said, "No." So at least as the Supreme Court read the founding fathers in 1939, they weren't so pro gun.Second, this essay refers to "natural rights." In law, there are few slipperier slopes than the concept of natural rights. What rights are "natural" rights? What rights are "unnatural" rights? For better or worse, the concept of natural rights is invoked to justify or attack just about anything, and on analysis, it usually proves only that people can argue about natural rights.These criticisms are not to dismiss the essay completely. It shows a considerable amount of thought. Interestingly, given its support of rules that would restrict access to guns, it actually comes down where gun control advocates do rather than on the side of gun control opponents.
    • 27/11/2007
    • 14:59:13
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Disparity v. Discrimination

    This essay consists of six paragraphs, but the discussion in the first five paragraphs consists of little more than trying to explain why the word "disparity" is not or should not be considered a term of disparagement. Finally, in the final paragraph, the writer expresses at least some awareness of the topic on which she is ostensibly writing.Why did we need to go through the first five paragraphs?
    • 27/11/2007
    • 14:43:17
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Options?

    This essay reads as if it were written by someone to whom English is a second language. Given the complexity of the subject matter and the strength and sophistication of the reasoning, this person is clearly well-educated and a clear-headed thinker. But the use of the language continually muddles the meaning. One of the key reasons is that this person does not use articles. The words "a," "an," and "the," collectively articles in English, serve the very important purpose of signaling details of phrasing and direction that are extremely important to making English readable. This person needs to work on using articles.
    • 27/11/2007
    • 12:55:11
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • The Scarlet Letter and Hawthorne's Excessive Symbolism

    Almost from the outset, the essayist makes it very clear that he would rather be doing almost anything other than reading "The Scarlet Letter." To justify his contempt for the book, he comes up with the excuse that there are too many symbols in the book.This writer sums up his thinking by saying, "Annoying should not be a characteristic of a great novel but somehow this book slipped past the judges."Having recently reread "The Scarlet Letter," I disagree completely. I would offer this bit of insight. There are reasons that athletes practice and train, even (especially?) good athletes. Truly good athletes learn to appreciate the value of practice, even if it requires hard work. Similarly, there are reasons good students read "The Scarlet Letter," and truly good students learn to appreciate, and truly good students learn to appreciate the value of reading it. Indeed, the truly good student discovers it is a delightful book.Keep practicing.
    • 27/11/2007
    • 12:14:11
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • TROY and Joseph Campbell

    This is generally an excellent essay. It is very well organized, full of content and substance, well written, and generally very impressive. All of which make the one flaw in the writing all the sillier: whatever made this writer think that the possessive of Achilles was "Achille's"?OUCH!
    • 27/11/2007
    • 07:37:52
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Same-Sex Marriage: an unpersuasive tirade

    As I read this essay, I was quite certain that I would find that it relied heavily on conservative religious materials. It does. The result is a bias against gay couples that is so shrill as to make this little more than a scream on the subject.The essay begins with the extraordinarily dubious argument that if we change the law on marriage, that will start us on a path to where there is no law. What? We "change" the law on almost a daily basis. Congress adopts new laws. State legislatures adopt new laws. Administrative bodies issue regulations. There is an almost constant stream of adjustments, so that the law is continually changing. Is it verging on disintegration?As to the argument that marriage is only for reproduction, does this mean a man and a woman cannot get married if either of them is infertile? Does this mean that no unmarried woman over 45 can remarry, because she is beyond the age of child-bearing? And what of couples that choose not to have children: are they barred from marrying?The equation of homosexuality with smoking is another argument notable for its tawdriness. Millions of people each year choose to smoke, but I have never known any person who was born a smoker. Despite the claims of the religious right, the notion that homosexuality is a choice is silly. Why would anyone voluntarily elect to adopt a life style that subjects the individual to the sort of soul-searching trauma that many people endure struggling with their sexual identity?In short, this sort of shrill nonsense deserves to be relegated to the dustbin of history we would be better off to forget.This author rails on the adverse effect of same sex marriages on children, but cites no studies showing that there are such adverse effects. The best that the author can do is to say that children will be mean to such children. Such an argument harks back to the arguments used to maintain segregated schools. "After all, those [black] children would not want to go to the nice white school where they would feel out of place. Surely they'd want to stick to their own kind."
    • 27/11/2007
    • 00:34:26
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Boys And Girls

    Yes, this story does touch on the idea of gender roles. However, I feel that this writer mises a great deal of the meaning of the story in reading it only as a story about gender roles. The story tells a great deal about life in rural Canada, about the raising of foxes, and about growing up. To reduce it merely to a story about how a girl is eventually made to conform to some of the stereotypes of gender is to exclude much of the story.
    • 26/11/2007
    • 23:48:31
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Barron's Educations Series

    So what's next: a study guide on the Cliffnotes version of the Barron's Educational Series guide to a real book. We are fast becoming a nation of illiterates because students will not invest the energy to read, think, and learn.
    • 26/11/2007
    • 22:39:31
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • How Charles Darwin's Life Experiences Affected His Theory

    This is a rather trivializing biography of Darwin. The title, however, suggests that the essay will try to show some light on how Darwin's experiences effected his theory of natural selection. This essay never really closes with that subject. One could read this essay without having any understanding of that subject. Disappointing.
    • 26/11/2007
    • 19:35:42
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Death Penalty

    On the negative side, this essay needs to be carefully proofread. There are several glitches, situations in which words have been dropped, or even letters changing words (they becomes the). Further, I think some of the material could be presented in a different order to better effect.On the positive side, this essay has more substance, soundly reasoned, that many essays on the subject, pro or con. It is a model of digging into the substance of an issue and presenting the substance rather than fluff and flailing.
    • 26/11/2007
    • 19:19:02
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • TR

    There are a few slips n this essay. For example, the writer describes Roosevelt as president as trying to prepare the nation for the turn of the century. Given that Roosevelt became president in the fall of 1900, several months AFTER the turn of the century, he would have been acting a bit late at best.On the other hand, this essay does a very good job of summarizing a very complex and often under-appreciated man, and I commend the writer for a very solid presentation.
    • 26/11/2007
    • 19:11:02
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Fair Tax

    This essay starts out blaming everything with the possible exception of cancer on the existing income tax system, and then announce a one-size fits everything fix. It is one of the more grotesque over-simplifications of the problem and the solution that I have ever read.
    • 26/11/2007
    • 16:02:02
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • A Review of Scar Tissue

    This essay suffers from two primary flaws. First, the writer creates comma splices. What is a comma splice? It is the use of a comma where a period is called for. The result is that the writer combines sentences into world clumps that make little sense. Why is that so bad? Because it makes the readers spend more time and energy than they should have to sorting out the words.Secondly, as to the substance of the essay, it presents material very choppily, so that the essay gives no real feel for the book. It reads like it is just one more story of a crazy rock band, and for all the chart-topping, how many rock bands leave anything that anyone remembers ten years hence?
    • 25/11/2007
    • 21:28:51
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • The Mathematics of Blackjack

    Who really thinks in terms of 13ths, let alone 169ths? This explanation would have been much more reasonable if it would have compromised a bit on mathematical exactitude in favor of truly workable fractions. The normal person understands 1/3 or 1/4 much better than they understand 4/13.
    • 24/11/2007
    • 18:19:04
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Dinner for five

    As a piece of writing, this essay is adequate. It does not contain the sort of glaring error in English that a truly poor essay contains, but there is something about it that precludes it being a truly great essay.I think what that something is is this: it smacks too much of money and the adulation of money. It conveys a connotation, rather than a denotation, that the author wants to sit at dinner with these four guests and learn how to cash in big. It is not the sort of impression that inspires a good appetite.
    • 23/11/2007
    • 12:17:00
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Not quite

    If "They were supposed to be a match made in heaven," why did they face such obstacles?Arguably, Juliet was something of an immature juvenile delinquent. In Veronese society, a child of her age is expected to be reasonable in responding to the wishes of her parents. After all the Capulets did not get to be one of the leading families in the city by being fools. Instead, she insists on marrying the man who is the bane of their existence.And Romeo? What can be said for this adventurer. He meets Juliet by showing up at a private party essentially as a party crasher. He falls in love with her, manages a secret marriage, and then fails to explain things so that he, Tybalt, and Mercutio end up in a street fight in which Mercutio and Tybalt end up dead. Not an auspicious way to start a marriage.And if you want to wax eloquent abut how bad things are, the editorial should address some of the very real problems that it appears these two star-crossed lovers brought on themselves.
    • 23/11/2007
    • 12:04:06
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Psychoactive drugs

    As I sit at my computer, sipping a morning cup of coffee, I wonder if it will cause cardiovascular crises, psychosis, or death before I can cal the poison control center to report . . . . to report that I have come across one more essay that reads like a poorly written religious tract.Oh, well, I figure I'm in good company. My cardiologist starts off the morning with coffee before she does open-heart procedures.
    • 21/11/2007
    • 07:50:04
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • MacNope

    This essay begins: "During the Renaissance, the talented playwright, William Shakespeare, wrote many works including Tragedies, Histories, Interludes, Morals, Pastorals, Stage Plays, and Comedies."The Renaissance is generally describes as occurring in Italy between 1304 and 1576, and the ending date stretches things far beyond what many scholars would allow, and that date is more than a decade before the date assigned to Shakespeare's earliest play, "The Comedy of Errors," 1588.The author should also be good enough to mention what "Interludes, Morals, [or] Pastorals" Shakespeare wrote, as all of these have slipped past the record of every literary historian I am aware of.Finally, the description of the play Macbeth: shallow, incomplete, inaccurate, and I do hope this writer eventually discovers the apostrophe. It should not, like the guards in Duncan's chamber, be murdered before it can speak up in defense of itself.
    • 19/11/2007
    • 14:51:05
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • On the price of oil

    This essay offers some suggestions, but really very few of them are developed to a degree that goes beyond merely mentioning them. I would have liked to see considerable more thought and development in this essay.
    • 19/11/2007
    • 14:34:49
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Revolutions?

    This essay starts with a polemic formula:"There are three kinds of massive revolutions. They are Agricultural, Industrial, and Information Revolution." Unfortunately for the writer, that formula is inaccurate. Several notable scholars have considered other major social transformations that have had impacts rivaling the three changes that this writer calls "revolutions" including the religious revolutions, the intellectual revolutions of the renaissance and the reformation, the cultural revolution that accompanied the discovery of the New World. Further, how this writer can dismiss as unworthy of serious considerations all of the political revolutions that have occurred in the last three centuries is something that the writer should sometimes explain.
    • 19/11/2007
    • 14:05:29
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Tort law

    This is a document that bears out the stereotypical criticism of legal documents. It reads as though the writer went out of his way to avoid clarity. It is not a good legal document.
    • 19/11/2007
    • 10:14:17
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Criminal law

    One of the hallmarks of a good legal document is that it can be red once, and understood from that single reading.This is a document that could be read a dozen times, and the ready would still struggle to figure out anything more than the most basic understanding of the points raised. Indeed, the way some of the material is phrased it seems that the writer feels that confusion and obfuscation are superior to precision and clarity.It does not meet the test of being a good legal document.
    • 19/11/2007
    • 10:11:12
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Gatsby Essay: Relationships

    This writer tries to reduce one of the greatest American novels, and arguably the most efficient of the great novels, to a tract on marital fidelity. It cuts out so much of the novel, so much of the beauty of the entire story that it reduces it to crude simplicity.It also contains a number of statements showing a questionable understanding of the novel. For example, that Jordan Baker is "is a very dishonest woman who does anything to be well known." Jordan Baker is not that interested in being well known. She is interested in winning at whatever she does.In short, the essay reads this novel so narrowly that it barely reads it at all.
    • 18/11/2007
    • 20:56:06
    • Score: 0 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Edgar Allen Poe

    While this essay has some good points, it is redundant. It also fails to appreciate the very material that it covers. In "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," the essay writer comments on the details that Poe provides: "the door of which, being found locked, with the key inside, was forced open." The writer suggests that Poe used these details "instead [of] simply stating the door was opened." But the writer's statement completely misses the point. If the door was locked and the key was inside the room, that shows that the door was locked from the inside. And if the two persons known to be in the room are now both dead, under circumstances ruling out suicide, how could the murderer get out of the room, without unlocking the door?Of "Red Death," the writer does an adequate job of describing the setting of the story, but does nothing about the arrogance of Prospero in sealing himself within his castle, and it is the contest between Prospero's arrogance and the chilling justice of the Red Death that drives the story.In short, this essay falls short.
    • 18/11/2007
    • 20:36:23
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Warren Burger

    This essay contains enough tripe and nonsense that it is best forgotten quickly and completely.Contrary to clichés spouted in the opening paragraph, being argumentative has very little to do with law.Burger's support of Eisenhower in 1952 may have showed Burger's skill at placing himself prominently within the camp of a winning political figure, but given Eisenhower's enormous personal popularity and the incredible strength that the Republicans could bring to bear that year, it is silly to suggest that Burger was key to Eisenhower's winning th presidency, or even his carrying Minnesota.The connection between maritime law and the Civil Division of the Justice Department is complete nonsense. The shipping matters in which the Justice Department is involved are land shipments, not ocean-borne (maritime) matters.Abe Fortas? "She"? Given that Fortas was already on the Supreme Court, that would mean that there was a woman justice fully twelve years before Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor as the first woman on the high court. Well, this essay suggests that a great many history books are mistaken."Burger served as Chief Justice from 1969 to 1986 and was proven to be one of the best Chief Justice's in all of time." First of all, why the apostrophe? This is not a possessive; it is a plural.Secondly, on what basis does this person make the suggestion that Burger was a good chief justice. Burger was a better administrator than his predecessor Earl Warren, but during the long years of the Burger Court, the standing of the courts fell as the Court slipped farther and father to the right, failing to fulfill the promises that Warren had unlocked. In the end, Burger was regarded by most legal professional as an example of the Peter Principle: someone who had been promoted beyond his competence.
    • 18/11/2007
    • 20:24:38
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The misfiring canon

    Who decides whether a given novel is in or out of the "canon"? Who sets the "canon"? What novels are currently in the "canon"? Have any been found so wanting in calibre that they have been removed from the "canon"?One of the more significant consequences of a novel winning serious recognition is that it tends to get the novel placed on the reading list of high-school and college literature courses. Do most professors refuse to assign books that are not at least 100 years old? Hardly. Indeed, I would suggest that most of the novels that were assigned in my college literature classes were un-canonical. "Passage to India," "The Rainbow," "Sound and the Fury," "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "Old Man and the Sea," "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," "Naked and the Dead," "Absalom, Absalom," "Guard of Honor," "Franny & Zooey," "Beetle Leg," "Cannibal," "Play It as It Lays," "Quiet Flows the Don," "One Day in the Life of Ivan Dennisovitch," -- all of these, and many, many more that I could name, are outside this author's "canon." Does that mean that any of these books is not worth reading?
    • 18/11/2007
    • 16:12:37
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Conflict too narrowly defined

    To take the statement that "all conflict is a struggle between good and evil," and then analyze two works and say that this proves the validity of the sweeping universal statement is more than a bit much.Consider some of the other works in which there is conflict, but not necessarily good and evil. Hesse's "Steppenwolf" deals with conflict, but it is hard to say who is good and who evil. Who is the "good" in "Moby Dick," a work filled with conflict throughout? Or the classics: who is good in "The Iliad." In short, literature cannot be reduced to a single, simple, unqualified statement.
    • 18/11/2007
    • 16:01:30
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Ambition misdescribed and misapplied

    Where did the supposed components of ambition come from? The author gives no basis for these.When Macbeth is first told that he will be king, he is indeed overcome, but is it more than supposition on the part of this writer that he is thinking of murder and treason. He was Thane of Glamis by birth, and he may well have known that Cawdor was implicated in the rebellion he had just put down, so that getting Cawdor could not have been entirely out of the realm of possibility. Given that the crown was not hereditary, he way well have thought himself more worthy of the succession than Malcolm.As to the obstacles between Macbeth and the crown, the essay is muddled by the idea that ambition is only real is there is a possibility of success. Consider the very numerous young men who aspire to careers as rap stars. For how many of these would-bes is there a chance of success. Or the young football players who want to be the next Peyton Manning, LaDamian Tomlinson, Priest Holmes. Do they have no ambition because their goals are completely out of line with reality. Further, after the first encounter with the witches, Macbeth might well have believed the crown would pass to him without killing anyone.Is Macbeth the primary murderer of Duncan, or is this a crime that is driven by Lady Macbeth? This is always one of the most dramatic conflicts in the play. Who is the real villain? For any woman serious about doing Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth is one of the great roles.In short, this essay creates a rather artificial series of components to ambition and then applies them in a way that fails to reflect a sound understanding of the background of the play. It does not make for a production sufficiently impressive to warrant a good score.
    • 18/11/2007
    • 15:43:10
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • All the President's Men

    This essay contains one of those errors that is hard to overlook. It announces that Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 -- the Nobel Peace Prize.No. In 1974 they won the Pulitzer Prize for the book "All the President's Men."Further, this book has not worn well. Although a number of the Watergate books remain solid historical accounts, Woodward and Bernstein have retained most of their standing for this book because they were portrayed by Redford and Hoffman.As a lasting historical report of the Watergate investigation, "All the President's Men" misses the boat time and again. It barely mentions the grand jury investigation. It has almost nothing to say about the special prosecutor. It ignores the Ervin committee. Reduced to its essence, Woodward and Bernstein's contribution to the Watergate affairs was Donald Sehgretti, whose role was minuscule.
    • 17/11/2007
    • 19:01:02
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

    As a piece of writing, this essay is reasonably good. Sentences are structured as sentences; rules of grammar are followed. There are lapses: "according to roomers"?Unfortunately, as a reflection of reading, it is unimpressive. First of all, white lawyers did rise to the defense of poor blacks accused of crimes in the South. Atticus' being asked to defend Tom Robinson is an example. A judge, knowing that a case demanded fair treatment, would turn to the best lawyer in the region, and ask for a pro bono defense. And people white and black acknowledged the distinction. Atticus did not lose his reputation and esteem in the community. If anything, that reputation was advanced. He was the lawyer of such uncompromising integrity that the community could call on him to make the impossible defense.Similarly, Jem lost very little. To suggest he lost everything in having to read to Ms. DuBose is a clear exaggeration.Boo Radley did not lose everything in killing Bob Ewell. Bob Ewell plainly lost more: he's out in the street with a butcher knife shoved up between his ribs.The essay also fails to realize that town, collectively, were the losers. By the end of the case, most people realized that Atticus had shown them the truth: If Ella-May Ewell was raped, it was by her own father in punishment for her coveting the touch of Tom Robinson, a black man. But the town had to see what their unthinking racial hatred had done to realize that this was wrong. They lost everything. They may have gained the insight to do better.
    • 17/11/2007
    • 05:01:54
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Watergate according to a source not worth consulting.

    This essay shows the uselessness of using Wikipedia as a source.The essay says that Nixon knew about Watergate "from the start." Does that mean he knew about the planning that went into the break-in beforehand, or merely that he was informed very soon after the break-in that his White House could be implicated.As to most of the "major players," they weren't. Frank Wills discovered evidence of a break-in, and initially ignored it. He found a door taped so that it would not lock, obviously indicating that something was wrong, and he simply ripped off the tape and continued his rounds. Fortunately, he came back later, and found that the door had been taped again. Finally it dawned on him that this was the sort of thing that tenants of the Watergate complex paid him to report to the police. He called the police. End of discussion.Woodward and Bernstein are perhaps the most overrated personae in the drama. They did manage to keep the story alive during some months when it was trivial news, but they uncovered virtually nothing that was not uncovered and exploited to much greater effect by the criminal investigation, the grand jury, or the various congressional committees. (In this regard, you ignored the incredible role played by Senator Sam Ervin, the simple country lawyer whose televised committee hearings held up the venality of the administration to the world.) The single original contribution that can be credited to Woodward and Bernstein was the exposure of Donald Seghretti, an inconsequential figure. Even with Deep Throat, they made virtually no original contributions to the investigation, and contributed only marginally to bringing Nixon down.Haldemn was not Nixon's Chair of Staff; he was the Chief of Staff.Sirica was not the chief judge of the U.S. District Court. By random selection, he drew the Watergate case as part of his normal docket. He was actually a very, very poor judge, who was ranked as perhaps the weakest member of the D.C. District Court bench, during the height of his fame as the judge hearing the Watergate trials.You left out Archibald Cox, who, as special prosecutor, ferreted out the existence of the White House tapes, and forced a constitutional crisis by his determination to get to the bottom of the case.In short, this essay reflects a Wikipedia level understanding of the Watergate affair. It is frustratingly unimpressive.,
    • 17/11/2007
    • 04:45:52
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • A Born Historic Leader

    This essay disproves the very point that it supposedly sets out to prove. Consider the title" "A Born Historic Leader." But was there anything about the birth of General Franks that marked him as a leader? Is there anything in the essay that suggests his birth marked him out with any special traits?Hardly. While no details are given, the essay suggests that at birth he was abandoned by his birth parents. He may well have been illegitimate. This was hardly an auspicious beginning.The essay also shows that it was not some birthright that raised him to greatness. It was determination, hard work, and clarity of purpose. In short, the essay needs work.
    • 17/11/2007
    • 04:21:12
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • "New Ending" is a new ending for the book "The Most Dangerous Game"

    I find the original ending much more suggestive, and much, much less muddled.
    • 16/11/2007
    • 22:04:47
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Puritans

    The critical problem with this paper is tense. The Puritans were the dominant American culture in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Are there are active Puritans (capital "P") in America today?Given that this essay deals with a culture that flourished some three centuries ago, why write in the present tense?
    • 16/11/2007
    • 09:27:10
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Why would you want to go to ..

    That interest's one most. Understand this; it is hard to find abilities. With the unique course that we all go though called, "Life", we become that one certain person we identify as a very cultural person. Spanish, American cultures - the best of the time being.I would like to experience this stage in my life at a college I feel will better myself in the long run.
    • 14/11/2007
    • 22:32:36
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Mac-How bad can it be?

    This essay begins with a long paragraph that says nothing, and continues with paragraphs demonstrating that the writer has made excessive but trivial use of a thesaurus: the resulting essay is full of big words that say -- [nothing].
    • 13/11/2007
    • 13:57:14
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Treaty of Versailles unappreciated

    This essay begins: "The unworkable terms of the Treaty of Versailles thats goal was to stop any possible future German Aggression." I am not certain whether this was something of a title, but it is incoherent. Minimally, "that's" needs an apostrophe.The balance of the essay avoids such grammatical muddles, but it contains several very serious flaws that preclude this from being a first-rate essay. First, it argues that the Treaty of Versailles was "ridiculous," unprecedented, "irresponsible, short sited and historically inaccurate" in assigning responsibility for the war to Germany by Article 231 of the Treaty. In fact, Article 231 was the product of very careful negotiations, based on what was then known of the historical record. Modern historians have the advantage of marvelously voluminous writing on the causes of World War I, some 35,000 volumes in English alone. The negotiators at Paris could turn to none of these volumes. (Also, even if these criticisms were sound, the Treaty would have been "short-sighted," not "short sited.")As to the punitive nature of the peace, the author is completely wrong in saying that this was unprecedented. Many treaties had unfortunately involved the victor dictating peace terms: See the treaties of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Portsmouth, and Brest-Litovsk as relatively recent examples.The author argues that Article 231 fostered the rise of the Nazis in Germany. While this argument has been made frequently, it is questionable at best. Short of the total capitulation of the Allies, Hitler would have railed against the Treaty, no matter what.The author also rails against the disarmament provisions of the Treaty, calling these "horrible," and "not fully thought out." What was horrible about trying to keep Germany from re-arming, particularly given the fact that at the time of the Paris Peace Conference, most of the Allies expected that there would be general disarmament that would effectively eliminate military forces throughout Europe. (The author also discusses the building of ships of greater than 100,000 tons displacement. The largest ships built in World War Two were the Japanese giant battleships, 68,000 tons fully loaded.)In describing the Treaty as being optimistic but unworkable, the author reverses himself. If it was "the equivalent of putting a band-aid on a severed vein," what could have been done? The answer would seem to have been much more punitive measures against Germany, which would have made the Treaty even more of a target for radicals and ultra-nationalists such as Hitler. Some military leaders among the Allies wanted to impose an actual occupation on Germany, but this was totally unworkable. While the German armies were defeated, the Allied armies were so near exhaustion that there was no support for an occupation. There was also no support for continuing military controls over Germany.The Treaty of Versailles was less than perfect, and probably no competent historian will try to argue that accomplished all that it set out to do. On the other hand, it represented some of the best and most advanced thinking coming out of a remarkable and extremely difficult international conference. This essay shows too little appreciation of the difficult or the accomplishments that the negotiators managed.Finally, this is listed as a university level essay. If this is the case, I find the purported bibliography embarrassing. Given the vast range of library sources on the Treaty of Versailles, and even the range of excellent Internet collections such as the Avalon Project mounted by Yale University, I would expect that any good student would use something more effective that a Spartacus listing and a wikipedia page. There are reasons that wikipedia is regarded as anathema.
    • 11/11/2007
    • 05:51:59
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Dante's Inferno Too light

    This essay tries to cover one of the classics of literature in a few paragraphs. It skips so much of the epic, does the rest in such superficial terms, and manages to muddle Catholicism and Christianity to such a degree that it cannot be taken seriously.
    • 10/11/2007
    • 10:45:56
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Character Analysis of Elphaba from Wicked

    There is a good deal of redundancy in this essay. Why do we need to be told twice about the specifics of Elphaba's birth defect.At the same time, there is considerable inexactitude in the use of language. Consider three examples:1) Elphaba was born with green skin and razor sharp teeth because of a green elixir in which her mother ingested in large quantities during the pregnancy."elixir in which her mother ingested" No, I think perhaps her mother ingested -- that is, drank, the elixir, But she did not ingest in it.2) Wishing to attend Shiz to develop her brain she was soon discovered to be that of a witch with potential to develop amazing powers.Did the writer mean that Elphaba had the brain of a witch? I think that is what the writer meant, but the writer did not say that.3) This is the conflict in which Elphaba was to succumb in order to fulfill her desire to better the world.This is messier. First, one succumbs to a conflict. Second, succumbing signals being beaten or overcome. How can one be overcome and still fulfill ones desire. Elphaba was beaten, and ended up bringing evil on her world.In short, this essay is not ready for publication.
    • 10/11/2007
    • 10:21:28
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Islam Religion

    There is a serious problem with this essay: it tries to reduce Islam to a single, sympathetic view. This is simply inaccurate. Islam, like Christianity, has fragmented into many different schools. Some of the schools of Islam are dedicated to pacifism, tolerance, and the protection and sanctity of all human life. But there are other sects that regard apostasy and a capital crime, that feel it is right to use violence in the name of Allah, and that the only good infidel is one who is dead.There was nothing peaceful about the September 11 attacks, and there was no respect for human life in the destruction of the World Trade Center, but the people who carried out these attacks were most certainly Islamic. Just as we cannot paint all Muslims as guilty, we cannot paint all of them as innocent.
    • 06/11/2007
    • 23:11:54
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Charles Beard-Framing the Constitution

    This essay is a very good beginning, and it needs a further development. The author gives Beard's first name only in the title to the essay, and never explains who he was or where he set forth his views -- his book was for many years one of the leading discussions of the motivations underlying the Constitution. It also does not detail Beard's argument, or the various counterarguments that have gradually superseded his views.These are flaws, but I do hope that this student continues to study and to write.
    • 04/11/2007
    • 18:05:25
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Federalism Case Study

    This is a very impressive essay. The material is very challenging, and I am quite impressed that the student has managed to deal with a number of issues that I would not expect a high-school student to handle so skillfully.BRAVO!
    • 04/11/2007
    • 18:00:24
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Symbolism in Lord of the Flies, a Novel by William Golding

    Well, for a two-page review of the novel, this is not bad. However, virtually everything in "Lord of the Flies" is symbolic, so that this is really rather preliminary coverage. I wish there were a good deal more here.
    • 04/11/2007
    • 17:45:04
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Women in Homer

    This essay manages to overlook many of the more interesting women in the epic. What of Circe, the enchantress who could turn men into swine? What of the sirens, whose sweet voices could lure any man on to his doom? What of Calypso, the nymph with whom Odysseus stayed for so long, yet remained loyal in his desire to go home? And what of Nasicaa, who was in many ways a suitable match for the wily Odysseus?
    • 04/11/2007
    • 13:54:06
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • SUVs are not the problem

    This essay is a remarkable apology for the SUV, but it suffers from the weaknesses of an apology. First, the sole source on which it relies is an article from the Cato Institute, one of the most biased and unreliable organizations in the debate. It is about like asking a prostitute to discus the virtues of her trade.As might be expected, the Cato article sets up a series of blatantly artificial standards by which to judge SUVs. A more objective view might approach SUVs as incredibly self-indulgent vehicles, unnecessarily oversized, over-powered, and over-polluting. An essay that at least acknowledged these issues would be a more honest, and better product.
    • 02/11/2007
    • 10:11:42
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Wal-Mart Stores Wal-Mart's strategy

    On one critical point, this essay is simply wrong. Wal-Mart has not failed miserably in its overseas expansion. It has been extremely successful in England, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and China. In China, it is one of the largest retailers of its kind, and it has done its homework. In Beijing, Wal-Mart found that it had to provide truly fresh fish to attract customers. In Wal-Mart, fish are presented live in tank. Customers select the fish of their choice, which is then netted, killed, and gutted in the store.This essay also completely overlooks the fact that Wal-Mart has become the symbol of worker oppression and predatory competition in the United States. With its restriction of benefits, paltry wages, and illegal work policies, it has become the symbol of the mean-spirited employer nickel-and-diming its workers into poverty.
    • 01/11/2007
    • 20:16:23
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Abortion

    The writing in this essay is rather shallow and has a number of errors that need to be corrected.More problematic is that the essay really does not close with the issue. Virtually no proponents of abortion would allow it through the latter stages of pregnancy, so that part of the discussion can be dispensed with. Further, most of the cases involving abortion deal with issues and feeling far, far more profound and troubling than someone not looking good in a bikini. For example, what about the rape victim? Should she have to carry a child to term, even though it was conceived through an act of fundamental violation? What if a doctor informs her that continuing the pregnancy will gravely jeopardize her own health? And what if medical testing shows that the child has an irreversible birth defect that will result in unrelievable suffering leading to death within two years? Do the parents still have an obligation to go through with the pregnancy?These are difficult cases, but they are real. To try to lump all cases into the easy, throw-away variety is to make light of the entire issue.
    • 31/10/2007
    • 23:06:01
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Why Fahrenheit 451 should not be banned from school?

    First of all, the title of this essay is not a question: it is an assertive statement. This means the question mark is not appropriate.Second, the argument that a book containing profanity should not be banned because there is already 4excessive profanity used in the schools is hardly a compelling argument for not banning the book. A much more profound argument is a two-pronged attack. First, the use of profanity in Fahrenheit 451 is inconsequential. It is a very limited part of the book. It is not highlighted. It is not emphasized. It is not set up as something to which undue attention should be given.Second, the shock value of profanity when it does occur is part of the point of the book. In the society in which Fahrenheit 451 is set, everything has been done to drug everyone. They have been stripped of all intellectual stimulus. They have lost all emotional stimulus. Anything that would give these people real life has been stripped away to where they are numbed into placidity. In this sort of setting, profanity has value -- it has life. These words become a primordial rebellion against the somnambulism of futuristic society.To ban THIS book merely because of a few profane words is to commit the very offense that the author, Ray Bradbury, was struggling to forestall.
    • 26/10/2007
    • 15:35:17
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Gay adoption

    This essay has some good points, but then it caves in on itself intellectually. First, it cites the significant studies of the American Psychological Association, which concluded that the children of gay couples are not "disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents," but then it says that children adopted by gay couples have "a high possibility of getting ridiculed, bullied, or even becoming completely excluded."There is a huge disconnect here. Does the writer believe that a society of professionals in the field, specifically in the field of psychology would overlook the possibility of ridicule, bullying, and exclusion, any of which could be detrimental to a child? It seems that the writer does not believe his own data.That, in turn, draws the entire essay into question.
    • 26/10/2007
    • 15:23:34
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Legal systems, their development, uses and importance in Egypt and Mesopotamia

    This essay mistakes naked power for law. Early rulers such as the pharaohs of Egypt and the rulers of ancient Mesopotamia did not have what could accurately be called law: they had power. Law came into being when the rulers accept some sort of restraint on the power of the powerful to use brute force over the weak. (In this sense, the Hebrew rule of an eye for an eye was a tremendous moderation since before that rule came into play, there were few limits on the retaliation that was allowed.)The essay also repeatedly makes assertions such as "it is clear that both the legal systems of Egypt and Mesopotamia were necessary in order to maintain stability and control of the population." But the essayist offers no discussion of the point, no supporting evidence, nothing showing the basis on which he makes this claim.The breakthrough of the Code of Hammurabi was that it prescribed limits to the use of power. By prescribing a code, Hammurabi limited his own power, agreeing to follow certain rules. While those rules may have been crude by contrast to what we now expect from our rulers, the significance was that he acknowledged that there would be some limits to his power. This was the essence of law.
    • 23/10/2007
    • 16:02:16
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • ESSAY ON THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT JOHN STEINBECK

    This essay is a fairly good beginning, but it is so brief that it really does not develop the ideas that it brings up. A few references to animals or animal traits do not really show a theme.
    • 23/10/2007
    • 15:49:58
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby Demonstrate Nick Carraway's maturation as the events of the summer of 1922 unfold.

    I question your emphasis on Nick Carraway's desire for material gain. Yes, Carraway did come east to work in the bond trade, but there are several times when he passes up obvious opportunities to achieve greater material gain. When Gatsby asks him about how much money he makes, and offers to include him in a deal, as a gesture of thanks for arranging the meeting with Daisy, Nick is not interested. Nick shies away from Meyer Wolfsheim, even though he is obviously successful in his gambling.Further, Nicks initial description of the Buchanans is hardly flattering. Tom Buchanan is immediately someone capable of great cruelty. He learns at the first meeting that Tom is having an affair. In the next chapter, he even spends a Sunday with Tom and his mistress, hearing the elaborate story that Daisy will not give Tom a divorce.Consider also Nick's consistent antipathy toward Gatsby. "You're better than the whole damn bunch together," is the only compliment that he paid to the man.Nick acquires more knowledge over the summer, but does he really mature? I think it's questionable.
    • 22/10/2007
    • 06:09:22
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Total Quality Management

    This essay on Total Quality Management begins: "Jean-Baptite Colbert, the great minister of King Louis XIW,"Why should I continue reading an essay on Total Quality Management which has two mistakes in the first nine words? The minister's name was Jean-Baptiste Colbert, and the king was Louis XIV.Sadly, the balance of the essay does not redeem these initial disappointments.
    • 19/10/2007
    • 12:35:43
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Characterization of Odysseus Based on Book Six and Nine

    This is reasonably good, although rather thin. I wish the writer had developed his ideas further, particularly because of the complex relationship he has with Nausica
    • 03/10/2007
    • 12:55:50
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • ANTIGONE

    After reading this essay, I asked myself, does this essay tell me what "Antigone" is about? I must say, "no." And then I realized that I was left with a more profound and troubling question: do I know what this essay is about? No.
    • 28/09/2007
    • 14:14:15
    • Score: 3 out of 4 people found this comment useful.
  • John Calvin outline

    I would be somewhat more impressed if this writer showed some understanding of the use of the apostrophe.
    • 28/09/2007
    • 13:00:08
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Friar Laurence Character traits

    This writer conceives of Friar Laurence in a way that paints him as a complete innocent. In fact, he involves himself in a very dangerous game, and because of his failure to control things, what might have been a desperate escape becomes a tragedy in which Romeo and Juliet are both killed. At the end of many productions of the play, the authorities are looking to take out their wrath on the Friar, for without his willingness to get involved in a dangerous scheme, the tragedy would not have ended so badly.Perhaps the good Friar would have been wise to take a lesson form a completely different character, Detective Harry Callahan of "Dirty Harry" and "Magnum Force" fame: "a man's got to know his limitations."
    • 26/09/2007
    • 10:56:33
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Dill's character

    For all the mischief in which Dill involves himself, there is an innocence about his activities and his character, and this innocence is a very important part of the novel.
    • 26/09/2007
    • 10:50:46
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Harper Lee bioish

    "The Great Depression thrived " The Great Depression did many things to this country, but thriving was NOT among them.
    • 24/09/2007
    • 17:55:26
    • Score: 2 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Ancient Greek Contributions to the Modern Western World.

    This essay is remarkably brief, and it overlooks many things that are far more important than sports (such as theater, history, poetry), but for what it is, it is quite good.
    • 24/09/2007
    • 17:51:54
    • Score: 4 out of 4 people found this comment useful.
  • Tax system definition

    I am not sure that I can take seriously an essay in which there is a spelling error in the title.
    • 24/09/2007
    • 17:43:20
    • Score: 0 out of 5 people found this comment useful.
  • Let me get a car!

    While letting a teenager drive is part of the normal progression that parents endure, the writer's notion that it is all positive fails to consider the greatly increased insurance costs, the frequent inconvenience of having a family car tied up by the teenager (whose awareness of parent's schedules and needs is often less than ideal), and the worry involved with having a teenager behind the wheel of a car. We of the "over-the-hill" generation know what we did that drove our own parents to distraction, and we now why we worry about the capacity of our bodies, minds, and bank accounts to endure having teenager's drive.A better essay would have acknowledged that having a teenager driver is hardly an unqualifiedly positive matter.
    • 23/09/2007
    • 13:33:46
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • The Gospel According To Larry

    This essay say almost nothing about the Gospel According to Larry, but it does say a great deal about the writer. It says that if she does not have a hi-tech phone and phone substitute, she cannot live."I already had a Blackberry but when the newer version came out, I had to have it. Technology changes every day which forces consumers to keep up with the trend."The word "pathetic" seems pathetically inadequate.
    • 23/09/2007
    • 12:10:53
    • Score: 2 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • TQM

    First, some of the writing errors:"What this means is that in every organization must strive to improve quality.""I order to reach this goal""giving there customers satisfaction."More substantively, critics of total quality management charge that it is little more than a lot of bells, and whistles, and slogans. In an apartment/property management company, the maintenance crew, who have the most contact with the customers, often known the most about how the customers feel and what they want. I notice that in all the hoopla of guest cards and customer surveys, these people were completely forgotten.My recent experience in the work-force is that this is pathetically common. Management mouths slogans about involving everyone in the process, and immediately reverts to telling the workers what the managers have wanted to do all along.
    • 23/09/2007
    • 12:01:19
    • Score: 1 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Autistic children at NYU

    The over-the-top tone is a bit off-putting.
    • 22/09/2007
    • 08:12:38
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Addressing International Legal and Ethical Issues

    If Gentura has breached its contract, why does it have a right to go to court? To get validation?Arbitration works only if both parties agree to be bound by the arbitration award. Otherwise, no one can force any party into arbitration.Similarly, liquidated damages are valid only if the parties have agreed to them. If not, it is theory that is irrelevant to most cases.Gentura can claim that it acted out of the highest motives. Legally, that is irrelevant. A contract is a contract.
    • 21/09/2007
    • 18:18:17
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Arthur Miller

    I have many concerns with this essay:In the initial statement of the dates of Miller's life, why the "th"s? Do they add anything, other than possibly clutter?"Writing several pieces of all American literature, plays and cinema pieces to affect literature as we know it, for 6 decades." This is not a sentence. It is a fragment.What does the "all" add. Hopefully, the writer is not bringing in an unduly patriotic concept, or an idea from sports.The "6" needs to be written out."Throughout school Miller achieved in athletics and was average in academics." I believe the writer meant to say that Miller "excelled in athletics.""which he won awards for" would be better stated as "for which he won awards.""From then on his career had skyrocketed." I believe the writer meant, "from then on his career skyrocketed," with no "have.""Some of which included, . . " Another fragment.Millers Career" should probably be "Miller's career.""But 16 years later . . . But within months . . . But by the year 1960 the . . ." There is a general convention that a writer should not begin a sentence with a conjunction, and "but" is a conjunction. Here, the writer begins three consecutive sentences with "but." Two wrongs don't make a right, and three make at best for a farce."January 24, 1961 they divorced. Within a year Miller had again re-married with photographer Inge Morath on February 17, 1962." Check the calendar. It was just over a year.In short, it needs some serious clean-up work.On a more general front, I would have preferred much more discussion of what Miller did in his plays, rather than spending so much of the essay on his marriage and family. The family and the marriages will be forgotten long before people stop looking at "Crucible" and "Death of a Salesman" as example of great American literature in the twentieth century.
    • 21/09/2007
    • 03:51:58
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Everyone wants to be Irish on St. Patrick's Day

    I have largely given up on the celebration of St. Patrick's Day, because all too often, it becomes little more than an excuse for drunkenness and stupidity.If someone wishes to celebrate Saint Patrick, I would urge that they emulate the Saint, and not the barbarians he came to Ireland to convert.
    • 21/09/2007
    • 00:09:33
    • Score: 0 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Importance of chlorophyll

    I am deliberately going to avoid the question of the academic level of the writer, and concentrate on a few other problems.First, this writer has a propensity to use run-ons. Let me give a few examples:"their green colour it is essential for their way of life." After colour, some major sort of punctuation is necessary, either a semi-colon or a period. A comma is not enough."a small part of photosynthesis roots also play a vital part." Again, before roots, the writer needs to insert a semicolon or a period. A comma is not enough, and no punctuation is wholly inadequate."and the hydrogen present in water for energy as well." Actually, the hydrogen is not used separately from the photosynthesis process. On the contrary, hydrogen is integral to the photosynthesis process, in which water and carbon dioxide and converted to glucose.Beyond these, this is a reasonably informative essay. I would have like to see it filled out a bit more.
    • 20/09/2007
    • 23:40:48
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Hypothesis Identification Analysis

    How the author got from the initial facts to the statement of a hypothesis that does not seem to follow at all is completely beyond me.
    • 19/09/2007
    • 23:39:34
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • SSK12 essay 2 "University learning"

    This essay is so over-written, so full of bombast and hyperbole that it is a burden to get through it. The writer would do much better to strive for a much simpler writing style, that would say more.
    • 19/09/2007
    • 23:28:03
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Memories

    A short essay, but very, very good. Keep it up!
    • 19/09/2007
    • 23:19:11
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Mr. Z

    At several places in this essay, the writing lapses: "He hided his wife's Jewish origin." "he kept his dining table away from the breads made of corn, yams and collards." (Breads made of collards?)"The colored should be encouraged to face their own identities."More seriously, I re-read the essay, and even after two readings, I still do not have a real feel for the poem that it attempts to describe.
    • 19/09/2007
    • 23:15:55
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Amish Society Vs. Modern Society

    Well, I often see modern young people hurrying out of classrooms, grabbing for their cellphones to carry on conversations that are remarkable for their inanity and want of either substance or articulation. Too many modern young people end up indulging in binge drinking, indulgent drug use, and sex as little more than a throwaway act of physical frivolity.The Amish do live simply, and by all indications that I have seen, they live with a stability and a happiness that many modern young people never have and probably never will have.
    • 19/09/2007
    • 20:23:26
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • How do politics affect the bureaucracy? What lessons can we learn from theory about government and the bureaucracy?

    This essay is really very hard to read. It feels much longer than 900+ plus words, and it does not state itself clearly.
    • 19/09/2007
    • 14:33:29
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Macbeth: By Fate or Choice?

    I really do not feel that this essay closes with the topic. Macbeth was the Thane of Glamis when the play opened. As a result of his handling of the rebellion, Duncan rewarded him by making him Thane of Cawdor, because Cawdor was a traitor in the rebellion that Macbeth had put down.Macbeth shares the same notion that Banquo does, that the weird sisters tell superficial truths, while lying in the essence of the promise. Thus, they warn him that he can be beaten by "none of woman born," without warning him of the possibility of Caesarian birth.But which controls in the end. Does Macbeth go to his doom because the weird sisters condemn him to it, or is it because he chooses to pursue what they promise?In a wider sense, horoscopes remain very popular, with millions of people consulting them every day. They should sometimes ask themselves: are we merely puppets or automatons, set in motion with no control over our lives, or do we have some control?
    • 19/09/2007
    • 14:12:49
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • No cellular phones in the classroom

    The title of the essay suggests that this writer will defend the position stated: no cell phones in the classroom. The writer then defends the position cell phones freely n the classroom, if they are turned off. And who is to ensure that they are turned off?Many employers have had to deal with this issue, by setting categorical rules that there are to be no cell phones visible or audible at any time on the work floor. Almost invariably, this leads to arguments from belligerent new hires each insisting that he has some overriding reason why he must have a cell phone available at all times.The better answer is "NO." If a student is so addicted to a cell phone that he must have it with him at all times, they he is sufficiently addicted to need to do something about the addiction to start to overcome the problem. Leave the phone in the locker. You have to stay reasonable.
    • 19/09/2007
    • 13:58:35
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • What is and what should be the role of government and the bureaucracy?

    This essay describes, although only in the most general terms, the role that government has. It does not address the question given in the title, what should the role of government be?
    • 19/09/2007
    • 13:49:03
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern the Polychephaly

    This essay seems to miss some of the most prominent themes that these two characters illustrate in both "Hamlet" and "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead." This writer calls them unintelligent and motivated by fear. I see no real basis for this in either play. In "Hamlet," they came from Wittenburg, which was famous as the cite of the university where they and Hamlet had been fellow students. Especially in Stoppard's play, the notion that they are unintelligent should be dismissed by the verbal tennis scene, in which they both show a remarkable understanding of philosophy, rhetoric, and logic.The point that Stoppard raises and this author overlooks is the existential question: does the average person have control over his life. This is suggested powerfully by the way that they respond to Hamlet's critical inquiry, did they come of their own accord or were they sent for. "We were sent for." They do not have control over things. In both "Hamlet" and "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," they are out of control, run by life rather than able to run it.
    • 19/09/2007
    • 13:42:41
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • A Cautious Mind

    This essay has a very inflated tone. To illustrate, let me point to the opening two sentences: "As a young boy I was extremely adventurous, open and fearless. Now many years later I still posses many of the traits I possessed as a child still remain intact, but many new traits began to blossom in my personality due to events that occurred in my past that greatly contributed to my cautious way of thinking." First of all, how old is the writer? From the sound of the opening paragraph, I would think him to be 40 or older. In fact, he is 14 (and may we say rather full of himself?).Sadly, the whole essay suffers from overinflated use of the language. If the writer had striven to sound a bit less stilted and a bit more natural, the result would have been a better essay.
    • 19/09/2007
    • 13:30:53
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Business Law Defining Concepts and Problem Solving. 4 questions/theories solved.

    While there are no overt errors in this, it is rather overly dry. Particularly the last item is one that the writer should view as more a matter of real world factors. If every woman (or man) who has ever been stood up for a date went to court over it, the lawyers of the world would have a field day, and the rest of the world would bankrupt itself on the luxury of lawsuits that should never be brought.
    • 19/09/2007
    • 13:22:14
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Fad diets

    In addition to misuse of words, this essay suffers from the awkwardness of wording in several places. Consider one example:"Fad diets always fail since your weight goes up. Afterwards, you proceed by slashing your intake of calories and fat on your new fad diet only to gain all the weight back shortly after. This yo-yo dieting leaves you weighing even more then you began with and making you feel worse about your body."If a dieter's weight goes up, how does the dieter then "gain . . . back" that weight?
    • 18/09/2007
    • 08:43:38
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Animal Farm - George Orwell - Political Regimes (Idealism)

    Sadly, this essay shows the result of inadequate research into literary history. George Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War, and was an essayist and journalist throughout World War Two. From these experiences, he was painfully well aware of the tendency not merely of communism but of all idealistic/totalitarian schemes to sink into dictatorship.I am not aware of Orwell having any significant interest in Iraq or Africa, but he was well aware of the history of the Soviet Union, and "Animal Farm" is based on the events in the Soviet Union, with Old Major being a metaphorical recreation of Marx; Napoleon being modeled on Stalin; Snowball on Trotsky, who was initially one of the most powerful figures in the Soviet government, but was later disgraced and then hunted down and murdered by Soviet assassins. This historical metaphor is a key part of the understanding of the novel, and by remaining unaware of it, this writer fails to understand a great deal about the novel.
    • 18/09/2007
    • 07:55:43
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Literary Analysis

    This essay suffers from certain flaws. First, consider one that is visible: this essay consists of a string of very long paragraphs. It looks hard.Second, following up, the writing does not move easily. Sentences are strained, forced, and difficult to follow. Consider one example: "I believe the theme of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest that is being conveyed by Ken Kesey is society's destruction of individualism and sanity." This certainly could have been stated more directly, more forcefully, and in a way that was much easier to follow.Third, this essay, by its own terms is derivative of derivative material. The writer cites as his sole source of information the "Cliff Notes" on the book. This raises a serious question: did the writer actually read "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," or just the Cliff Notes? Cliff Notes specifically advertise themselves as a study aid and not a substitute for reading the actual novel, and any student who handed this paper in with only this biography would probably receive the cold response of an "F" for the paper with explicit instructions to read the novel, not just some notes.Is there any real problem? I see two problems. First, this writer never mentions the nicknames for two of the characters who are prominent in this discussion. Nurse Ratched is famous for her nickname: Big Nurse. On his part, Chief Bromden is known as Chief Broom. (On a minor note: Bromden did not pretend to be a deaf mute. He pretended to be a mute, but always indicated that he could hear.) Second, the writer describes what Nurse Ratched does as "torture," using that term three times. Big Nurse is oppressive and demeaning, but "torture" is far too melodramatic a word for what goes on in the novel.
    • 17/09/2007
    • 10:53:26
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • George Washington Biography

    Unfortunately, the writing in this essay is quite poor. There are sentence fragments, run-ons, word usage problems, number problems, and a good many other grammatical flaws that preclude it from being accepted as a very good essay.To point out just two of the more noteworthy errors: "The strongest feature in George's character was prudence, he never act until every circumstance, every consideration, was maturely weighed, refraining if he saw doubt, once he decided it, going through his purpose, whatever obstacles opposed." This is a run-on."Diligence, brave, intelligence, combined with the soldier together, and the people share woe!" I'm not sure quite what this is, but it needs work.
    • 16/09/2007
    • 21:55:10
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Living on campus vs. apartment

    Before choosing between an apartment and a dormitory, I hope that this writer has the opportunity to endure a dormitory full of students trying to see how much hell-raising they can do in the name of socializing. There is an advantage to an apartment, with the isolation that can make studying possible that is sometimes out of the question in a dormitory.
    • 15/09/2007
    • 01:58:33
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Transitioning within the IT department Ouest's acquisition of EEST and its impact on existing systems

    A few selections from this essay show that it is less than well-written:Consider: "discussions . . . has been ongoing." Oh, they has, has they?Or try to figure out just what this means:"it falls in your hands how to go about impending changes putting foremost into consideration aligning top management goals with subordinates' needs."Or this: "it is in the corporation's best intentions that the acquisition is pushing through."Ah, but then the writer gets to the stirring emotive moment when he manages to rouse everyone to the cause:"It should be noted that resistance to the imminent change as the initial reaction is always expected. Further disregard causes emotional stress. Incorrect information and hearsay creates an environment of doubt and mistrust. This then leads to an unhealthy working environment wherein individuals lose interest in their work and concern for the business."Do you feel ready to man the ramparts and charge forward?Or did you lose track of everything somewhere in this stuff?
    • 15/09/2007
    • 01:51:56
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Legal Issues Paper

    This paper is very long on sweeping generalizations about the need for rules on privacy and confidentiality. But when examined closely, this essay says remarkably little.
    • 15/09/2007
    • 01:43:04
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Systems Thinking Analysis

    This essay begins with two very sound ideas for customer relations: communicate with the customer, and deal with the problem promptly. However, it then meanders in a discussion that seems to go virtually nowhere, and seems to add only length to the discussion.Whatever happened to communicating with the customer and doing it promptly?
    • 14/09/2007
    • 23:27:01
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Constitutional Rights Paper

    This essay purports to discuss constitutional rights of employer and employee. However, the Constitution does not apply directly to a private employer. By its terms, the First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law. . . . " and the private employer is not Congress, or any other part of the government. The law comes into play only because of the various civil rights acts, and these are a far cry from the Constitution. They prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, and religion.As to privacy, what an employee does in the workplace is, by definition, not private. There is no right to privacy in a company-created E-mail system.Further, race, religion, national origin, and the like have very little to do with speech. An employer generally can fire an employee for saying anything the employer does not like. And there is no right of free speech involved.
    • 14/09/2007
    • 23:17:02
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Gladius-

    The writing in this essay needs work. It begins with a long sentence fragment. The description of the gladius is somewhat strained, and it is not clear how the Roman sword was essentially different from the swords used by other armies that emulated the Romans in fighting in tight formations.(Also, the discussion of the effect of sword wounds is completely inaccurate. An abdominal wound is horribly painfully, but rarely causes unconsciousness short of death. Indeed, people suffering abdominal wounds have been known to kill themselves to alleviate their pain.)The metaphorical comparison of the gladius to the leadership of the Roman people is best dismissed.
    • 14/09/2007
    • 23:11:02
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • My Utopia

    To begin, given that snow cannot occur at 34 degrees Fahrenheit, I am not sure how this utopia will have snow.The writer wants a laissez faire system, but would restrict all residences to apartments based solely on the size of the family, rather than the wealth of the individual.And peasants? Apparently, this is to be a predominantly agricultural society, because this is the only society in which peasantry really has a role. But what happens if someone introduces industry. For example, what if a young Bill Gates or Steve Jobs moves in, introducing post-industrialism?And why Baptists? What gives them a claim to moral superiority?It doesn't sound all that utopian a place to me.
    • 14/09/2007
    • 12:20:01
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Why George Bush does not deserve the trust of America

    I agree with this writer in one key regard: I do not like, or trust, George W. Bush. On the other hand, sound criticism of George Bush requires closer analysis than this writer offers, or else it comes across as what his supporters descry, shrill name-calling. For example, George Bush never said that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the United States. Many others in his administration did, but not Bush himself.This writer should tone up the analysis, and tone down the screaming. It would produce a better essay.
    • 14/09/2007
    • 11:55:20
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Sonnet 18's eternal beauty

    The writer says, "The poem is composed of an octet and sestet along with three quatrains that lead to a concluding couplet." Let me see, let me see: an octet is eight lines; a sestet is six; a quatrain is four lines, so three quatrains is twelve lines, plus a final couplet, two lines. So eight plus six, plus twelve plus two?My, my, that's twenty six lines, in a fourteen line poem. Remarkable?
    • 14/09/2007
    • 11:11:13
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Labor Relations

    This essay purports to be a discussion of unions, but it lists as its only source a book on "human relations," a topic that very often becomes a discussion of strategies for avoiding unions. Unfortunately, the text of the essay reflects the bias of the source.
    • 14/09/2007
    • 10:50:22
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Pole Running

    "I slammed into a pool, my chest affected by its steel clad vibrating when I hit it."I think the writer meant "pole" instead of pool. There are very few pools at strip malls, and they tend not to be steel clad.Unfortunately, the writer's chest is not the only things affected by the pole. His writing is also affected, as in rather showy, pretentious, and artificial. Why does the writer not skip immediately to what he admits he felt three days later: running into a steel post hurts.
    • 14/09/2007
    • 08:08:05
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Describe the characteristics of Gatsby and Tom in the novel The Great Gatsby, by Mr. Fitzgerald

    The notion that Jay Gatsby "unselfish" must strike most readers of "The Great Gatsby" as amusing at best. Oh, yes, Gatsby has a great deal of charm, but at core, he is a grasping individual. He wants Daisy Buchanan, wants to have her all to himself, and is willing to do anything to get her. This includes bootlegging, trading in stolen securities, and just about anything else that will get him the sort of money that he needs to be able to pry his way into the world of the wealth that Daisy runs in. He does have insight, however, and at one point shows that when Nick Carraway comments that Daisy has an indiscreet voice, to which Gatsby responds, "Her voice is full of money." However, Nick is also right in his comment that Gatsby stood for everything that he found despicable.
    • 14/09/2007
    • 08:00:52
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Environmental factors in an organization

    Most readers looking for an essay on "organization" might notice that the author of this essay misspelled that word in the title. It is a sign of what comes later. The writing is not clear, and the presentation is so terse that it is very difficult to follow what the writer is trying to say.
    • 14/09/2007
    • 07:52:16
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Analyzing Lease vs. Buy Decisions

    A very solid, impressive presentation. Well done.
    • 14/09/2007
    • 07:48:23
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Critical Analysis of "How To Treat a Lady"

    The essay is confusing, and to add to the problem, what is the title of the play: Is it "How to Treat a Lady" or "No Way to Treat a Lady"?
    • 11/09/2007
    • 15:40:05
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Defining Public Relations Paper

    This paper runs two pages. In includes three definitions taken from outside sources and presents an attempt to meld them.It is also a single paragraph, something that will so overtax the reader as to make it essentially un-digestable, nearly unreadable.Further, it takes the almost self-defining term "public relations," and makes it so complex - needlessly -- as to be oppressive.Writer: be a bit more considerate of your readers, please.
    • 11/09/2007
    • 15:33:14
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Womens role in "Barn Burning" - A Short Story by William Faulkner

    What the essayist has written here is good, although it would have been better if the writer had acknowledged the role that class (and implicitly race) plays in this story. The father, Abner Snopes, is a share-cropper, one of the lowest class of whites, and part of his pathological violence is a signal of resentment against the fact that he is on the bottom of life and will never rise.
    • 11/09/2007
    • 12:28:53
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • A Deeper Understanding Of Blackberries - Analyze the literal and deeper meaning behind Seamus Heaney's poem, "Blackerry-Picking".

    This essay has the feel of a piece in which the author wanted to impress his readers with the scope of his vocabulary. Unfortunately, in trying to make this impression, the writer comes across as insincere, and even pompous.
    • 11/09/2007
    • 09:41:42
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Transforming the text

    A bit of a test: read just the first paragraph of this essay, and based on the first paragraph alone, try to figure out what this essay is about.Unfortunately, it is such a difficult matter that I doubt that most people will go on to the second, third, fourth, and even if they do, will they know what this essay is about?
    • 11/09/2007
    • 09:28:29
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Management and Leadership

    Reading this, I am not at all certain what this person means by either leadership or management.
    • 11/09/2007
    • 09:20:06
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Should hostage takers be punished? What leniency should be shown to kidnappers?

    While this essay makes some good points, it is somewhat redundant. Further, it uses the wrong word in several places. There is a significant difference between "persecution" and "prosecution." As Mark Twain warned, the difference between the right word and the almost right word as about like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.
    • 11/09/2007
    • 09:08:33
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Online Abbreviations Everyday Use

    I would be somewhat more impressed with this essay if the writer spelled "abbreviations" properly.
    • 09/09/2007
    • 22:38:23
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Abortion

    This essay grinds on for ten pages on how bad abortion is. The considerable length of the essay is not really an asset, because the writer states at the outset that to have an abortion is to commit murder. He then sets up a long series of straw-man arguments to repeat that point.
    • 09/09/2007
    • 22:36:51
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Christianity and the Survival of Creation

    This essay is extremely hard to follow. It is apparently a response to an argument made by one Barry Wendell, but the essay does a poor job of stating what Wendell's argument is. It also does a confusing job of making its case. The continual use of "One" as the subject of sentences adds confusion to the essay. Also, the author gives the unfortunate impression that he beings with his conclusion firmly set, and allowing only make-weight arguments against it.
    • 09/09/2007
    • 22:29:32
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Pearl Harbour: Was it fair? / Essay question : "To what extent was the attack on Pearl Harbour by the Japanese fair/effective and how did the American Government react ?"

    This essay is a rank apology for naked aggression. Yes, the United States did restrict trade with Japan. Japan had embarked on a policy of conquest and domination throughout the western Pacific by which it demanded the submission of nearly all of its neighboring states to Japanese control, and it expected the United States not merely to acquiesce in this domination, but to supply the Japanese military-industrial complex in the process. President Roosevelt and the American government refused to be a party to this policy. And with good reason. What gave Japan the right to demand the capitulation of Singapore, what is now Indonesia, the Philippines, and Australia?The American actions, however, amounted to a refusal to engaged in unrestricted trade. Japan responded with a series of military strikes. In other words, the Japanese responded to trade restriction not by a reasonable or good faith modification of its aggressive trade policy but with a naked act of war.
    • 09/09/2007
    • 08:03:37
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Corporate Responsibility and Consumer Safety

    In a very concise essay, this writer has managed to include a tremendous amount of material. Well done!
    • 07/09/2007
    • 23:24:52
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Anti-Affirmative Action

    The writing in this essay has a very shrill tone, and the analysis is quite weak. According to this essay, affirmative action is a club wielded by people who are both insensitive and undeserving. This essay fails to address the serious problems of racism in this country.
    • 05/09/2007
    • 19:26:21
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Types of Committees within the U.S. Congress and their Duties

    This has a good deal of information, but the whole essay reads drying, without any real showing that the writer is aware of how the committees fit into an overall process.
    • 05/09/2007
    • 15:21:40
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • What is Human?

    As a biography of Issac Asimov, with a particular emphasis on the book "I, Robot," this essay is reasonable good, although there are times when it needs a good kick-in-the-pants proofreading and polishing. As a discussion of what is human, however, it never really comes to grips with the point.
    • 05/09/2007
    • 08:46:36
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Capital Punishment: How We Can Improve

    As a purely written product, this essay is adequate, though little more than that. as a matter of reasoning, it is badly flawed.1. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has only negligible bearing on the use of the death penalty in America. It is a declaration, but it is not a binding treaty or other rule of law that compels the United States to obey.2. The greatest restrictions on the death penalty in the United States have come not from the United Nations, but from American courts, which have repeatedly had to rule that the death penalty was being administered unfairly. For years, black people in the American South were executed in disproportionate numbers because no blacks were allowed on juries in capital cases. Then prosecutors were allowed to present any sort of argument for capital punishment, but the defense was not allowed to present matters in mitigation. Fair? The courts finally said no. At one time, it was not even considered mandatory that a person tried in a capital case had to be guaranteed an attorney.2. Since the 1970s, the rule has been well established, and there seems little groundswell for changing it that capital punishment should be applied only to cases in which a defendant has killed another person. While it may be a heinous crime, in this country, rape is not a capital crime.3. The notion that the court system does not use capital punishment because it is afraid to offend someone is a curious matter. Where do most judges come from? overwhelmingly, they are former prosecutors, and the district attorney's office in most states is the favorite route to the bench. Do these former prosecutors become mamby-pambies by going on the bench? Try going to court some time and see how worried they are about offending people.4. Finally, this writer is offended that judges and legislatures pay attention to the view of the public, which has become somewhat less willing to use capital punishment over the last century. Well, what kind of government do we have in this country. Wasn't it Abraham Lincoln who said it was a government of the people, by the people, and for the people? And if that's the case, aren't judges and legislatures supposed to pay attention?
    • 04/09/2007
    • 17:20:59
    • Score: 4 out of 4 people found this comment useful.
  • 'There is no point in preserving the past. We should be looking to the future'. What is your opinion?

    This essay is apparently the product of a teenager. I do hope this person will gradually come to a greater appreciation of the past as time passes. This essay unfortunately, does not really show a true appreciation of all that the past has to offer, or how little we have learned from it.
    • 03/09/2007
    • 21:44:37
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • The world we lie in today is multicultural. What forces have driven to make the world the way it is today?

    Generally, this essay is very impressive, but I do wish the author had checked the spelling of the title.
    • 03/09/2007
    • 10:38:42
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • If you could be granted one wish

    Blink!: "with almost everyone in the world owning a car and using it frequently is just like how the Nazis massacre the Jews."Regardless of the overall intellectual merit of the argument that humans are using up the world's resources, this sort of hyperbole does not make for a convincing argument. Instead, it arguably demonstrates that the author is remarkable in flailing ideas and images about irresponsibly
    • 03/09/2007
    • 10:26:02
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Portrayal of War - All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

    I am impressed. While there are a few point in which this essay could be tightened a bit, overall, it is a very good explanation of what war fiction can do and what it often fails to do. It also shows that the author has given this topic a good deal of thought, and worked to express him/herself clearly and concisely.A good, solid product.
    • 03/09/2007
    • 10:16:53
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Napoleon Bonaparte

    In the effort to convey the repeated ironic twists, this essay indulges in statements of questionable accuracy, and loses itself in efforts by the author to show how bright he is. In the end, it is unimpressive, unenlightening, and trite.
    • 02/09/2007
    • 23:19:49
    • Score: 1 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • The RBA and inflation targeting

    RBA? LRPC? It would be nice if the writer defined his terms.
    • 31/08/2007
    • 23:41:10
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Wisdom of Soloman

    I regret that I feel this essay must be relegated to the less than outstanding category because of two errors that I attribute to carelessness. First, the title of the essay contains a misspelling. Second, particularly in light of the final paragraph, which suggests that the writer is a person of religious belief, the inconsistency of the capitalization of "God" is a significant flaw.
    • 31/08/2007
    • 23:32:38
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • How relevant (to her audience) are the statements that Pink makes about the values and attitudes in society? How does she communicate these statements?

    This essay is very redundant. How many times does it announce that Pink uses a didactic approach?Also, trying to make out Pink as a role model promoting high moral values is a bit much. Someone who includes "midnight, I'm drunk, I don't give a f***"; "Most girls want a man with the bling bling"; comparing "love" to 'a bunch of mush' in her song lyrics is showing something more than "humanness," and I do not think it amounts to solid values and morals. Indeed, what I find in Pink's lyrics, and her life, is a patent self-centered egoism that I find (at best) disappointing.
    • 29/08/2007
    • 10:08:15
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • A Comprehensive Comparison of the Iraq and Vietnam Wars

    The comparison is hardly comprehensive. The whole essay cries out for a good proof-reading to get rid of a frustrating number of rather silly mistakes. Beyond these points, this is a marvelous essay, well researched, well-written, and showing a great deal of skill. WELL DONE!
    • 25/08/2007
    • 21:31:16
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Is Smoking Bad?

    I think this is one of the finest examples of manifest silliness that I have ever read. Your argument accepts folk wisdom in place of scientific knowledge, overlooks literally tons of data on the terrible effects of smoking, buys into every industry argument that has ever been put forth.I am not impressed.
    • 25/08/2007
    • 01:51:06
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Social Structure in Ancient Rome

    This essay has some good points, but it is so heavy-handed with its ideas of the rich oppressing the poor that it loses impact and credibility.
    • 19/08/2007
    • 22:58:39
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Youth and Reading

    This essay has some good points, but it is somewhat weakened by the very heavy-handed style that the writer uses to try to make his points. As with a good deal of persuasion, a lighter, more user-friendly approach would probably work better.
    • 19/08/2007
    • 22:56:13
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • How Does Prejudice Affect Justice?

    This is a remarkably sensitive, remarkably perceptive piece. It shows a great deal of compassion and understanding, and the presentation is excellent. Overall, a fine, fine piece of writing.
    • 19/08/2007
    • 22:50:58
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Homophobia is a Social Disease

    This essay has a tendency to be a bit heavy-handed and simplistic, but overall, it is a very nicely done piece showing a considerable amount of research and thought and a good deal of creativity in the way the arguments are presented. Very well done.
    • 19/08/2007
    • 22:47:46
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Navy Devastator

    There is a great deal of solid information in this essay, very well presented. The one flaw that I would point out is this. In the second paragraph, the writer says that the Supreme Court is the source of the distinctions among misplaced, lost, and abandoned personal property. For his source, however, he cites a textbook. Because legal authority is extremely important and there is a demand among legal writers to get everything very accurate, if the writer is relying on a textbook, he should say that directly, that Cheeseman states that the Supreme Court has established these categories.This is important because these categories were not established by the Supreme Court. They may have been accepted by the Supreme Court, but they are part of long-established common law doctrines, having their roots in England rather than being something the Supreme Court wrestled with.
    • 19/08/2007
    • 22:43:45
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • The Effects of the Mass Media in the USA

    First, I disagree with the premise. I am no fan of mass media -- I think it has largely degraded any pretense of intellectual content to the point where the audience is not only not asked to think, the audience is dulled into never thinking.However, the remedy suggested in this essay is completely unrealistic. First, it flies in the face of the first amendment. Second, it would put a bunch of myopic religious conservative in charge of the media, and I do not think that would improve the situation. Third, it would create a society so repressive that I wonder if anyone would want to live in it.Finally, I am not that impressed with the writing. For a proposal this radical, the writer should do better than using "if" instead of "of" in the opening sentence, and not really recovering.
    • 19/08/2007
    • 07:09:45
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Wal Mart

    Wal-Mart's incredible size and the combination of low wages and oppressive working conditions that it continual impose on employees has made them one of the most hated entities in all of commerce and has prompted several states to pass legislation aimed directly at them.I live in a neighborhood where Wal-Mart wants to impose a superstore. It would make traffic a nightmare, but the Wal-Mart attitude is crushingly insensitive -- if they don't build a superstore and make traffic impossible someone else will, so they should be able to.
    • 19/08/2007
    • 06:59:50
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Women's Role in Society

    The comparison of DH Lawrence and "Hitch" assumes something that I think is questionable: that in the future people will remember "Hitch." Well, I had trouble remembering it even as i read this essay. I think that writer would have done better to compare Lawrence's work to something with a bit more staying power.
    • 19/08/2007
    • 06:40:03
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Constitutional Rights

    This essay is based on a fundamental flaw. The Constitution does not guarantee privacy on anything approaching the scope that the writer suggests. Specifically, there is no constitutional protection against surveillance of something that is in plain view, and a truck on the highway is considered to be (duh) in plain view. While drug testing may be obnoxious, and is imperfect, it is not unconstitutional.This essay needs to be reworked entirely.As to drug testing, if a private employer wants to do drug testing, the courts have consistently held that this is not a governmental program, so that it is not illegal and the Constitution has no bearing on the issue.
    • 17/08/2007
    • 14:58:45
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Stranger

    It would improve this essay if the writer mentioned that "The Stranger" is a novel by the French existentialist writer Albert Camus.The writing in this essay is choppy and somewhat careless. Nevertheless there is a considerable amount of substance, and I feel that the writer managed to explain a good deal about the novel.
    • 07/08/2007
    • 17:55:51
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Generation Y (Community essay) What community do you belong to?

    The writer repeatedly uses the word "generation" as something of a general substitute for "community." One individual can be part of several generations only if the term generation is reduced to meaninglessness.
    • 02/08/2007
    • 13:49:00
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Production and Manufacturing

    This essay has almost a schizophrenia to it. It starts off with computer computer COMPUTER. Then it reverts to a discussion of those almost extraneous items, people. But will people feel that they have any investment in a product if the system is set up so that they are merely appendices to computers.
    • 01/08/2007
    • 18:03:03
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • World War II and Germany - Why Would Hitler Target the Jewish?

    First, a note on formating: I have never been impressed with the "this essay will . . . This essay has . . . " format. It seems frustratingly sophomoric.Second, this essay reads with the moral force of a recipe for cucumber salad. A discussion of what Hitler did needs to have a bit more passion than this, a bit more feeling. Consider the way that Edgar R. Murrow, the famous CBS radio correspondent responded, saying that if you asked him to describe a pair of little girl's shoes, he could do it. But if you asked him to describe the thousands of pairs of shoes that he found at the death camps, this was beyond his ability to articulate.It needs some guts!
    • 01/08/2007
    • 17:44:56
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Is the new policy on steroid testing in Major League baseball morally justified??

    As an argumentative/persuasive piece, this is adequate, but as a grammatical piece, it is a foul ball. Consider: "American's believe in Super Hero's, well ok, maybe for some just Plain Hero's, but they are Hero's just the same." There are four apostrophes in this sentence. None of them are proper. None.For the rest, with a good, serious effort, this writer could shrink this essay to about half its present length, losing nothing but verbiage, and improving the product.
    • 01/08/2007
    • 14:03:32
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • The Crucible

    The essay is not really about "The Crucible." It is about Governor Danforth's reply to Reverend Hale's suggestion that John Proctor should have a lawyer in his trial. Unfortunately, the essay also fails to make clear the setting in which this question was raised. It jumps to an analysis of the rhetorical devices that Governor Danforth uses without taking up the full setting or showing how these devices in effect damn John Proctor before any evidence is taken."The Crucible" is a very powerful play, and Danforth's rhetoric in handling these cases is powerful. Sadly, this essay did not really set up the problem.
    • 31/07/2007
    • 19:39:46
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • My Antonia

    I came away form this essay with the feeling that I had little more understanding of the Willa Chather novel than I had when I began reading.
    • 31/07/2007
    • 19:33:10
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Community and Pets

    This writing has two frustrating characteristics: first, it is flat. Consider the paragraph under "PORS": the first four sentences all being with "Pets," and they are all similar in structure. Such repetition bespeaks a lack of movement. It is boring. Second, the writing tries to sound very serious. It comes off as stiff.
    • 31/07/2007
    • 19:31:12
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Great Gatsby

    The writing is adequate, but I do not find it inspired, or inspiring. And then there are the glitches: the out-and-out mistakes in the reading of the book.Daisy never told Gatsby that rich girls don't marry poor boys. She would not need to. He was shipped to Europe, and knew that in the world of social custom, he was barely above someone who would come to the back door, either as a servant or a delivery man, but never as someone socially on par with her.Gatsby did not build his mansion. Whether he bought it or leased it is unclear -- the reference to "$15,000 a month" suggests it was leased. But he would never have wasted the one-to-two years it would have taken to build such a palace. That would have been time wasted while he might have been trying to lure Daisy to a party.The notion that Gatsby's was the only place to get liquor is almost funny. Tom eventually refers to the ease with which alcohol could be had when he mentions that you can get anything at a drug store these days. Drug stores sold alcohol "for medicinal purposes," and were marvelous for the ingenuity with which they defined medicinal purpose to include anything.Of Gatsby, although it is not set forth in a straight-forward way, Nick Carroway does give a fairly details sketch of his life. He went to Europe. He served with bravery and distinction -- the medal from little Montenegro is real. He was allowed to attend Oxford, while his return to the United States was delayed several months so that Daisy would not wait for him.There is nothing so luxurious about Gatsby's lifestyle that Tom Buchanan could not overwhelm it. Buchanan was rich enough to bring in a whole stable of polo ponies, something that took away the breath of the people at Yale, hardly a crowd to have their breath taken away easily by mere wealth.What Gatsby offers Daisy is a return to a greater love, a romantics willingness to sacrifice everything for the object of his love. It does not matter that Daisy is married. He adores her. He will do anything and everything for her. In the end, he does, and for nothing.The description of the end of the book is a muddle. I cannot say that it really shows an understanding of the book.
    • 31/07/2007
    • 17:21:58
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • "Managing a Crisis Using PR" Simulation Summary

    The writing, while reasonably good, has a frustrating stiffness to it.Also, this writer seems to have a blind-spot: what is the difference between managing a crisis through public relations and a cover-up?
    • 31/07/2007
    • 16:57:57
    • Score: 2 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Summertime

    The writing is reasonably good, and the approach, from a bird's eye view, is quite creative. However, I wish the title fit the essay better.
    • 30/07/2007
    • 18:55:06
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Ethics Article Review

    This is an excellent essay. It is well researched and well written. BRAVO!
    • 30/07/2007
    • 18:50:41
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Suicide

    This is a solidly reasoned essay filled with very articulate writing. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the substantive conclusions, the writing is commendable.
    • 30/07/2007
    • 15:24:36
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Do you agree with New York's ban on smoking in bars and restaurants?

    A very solid, well researched, well reasoned, well written piece. Excellent.
    • 30/07/2007
    • 12:08:31
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Basketball Career

    I think the writer meant "Basketball Career." These are only about 35 such positions per year. For these slots there are at least 1,000 college basketball players per year willing to compete. As a realistic career option, it is not one anyone will encourage.
    • 26/07/2007
    • 02:14:44
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • A funny story about my Cat

    [Adopt a single tense throughout the story. Run spell check: Hungary is a country in eastern Europe, not the condition of needing to eat -- which is hungry.]This is a charming story. It describe something that is wonderfully "cat," and does so in a clever way. I am pleased to have read it.
    • 14/07/2007
    • 22:52:46
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • The Use of Wind Power Should Not be Encouraged (with counter arguments)

    The writing in this essay is adequate, but the reasoning is facile. The writer appears to accept every worst-case scenario that the opponents have suggested for wind power, and taken it as virtual gospel. For example: "there is a very high probability that it poses a great danger especially to nearby residents or passers-by." This suggests that "wind-farms" as they are called, would be set up in residential or other high use areas. In fact, most wind farms are like are other generating plant, set up away from populated areas. The nearby residents are generally miles away.Unfortunately, this sort of critical reasoning problem is common throughout the essay. The writer accepts arguments, but fails to analyze them or take their validity seriously to question. Does this mean wind power is a panacea? No. It means that this essay is not a solidly reasoned response.
    • 14/07/2007
    • 22:46:08
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • The Lottery

    I find it difficult to respond to this essay because I feel that the writer has managed to misread Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery." Does the author of this essay really believe that Ms. Jackson is describing actual events, that at one time or another towns in America held lotteries in which a resident was chosen for human sacrifice? That is certainly what the writer implies.While Ms. Jackson gives only a day and no direct indication of a year, there are many indications that the story in set in modern times, not in some ancient time as the writer tires to suggest: men talk of "tractors and taxes." The tractor was first developed in the nineteenth century, and not mass produced or in common use until the twentieth. A school year ending in June rather than some months earlier similarly suggests a recent setting, as do the references to a grocery, as opposed to a general store or a trading post. The dialogue among the characters is filled with modern colloquialisms and has none of the affectations or formalism of colonial or Puritan speech.And what is the purpose of this lottery? A single item suggests the reason for this ritual carried out each June 27:Old Man Warner snorted. "Pack of crazy fools," he said. "Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery," he added petulantly.While the saying may have been dropped, the belief among these townsfolk appears unquestioned: a propitiatory human sacrifice is demanded each year to ensure continued natural bounty. Ms. Jackson does not hint at why the villagers believe that this human sacrifice is necessary, but the discussion of the tradition surrounding the lottery indicates that it is of an ancient origin. But does the author seriously suggest that in towns and villages in twentieth century America or even nineteenth century America people would engage in or would be allowed to engage in annual human sacrifice without someone raising an outcry against this practice?But there is no outcry here. Mrs. Hutchinson, soon to be the victim, arrives in a perfectly social mood, and laughs softly with her friends about almost being late. To the end, she does not object to the lottery as such -- she wants it done over – she merely objects to be the victim.The writer also suggests that these people are bound to the lottery out of fear of being its next victim, but there is no suggestion that the lottery was conducted in anything less than a purely fair manner. The victim was chosen at random rather than in response to any attitudes.The essay writer finally acknowledges that stoning a person to death is "immoral." Yes. It is murder. And the fact that it is presented in this story as a practice carried on since time immemorial does not make it less murder.Contrary to the writer's suggestion, Darwinian evolution and industrialization never caused Americans to move away from annual ritualistic human sacrifice, because the lottery is an allegorical fantasy, not an accurate report of an actual event. "The Lottery" is a comment about human nature. Is there enough evil in any human being, in all human beings, that if we were presented with some shockingly evil custom, we would join in perpetuating it? When Shirley Jackson wrote "The Lottery" in 1948, racism was widespread in America. People were being hounded out of jobs and careers over political beliefs. The German people had participated in the Holocaust in which six million people were slaughtered.I have a hard time commenting on this essay. I think the writer completely missed the point.
    • 14/07/2007
    • 22:32:11
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Deadbeat Dads: Epidemic

    What "deadbeat dads" fail to pay is called child support, and it is remarkable that the writer has managed to overlook the fact that there is a child involved in these situations. No matter how the child was conceived, through thoughtlessness on the part of the father, or conniving on the part of the mother, the child was never a participant. So why should this writer want to punish the child by saying that the father is exonerated from child support? The child's needs are just as great.
    • 06/06/2007
    • 14:22:54
    • Score: 2 out of 4 people found this comment useful.
  • The importance of preserving a crime/incident scene cannot be understated

    A very few technical points:1st paragraph: their notebook is proper only if it is a shared notebook. Why not use, "the officer's notebook"? Gender neutral, and clear.2d paragraph, 2d sentence: needs at least a semi-colon to avoid being a run-on.3d paragraph: replace "their own" with "the officer's own."Also 3d paragraph: "As a result of this priority, It is permissible for the protection of life to occur at the expense of evidence." Awkward. Can the point be stated more clearly.7th paragraph: "gun shot residue can be removed if the suspect washed their hands" It should be a singular, and I think "his" is reasonable.Beyond these, my overall comments: This is one of the most impressive essays I have yet found on this cite. It is filled with factual information. It reflects very solid research and thought, and shows the hand of a very precise, thoughtful writer.BRAVO!BRAVO!
    • 02/06/2007
    • 23:10:56
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Triumph's John Bloor MGT449

    This essay is adequate but nothing more. And then there is the way the writer manages to crash the English language: "to resurge." Such attempts at back formation should be parked on a deserted road, and abandoned.
    • 31/05/2007
    • 18:59:36
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Gatsby and Color

    This essay overstates its case. Many of the characters are not associated with any color, so that the claim that Fitzgerald uses color with respect to every character is overdone.Jordan Baker did not represent new money. I cannot recall where Burma or Egypt is mentioned anywhere in the novel.The use of green is muddled by the fact that greed, hope, and jealousy are essentially contradictory emotions. "Green with envy" is a Shakespearean trope, but I do not think Fitzgerald ever uses it.Again, the discussion of white breaks down because white is made to symbolize purity and corruption, essentially opposites.In short, the essay puts on this theory more than it will bear.
    • 31/05/2007
    • 18:52:57
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Mccarthyism

    This essay suffers from many flaws. To begin with, the title is misspelled: the second "C" needs to be capitalized. The trials in Salem were not "which" trials, and they were "trials," rather than "trails." And what is "the McCarthyism"? ."While for explanation of the absurd accusations in Salem during the 1600's the disinformation might be used." A fragment."This fact gave the reluctant people a chance to empower on behalf of the accused." Huh?"This last step in McCarthy's campaign started damage the reputation of the government of President Eisenhower."In addition to garbling English throughout, this essay is sadly shallow. Other than a facile statement that Puritans in Salem, Massachusetts were obsessed with religion, it does not address the culture out of which the witch trials emerged.As to McCarthyism, it makes no mention of the trauma that the country faced with the breakdown of the grand alliance of World War Two, and particularly the wrenching effect of the fall of China to the communists, which raised a specter of communist encroachment throughout the world. In short, this essay needs a great deal of work.
    • 31/05/2007
    • 18:27:13
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Australian Indigenous Studies

    Although it covers a good deal of valuable material, this essay does itself the disservice of being poorly written, filled with mis-used words ("of" instead of "off"), and run-ons. It is also redundant and choppy.
    • 28/05/2007
    • 15:08:05
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Title: Strength Training

    I found a good deal of good information in this essay, not only about strength training, but about training, maturity, and the importance of a mentor as well. I wish, however, that the writer had avoided two glitches: "there were even less positive results," and "This ignorance can only lead to little or no results." In both cases, the word should have been "fewer," not "less."Is it important. Well, do you want to sound like someone who can lift a great many weights, but has no strength between the ears?
    • 28/05/2007
    • 03:28:04
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Summary: "Man of Bone"

    I have not read the novel, at least not yet. I think this gives a remarkably forceful presentation, and it makes the novel quite inviting. Very well done.
    • 27/05/2007
    • 23:44:21
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • How Cliche'

    Well, the title tells the story, "How cliche'"
    • 27/05/2007
    • 23:38:53
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Chemistry Research Task - Dairy Milk Processing

    This is an impressive essay. It tries to discuss a rather technical process, without the aid of diagrams or other visual aids, and it succeeds. I am impressed at the amount of information that was conveyed, and the clarity with which it is set forth. Well done.
    • 27/05/2007
    • 23:32:11
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • The Ethical Dilemma Regarding 'Do Not Resuscitate' Orders

    This essay is remarkable in that it looks at the "Do Not Resuscitate" order as if it was imposed on the patient by others, particularly the medical team. The point of a "Do Not Resuscitate" order is that it is the patient's means of asserting his or her wishes. If the patient is competent at the time of signing the order and does not later revoke it, then any attempt to override that order is against the patient's wishes, and is ethnically questionable at best.This essay illustrates the attitude that many medical professionals take, to the immense frustration of patients, that medical professionals know what the patient should need and want. But there are many patients who have perfectly sound reasons for not wanting the outcomes that the medical profession argues for, including that they do not want to continue the struggle to live a life that may be burdensome beyond either their ability to endure, or the ability of medical personnel to understand. In this regard, one of the great and ongoing and very real failings of the medical profession remains pain control in extremism. If more doctors saw how seriously under treated terminal pain is, they might well conclude that care should be improved, and that NDR's should be honored.
    • 27/05/2007
    • 23:25:53
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • The relationship between Hamlet and Horatio in Shakespeare's Hamlet.

    This essay has a frustrating amount of redundancy, and it fails to get beyond many of the superfiical points. I wish it would have done more.
    • 27/05/2007
    • 23:16:14
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • The War on Terror Assignment: Develop your point of view on the War on Terrorism

    To point out what is good about this essay: It is reasonably well-written and relatively logical in the ordering of the arguments.On the other hand, the argument sinks into fundamentalist hatred. I quote from the essay:"[God] allowed our country [to] be attacked because we deserved it. How many times did He let His people, the nation of Israel, get attacked, defeated, and enslaved when they turned their backs on Him? The Bible is full of verses that speak about the blessings and curses of obedience and disobedience (Lev. 26, Num. 14: 39-45, Deut. 1: 41-45). We have made the same mistake that Israel made. If we really served God, would we really see all of the horrors and abominations that can so easily be found in the United States[?] If someone were to look around and tell me that they couldn't find numerous cases of abortion, murder, sexual immorality in various forms, gang wars, drunkenness, thousands of people addicted to drugs, then I would question their honesty."So of the 300+ fire-fighters who died responding to the emergency calls from the World Trade Center, how many of them had directly procured abortions? How many of the stock-brokers incinerated in the flames of the buildings were sexual perverts? How many of the restaurant staff trapped atop Tower #1 and doomed in the holocaust that came when the building collapsed were gang members? How many murderers -- beyond the hijackers -- went down in the woods in Pennsylvania ensuring that the plane could not be used as a flying bomb? How many gang members died in the halls of Pentagon?This essay sounds pathetically like the comments of Jerry Falwell, who was eventually so overwhelmed with negative responses that he had to apologize. Sadly, I expect no such contrition from this writer.On the evening of September 11, I went to my church, where congretants were encouraged to write the names of any persons they knew who they believed might have been killed in the disaster. Not knowing anyone, I wrote on a small slip of paper, "For that lonely soul, known only to God, gathered to soon to His bosom." I stand by that comment.
    • 27/05/2007
    • 23:14:18
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Actual Motives for the Iraq War

    I am unimpressed. While this covers a good deal of the ground, there is a sad lack of real analysis of the reasons that the United States went to war. As a result of this war, the United States has gone from being one of the world's leaders to being the world's foremost pariah.
    • 27/05/2007
    • 22:55:30
    • Score: 1 out of 6 people found this comment useful.
  • The Ancient Aztec Architecture

    While there are occasional lapses in the writing -- the enclosure was private, not privet -- overall, it is a respectable job. Even more impressive, I think this essay has a great deal of content to it. It does not waste time on details, but covers a wealth of material in a very short space.
    • 27/05/2007
    • 22:44:24
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • That marijuana should not be legalized.

    In the rather pointless opening paragraph, the writer did failed to point out one thing: that the tone of the article would be hysterical. While the issue of the legalization of marijuana warrants serious and sober discussion and debate, the discussion is not aided by tirades.While the government allows virtually no research on marijuana, and what it allows is largely limited to carefully controlled studies that show the legitimacy of predetermined positions, there is a growing body of information, from people who suffer from horrific medical conditions suggesting that marijuana has a very legitimate place in the modern pharmacopia. For example, marijuana is most effective antinauseant yet found, so effective that almost any oncology ward, where people are dealing with cancer, has its "flower child," someone known only to the staff, who shows up in the rooms of people going to chemotherapy to share a little bit of pleasure with them so that they will be able to survive the terrible side-effects of that treatment.For glaucoma sufferers, marijuana often offers the best prevention for blindness.For terminal AIDS patients, marijuana is often a critical appetite stimulant that can be helpful to prolonging life itself. As an anti-depressant, marijuana is often quite effective.As far as marijuana being much too dangerous to prescribe, there are millions who have used it without any of the shocking effects this essay describes.However, given the level of histrionics this writer seems to enjoy, I would not be surprised if he argued with anyone smoking marijuana that the user is dead, and took their counterarguments as proof of their perversity.
    • 27/05/2007
    • 22:39:18
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • My Writing History

    I do hope this essay is accepted into the permanent collection. It is well-reasoned, well-written, and full of content.To the writer: do not sell yourself short, while there are tiny details that could use improvement - I would not use "poignant" -- to detail them would be tasteless, and show less my skill as a critic than the smallness of the criticisms.Write on!
    • 27/05/2007
    • 22:13:37
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Purpose of Education

    I have always believed that the purpose of education from the teaching standpoint was to teach, and from the student standpoint was to learn. Taking that perspective, I wonder: why is it important to modern education what the Chinese did several thousand years ago, or the Indians, or the Egyptians? Also, given the historical and cultural distance between these ancient cultures and the modern classroom, can any valid lessons be drawn from them? What teaching methodologies were found there that have any relationship to modern practice?Of the Chinese: "govern the empire according to Confucian." I assume that the writer meant Confucian principles."sounds like No Child Left Behind" [Gulp] A comparison between the classical mandarin system of education and the current "No Child Left Behind" program is comparable to a comparison of butterscotch pudding and NASCAR. The mandarin state examinations were extremely rigorous, requiring essentially memorization of a vast range of classical texts, to be faithfully regurgitated in examination answers. The volume of materials was so vast and the time required to prepare adequately for the examination so lengthy that only the wealthy were ever candidates, and there was no system of public education. The notion of universal education was not part of classical Chinese culture.While the comments on India are interesting and well-worded, what do they have to do with the purpose of education?Similarly, the Egyptian battery is interesting, but again, I question it's relevance. Further, Egyptian culture stands in stark contrast to modern western culture. The priestly class were master of esoteria and they maintained a rigid control over the knowledge of their many arts. In complete contrast to the American system, which seeks to make as many people as possible part of the social process, the Egyptian system assumed that a tiny elite of priests and bureaucrats would have control of any knowledge beyond that needed for daily life, while millions of slaves toiled at the Egyptian obsession: tombs for the kings.I agree that the Greeks understood the importance in forming good citizens. However, their means of forming citizens has little to compare to a German model for training skilled workers. Most Greek training was done through tutors, many of them informally gathering groups of pupils about themselves. Further, much of this training was directed towards mastery of rhetoric – the skill of presenting arguments.The Romans trained their generals through a class system. The officers were drawn almost exclusively from the cavalry, which was required to provide their own horses and equipment, so that the officers were wealthy. They were then trained and selected from within the army, but it was actually common for them to have little education. The bulk of Roman education was done along the Greek model, although the Romans disdained drama, considering it unseemly in its displays of emotion.Of the Arabs, the essay describes the Arabic state of knowledge, not their educational system.The "Medieval Times" are commonly known as the "dark ages" for the fact that the great bulk of the world was totally uneducated, and much of the classical knowledge of Greece and Rome was lost.Of the humanistic ideas of the Renaissance, how are these relevant to modern education. (This is not say that they are not relevant, but to say the connection needs to be explained.The Reformation was aided by the education of the masses as much as it caused it, but this essay does not clearly explain either what the Reformation tried to do, or how it shaped education.This essay stops at 1600, a few years before the first American colonies were established. Surely there have been some development in education in the last 400 years, but why aren't they discussed?Overall, I found this essay disappointing.
    • 27/05/2007
    • 21:47:28
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Abortion Essay assignment: develop your point of view on a controversial issue in society

    As a piece of writing, this essay is adequate. It is better than many of the essays I have seen on this site, but the writer's extremist position substantially undercuts any value that the essay has. Here is a writer who emphatically takes the position that a woman has no right to end a pregnancy if that pregnancy is the result of a rape. This writer would apparently also take the rigorous position that a woman has no right to abort a pregnancy if the medical community states emphatically that the pregnancy will endanger the woman's life. These are two position in the extremist camps, and intellectually they eventually show themselves to be indefensible. I find it quite unsurprising that the writer apparently is male.
    • 25/05/2007
    • 16:12:38
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Piaget Infant Observation

    This is a very interesting and well written account of a day spent with an eight-month old. I have very few problems with the writing, about the only one being that I do think "Freud" should be capitalized. I am not certain how this relates to the ideas of psychological development expressed in the works of Jean Piaget.
    • 23/05/2007
    • 13:56:42
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Emotional awareness

    Three questions:1) Just who are the Ladies of the Lamp?2) How are the Ladies of the Lamp able to predict future feelings?3) Is the announcement that the Ladies of the Lamp have achieved the ability to predict the emotional future consistent with the tenets of a Doctorate of Education program or with the teaching of a scientist of the calibre and rigor of Abraham Maslow?
    • 21/05/2007
    • 00:08:59
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Achieving domestics stability.

    Sadly, this is a poorly written essay. Rather than go on at length about the many, many offenses to written English that this essay involves, let me consider just the title and two sentences. They are indicative of the problems that persist throughout.In the title, the writer uses the word "domestics." "Domestics" are people such as maids, butlers, cooks, and other household servants. I believe the person meant "domestic," but this is a case bearing out the quip of Mark Twain that the difference between the right word and almost the right word is about like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. Instead of achieving stability amid the household staff, this person wants to discuss achieving stability in the national economy.Next, consider two sentences from the second paragraph: "As we known, Australia is a mixed economy, which is mixed of pure market and command systems. The private decision-making and ownerships while having a central organization, because of the government intervenes and control economic resources, and public facilities.""which is mixed of pure market and command systems": what does that mean? I think the writer meant "which is a mixture of pure market and command systems." I am, however, not sure what "command systems" are.As to "The private decision-making and ownerships while having a central organization, because of the government intervenes and control economic resources, and public facilities," this is a sentence fragment, and I am at a loss to know just what this writer means.To continue would be merely to go on with errors and errors. Sadly, it is not a well-written essay.
    • 21/05/2007
    • 00:04:46
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • A fantastic 89% descriptive piece on "The lake". A well written and thought piece based on my imagination!

    I think if you tone down the description, you will get better reception.
    • 20/05/2007
    • 23:32:41
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Congratulations Tito, you are worse than Hitler.

    I find this essay very disappointing. Hitler slaughtered six million people, putting many of them into death camps where they were systematically worked to death or simply herded into gas chambers. While no one will grant Tito any credentials for liberal enlightenment, by comparison to Hitler, his concentration camps were relatively mild.The quality of the writing is relatively good. I wish there were more research and much more objectivity to turn this into a valid and valuable product.Further, Hitler plunged Europe into one of the most destructive wars in the history of the world. How many wars did Tito start? As I recall, Europe after World War Two was relatively peaceful. Indeed, the deterioration of the peace in Europe was greatly exacerbated when Tito died, leading to the breakup of Yugoslavia and the resulting wars of ethnic cleansing. While Tito was brutal -- and I certainly conceded that he was -- he kept in check the ethnic tensions that had broken into widespread bloodshed for centuries before, and have wreaked havoc on the area since. Further, the bibliography shows that the quality of the research underlying the essay is questionable.(One of the unfortunate features of the Cold War is that Tito was lumped together with Stalin and the Soviets at times when he was trying to establish a separate path. Had the West been more flexible, it might have brought down the Soviet block more quickly.)Sadly, this essay is so determined to paint Tito as bad, bad, bad that it fails to maintain needed historical perspective.
    • 19/05/2007
    • 21:18:07
    • Score: 2 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Persuasive essay about the banning of the Australian flag at the big day out concert.

    I am quite unpersuaded. If the organizers of a private concert do not wish to have a flag displayed, why are they wrong to do so? I do not find any convincing reason for requiring that the flag be displayed, and given the nature of the event, there seem to be some good solid reasons for not displaying it.
    • 19/05/2007
    • 20:06:34
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Six Basic Principals Of The U.S. Constitution

    Many scholars have written entire volumes on the U.S. Constitution. This essay certainly lacks the details of a longer work, but for a single-page essay on our founding document, this is quite good.
    • 19/05/2007
    • 02:34:54
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • China Why were the communists successful in taking control of China from the Guomindang [Nationalists] by 1949?

    To begin with the weaknesses, there is a good deal of redundancy. This essay reads as if the writer summarized each source in sequence, without bothering to note that the sources say largely the same thing. Rather than attempt to synthesize the source material, the writer merely went through some of the same points three times over.The writer never bothers to make clear that the KMT is the Guomindang.For the good points, this essay shows some reasonable good research and some solid thought.
    • 17/05/2007
    • 16:32:15
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Gay Marriages

    I agree with the conclusion that the writer has taken, but I find his presentation of the essay is very burdensome.
    • 16/05/2007
    • 18:19:17
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Why drugs are bad

    I disagree completely with the prior comment. I think this essay does little more than recite a number of tired chichés about drug use, chichés that are worn out from redundant and constant repetition with minimal thought. Does the writer seriously think that with the continual barrage of information about drugs and drug use that there are hordes of people who do not understand the dangers of drugs? For this point of the essay to be valid, there would have to be a mas of young people who have stayed blissfully ignorant of one of the main themes of discourse in our society for at least a full generation.Second, a look at some in-depth statistics would disclose that relatively few people who use drugs are truly physically addicted. The Hollywood scenario of the drug addict robbing the store owner to get his next fix is a scene played out in the studios of Hollywood, but rarely on the streets of Chicago, New York, or Los Angeles, or any other real town. The vast majority of drug killings, according to the FBI are the result of turf wars between rival gangs. Further, even with heroin, one of the most addictive drugs, fewer than fifteen percent of users actually become addicted.The discussion of the types of drug is flawed. Prescription drugs, by definition, require a prescription, from a doctor. No one is permitted merely to walk into a drug store and buy prescription drugs like an over-the-counter substance.Crack is used primarily as a euphoric, not a stimulant per se.The most widely used illegal drug is not mentioned: marijuana. And according to most defintiions, marijuana is not addictive.Probably most disheartening is the idea that underlies this essay, that people become involved with drugs always through ignorance rather than through a conscious and deliberate choice. For many people, modern life is sufficiently discouraging that drugs become an entirely reasonable alternative.
    • 16/05/2007
    • 18:11:15
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Roman Army

    While this essay contains a good deal of information, the writing is stiff and forced. It lacks fluidity. It would also help if the writer did more to discuss how these tactics were used, successfully or unsuccessfully in various battles. After all, the Romans did settle one of history's great empires, but they were never able to defeat Hannibal, they lost badly to the Persians, and when they dared go into the German forests, only a few members of a six-legion army returned alive.
    • 16/05/2007
    • 17:38:05
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Shakespeare's Relevance over Time

    The writer repeated refers to something he calls the "Romeo and Juliet Opening Sonnet." The sonnet is listed as Sonnet # 18, and it is not part of the Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet at all. The comparison of Shakespeare's sonnet to th modern infatuation with plastic surgery is strained. Also, I am not sure how the writer concluded that the Elizabethan period was not infatuated with youth and its beauty. In her later years, Queen Elizabeth had a "mirror" created, that was actually a picture of herself in her prime, so that she could look at it and imagine that she was still young. The lengths she went through dress and makeup to forestall the appearance of age are legendary.I have never before seen Midsummer Night's Dream compared to international relations, and I think the comparison is srained at best.Romeo and Juliet is about much more than the families realizing their mistake after the tragedy of the star-crossed lovers.In short, I think this essay needs substantial improvement.
    • 16/05/2007
    • 17:32:28
    • Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Abortion - for or against

    Perhaps a more appropriate title might be "Abortion: Threat or Menace." This is a singularly one-sided statement of the issue, giving no possible room for the contrary point of view.Whether the author likes it or not, the final decision to abort a pregnancy or not remains in our society with the pregnant woman, not with the screaming hordes who want to curtail that right. (And from a rhetorical standpoint, to deny that there is a right is to show a failure to understand the discussion.)Finally, abortions do occur naturally. It is called a spontaneous abortion, and it is not at all uncommon. In those cases, can it be said that there has been a killing, or even a death? If so, who is at fault?.
    • 15/05/2007
    • 15:01:08
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Parents

    Unfortunately, I find the writing in this essay redundant and stale, and the reasoning simplistic. There are many reasons why children do or do not obey parental authority, and there are many times when compassion rather than authoritarian control will do wonders for the parent-child relationship.
    • 15/05/2007
    • 14:55:07
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Hamlets worst enemy

    (The title needs an apostrophe) Bravo! A very solid, well reasoned, and well written analysis. One of the finer essays I have found on this cite.
    • 15/05/2007
    • 14:49:20
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Malaria Brief Informative Essay

    This essay is a curiosity. It is reasonably well written, well organized, and informative, and it has nothing to do with malaria. It is an essay about anthrax. Why did the writer not use a reasonably informative title?There is one flaw in the writing. The writer suggests that symptoms of anthrax do not occur in cattle or in humans until the disease is diagnosed.To quote: "The symptoms that animals experience once diagnosed with the anthrax disease include fever, chills, convulsions, and suffocation." "Once a human is diagnosed with anthrax, swelling around the area of infection may occur."This is plainly a mis-statement. I think the writer meant once the animal, or human, is infected with anthrax, they will experience the symptoms. In all probability, the individual will not be diagnosed until they show these symptoms.Otherwise, a very sound job.
    • 14/05/2007
    • 14:13:53
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Failed or succeeded?

    This essay suffers from a distinct lack of context. It is not really clear how the events at Thermopylae, came about, or what the Spartans did there or why. It is not clear what specific action Ephialtes took by which he betrayed his "country." I also question the description of Ephyialtes as a Spartan. Herodotus describes him as the son of Eurydemus of Milas, which suggests that he was not Spartan in his lineage. Unless you have evidence to the contrary, I think you are grievously overstating Ephialtes connections to Sparta.Finally, I question whether the other Greeks regarded the Spartans as traitors because of Ephialtes actions. Leonidas led about 1000 men -- the famous 300 Spartans and 700 allied troops who had led with him for the right to stay for the final battle, knowing that they would be cut down. In an act of unheralded courage, this tiny force, hopelessly outnumbered, attacked the Persians, in the end, they were cut down to a man, and the delay that they had hoped to impose on the Persians was reduced to a few inconsequential days. Nevertheless, the Greeks acknowledged their courage. Eventually, a stone was erected near the spot of their last stand, bearing the inscription which, in one translation, reads: "Stranger, you who pass by here, go tell the Spartans that we lie here, in obedience to her laws."
    • 13/05/2007
    • 00:16:12
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Teenage Values

    The writing in this essay is reasonably good, although less than spectacular. What I find embarrassing is the writer's attitude that she KNOWS the values that are and should be important to teens. I disagree with several of the stated vales, and with how they should be expressed.
    • 07/05/2007
    • 12:49:55
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • The Draft, a summary of how and what had taken place when the draft was enacted as well as a view on how it could effect today's society.

    While this essay does contain a good deal of basic information, it is often unclear. Further, the essay fails to address one of the fundamental issues, that the draft has always faced, but has never dealt with: the draft does not allow exemptions for those who adamantly oppose a particular war.If a draft were initiated now, it would probably be extremely unpopular, because it would quite possibly mean that young men would be sent to Iraq, even though that war is increasingly unpopular, and has brought out the refusal of the American political system to respond to the widespread and deepening opposition to that war. Indeed, a simple check of those who have proposed the reinstatement of a draft will show that it is opponents of the war who have suggested a draft. They know that a draft would serve as an explosive catalyst for opposition to the war.
    • 07/05/2007
    • 12:34:40
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Beef Lasagna

    As a creative essay, this is quite good, and rather fun to read. You express many of the feelings that almost any reader has probably gone through at some time in life, of having to give up the familiar, that to which we are protectively accustomed.The one real flaw is that you give such short shrift to what the title suggests should be the focus of the essay. Consider: your entire discussion of lasagna is, "I ordered the beef lasagna. I've never eaten a lasagna as good as that one." That meal apparently helped you turn around your outlook, your attitude, your beliefs about the new school that you faced, but how? I know that a good meal, at the proper time, can do that, can alter your entire outlook on a situation, but what is it that caused this particular meal to have that effect? What was there about that lasagna that made it such effective comfort food? I would like to hear more about that.
    • 07/05/2007
    • 12:25:28
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Dante's Popes

    First, some comments on specific points in the writing. In the second sentence, why repeat the word "pope"? The context makes it clear that these men are pontiffs. The final sentence of the paragraph rambles. Can you tighten it up?The same thing could be said of the entire second paragraph. It feels unfocused. Also, was Dante truly politically active as an infant?In the third paragraph, one sentence shows the need for cleaning up: "There were disagreements between him and several Popes, . . ." Why not "He disagreed with several popes." It avoids the vague, soft passive voice. Or consider the clause with which you end the next paragraph, "the Black Guelph's were still supporting of it." What were the Black Guelphs supporting? The Church? (When you refer to the Roman Catholic Church, as opposed to a church building, a particular congregation, or a particular denomination, it is traditional to capitalize the "C.")The biographical information leads you into Dante's life, but you fail to show how this has to do with the popes. Does it have anything to do with that subject? Would Dante have categorically forgiven the popes if his mother has survived?With the break between Dante's fondness for Beatrice and his mission to Rome, you go through a leap that is hard to follow. In one paragraph you are describing a very young, love-struck kid, and in the next, without even giving a date, you throw Dante into papal politics. More transition help would improve things.Is the Divine Comedy merely a way to bash the popes who had contributed to Dante's political disappointment? I think it is so much more than that.In the final paragraph you suggest that the popes should have been the leaders o the Holy Roman Empire. This is incorrect. The popes never held the imperial throne. I think what you mean is that they should have been rulers of the Church, free from the simony, corruption, decadence, and greed that marked this period.In short, your essay could use focus. Weigh each sentence and each paragraph. Is it clear? Does it move your argument forward? If so, good. If not, revise.
    • 07/05/2007
    • 12:12:11
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Translation of hamlet's soliloquies

    Frankly, I prefer the original.
    • 05/05/2007
    • 15:39:26
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Constitutional Rights

    Unfortunately, there are many details in this essay that are inexact.The first amendment is not the Bill of Rights; it is one part of the Bill of Rights. There is no "article 14" of the Bill of Rights. The fourteenth amendment to the Constitution is not part of the Bill of Rights.The first amendment says "Congress shall make no law" infringing the various rights listed there. This binds the entire government, because the executive branch is charged with carrying out the laws and the judicial branch with construing them, so that the Congress is nominally the only branch which could make a law infringing the first amendment.The Constitution does not guarantee the right of privacy, and when the Court has tried to find that right, it has had to resort to astronomical and almost astrological constructions in cases like Griswold v. Connecticut and Roe v. Wade.Finally, because the first amendment binds only the government, a private employer is actually free to fire an employee for voicing an opinion that employer does not like, and the Constitution has nothing to say about it.
    • 02/05/2007
    • 02:12:09
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Woman Dies a Brutal Death in the Valley of Ashes - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald -write a news report on one of the major incidences in The Great Gatsby

    This essay relies too heavily on quotations from "The Great Gatsby," mistaking F. Scott Fitzgerald's highly stylized writing for something that has verisimilitude -- the ring of truth -- as part of a news report.First of all, the Valley of Ashes is a phrase that Nick Carraway uses, not a formal designation. The writer should have introduced it in the same way that Carraway does early in the novel, as a nondescript place known by some in the area as the Valley of Ashes, somewhere between the Astoria Bridge and the more affluent suburbs of East Egg and West Egg on Long Island.The article frequently attributes to characters material that is part of Fitzgerald's narrative. Michaelis did not say Myrtle ran into the dusk waving and shouting. That is Fitzgerald's description, and given the limited dialog that Fitzgerald does give the Greek, it seems unlikely that he would use such expressions. This is even more clear with the description of what the men found on reaching Myrtle Wilson's body. What Fitzgerald has written is not what these men would have said, to a reporter or anyone else. Nor would Michaelis have used the phrase "tremendous vitality."The essay is also inaccurate. The description of the car as yellow and moving at a speed of more than forty miles per hour was not given by a bystander but by a motorist going the other way, toward New York.The description of George Wilson's mood changes is again presented as a quotation rather than narrative. It does not sound like something a person would say. It sound like something that a very sophisticated writer would write, and it does not fit into a newspaper piece.Finally, Myrtle Wilson as a Mormon? Whatever prompted this writer to suggest that Wilson had any connection to the Church of Latter-Day Saints -- the Mormons? When Michaelis began asking about churches, Wilson apparently never went to a church, and to suggest that Myrtle would be buried in a Mormon church strains believability.
    • 17/04/2007
    • 17:22:47
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Constitutional Rights Paper

    There is nothing about constitutional rights in this paper. At most it is a discussion of legislative rights and responsibility, but there is a failure to come to grips with the notion of a Constitution as distinct from regular legislation. The essay begins with the odd phrase "The United States Constitutional Rights document." What is the constitutional rights document? Is it the Constitution?Not a good essay.
    • 17/04/2007
    • 16:51:53
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Macbeth

    The title is not accurate. The quote from Devlin speaks only of what desire MAY do, but the writer turns it into what desire must do. The discussion of Macbeth misses a great deal of the force of the play. Would Macbeth have tried for the crown without the prophecy of the witches? Were the witches telling Macbeth what had to be or what could be? In short, it is a very stilted and shallow reading of the play.
    • 09/04/2007
    • 08:07:52
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • The Mexican War

    This essay does an adequate job of describing how the war with Mexico broke out, and pointing out that the American annexation of Texas was one of the key issues. However, there are numerous flaws. It begins with how the war upset the sectional balance in the United States between North and South. How this favored the North is not at all clear, because the territorial shift brought about by the war was entirely to the south rather than the north, and there was, at one time, discussion of sub-dividing the massive state of Texas into as many as five states.Another serious flaw is that there is nothing in this essay about the actual conduct of the war. There is the alleged outbreak, which was disputed at the time, and the invasion of Mexico City, but there is no discussion of something as mundane as where the American army that took Mexico City came from: down from the north, or in from the coast? Finally, there is no discussion of the terms of the treaty by which the war ended, although the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo represents one of the most fascinating efforts ever undertaken by an American diplomat -- who had been fired by the time he sat down to negotiate the treaty.In short, this essay needs work.
    • 08/04/2007
    • 23:57:42
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • What the Life of Christ means to me.

    This essay is reasonably well written, but it does have one flaw. In discussing divinities, it is conventional to capitalize; in discussing divine scripture, it is conventional to capitalize. Therefore: "God," and "Bible."
    • 08/04/2007
    • 23:34:25
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • My Views on: Liberals vs. Conservatives

    I find this essay very poorly written. It sounds like an effort on the part of the writer to show how "very learned" he is. But what comes through is sentence structure so complex and convoluted that I often had to re-read things to figure out what I think the writer was getting at. Further, his use of terms is often imprecise to the point of being incorrect. How, for example, are the Neo-con actually neo-liberal economists? Finally, I am not sure what the writer is trying to convince anyone of. In short, this essay could use a major simplification and clarification.
    • 08/04/2007
    • 23:30:13
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Book 2 of Tender is the Night

    This is a good, solid piece of writing. While relatively short, and therefore not going into great detail, what it covers, it covers quite well. Also, the writing is quite good.
    • 08/04/2007
    • 15:05:04
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • The Controversy of Huck Finn

    I am not certain that I would label this a great essay. On the other hand, it is certainly a good essay, and I appreciate the thoughtful consideration of a wide range of issues, and the very solid writing that it presents. Well done.
    • 08/04/2007
    • 14:37:46
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • I am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities (Audre Lorde) – A Critical Reflection Paper – Personal Review

    What this person has written is quite good. This essay is brief, but filled with substance. Further, it is presented in a clear, forceful, quick-paced manner.I would have liked this writer to add one thing more: more of a specifically personal response to what Lorde wrote.
    • 04/04/2007
    • 20:26:36
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Reconstruction in the views of author E. Foner

    In an essay such as this, I would expect the writer to show some familiarity with the substance of Professor Foner's brilliant book, "Reconstruction." The bibliographical entry suggests that this writer glanced in the introductory essay and skipped the reminder of the book. Well, if the essay is based solely on consideration of a three page essay in "American Heritage," and ignores one of the more noteworthy major studies on the topic, does the writer really expect to be taken seriously?
    • 04/04/2007
    • 20:17:45
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Essay on media "diet" fueled killings

    The ragged is jagged, showing weak organization and poor sentence and paragraph construction. There are some obvious errors indicative of sloppiness ("off course" when the context suggests "of course"). Further, there is a complete lack of logic to this essay. The writer says that it is not the diet of the person, but the underlying psychological state, but then goes onto prescribe a system of age-cards for theater admissions, movie rentals, or on-line viewing. If it's not the diet, why are all of the restrictions aimed at the diet.
    • 04/04/2007
    • 20:13:40
    • Score: 4 out of 4 people found this comment useful.
  • Preventing 9-11 or A Wanted War?

    I do not know where this person got the information used in this essay, but there are enough inaccuracies to go on at greater length than the essay itself. For much of his presidency, Mr. Clinton made serious and concerted efforts to marshal more resources more effectively against terrorism and especially against Al Qaeda. By the close of his second term, there were extensive anti-terrorism plans ready to be put into effect. His national security team conducted extensive briefings with the incoming Bush team, stressing the need to be ready for strikes against the United States.Unfortunately, this essay does little more than reflect the current atmosphere of disinformation and "blame Clinton," and as such is a comparatively poor product.
    • 04/04/2007
    • 20:05:34
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Catcher in the Rye

    The metaphors are strained and overdrawn. The essay includes a number of points which would be substantially improved by simple proofreading. (How did the author overlook the spelling error in the author's name in the first line of the book?) The essay is short, but it feels basically as if about three sentences of substance was presented, and then restated in way that merely expanded the metaphors.How about doing a better job of writing something with more substance?
    • 28/03/2007
    • 16:26:56
    • Score: 3 out of 4 people found this comment useful.
  • Citation wrong

    This is an essay about which editors might well scream collectively: "Block that metaphor!"
    • 28/03/2007
    • 16:20:21
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Abraham Lincoln VS. Jefferson Davis

    This is essay contains many redundancies. For example, how many times does the author need to mention that both Lincoln and Davis served int he Black Hawk War?On the other hand, it misses a great deal of important material. For example, as a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy (and with much more extensive military service than Lincoln had), Davis believe he was an able military strategist. As a result, he continually tried to interfere with his generals, who were arguably much more skilled than their northern counterparts. On the other hand, Lincoln acknowledged that he did not have the experience to match his generals, and let them have considerable freedom.While Davis had far more governmental experience, his presidential pronouncement are not forgotten, while Lincoln's eloquence has given us his two inaugural addresses, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Letter to Mrs. Bixby, and the Gettysburg Address, to name only his most prominent pieces.Also, how did Lincoln get the third spot in the Republican presidential nominating convention, and win the election?In short, it needs a good deal of work. pers
    • 16/03/2007
    • 13:40:10
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • "Pakisan wars"

    The title of this essay forebodes disaster, and the essay provides that abundantly. In the title, "Pakistan" is misspelled and not capitalized. In the essay, there is not so much writing as a crude sort of stream of consciousness, not divided into sentences, lacking punctuation, lacking coherence. Further, there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the war of 1971. After all, this is the war in which Bangladesh broke away from Pakistan.This essay is not soundly written.
    • 28/02/2007
    • 07:55:46
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Comparison -To Kill A Mocking Bird (Harper Lee) and Rabbit Proof Fence (Phillip Noyce)

    This essay is a reasonably good synopsis of "Rabbit Proof Fence."As a comparison of that film with "To Kill a Mockingbird," however, it is a complete failure. "To Kill a Mockingbird" is mentioned twice: in the title, and in the bibliography. Beyond this, it is as if Harper Lee had never written the famous novel. If the essay were retitled, so that it referred only to "Rabbit Proof Fence," it would be a reasonable essay. As it stands now, however, it is not an acceptable product.
    • 28/02/2007
    • 07:51:07
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Aspects of Human Nature in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

    This essay has a good deal of sound material, but it suffers from weak organization. Reading it, I do not feel that ideas are presented in a forceful and logical manner. It seems to meander rather than moving from one idea to another.Additionally, there is one point about this novel that the writer did not cover: where and/or what is the heart of darkness? Is it merely a description of where Marlow goes as he winds up the dread river? Is it the condition to which men like Kurtz sink when they are left in that part of the world, where their sole purpose is to pillage the land for anything of wealth? Is it the condition of the natives as they are oppressed by the Belgians?
    • 28/02/2007
    • 07:43:40
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Ban of Homework

    Well, why not ban learning? Why not ban intelligence?It seems the far more reasonable approach is to balance homework and social life, so that the student can learn without excessive stress. However, given the demands of the adult world, and the pathetic lack of critical thinking that an outright ban on homework is excessive.
    • 24/02/2007
    • 01:15:05
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • 4 New Faces For Rushmore

    This essay is quite well written.I disagree completely with the idea that the four named people should be immortalized. Oprah was the first winner of the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award. Why not Bob Hope? He had a longer, more successful, and more influential career than Oprah, and his willingness to go on USO tours in three wars, as well as an amazing range of humanitarian and civic projects would rate him above Oprah.Bono? In terms of humanitarian efforts, Jimmy Carter has been both more influential and profoundly more thoughtful. Or why not Martin Luther King, who won the Noble Peace Prize, and profoundly reshaped America.The inventor of the IPod? Yes, he has forced many schools to change there rules. I am not certain that his invention has done much more than create long term employment for a whole generation of audiologists to deal with the hearing loss from excessive iPod use.The developer of MySpace? Well, he may have an influence, but I would not necessarily call it positive. Most people would not know him by name.Now contrast these with Lincoln, who carried the country through a civil war that was one of the worst of its kind, and advanced the cause of freedom for all. Or Theodore Roosevelt, who brought the nation into the modern world both at home and in foreign affairs. Or Washington, the man who did so much to define American democracy by refusing to be king, when it would have been easy to succumb to the temptation. Or Jefferson, one of the most profound thinkers among the founders of the Republic, and the first man ever to affect a peaceful party change. Compared to these four, the others are barely footnotes to history.
    • 18/02/2007
    • 00:28:00
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket" (Page: 6)

    What the writer says is not bad, but he completely defeats the purpose of this essay by failing to explain what Tom does on the ledge to try to alert someone, anyone to his plight. He is trapped on the ledge of his building, high above Lexington Avenue. And where does the title come from? He drops the contents of his pockets onto the sidewalk below, trying to attract the attention of a passer-by. When he contemplates shattering the window, he knows his situation is desperate. If the glass breaks, he will fall into his apartment, but if it doesn't, the force of his blow will send him off the ledge to his death. The police will investigate, trying to determine why he fell, and the contents of his pockets will be a center of their inquiry. In short, this essay misses the point of the story.
    • 17/02/2007
    • 20:05:37
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • "The Masque of the Red Death" (Page: 82)

    The opening of the essay is redundant. It fails to convey the horror of the Red Death as a disease that strikes quickly and without mercy. It fails to convey the setting, with which Poe prepares for the horror that he unveils. It fails to convey Prospero's rage as the figure of the Red Death appears at his ball. It fails to convey the swelling of the story as the ghostlike figure walks down the succession of rooms, heading toward the black-and-red room in which the terrible climax will occur.
    • 17/02/2007
    • 19:59:05
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • "Beautiful Losers" by Leonard Cohen

    The writing could use a good deal of work. If the writer liked the poetry, why does he believe that the novel "couldn't be any worse"? This wording hardly heaps praise on the poems.The grieving narrator "aches" the reader. This is one of the few times I have ever found "ache" used as a transitive verb.That being said, this is a very well-written essay, filled with substance and drawing the reader to go find Leonard Cohen's book.
    • 17/02/2007
    • 19:53:35
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • "Conparing o brother were are thou and the oddysey"

    I believe this essay sets a record for the most errors in a title. (1) "Comparing" is misspelled. (2) "Where" is written as "were." (3) "Art" is made into "are." (4) "Odyssey" is misspelled. (5) Neither is set off by any marking.Further, while it may be that the directors of this movie have not read "The Odyssey," I find the idea that the screen-writers have never read "The Odyssey" so unbelievable that I do not believe it.
    • 16/02/2007
    • 20:01:28
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Woodwinds vs. Brass

    This is a fine essay and it contains a good deal of valuable information. Were I to edit it, I would take out the criticism of the middle school band teacher, and I would drop the notion that there is some melodramatic conflict between winds and brass.
    • 16/02/2007
    • 00:34:20
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Ibuprofen Resolution

    While the chemistry in this essay may be exceptional, the presentation as an essay is comparatively poor. I will point out just one example: there are two mistakes in the title: "Ibuprofen" should be capitalized, and the other word should be spelled properly: "Resolution." This is hardly A+ work.
    • 16/02/2007
    • 00:28:53
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • History of Westminster, M

    "seeing as how""It like the achiest brewing company.""the name has remained the so has the history""free pocketful's""French and Indian Was""it spent most of it's time"This is a reasonably good essay, but it is clearly not an A+ product.
    • 12/02/2007
    • 18:45:02
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Mexico vs. United States

    This writer knocked himself out three words into the essay: "Man it's hot!" No comma. Unfortunately, the essay that follows is shallow, redundant, and inaccurate. Saying that there is only one culture in Mexico overlooks the varied native cultures throughout the nation, cultures that have clashed to the point of open rebellion at times.Further, the essay never touches on the issue that now drives most of the Mexican-American relationship: poverty in Mexico is so endemic that several million Mexicans have come to the United States seeking work. Many are migrant laborers who travel throughout the western United States throughout the agricultural seasons. Millions of others are here illegally, seeking any job they can while primarily avoiding deportation.As for the essay not using any bibliographies, well, I have read very few essays that use bibliographies. A good essay usually includes a bibliography, because a good essay is based on research in various sources, which are listed in the bibliography.
    • 10/02/2007
    • 21:23:57
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Mary Mcleod Bethune biography

    This is an outstanding essay. Well written, balanced in tone, thoroughly informative. This is what I would like to see much more often than I do. Thank you.
    • 10/02/2007
    • 01:45:18
    • Score: 0 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Industry Analysis of Walmart

    While this essay is reasonably effective in describing WalMart's buying power and efficiencies of scale, several times the writer contends that because of these factors (without more), WalMart provides great customer service. Actually, the service area is one of WalMart's weaker points. Because WalMart insistently maintains the lowest pay scales of any comparably sized enterprise in the nation, worker dissatisfaction runs quite high, reflected in relatively poor customer service and high employee turnover.WalMart has also managed to distinguish itself as one of the most rapacious businesses in the nation, rivaling the classic "robber barons" for its attitude of take the money and ride on. Its predatory pricing policies, ugly anti-union attitude, and political belligerence have made it one of the most hated institutions in the nation. Further, virtually every new WalMart store now meets concerted local opposition.WalMart has become famous (infamous?) for abuse of employees, leading to a number of massive lawsuits which courts have found that the company regularly based its profitability model on requiring workers to work substantial periods of time without pay. Further, WalMart's refusal to provide any reasonable employee benefits package for the typical worker has made it hated by state and local authorities: allowing a WalMart into a community invariably means substantially higher welfare and uninsured medical costs. Its failure to provide adequate security around its facilities often means that WalMart's are centers of substantial shoplifting, petty theft, and other criminal activities, causing wholesale degradations of the neighborhoods around the shopping centers.In short, while the WalMart model does mean lower prices, the lower prices come at ugly social costs.
    • 09/02/2007
    • 23:18:47
    • Score: 4 out of 4 people found this comment useful.
  • Prison Term Policy Recommendation

    I find several flaws in this essay. First, it includes a number of points extraneous to the topic, such as the working of the parole board.Second, and more serious, the bibliography shows that the writer relied almost exclusively on Wikipedia. In a college level essay, I would expect much more serious research into primary and secondary sources, focusing on points which are specific to Texas.
    • 09/02/2007
    • 22:58:25
    • Score: 5 out of 6 people found this comment useful.
  • Men vs women in the working enviroment

    I do hope this writer is never a defendant in a sex discrimination lawsuit. If he were, this apper would be absolutely damning evidence of his guilt.
    • 08/02/2007
    • 13:27:34
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Martin Luther King

    Of the "I Have a Dream" speech, this writer says, "without it, King's opinions of freedom and equality would never reach the hearts of his people, and they would never stand up as a whole to defend themselves." Actually, there was comparatively little attention paid to this speech at the time it was given. Most of the attention at the great civil rights rally that day was focused on another speaker, Stokely Carmichael of the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee, who had become so radical that many of the more mainstream civil rights leaders feared that he would completely disrupt the rally. (He didn't.) However, by this time, King was widely known throughout the nation and the world for his leadership of civil rights. Probably more influential was his "Letter from Birmingham Jail," a more extensive exposition of his views. King spoke frequently throughout these years, and almost any of his sermons are models of powerful rhetoric, delivered by a very thoughtful and learned man, who knew how to use his voice with the skills comparable to a master musician.The "I Have a Dream" Speech is rightly remembered as one of his finer speeches, but to suggest that the civil rights movement would not have gone forward had King not spoken that day is simply incorrect.
    • 08/02/2007
    • 03:03:01
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Homosexuality: Not Genetics but Rather Preference

    This essay is reasonably well written.The argument, however, leaves much to be desired. The writer finally lets slip that the key to his/her opinion is a religious basis. The writer also assumes that more people are "becoming" gay because of social tolerance. Could it be that more people are admitting their gayness in today's more tolerant social climate?The writer states that "a main group of people that fall into the liberal viewpoints are psychologists and mental health professionals." Given that psychologists and mental health professionals are the group with the greatest professional acquaintance with this problem, how does the writer so casually dismiss them?Finally, despite the more tolerant current social climate, gays still face a great deal of social pressure, ostracism, and even personal risk. Why would anyone chose to incur such risks and liablities?
    • 08/02/2007
    • 02:50:39
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • The Old Man and the Sea

    Dear rt3378. A suggestion, and it is only that: keep a copy of this essay, and every few years, re-read "The Old Man and the Sea." I think you will find over time, that your understand of the book, and your response to it, evolves.
    • 05/02/2007
    • 23:52:05
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Title: The Truth Within Book: The Things They Carried Author: Tim O'Brien

    While adequate, this essay misses one of the key points about "The Things They Carried": The title has three meanings: first, it refers to the crushingly heavy packs that soldiers in Vietnam often had to carry on field assignments, where they hiked into combat areas carrying sometimes as much as 90 pounds apiece in their packs. Trying to fight under such weight verged on the impossible; trying to survive was a struggle. Secondly, in this very depersonalizing war, the soldiers often would carry certain personal items, such as photographs of friends or love-ones. Third, the war was a viciously scarring event, so that long after they returned to the world outside Vietnam, they carried psychological burdens they were, in their own way, more backbreaking than then physical packs they had borne.
    • 05/02/2007
    • 02:37:29
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Higher Immortality

    I do wonder if this author realizes that there is a difference between higher "immorality" and higher "immortality." As Mark Twain once said, the difference between the right word and the almost right word is about like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.
    • 04/02/2007
    • 12:11:00
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • My notes from class over Beowulf.

    Is this an essay? I don't think it is. It is, as the author says, a set of notes.
    • 01/02/2007
    • 03:56:03
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Inventions During the Industrial Revolution

    What the writer has presented here is good. There are a few minors glitches (well-built is a compound, the name of the source in the bibliographical note).I wish the author would mention some of the consequences of the invention of machinery. For example, the spinning jenny caused terrible social disruption. With the introduction of this machine, thousands of workers were made unnecessary. Further, one of the great disadvantages of the early industrial machinery was that it was often very dangerous, so that gradually, the whole legal system had to respond in completely different ways.Am I asking too much? I don't think so. One of the critical lessons of history is that it does affect people. The industrial Revolution led to terrible social conditions for the workers in the early factories, caused massive social dislocation, and led to a serious division of society. It was only gradually that the long-term social benefits emerged.
    • 30/01/2007
    • 03:42:00
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • Marbury v. Madison: It's Role in American History and It's Long-Term and Short-Term Ramifications

    This essay does not explain what the decision in Marbury v. Madison actually decided, or the strange machinations that the Court had to go through to reach that decision. Without some understanding of how the decision was made, and the specific act of Congress that the decision voided, this essay fails to convey any real understanding of the decision.The paper also more than once says that this decision in effect allowed the Louisiana Purchase. How? In making the Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson had to rely on the inherent power of the President, going beyond a strict reading of the Constitution, but no one challenged that decision in any court, let alone take the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court. Given the tremendous emphasis that this writer puts on this point, I think it is incumbent on the writer to show the connection between Marbury v. Madison, a case dealing with the appointment of a Federalist job-holder to a minor judgeship has to do with the purchase of Louisiana, which comes under the President's power to conduct foreign affairs. The Constitution gives the President the exclusive power to negotiate treaties. For ratification, he must bring the treaties before Congress. How are these powers implicated in a decision of the Supreme Court announcing that it has the power to declare legislation unconstitutional.Also, I question the statement that the decision in Marbury greatly enhanced the power of the Supreme Court. The next time the Court declared a law to be unconstitutional was in 1855, when it asserted in the Dred Scott case that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.In short, I cannot consider this essay soundly reasoned.
    • 29/01/2007
    • 19:22:03
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Which was more a reason for the colonies, economic or religious?

    I noticed your "oops." Thank you.However, I would commend three specific sources to your consideration. One is Daniel Boorstin, "The Discoverers." Professor Boorstin, an extraordinarily learned man, has reviewed the diaries of Christopher Columbus from his first sailing to America, and he concludes that Columbus was extraordinarily serious about his religious mission. He wanted to introduce Christianity to any peoples he found. It was not just chance that made him name the first island on which he landed San Salvador.Second, "Pilgrims In Their Own Land," by Martin Marty. Among historians of religion, Professor Marty has very few peers, and I doubt that he has any betters. His "Pilgrims" is a very readable book, supported by thorough and exacting scholarship, and there Professor Marty argues that religion did play a significant part in the ventures of many of the early colonists. Massachusetts was specifically a puritan community. Roger Williams, a Baptist, was forced out of Massachusetts, with death threats behind him, because he kept challenging the Puritan doctrines. He founded Rhode Island. William Penn settled Pennsylvania so that his Quakers would be free to worship in peace. Lord Baltimore established the city which still bears his name so that English Catholics would have their place in the new world.Do I mean you are wrong? NO. Do I think you need to broaden your research before you come to firm conclusions. Yes.
    • 26/01/2007
    • 04:33:32
    • Score: 6 out of 6 people found this comment useful.
  • Ku Klux Klan

    I wish that I could say more favorable things about this essay. The author has listed it as a college level product, and regrettably, I cannot agree. Let me begin with the references. For a college level product, I would hope to find something more than three student essays, from high school or below, and a dictionary entry. This is especially true because the Ku Klux Klan has been one of the most studied and storied organizations in American history. Given the wide range of high quality material available, relying on high-school students essay is a bit weak.There are errors in this essay. Paragraph 3 states that the Klan defines itself as a political party. I do not believe that is the case, especially since the Klan remains a secret organization. The White Rights Movement is also not a political party, and not all supporters of white rights are Klan members. While there are allusions to the violence perpetrated by the Klan, there is only minimal discussion of what the Klan did.Also, this essay does not mention the fact that for many years, in many communities, the Klan was something of a social club rather than exclusively a race-hate group. One of the odder incidents in Klan lore is the case of a store fire in the tiny town of Tillamook, Oregon. In the 1920's, a fire destroyed a general store. The community cam together and rebuilt the store, with the Klan very active in getting volunteer labor, donated supplies, and such items as coffee at the work site to make things more comfortable. The oddity is that the store owner was the one prominent Jew in the community.The writing in this essay has flaws. Consider: "The effect that this group has had on society, however: is grossly non-debatable. There are all aspects on how this group tries to impact the society. The most heard of is the media." I am not certain what "grossly non-debatable" is. The second sentence is not at all clear, and in the third, I think a word is missing. Throughout this paper, the writer has a penchant for alternating between sentence fragments and run-ons.In short, this essay needs work.
    • 25/01/2007
    • 23:05:20
    • Score: 3 out of 4 people found this comment useful.
  • Allusions to the Ark of the Covenant

    This essay is redundant, with the last paragraph being an almost verbatim repetition of the first. It says that the Ark of the Covenant has had a "huge impact" on literature, but the author can site only one painting, by an unknown artist, one movie (pure fiction and profoundly sexist), and one song by a music group that has hardly made itself a household name. Also, I believe that the writer has confused Socrates with Aristotle, who was not from "the Antquity."
    • 25/01/2007
    • 01:44:28
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Macbeth Essay

    Cassie 1789: Your Macbeth essay has many good points, and I encourage you to read Shakespeare. There are reasons why he is considered the greatest writer in the history of the world. I am offering you this detailed critique of your essay because you do have some mistakes in your reading, and also so that you have a chance to go over your work in detail."In the play, Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, a virtuous leader and loyal nobleman named Macbeth becomes a maniacal murderer when his ambitions become tainted with the desire for power and advancement. This sudden alteration in behavior supports the theme, ambition vs. greed and is proven through several significant scenes of violence."The way you have structured your opening, you do not need a comma before "Macbeth." As to your characterization of Macbeth, I rather question it. Macbeth is brave, but notice that he has fought valiantly against an invasion. But virtuous and loyal is rather unproven. Most dramatists who have approached the play view Macbeth as someone whom the witches could work very easily. In this reading of the play, Macbeth already had all of the vile traits that he showed later in the play. It merely took the witches showing him the opportunity to push him to murder. So the transformation is sufficiently subtle that Banquo, who was with him at the first appearance of the witches, does not realize what is happening. Finally, is this a struggle of ambition against greed? Or is it a struggle of greed and ambition carried to murderous extremes?"Macbeth is a strong good hearted man who is not naturally inclined to commit any kind of offensive acts but when the three witches tell him that he is destined to reign over Scotland and Cawdor his vision becomes clouded with greed. In Act 1 Scene 7 Macbeth murders king Duncan against his better judgement stating "The only thing motivating me is ambition, which makes people rush ahead of themselves toward disaster." Macbeth contemplates going through with the murder claiming that the king trusts him both as a kinsman and a host but in the end he is willing to do anything to secure a spot of prestige and wealth."You should have a comma after "strong," and "good-hearted" is a compound. After "Cawdor," you need a comma. The murder occurs in Act II, between scenes 1 and 2. Your quote is not from the play; what you have is a rather flat paraphrase of the lines, "I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent, but only/ Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself/ And falls on the other."You mentioned the witches' prophecy, but your phrasing is curious: "Scotland and Cawdor." Cawdor is a part of Scotland. At the time of this play, historically believed to be about 1,200-1,300, Scotland was divided into various feudal territories, ruled by "thanes." In England, these might have been dukes, barons, or earls - noblemen below the king. In Act I, scene iii, before the witches vanish, Macbeth musters the courage to speak to them, demanding an explanation of their prophecy which hailed him as thane of Glamis, thane of Cawdor, and to be king hereafter. Macbeth says:Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:By Sinel's death I know I am thane of Glamis;But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives,A prosperous gentleman; and to be kingStands not within the prospect of belief,No more than to be Cawdor.So Macbeth is already thane of Glamis. Sinel seems to have been Macbeth's predecessor, but we do not know the exact connection. (There is a theory that she was the first husband of Lady Macbeth. Late in the play, Macduff will cry out, "he has no children," referring to Macbeth. Lady Macbeth, in Act I, scene vii, says, "I have given suck, and know/ How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me." Reading these two lines together, they seem to imply that Lady Macbeth had a child by someone other than Macbeth.)A few lines after the witches vanish, Ross greets Macbeth, telling him that the king wants to see him, to reward him for his service, and "As an earnest of a greater honor,/ He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor:"The thane of Cawdor was part of the rebellion. His treason has been discovered, and he will be executed, and the king has decided that Macbeth should have his title, so Macbeth is now the thane of Cawdor.That Macbeth is willing to contemplate murder is shown by the letter which Lady Macbeth reads in Act I, scene vii. This is not the letter of a truly innocent man. He is willing to go far to be king."Once Macbeth murders the king, his blood thirsty rage goes into full throttle. New threats continue to obstruct his path to power: the prophecy that all of Banquo's ancestors with take the throne and Macduff's quest to halt his destructive ways. In Act 3 Scene 1 Macbeth orders two men to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance in hopes that their deaths will bring him closer to his goal. Macbeth then viciously murders the Macduffs wife and son just to spite him. In the end Macbeth meets his maker. All his atrocious attempts to become king have failed.""Bloodthirsty" is a single word. The sentence beginning "New threats" is a fragment. "Full throttle" is a modern idiom, nearly slang, that is questionable in an essay of this sort. You need a comma after Fleance, and a period in Macduff's. More serious, you indicate that Macbeth never became king. On the contrary, with Duncan dead, the kingship was vacant. The Scottish monarchy was not fully hereditary at this point, and when Duncan's two sons fled the kingdom, the thanes would have picked their most powerful member to be king. That was Macbeth, and in Act II scene iv, there is the exchange between Ross and Macduff:"R: Then 'tis most like/ The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.Md: He is already named, and gone to Scone/ To be invested."Scottish tradition required that the coronation of the king of Scotland had to take place at Scone. Notice also in Act III, scene I, that Macbeth there speaks as if he were more than one person: "Here's our chief guest." "Tonight we hold a solemn supper." "We should have else desired your good advice, . . but we'll take to-morrow." "we will keep ourself/ Till supper-time alone." This is what is known in literature as the "royal we." Royalty refer to themselves as plural rather than singular. So Macbeth is king. Finally, the killing of Macduff's family was more than spite. The witches warned Macbeth that Macduff was someone he should fear, and in the end, Macduff kills him."A man whose soul purpose was to protect and serve his people has been thrown off the path of righteousness and caged in chasm of pure greed. He was not satisfied with being a loyal kinsman so when he was given a taste of power he became blood thirsty monster. In each brutal murder, ambition, aided with the tainted desire for power, drives Macbeth to commit continuous acts of cruelty."I am quite sure you mean "sole purpose." Again, I think you overstate Macbeth's innate virtue. He is a man of considerable ambition, so that it is not that far from his original position to his trail of blood.I hope you do not have the impression that I have written this comment as a putdown. That is not my purpose at all. Rather, I have tried to point out some of the details of Macbeth. It is a wonderful play, probably my favorite in all of Shakespeare, and I think that the more you know of it, the more exciting it is.
    • 24/01/2007
    • 23:13:24
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • Ecstasy The Effects on Humanity

    Rather than go into an extended analysis of this essay, I would like to make three points.First, the title needs some internal punctuation, which could be a comma, a colon, or a dash.Second, the writing needs to adopt a single tone. In this essay, the tone ranges from formal to slang, and there seems no good reason for the continual shifts.Third, the bibliographical entries need to be much more complete. I would even go so far as to suggest that for an essay of this sort, annotations to the bibliography are appropriate, mentioning whether the source has or lacks objective credibility. (And be very cautious about citing Wikipedia. It is in many cases a reasonably good starting point, but its coverage of topics is so inconsistent that it is probably the wiser course to go beyond Wikipedia to more credible sources.
    • 24/01/2007
    • 13:38:15
    • Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
  • A Christmas Carol

    This essay contains one of the most glaring errors I have yet seen. Throughout, it describes Charles Dickens' piece "A Christmas Carol" as a movie. Dickens published "A Christmas Carol" in 1843. It was a book. Several movies have been made, as adaptations of the book, but it is a staggering display of silliness that does not make note of the simple fact that in 1843, nobody was making movies.
    • 24/01/2007
    • 04:58:36
    • Score: 0 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT - Biography.

    This essay has a number of minor errors which could be noticed and corrected with a careful reading. It also has an error which I find somewhere between laughable and grotesque. This is an essay about the woman considered to be one of the original feminists, whose writings on the wrongs done to women because of their gender broke major ground. I would think that the writer would have acquired enough insight into the subject and enough admiration for this woman to grace her with something more than her first name. Forever calling her "Mary" makes her sound like a child who never grew up.
    • 23/01/2007
    • 01:11:58
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Stigiophobia (Fear of Hell)

    This essay is remarkable: It rambles. It misuses English. It makes statements that are wrong to the point of nonsense. It is poorly reasoned.The writer contends that Stigiophobia may have been around for a thousand years. Given that the concept of hell and the fear of damnation to hell is well articulated in the Bible, in such books as Revelation, which have been around considerably longer than 1,000 years, how did this writer manage to date Stigiophobia from that date. He gives no suggestion as to what gave rise to this fear.The writer mentions that there are at least three clinical names for this fear, but offers no differentiation between them.The writer's confession of a failure of research is stunning: "As far back as I could find for the history is in 1957 in Maryland. Someone was afraid of hell. It wouldn't let me view the page so I just sort of guessed it out. It would've been easier if they could spell right. But I would have to think that this fear would be around for at least 1000 years, probably more. The same as with the fear of heaven. If you're going to have one you have to have the other. That's the only way it could work out. So I figure it has been around since the birth of Christ. They more than likely didn't have a name for it yet until a few hundred years later when we were just first starting to learn cool stuff."Oh, well, Shakespeare, Dante, The Aeneid, Greece -- none of that was cool, I guess. As far as the fear of hell making the fear of heaven mandatory, the writer gives up no reason why.In short, this essay should embarrass the writer.
    • 22/01/2007
    • 02:38:34
    • Score: 1 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Pride comes before a fall

    I find only two things about this essay that I would suggest changing. First, there are a number of oddities in the capitalization of letters. I hope that someone can take care of these. Second, the title misstates the source quotation. The source quotation is from Proverbs, ch 16, v. 18: "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." I have not found any source which gives a quotation pride cometh.
    • 22/01/2007
    • 02:25:28
    • Score: 0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.
  • A Personal Narrative Essay based on my life and freindship.

    Make one change only. In the title, please remember the rule that guides the spelling of the final word in your title: A friend is something you keep till the end.
    • 19/01/2007
    • 06:45:57
    • Score: 1 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • A Feminist Reading of Othello

    A brief comment, this essay uses the phrase, "Looking from a critical feminist perspective," six different times.
    • 18/01/2007
    • 19:18:38
    • Score: 1 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Foil Assignment Shakespear....hamlet

    While it was common for people not to worry excessively over the spelling of a name in Elizabethan England, in the twenty first century, we are of sterner stuff, or at least sterner spelling rules. Also, "hamlet" without a capital "H" is a small village. Without at least quotation marks it is the name of the character. You wrote: "A foil when defined is one that by contrast underscores or enhances the distinctive characteristics of another. In the play the two characters which served as Hamlet's foils were Horatio and the Ghost of the late king, who was Hamlet's father. Each served as foils in different aspects of the definition." When is a foil not defined? Which play? You have given the definition of "foil," but you have failed to mention the different aspects. Why not just say, "the Ghost of Hamlet's father."You wrote: "I believe that Horatio was Hamlet's strongest foil. He was a fellow student of Hamlet's as well as a good friend. Through the entirety of the play he remained alongside him supporting his decisions and providing him with any information he had. He also shared many of the same traits as Hamlet. He was very brave, as was Hamlet. They both showed this bravery by approaching the ghost when it appeared to them during their watch. Horatio was also loyal to Hamlet in the same way that Hamlet was loyal to his father after he had died, unlike his mother. The definition of a foil states that this character underscores the distinctive characteristics of another, which is exactly what Horatio did throughout the play. Through his bravery and loyalty he complimented Hamlet and they were able to maintain a stable relationship, for Hamlet was unable to do this with many of the people in his life."I disagree with your description of Horatio being alongside Hamlet. He is not with Hamlet when the Ghost speaks. He seems to all but disappear until the players arrive. He is not with Hamlet on the voyage. And how was he brave? He was terrified of the Ghost. Of loyalty: the Ghost must come back to chide Hamlet when Hamlet is railing at his mother.<Tab/>Hamlet's mother does have a name. Is Gertrude disloyal to her late husband? Until the Ghost told him, Hamlet knew nothing of his father being murdered. Presumably Gertrude was in the same state, not knowing that Claudius was a murderer. In a patriarchal order, where women were not expected to rule, it was reasonable for Gertrude to marry the new king. "Although many would argue that the Ghost of the late king could most definitely not serve as a foil of Hamlet's, I strongly disagree. The definition of a foil also states that it is one who enhances the distinctive characteristics of another. This is exactly what the ghost did in Hamlet's case. He enhanced his loyalty, by providing him with the proof that he needed so that he could find his Uncle guilty of murder. Hamlet felt he could not let his father down, especially since he had come back to appear to him in hopes that he would make justice and not allow his Uncle to get away with what he did. After the several appearances which the ghost made to Hamlet he was convinced that he was going to maintain justice and not betray his father as his mother had. It could very well be argued that if he had not seen the ghost Hamlet may have just remained angry and kept everything bottled up inside. I believe it was because of this appearance that he was given the extra push he needed to have justice served." Why would people argue that the Ghost is or is not a foil? I think he is mch more than a foil, having independent attributes of his own, and making his first appearance without Hamlet. You stress Hamlet's "loyalty" to his father, but is he really. He is morose over his father's death and his mother's hasty remarriage, but does that really indicate loyalty? I am troubled by the phrase, "find his Uncle guilty of murder." "Find" is a legal term, reflecting what is down in a court. Hamlet never takes this matter to a court. Apparently he had no idea that there had been murder, until the Ghost tells him., As I read your paragraph, it suggests that Hamlet already believed his uncle had murdered his father, but I don't think the play supports that reading. "Letting his father down" sounds a bit too colloquial for this play. Hamlet is not asked to root for Notre Dame or some other triviality. He is called upon from the first act to commit murder in revenge for murder.Also "make justice" and "maintain justice" are awkward phrases.Finally, four foils are not mentioned in this essay: Voltimond, Osrick, and two of the finest foils in literature, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
    • 15/01/2007
    • 16:29:32
    • Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
  • Title: Femal Charectars in hamlet

    Please look at the title. There are no female characters in "Hamlet." This alone is such a stunning error that were I a teacher receiving this essay, I would probably on that alone drop the grade one full letter. Second, Ophelia is not the most prominent female character in "Hamlet." I am not certain how a writer can claim that the essay addresses the female characters in "Hamlet" while mentioning only the subordinate female. Third, the writer shifts between second person and third person, often compounding the problem with passive voice. Fourth, why double space the quotations while single-spacing the text? The essay is poorly punctuated. Why did Hamlet put Ophelia aside? Because of his mother's remarriage? He is not "informed" of his mother's remarriage in the play. That does not motivate Hamlet to take revenge. If it did, the revenge would be directed against his mother. He is informed that his father was murdered.There is no serious suggestion that Ophelia deliberately took her own life as a willful act. The problem with her death from a theological point is that the Church had a hard time recognizing insanity as excusing the careless taking of one's life. For this reason, the Church had to question her right to full Christian burial. In short, this essay needs some very substantial work.
    • 15/01/2007
    • 14:33:02
    • Score: 3 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
  • Was the Schlieffin Plan a True Failure

    I am sorry to report that the writing in this essay is poor. No dubt the writer did put a good deal of effort into this product, and I realize that writers -- myself included -- tend to be very sensitive about criticism, so let me take just the opening sentences:"The Schlieffen Plan was known as a failure in World War 1 history due to its disability of defeating France in six weeks and deadlocks were created afterwards."This is the only source I have ever seen which uses the Arabic numeral "1" rather than the Roman numeral "I." This is a case in which failure to follow the normal conventions needs some justification. Why does the writer here use "was"? The debate is still going on, in contemporary circles. The writer uses "disability." I believe he was trying for the word "inability." More properly, he should have used "failure." historians who have studied Schlieffin's plan says it was a fine plan. The failure was in the execuiton. "Deadlocks were created." I would point to this as a prime example of passive voice. Who created these deadlocks? Also, were the deadlocks a matter of creation or occurrence?"This plan was named after its creator, Cout Alfred Von Schlieffen (1833-191) who was the former chief of the German general staff."Schlieffen was a count, not a cout. I do not believe his life ran backwards for 1643 years. When he drafted the plan and had it adopted as the controlling plan for any impending war, Count von Schlieffen was the chief of staff, not the former cheif of staff."The main aims of this plan were to defeat France in six weeks, in order to avoid fight France and Russia on two fronts."Again, this is weak passive voice. "In order to avoid fight France and Russia on two fronts": while this is not as bad as it might be, it needs polishing."However, after German was defeated in 1914 at the First Battle of Marne, the Schlieffen was failed."I presume the writer means "after Germany was defeated," and the battle is described as the First Battle of the Marne. While the article is a small word, it is important. "the Schlieffen was failed." Again, it is passive vooice, a word is missing, and the verb form is incorrect.I could continue at too great a length. Facts are stated incorrectly; the thesis is not developed; the language is painful.I did not rank this essay "poor" becasue I am a stick-in-the-mud. I ranked it "poor" because, sadly, it is.
    • 13/01/2007
    • 04:07:46
    • Score: 5 out of 5 people found this comment useful.