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I thought the essay titled, The Best Policy was very interesting.   I really liked the voice behind the entire essay and the way that it was written.   It flowed well and followed all of the criteria.   The introduction was extensive, but the point finally comes across stating the topic, the experiment, and the reason behind it was due to the personal story that she started with.   She used that story to explain to her readers what led her to have the question why lie?   She states her conclusion early on that “there are probably more logical reasons to lie than tell the truth.”   Overall, the introduction was solid and if I could offer any positive criticism I would say she needs to organize it a bit more. One great thing about this essay is the use of outside resources and the personal experiences and observations that were logged for the reader to understand exactly what she was going through during her experiment.   I think that her sources ...

               Focusing is something that everyone struggles with at some point in his or her lifetime.   The human attention span is getting shorter.   According to a study by Microsoft, “the average human being now has the attention span of eight seconds.   This is a sharp decrease from the average attention span of 12 seconds in the year 2000.”   Focus is defined as the center of interest or activity.   It may sound simple, but it is quite the opposite.   Staying focused is actually difficult especially since the human attention span is only getting smaller, which is counting against me and everyone else that struggles to stay focused.                I chose focus as something that I need to improve upon because it affects my daily life in academics.   I find the academics to be very challenging here at V...

How to guide intro: Focusing is something that everyone struggles with at some point in his or her lifetime.   The human attention span is getting shorter.   Luckily, there is a guide on how to focus better!   Step one includes removing all distractions that surround you.   If you are a person that gets distracted by a phone, computer, or t.v. then you need to make an effort to remove all of that so that you can successfully focus on the task that is in front of you.   Step two includes getting in the right mindset.   Being negative about having to study or complete homework is not going to help you focus better.   You need to encourage yourself and be positive and that will surely help you to stay motivated to complete the task, whatever it may be.   Step three is to train your willpower muscle.   You have to train yourself to be more disciplined.   It will not be easy but it will be worth it.   Step four is to continue work...

               One source that I found very interesting was a news article published in a newspaper titled Independent.   The article talks about 15 ways to stay focused, according to scientists.   These are people that I can “bring to my table” because they know what they are talking about when it comes to focus.   One of the ways suggested to focus better was to minimize multitasking.   This might seem very straightforward, but an interesting fact that I learned is that out of a sample of 100 Stanford students that went through a series of tests to examine attention spans, memory capacity, and ability to switch from one task to the next- the multitaskers performed more poorly on each test.                Did you know that exercise isn’t just good for the body, but it also helps with memory capacity and concentration acco...

  Inequality: Can Social Media Resolve Divisions?                This essay was very interesting to read.   I was not aware that segregation still happened a lot today.   The story about Keke was sad to read because she lost her father due to gang violence.   I do not think this essay is inquiry because it is separated into sections and each section provides a lot of information but I did not read any questions.   This essay is both informative and opinioned in my opinion.                I think this essay fits Huxley’s three directions on how to write a successful essay.   This essay was personal, objective, and universal in many ways.   I’ll start by analyzing Keke’s story.   It was personal in the fact that she lost her father and held a lot on anger due to what happened.   It is also persona...

               I need to focus more on what I am doing everyday whether it is school, tennis, or homework.   I always have my phone on me so it is very easy to procrastinate by checking social media or texting friends.   When I am lecture, I catch myself checking my phone a lot for any notifications.   Focus is the key issue that I am going to try to improve with an experiment.   My experiment consists of putting my phone away during classes and when I do my homework.   My ideal goal is to be 100% engaged and focused on the material that my professor is lecturing and very focused on my homework so that I can get it completed much sooner.                Joseph Cardillo, PhD, is a top-selling author in the fields of health, mind-body-spirit, and psychology.   He wrote an article titled, “A Three-Day Plan to Increas...

               David Foster Wallace writes an article titled, “Consider the Lobster.”   The audience is chefs and people that love food or more specifically lobster.   The entire article is about lobster.   There is a lot to be said about lobster itself including its history, the different ways you can eat it, and the popularity of this omnivore.                The article starts out by describing the Maine Lobster Festival and explaining why it is such a huge event.   Wallace states, “Tourism and lobster are the midcoast region’s two main industries, and they’re both warm-weather enterprises, and the Maine Lobster Festival represents less an interaction of the industries than a delicate collision.”   This statement says a lot.   It explains the two biggest industries that are present in Maine, which leads me to ...

The author uses Huxley’s three directions in how to write a successful essay.   The author moves toward the personal and inner experience really well in this chapter.   The entire chapter was written in first person and vividly describes all the experiences that the author went through to try out his project or experiment.   The project was to focus on not multitasking.   We humans are so prone to multitask.   The author proves how unhealthy it actually is in this chapter by using evidence he gathers from books.   In the end of the chapter, the author fails at the unitasker but the effort was there and at least he tried out his project. The author moves toward the objective and factual as Huxley’s second direction in how to write a successful essay.   The author uses facts stated from books to help prove some points that he makes.   The author also uses headings which was very helpful because then I knew what the next few paragraphs was goi...