Many persons believe that to move up the ladder of success and achievement, they must forget the past, repress it, and relinquish it. But others have just the opposite view. They see old memories as a chance to reckon with the past and integrate past and present.
Adapted from Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, I’ve Known Rivers: Lives of Loss and Liberation
Assignment:
Do memories hinder or help people in their effort to learn from the past and succeed in the present? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
Without our past, our future would be a tortuous path leading to nowhere. In order to move up the ladder of success and achievement we must come to terms with our past and integrate it into our future. Even if in the past we made mistakes, this will only make wiser people out of us and guide us to where we are supposed to be.
This past year, I was auditioning for the fall play, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” To my detriment I thought it would be a good idea to watch the movie in order to prepare. For two hours I studied Elizabeth Taylor’s mannerisms, attitude, and diction, hoping I could mi...
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 6.0 out of 6
Category: Excellent Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 15 15
No. of Words: 377 350
No. of Characters: 1633 1500
No. of Different Words: 199 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.406 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.332 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.499 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 101 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 79 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 50 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 31 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.133 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.868 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.333 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.389 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.539 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.218 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 3 5