â„–14 What Not To Write In Your College Essay

â„–14 What Not To Write In Your College Essay Students should be permitted to keep their phones in their bags, pockets, or other belongings as long as the phones are on silent in class. Vibrate settings may be permitted if the instructor does not believe it will distract him or her, since the noise of the vibration may not be noticeable in a large classroom. If a student needs to answer the phone during an emergency, he or she can step out of the classroom to do so. This setup would give the students and the instructor peace of mind. And unlike earlier versions of the Common Application, the length limit is now enforced by the application form. No longer can applicants attach an essay that goes over the limit. Instead, applicants will need to enter the essay into a text box that counts words and prevents entering anything beyond 650 words. Write in a way that shows you are the best candidate for the scholarship. Get all your thoughts on paper, and you can extend or shorten the essay during the editing process. Give yourself at least two full days to write the essay. Arguments against cell phone control typically focus on safety concerns. Should a crisis occurs in the classroom, students should have their phones on hand to make a call. If a student has a child, he or she may need a phone in case of a medical emergency. Always think about your audience when writing a scholarship essay. What organization is issuing the scholarship, and how can you tie that into your writing? What is the underlying information they want to learn from your essay? Cell phone restrictions in classrooms should also include specific disciplinary actions for breaking the rules. If a student is caught using the phone in class, he or she should be excused for the rest of the day. Professors should refrain from physically taking possession of a student’s phone because of liability conflicts. If the phone is damaged while in the professor’s possession, the school or the instructor could be held responsible for the repairs. In 2011, that decision was taken away as the Common Application moved to a relatively short 500-word limit. With the August 2013 release of CA4 , the guidelines changed once again. CA4 set the limit at 650 words with a minimum of 250 words. It is safer to ask the student to leave the classroom than it is to take the phone away completely. The best solution is to create cell phone usage rules that allow devices to be accessible without disturbing other students’ educational opportunities. If the student is on call for work, he or she will need access to a phone. The list of exception-worthy scenarios is endless. The primary argument supporting cell phone control in the classroom is the fact that phones can be distracting. You can use the first day to write a draft and do some minor editing. Then on the second day, you can look at the essay with fresh eyes to do your final edits. Other students may want to use it as a checklist. Once they have written the first draft of a paper, they might compare their paragraphs to the list, noting what is missing and rewriting the paragraphs as appropriate. In the five paragraph essay, each paragraph had a topic sentence and then a bunch of support —support which often consisted of a hodgepodge of examples sort of thrown at the reader in a kind of barrage.