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Please review my Recommendation Letter

Aquilotto — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 11:07:40 GMT

Hi All,

I wrote the attached recommendation letter and I need someone to review it, since I am italian and I'm not english mother tongue.

The letter is preatty long, but I hope it is quite well written.

Thank you very much for your help.

Best Regards

Lorenzo
________________________________________________

Question N.1 - How long and in what capacity have you known the candidate?

I met Lorenzo at the University in 1998 and since then we cultivated a strong friendship culminated in 2006 when we structured a mutual agreement in order to manage some business related projects. From that year our professional relation has emerged reinforced by the fact that his knowledge of corporate finance is more advanced and systematic than mine, while I am more used to deal with fiscal matters. I collaborated with Lorenzo in two different projects: during the first project, that lasted for six months, in January 2006 we performed a merger of two companies operating in the field of industrial plant design creating a new company with an asset of 150 million â¬ and 1200 employers; with the second project, that lasted for four months, we created a Trust with an asset of 85 million â¬ in real estate, stocks, bonds and cash.

Question N.2 - If this is a work related reference, in what position is/was the candidate employed and for how long?

While being involved in these projects, we worked closely together for ten months, five days a week, twelve hours a day. In both projects Lorenzo was the manager and I was in charge of optimizing the fiscal impact on the corporate structure in the first project and in the second I was in charge of studying and designing the Trust's fiscal structure.

Question N.3 - Please elaborate below or in a separate letter on the evaluation you have given above and provide any additional clarification about the applicant, which you consider would be helpful to the Admissions Committee.

Intellectual or Academic Ability

Lorenzo has an extreme flexible and vivid intellectual ability. I realized his attitude to study, research and in-depth examination when we were at the University and now, I found the really same approach in the projects we structured, characterized by very specific technical issues where intellectual and academic ability background sits on the first place. His intellectual ability relates to match a rigorous training with managerial skills and ability to adapt to different conditions.

Competence in current position

Lorenzo's competence as project leader and manager clearly demonstrates to be live up in every situation. I had the clear perception that our clients entrusted all the actions proposed by Lorenzo. When our clients asked Lorenzo specific questions related to our work, he always managed to demonstrate confidence and precision thanks to the competencies he has.

Oral Communication Skills

Lorenzo has a very clear and concise way to express his point of view. He is able to do that thanks to an innate ability to enter into dialogue with others. His approach does not change whether he speaks with a colleague or with the CEO of the company. Lorenzo always personalized his style knowing how to put his counterpart in confidence and at ease. Particularly, I remember as during one Board of Directors he was asked too many questions about every single detail of the merger that was planned and he answered all the questions in a flawless and confident way that everybody felt more secure in conducting the operation in the direction Lorenzo prospected.

Written Communication Skills

Lorenzo has excellent writing skills, as he manages to synthesize and explain very difficult concepts simply producing clear and easy-to-read documents. The very technical vocabulary of our work tends to be difficult to understand; therefore, it is very important to make sure that all the documents delivered to our clients are easy to understand. I remember that once, while we were monitoring the merger of companies, Lorenzo was the person that prepared informally the minutes of the Board of Directors that were used later as formal documents presented to the notary.

Analytical Skills

Lorenzoâs analytical skills are very important and effective in our field of work. Particularly, he is very skilful in conducting economic-financial analyses. Having said that, I would like to acknowledge that thanks to his excel file we were able to develop a model, and using this model we simulated the effects of the merger of two companies in terms of accounting, and with this model we also were able to analyze the first yearâs net circulating capital of the new company resulting from the merger. Evidently, such a task requires mastering and modelizing of the different aspects of balance sheets of the two companies.

Leadership Potential

Lorenzo definitely possesses great leadership qualities. He freely shares his skills and experience with the team, making them look to him even more as a leader. Lorenzo exhibits the courage of hard decisions and stand by them, thanks to his solid theoretical and practical preparation. Lorenzo is not intimidated by much, but he has also good judgment. When he has considered the facts of a situation and is certain he is on solid ground, he will not hesitate to take a strong stand. Lorenzo realizes that in any group everything is ultimately about persuasion, negotiation, and compromise. He is such a good leader, looked up by others, because they know he will accept a decision that does not go his way if he feels he has had a fair hearing. Lorenzo leads by listening to others and building consensus.

Teamwork

Lorenzo knows how to lead and orientate a group of people in the day after day life in order to obtain the desired results. At the same time Lorenzo is able to adapt to the different characters of the team members because he has an outstanding attitude of hearing, of motivating, of respecting and of communicating with all the colleagues. It's not easy to develop a project from the design phase till implementation but Lorenzo is able to give the right attention and the right amount of responsibility to all team members in order to drive the team to reach the final result.

Problem Solving

In managing problems Lorenzo always proved to be very proactive and ready to anticipate aspects that could impact on our projects. His ability to manage both complex situations and supply solutions is driven by his attitude to do analogies with similar cases already solved and also by break up a complex problem in a series of multiple small themes more easy to be solved.

Maturity

Lorenzoâs maturity is exceptional in our field. I am sure that his maturity comes from the fact that he graduated very early and, consequently, had an opportunity to get involved in many different kinds of situations from which he learned a lot. His maturity is proven by his communication skills, his motivation and his ability to take a deep and careful approach to everything he does. Particularly, I refer to his ability to put all his interlocutors at ease, as, for instance, once I saw him negotiating with the banks very favourable terms for our clientâs company, which was possible only because during these years of hard work he has distinguished himself as a trustful and professional person.

Management Potential

Based on my experience the most important factor that I can observe in Lorenzo is that he gets things done. He is able to get the most from different situations by controlling all the critical aspects that a good manager must have: organization, charisma, leadership, teamwork, vision, integrity. All these are part of his character and are evident in his personality, given that have always been recognized also by our clients. To deliver concrete results to companies is our mission and the only was to reach this goal is to be good managers serving our clients.

Question N.4 - What do you consider to be the candidateâs principal strengths/talents?

I consider Lorenzo's principal talents his attitude to create a collaborative working environment, his competence in analyzing and solving problems, his extremely oriented to teamwork personality and his willing not to be satisfied by the results achieved and always looking for new ventures and new opportunities.

Question N.5 - What do you consider to be the candidateâs weaknesses or areas that need improvement?

A weakness that Lorenzo might have compared to other team members that I regularly work with is related to his high moral standards. Lorenzo tends to trust the people with whom he works, and this is why he expects to be treated the same way. If a person disappoints him, Lorenzo tends to distance himself and does not treat this person in the same way.

Question N.6 - What is your opinion of the candidateâs motivation towards, and suitability for a career in management?

I think that Lorenzo is the right person for a career in management and I can say that because I saw him in action. Lorenzo already has a very successful future ahead of him. I believe that this is the right time for him to get his dream of doing an MBA in a prestigious university like Manchester. I'm sure that his knowledge and competencies would benefit from the MBA and together with his actual level of management practice he will gain an absolute level of respect in the management field. We spoke a lot about his willing to gain the MBA and even if against my own interest, that is to hold him in Italy to continue to collaborate to new projects, I believe that for his ambitions the right thing is to go in a place where both theory and practical experience can allow him to fully develop his enormous potentialities.

Please have a look at my letter of motivation

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 14:49:57 GMT

Letter of Motivation

The first time that I decide to pursue a master degree in Robotics was during the period as a research assistant to Professor Fu Xiuhui in Robotics Lab. In that period, participating in developing a multi-sensor based mobile robot, I was in charge of developing the sub PCB for sensors and analogy-digital data processing. The project was to design and develop a multi-sensor based mobile vehicle for research on how to escape obstacles effectively by utilizing optimal algorithm. The mobile robot contains an Ultrasonic Sensor and a Fiber Optic Gyro (FOG), MCU 89C51, LCD, two motors, and some other ICs. The idea is that: If the Ultrasonic Sensor detects obstacles, the vehicle turns by making the two motors on both sides run on different direction, otherwise, the vehicle advances. While it turns, the FOG detects deflection till the vehicle turns to the set degree.

After developing the mobile robot, a team consisted by another two undergraduates was established. Surprisingly, I was nominated team leader and my team was selected to 7th "Challenging Cup" National Contest of College Students' Scientific and Technological Work.

Before the contest, we found out that the robot vehicle failed to duck the obstacles in unstructured environment or complicate conditions. After weeks of experiment, I found the answers: The degree that the vehicle turns every time is inflexible, and the Ultrasonic Sensor and the FOG seemed conflict with each other. Customarily, the vehicle turned exaggerate and meet another obstacle, thus, its trajectory was much longer than the theoretical best locus. I tried to decrease the degree that it turns every time, but the situation got worse. The MCU of the vehicle took too much time to process, and lagged severely. Because its shortages, my team just won the second prize âChallenging Cupâ.

After the contest, to gain more insight and knowledge, I attended a three monthsâ special training program of Embedded System and IC design. This experience uplifted me and offered me a great enlightenment about IC design, programming skills, and PCB design.

My graduation project was to research on sensor-based mobile robot trajectory control. To pursue a highly effective robot and get rid of the problems earlier, with previous background, I rebuilt the whole system, and add new algorithm aiming at solving its flaws. I get rid of the FOG. Thus, the locus was judged only by whether the Ultrasonic Sensor âseesâ any obstacles. In order to make its motion more precisely, I adapted step-motors and drivers. I chose a faster and larger capacity MCU 89S52 and plus a LCD screen which indicates the status of the vehicle. Finally, flaws were no more existing, and my dissertation was highly evaluated.

Thanks to my research experience, it evokes my interest which acts as driving force of my study. And it let me know that a robot is a complex system, which is integrated in several subsystems of different fields such as control, signal processing, vision and computer science, electronics. About one year ago, I was really dreamed to study DSP Design with HDL. But now I understand that, alike the programming MCU 51 chip with C, it is just one of the tools for developing a robot. The key is the algorithm!

The reason why I apply for *** is that it is the best university in Sweden, and Robotics is one of my favorite fields. I hope that I will become an engineer and devote myself into research and development. It is the happiest thing in the world to work for my hobby. I also hope that in the following two years of study at ***, I can do more research, make some publications, and continue study in *** for Ph.d if possible.

**************************************************************************

This is a letter of motivation for graduate school, major in Robotics.

My mother language is not English, so there must be some mistakes. Please take a look at it and give some advices. Thank you.

Thank you for your patience, I appreciate it very much !

Re: Could you please help me on this.

davkett — Sat, 11 Feb 2006 21:32:24 GMT

Milky, I'm sorry, but the 'sheep' analogy is not relevantl Here, quoted from Purdue University Online Writing Lab:

While uncountable nouns do not generally take a plural form, sometimes they may be pluralized when used in a countable sense. The difference between the uncountable and countable meanings of nouns that are used in either sense can be seen in the following chart:

Uncountable Sense

Countable Sense

Art is often called an imitation of life.

Life is precious.

He likes to eat pizza.

Religion has been a
powerful force in history.

She has beautiful skin.

Dr. Moulton is an expert in ancient Greek sculpture.

We use only recycled paper in our office.

I read a book about the folk arts of Sweden.

A cat has nine lives.

How many pizzas should we order?

Many religions are practiced in the United States.

The hull of a kayak is made of animal skins.

We have several sculptures in our home.

Where are those important papers?

the original text

Teo — Sat, 19 Nov 2005 05:29:52 GMT

Another kind of illegitimate argument is based on analogy between one area of grammar and another. consider yet another construction where there is variation between nominative and accusative forms of pronouns:

[3] a. They invited me to lunch. b. %They invited my partner and I to lunch.

The <%> symbol is again used to mark the [3b] example as typically used by some speakers of Standard English but not by others, though this time it is not a matter of regional variation. The staus of the construction in [3b] differs from that of It's me, which is undisputably normal in informal use, and from that of !Me and Kim saw her leave, which is unquestionably non-standard. What is different is that examples like [3b] are regularly used by a significant proportion of speakers of Standard English, and not generally thought by ordinary speakers to be non-standard; they pass unnoticed in broadcast speech all the time.

Prescriptists, however, condemn the use illustrated by [3b], insisting that the 'correct' form is They invited my partner andme to lunch. And here again they seek to justify the claim that [3b] is ungrammatical by an implicit analogy, this time with other situations found in English, such as the example seen in [3a]. In [3a] the pronoun functions by itself as direct object of the verb and invariably appears in accusative case. What is different in [3b] is that the direct object of the verb has the form of a coordination, not a single pronoun. Prescriptists commonly take it for granted that this difference is irrelevant to case assignment. They argue that because we have an accusative in [3a] we should also have an accusative in [3b], so the nominative I is ungrammatical.

But why should we simply assume that the grammatical rules for case assignment cannot differentiate between a coordianated and a non-coordinated pronoun? As it happens, there is another place in English grammar where the rules are sensitive to this distinction - for virtually all speakers, not just some of them:

[4] a. I don't know if you are eligible. b. *I don't know if she and you're eligible.

The sequence you are can be reduced to you're in [4a], where you is subject, but not in [4b], where the subject has the form of a coordination of pronouns. This shows us not only that a rule of English could apply differently to pronouns and coordinated pronouns, but that one rule actually does....

For further information, please read section 2.2 Disagreement between descriptist and prescriptist work in Chapter 1 of The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, published by Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Letter of Motivation for internship

Loom — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 09:53:54 GMT

Hello everybody,

I am writing this letter of motivation to apply for an internship in Canada. As the internship is going to be arrange by an agency I don't know yet who is going to receive this letter. But the sector will definitly be information technology.

Can you please give me some comments? Thank you!

Dear Sir or Madame,

In the process of completing my studies of â***â at the University of ***, Germany, I am writing to apply for an internship, starting in spring of 2006. Currently I am completing my master thesis; with the end of this year I will graduate with the German degree â***â, which is in fact similar to the degree â***â.

During the past five years at university I gained a great theoretical and practical insight into both, business administration and information technology. During my studies I evolved a clear understanding in how far IT can successfully be applied to support todayâs business, especially if this takes place in an international environment. The study of Business Information Systems is an interdisciplinary connection between both of the forenamed areas. The courses, I attended, are in analogy to this of a wide variety. The focus of my studies is on ***; furthermore I am interested in ***. All these courses are classical disciplines of business consulting. Additionally I was able to achieve theoretical knowledge of ***.

Besides my studies I had the chance to apply parts of my theoretical and practical knowledge while working in different project teams. As an enthusiastic member of the *** project I taught other students in the fundamentals of a well known software product and was additionally responsible for the development of assessments. In another project for *** in cooperation with the University of *** I got a very close look into the work of a business consultant.

As I am a very communicative person with the ability to tune very quick in to new problems my aim is to work as a consultant with focus on IT projects in an international environment. At this, having international experience is very crucial for getting a start. Therefore I am searching for an opportunity to discover a foreign business culture while additionally enhancing my English knowledge and getting some practical experience, fitting to my studies. Here my general academic knowledge opens a wide field of deployment, for example as support of a project leadership or an IT project team for a consulting- or industrial company.

I believe my internship at your company will be useful for both, you and me. Thank you very much for your time and considering my request, I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

...

Re: Analogy/magazine: periodical

julielai — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 04:20:55 GMT

No, it's the other way round.

The term periodical includes newsletters, magazines, journals, etc. etc. Walk into a university library and you'll find a periodical section, not a magazine section.

Serial is probably an even broader term, though laymen don't use this word at all. Serials include things like yearbooks.

How about this? A book is to monograph as magazine is to periodical.

Re: Prescriptive Grammar - Centuries of Error

MrPedantic — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 00:27:37 GMT

From: HOW GRAMMARS OF ENGLISH HAVE MISSED THE BOAT (ref above)

Consider the English pronoun pairs, her : she, him : he, me : I, us : we, and them : they. It is easy to show that the uses of these paired forms are not directly related to functional (subject and object) âcasesâ in the manner of Latin and Anglo-Saxon but exhibit uses that remind us more than a little of the Romance languages. If the educated generally say a kind of Frenchified âMartha and myself arrived lateâ and âThatâs meâ (just like French). Marilyn Monroe was made to sound silly by saying âThat's I!â Why then do grammarians ignore the significance of such indicators of the system of English? Canât they guess why quasi-French usages like âMe and my father cleaned the house up today"âtypical of that legendary 13 3/4-year-old British adolescent, Adrian Moleâhave proved so ineradicable?...

Shouldnât your grammar offer you some hint of an explanation for usages of pronoun forms in the English of educated peopleâindividuals who would never say âto Iâ, âto she,â or âfor we,â who nevertheless use constructs âto she and Iâ; âto she who knowsâ; âon we in Europeâ; and âfor we Europeansââthe last from the mouth of a British prime minister, a former university professor? Is it irrelevant that, in French, one says the equivalent of âto she and heâ? While the English system is not the French system, the affinities of the one with the other are hard to overlook.

Hello JT

I'm interested in this line of thought, but it has some weaknesses.

Point 1
It's true that in French you can say e.g. 'lui et moi partons demain' (he and I are leaving tomorrow) or 'Ã elle et Ã moi' (to her and me).

Bailey relates this to e.g. 'Me and my father etc' on the one hand, and 'to she and I' on the other. However, this is not an exact analogy. 'Moi', 'toi', etc are disjunctive pronouns. In some contexts, they are the equivalent of 'me', etc., in others of 'I', etc. But there isn't a direct correlation.

If the French version were 'me et mon pÃ¨re', or 'Ã elle et Ã je', the point would be stronger. But as it is, Bailey isn't comparing like with like.

Point 2
Bailey argues that this 'Frenchified' usage dates from the Norman-French invasion. If that's the case, we have the problem of explaining how the syntax of the conquerors became the syntax of the 'underclass'. ('Me and my father', in BrE at least, is not a 'prestigious' structure: it's associated with e.g. Cockney and Estuary English.)

Point 3
It's not enough to say that the structure appears in modern French. To demonstrate that 'me and my father'/'for you and I' is indeed based on an imported French usage, we would need three things:

1. Evidence that the 'me and my father' structure wasn't used in Old English.
2. Evidence that it was used in C11 Norman-French.
3. Evidence that it was used in Middle English.

I've glanced through some likely texts, but haven't yet found any such evidence. That isn't to say it doesn't exist; it would naturally be unusual in chronicles and poetry, which are what we mostly have. But I think it's up to Bailey to provide at least a few illustrations.

Point 4
A very minor point; but I'm not sure who the British PM is, who says '...for we Europeans' and is a 'university professor'. Thatcher studied chemistry, then law. Major left school at 16. Blair is a lawyer. All are capable of the phrase, unfortunately. But I'm not sure anyone's case is strengthened by citing the words of a British PM â past or present.

MrP

Re: To whom/whom

Casi — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 14:36:02 GMT

Don't worry about Thematic roles. We can get by without them. SMILE

I feel the more foreign their L1 to English, the more English learners tend to get stuck to the mud of grammar.

Well, now, isn't that honest to goodness truth? I agree. Moreover, and in my own case, learning Japanese grammar has been an uphill climb for me.

It may be one of the reasons why we Japanese are so bad in speaking skills despite the fact they relatively well know about English.

What I'm about to say might just rock your world. Have you ever consider that short-term memory and long-term memory have more to do with language acquisition than the L2 language itself? For example, if we have to pass a test, we memorize the rules and sadly enough, after the test is done, we seem to forget what we memorized. The information is no longer of any use to us. We use our short term memory in taking the test. But if the test covers a topic important to us, something we like, and maybe something might even major in at university, we try to understand how the rules work, and when we know how, we are better able to generate those rules ourselves, as in Math. We use our long-term memory. The information is important to us, we see a need in not just "learning" the rules but in "acquiring" the rules.

Language acquisition is bit like that. If there's a personal need for the information, the language tends to settle in long-term memory, and if there isn't a personal need for the information, then it settles in short-term memory.

Now, let's go one step further. Let's bring that analogy to the foreground of culture. What if, and this is purely hypothetical, short-term memory processing is more predominant than long-term memory processing in some cultures, and say, in some individuals, as well. In those cultures/people, short-term memory would be quite the efficient system, more so than long-term memory, specifically for processing non-exceptional rule-orientated information (i.e., Math and Science). Short-term memory would be the primary or dominant processor.

Given its architecture, though, it wouldn't be as efficient in processing systems that generate exceptions. That is, exceptions don't fit into the neatly braided structure, so they are teated as additions and sent off to a new area within the short-term memory. They're not treated as part of the system, they're teated as adjunctive knowledge. And trying to marry that knowledge with the system's knowledge results in, you got it, a head-ache. So, in brief, if we (that's you, me, and anyone else) are having difficulty learning a language, no matter the degree of our tenacity, our apparent inability to pick it up as quickly as we acquire other things, may have more to do with how we, ourselves, process information than how that information is fundamentally structured. And the only solution, I see, would be to generate what's possible (non-exceptional rule-orientated information), and to avoid trying to generate the exceptions by memorizing phrases and sentences, which in the end, reminds us that we don't own the language, and that give us grief. Well, at least, me, that is.

Do you feel any essential difference between in the action of "give" in "I gave money to my brother" and that of "donate" in "I donated money to the church"?

Yes, I do. When I donate money to someone, that someone is the recipient of my gift. They benefit from my gift. If I were to incorporate the IO, it would mean the money is the recipient. That's why 1) sounds odd:

1) *I donated Paco to money.
2) I donated money to Paco.

With "give", there isn't a recipient role. There's a goal:

3) I gave Paco money.
4) I gave money to Paco.

The money moved towards Paco. He is, in fact the recipient of the money, but more so the the goal of my giving. You see, "give" implies a reciprocal relationship, whereas "donate" does not. If you donate money to the church, the church is not going to reciprocate that gift in like form.

Does that help?

Closing the Gap, again

uva2004 — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 10:28:54 GMT

Closing the Gap
Posted: 12-10-2004 04:17 AM
Please read, edit, and critique this critical analysis paper. I am new at this forum. I am unsure how it works. Please help if you can! I need feedback before October 13. Thanks
_____________________________________________________________________________

Closing the gap, that's what the nation's oldest used and misused college entrance exam will do in March 2005, according to the College Board. The SAT has long been controversial, a cultural bias examination that eliminates academically promising minority and low-income students who apply with strong academic records to college but with relatively low SAT scores are often overlooked by admissions counselors for entrance into colleges.
The articles used to recognize the cultural bias of the SAT examination, SAT Scores Remain Steady; Minority Improvement Noted by Catherine Carroll comes from Education Week , John Dotinga's article, Student Dilemma: Take the old SAT, or await the new? The Christian Science Monitor; and Record number of Minorities take SAT by Greg Toppo from USA Today, are similar that each author agrees scores of minority students have increased but highlighted scores didn't keep with the average white student's, whose scores in 2004 was 20 points higher even though scores remained the same as last year.
According to the College Board, the new test will include advanced level math and a written essay. The verbal analogies that leaned on vocabulary more likely to be known by students from affluent and well-read white families will be eliminated. The switch to the new test will treat minorities more equal. For many minorities, particularly those minorities coming from poor regions or homes with parents who have less formal education will continue to decline even without the analogies. The College Board failed to comprehend minority student's linguistic barriers between diverse cultures. When the SAT originated in the 1920s, it was geared toward white affluent aristocratic students because few minorities had the opportunity or resources to attend college. It was a selective examination and much has not change in present day.
Recognizing an age-old concern and being a statistic of this bias examination, I attended a junior college prior to entrance to a four-year university, not because my school academic record but because the college admissions counselors had relied heavily on scores as a measure of my academic achievement ignoring my non-academic skills, such as social and ambition skills. I realize experts in the scientific arena would state social and ambition skills can't be measured like academic skills, but the majority of those applicants are successful in their future lives because of their well-rounded diverse traits.
As a young adult, being rejected by the college of one choosing was a difficult obstacle, especially when your friends were leaving home to begin a new chapter in their lives. After transferring into the college of my choice and completing my education, I have a greater appreciation of my long journey. I recalled being angry for not being successful on this examination and self-doubted my abilities to succeed in a harsh society. Fortunately, my experience was a success but for many young minorities who are struggling for a better way of life it is another roadblock in achieving that dream to a better way of life.
What's the solution to close the gap for minorities? Some experts would agree eliminate the SAT examination for admission to colleges, others would say use non-academic skills of student's as entrance into colleges. There isn't a simple solution to the college entrance process however; public schools will be held accountable in preparing the minority students for success on this examination.
In the school system where I teach, minority performance on this examination has improved but could spiral downward because less than a third of the minority students don't take advanced math or have strong skills in writing. The school system does offer city-wide tutorial programs and workshops to aide minority students struggling with this examination but the success rates of these programs are few and between. The programs implemented are ineffective because many students are not taking advantage of the tutorial programs for various reasons but a main reason is language barrier between diverse cultures and students.
To close the gap, extra measures have been implemented, such as two weekends per a month was designated for students needing guidance in preparing for the upcoming SAT and offering the PSAT to over 1000 sophomore students free of charge and a nominal fee for those juniors wanting to gain practice prior to taking the SAT.
By offering students the opportunity to take the PSAT, this will give minority students an opportunity to explore the process of the SAT examination and tune-up skills before taking the SAT in March. In the school where I work and across Hampton Roads, sophomores are required to take the PSAT, one reason to identify students that may not be in the appropriate academic classes for preparing to attend college and the second reason is for National Merit Scholarships.
Although a record number of students took the high profile college entrance exam last year , students still lag behind those average white students. According to Ms. Carroll's article, the rise in scores for minorities posted a " respective" gain. Although the increase is positive, the gap is much to wide for college admissions counselors when considering minority students with respectable scores. These counselors seek individuals capable of doing academic level work.
SAT takers with limited English skills, or those in a urban highs schools that don't get extensive writing instructions will be at a huge disadvantage. With overcrowded classes, and the added pressure to succeed in the classroom many teachers are stirring off grammar instruction and papers that require students to think critical and analytical.
According to Mr. Toppo, Seppy Basilu of Kaplan Inc., the largest test-prep firm, who has set in numerous classes in city public schools, says many teachers grade papers for 185 students each day. "How much writing are they doing> and more advanced level math will benefit those who take courses such as calculus. He stressed schools must work harder in preparing minority for these courses to succeed in the SAT examination.

Closing the Gap

uva2004 — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 03:17:35 GMT

Please read, edit, and critique this critical analysis paper. Need feedback before October 13. Thanks
_____________________________________________________________________________

Closing the gap, that's what the nation's oldest used and misused college entrance exam will do in March 2005, according to the College Board. The SAT has long been controversial, a cultural bias examination that eliminates academically promising minority and low-income students who apply with strong academic records to college but with relatively low SAT scores are often overlooked by admissions counselors for entrance into colleges.
The articles used to recognize the cultural bias of the SAT examination, SAT Scores Remain Steady; Minority Improvement Noted by Catherine Carroll comes from Education Week , John Dotinga's article, Student Dilemma: Take the old SAT, or await the new? The Christian Science Monitor; and Record number of Minorities take SAT by Greg Toppo from USA Today, are similar that each author agrees scores of minority students have increased but highlighted scores didn't keep with the average white student's, whose scores in 2004 was 20 points higher even though scores remained the same as last year.
According to the College Board, the new test will include advanced level math and a written essay. The verbal analogies that leaned on vocabulary more likely to be known by students from affluent and well-read white families will be eliminated. The switch to the new test will treat minorities more equal. For many minorities, particularly those minorities coming from poor regions or homes with parents who have less formal education will continue to decline even without the analogies. The College Board failed to comprehend minority student's linguistic barriers between diverse cultures. When the SAT originated in the 1920s, it was geared toward white affluent aristocratic students because few minorities had the opportunity or resources to attend college. It was a selective examination and much has not change in present day.
Recognizing an age-old concern and being a statistic of this bias examination, I attended a junior college prior to entrance to a four-year university, not because my school academic record but because the college admissions counselors had relied heavily on scores as a measure of my academic achievement ignoring my non-academic skills, such as social and ambition skills. I realize experts in the scientific arena would state social and ambition skills can't be measured like academic skills, but the majority of those applicants are successful in their future lives because of their well-rounded diverse traits.
As a young adult, being rejected by the college of one choosing was a difficult obstacle, especially when your friends were leaving home to begin a new chapter in their lives. After transferring into the college of my choice and completing my education, I have a greater appreciation of my long journey. I recalled being angry for not being successful on this examination and self-doubted my abilities to succeed in a harsh society. Fortunately, my experience was a success but for many young minorities who are struggling for a better way of life it is another roadblock in achieving that dream to a better way of life.
What's the solution to close the gap for minorities? Some experts would agree eliminate the SAT examination for admission to colleges, others would say use non-academic skills of student's as entrance into colleges. There isn't a simple solution to the college entrance process however; public schools will be held accountable in preparing the minority students for success on this examination.
In the school system where I teach, minority performance on this examination has improved but could spiral downward because less than a third of the minority students don't take advanced math or have strong skills in writing. The school system does offer city-wide tutorial programs and workshops to aide minority students struggling with this examination but the success rates of these programs are few and between. The programs implemented are ineffective because many students are not taking advantage of the tutorial programs for various reasons but a main reason is language barrier between diverse cultures and students.
To close the gap, extra measures have been implemented, such as two weekends per a month was designated for students needing guidance in preparing for the upcoming SAT and offering the PSAT to over 1000 sophomore students free of charge and a nominal fee for those juniors wanting to gain practice prior to taking the SAT.
By offering students the opportunity to take the PSAT, this will give minority students an opportunity to explore the process of the SAT examination and tune-up skills before taking the SAT in March. In the school where I work and across Hampton Roads, sophomores are required to take the PSAT, one reason to identify students that may not be in the appropriate academic classes for preparing to attend college and the second reason is for National Merit Scholarships.
Although a record number of students took the high profile college entrance exam last year , students still lag behind those average white students. According to Ms. Carroll's article, the rise in scores for minorities posted a " respective" gain. Although the increase is positive, the gap is much to wide for college admissions counselors when considering minority students with respectable scores. These counselors seek individuals capable of doing academic level work.
SAT takers with limited English skills, or those in a urban highs schools that don't get extensive writing instructions will be at a huge disadvantage. With overcrowded classes, and the added pressure to succeed in the classroom many teachers are stirring off grammar instruction and papers that require students to think critical and analytical.
According to Mr. Toppo, Seppy Basilu of Kaplan Inc., the largest test-prep firm, who has set in numerous classes in city public schools, says many teachers grade papers for 185 students each day. "How much writing are they doing> and more advanced level math will benefit those who take courses such as calculus. He stressed schools must work harder in preparing minority for these courses to succeed in the SAT examination.

Uncountable Sense	Countable Sense
Art is often called an imitation of life. Life is precious. He likes to eat pizza. Religion has been a powerful force in history. She has beautiful skin. Dr. Moulton is an expert in ancient Greek sculpture. We use only recycled paper in our office.	I read a book about the folk arts of Sweden. A cat has nine lives. How many pizzas should we order? Many religions are practiced in the United States. The hull of a kayak is made of animal skins. We have several sculptures in our home. Where are those important papers?