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Writing Assessment Program
Holistic Scoring: Sample Essays: Part II Topic
Part II
General Directions
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Be sure that you print your correct social security number and today’s date in the upper right hand corner of the test booklet.
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You will have seventy minutes to complete this part of the proficiency examination. You should finish the readings in about 20 minutes. Then, you should work for about 40 minutes on the essay and use the last ten minutes to re-read your work to make corrections and changes. Be sure you have not left out any words. You will be told when you have ten minutes left to work.
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A good essay will be one that
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states a central idea and develops it by means of paragraphs that contain specific details,
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has an organization that indicates an overall plan,
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deals with the assigned topic and addresses the specific question asked,
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is free of serious errors in word choice, sentence structure, grammar, and mechanics,
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effectively and smoothly incorporates quotations, paraphrases, and citations of the readings into the writer’s own essay,
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documents references to the reading materials. (For the purpose of this writing problem, “documentation” means that you name the person you quote, paraphrase, or cite. The names of the authors are given at the end of each selection.)
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Before beginning to write, you may want to take some time to plan your response. You may use the space just below the “Question” on the next page for any jottings you may want to do.
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Feel free to make changes or corrections in your essay. As long as changes and corrections are readable, there is no need to copy your essay over before you hand it in. Please write on only one side of the paper and use the paper provided.
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Give your essay a title.
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Be sure to write on the assigned topic. AN ESSAY ON ANOTHER TOPIC IS NOT ACCEPTABLE AND WILL BE GIVEN A SCORE OF ZERO.
Part II
Question
Most of us would probably
say that television is both good and bad, depending on how a person uses it.
Certainly, there’s a lot of trash on TV, but there are some excellent
programs, too. And with the advent of cable television and the video recorder,
there has never been a time of greater choice. In any case, no one is forced
to watch television. Each of us has the freedom to choose what to watch—or not
to watch any TV at all. The decision rests with the individual. In this sense,
television is what the individual makes of it, for good or bad.
But let us
assume for the sake of “argument” that you cannot dismiss the issue by
saying, “It’s what the individual makes of it.” Let us assume that you
have to decide whether the members of your community will or will not be allowed
to have television in their homes. In other words, you must answer this
question:
Would people be better off with television or without it?
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Answer the question in an essay of about two pages.
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The readings are here to help you answer the question. First, form your own opinion and decide how you will organize your essay. Then, wherever you think it useful, work in references to at least two of the readings both to support your opinion and to contrast their statements with your own ideas on the subject. The references may be direct quotations, paraphrases, or citations of data or statistics. Be sure that you do not simply string together references to the readings: your essay must be your own composition presenting your own ideas and not merely a patchwork of others’ work and ideas.
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Use material from at least two of the readings in your essay.
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Cite your sources. That is, tell from which readings you are getting your information.
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Wherever you think it appropriate, use examples from your own life to help support your opinion.
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Use the rest of the space on this page or the back of it for any jottings or planning that you want to do, and then begin writing your essay on the following page.
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Be sure to give your essay a title.
In summary, state and develop your opinion on the issue. Refer to the readings as they relate to what you are saying, and use the information you find in them to support or qualify your opinion.
Part II
Readings
Read
the following selections. You will need them for the writing you will do next.
They contain different ideas about television. You will probably agree with some
of the ideas and disagree with others. In order to prepare for your next
writing, think about how these selections compare with each other and whether
you agree with them. Since the readings present more than a single side of the
issue, not all of them will support your opinion, regardless of the side you
take. Nevertheless, you must include specific references to at least two of
these readings in your essay. Your essay will be evaluated in part on how
effectively the readings are used. If you want, you may mark or write on the
readings. Only the essay you write will be evaluated, but the readings must be
turned in too.
1. In small European communities still without television, the old people remain physically active, mixing with the young, venturing out into the real world. Here, like their little grandchildren, they sit immobilized by TV. An American senior citizen once told me that his TV set gave him a sixth sense—at the price of removing the other five. I think that both young and old are acquiring, via television, a superficial glimpse of a narrow slice of unreality.... Does TV make real life more meaningful or individuals more active? Does it encourage adventure? Does it arm an individual against the pains inflicted by society, by other humans, by aging? Does it bring us closer to each other? Does it explain us to ourselves, and ourselves to each other? Does it?
For me,
imagining groups of solitary individuals watching their private,
remote-controlled TV sets is the ultimate future terror: a nation of videots.
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Kosinsky, Jerzy. Interviewed by David Sohn, “A Nation of Videots.” In Horace Newcomb, ed.,
2.
"Escapism” is
a much-used but puzzling term. Its ambiguities illustrate the overall bankruptcy
of the television criticism that uses it as a flag.... Escapism critics seem to
believe that the value of art should be measured only by rigorously
naturalistic [realistic] standards. Television programs are viewed as worthless
or destructive because they divert consciousness from “reality” to fantasy.
However, all art does this. When the network voice of control says, “NBC is
proud as a peacock,” it is asking the recipient of this message to
“escape” from all realistic data about the corporate institution of NBC into
a fantastic image of a bird displaying its colorful feathers in a grand and
striking manner. The request is made on the assumption that the recipient will
be able to sort the shared features of the two entities from the irrelevant
features and “return” to a clearer picture of the corporation.
Representational television programs work in much the same way. If there were no
recognizable features of family life in The Waltons. if there were no
true-to-life features of life-style in
Three's
Company.
if there were no believable features of urban paranoia in Baretta.
then watching those shows would truly be “escapism.” But if those
features are there, the viewer is engaging in an act that does not differ in
essence from reading a novel. The anti-escapist argument makes a better point
about the structure of narrative in the television series. In the world of the
series, problems are not only solvable but usually solved. To accept this
as
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Marc, David. “Understanding Television.” The Atlantic August 1984: 4243.
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3.
Gerbner and Gross asked heavy television viewers and light television viewers
certain questions about the real world. The multiple-choice quiz offered
accurate answers together with answers that reflected a bias characteristic of
the television world. The researchers discovered that heavy viewers of
television chose the television-biased answers far more than they chose the
accurate answers, while light viewers were more likely to choose the correct
answers.
For
example, the subjects were asked to guess their own chances of encountering
violence in any given week. They were given the possible answers of 50-50, 10-1,
and 100-1. The statistical chances that the average person will encounter
personal violence in the course of a week are about 100-1, but heavy television
viewers consistently chose the answer 50-50 or 10-1, reflecting the
“reality” of television programs where violence prevails. The light viewers
chose the right answer far more consistently.
The
heavy viewers answered many other questions in a way revealing that what they
saw on television had altered their perceptions of the world and society. They
were more likely than light viewers to overestimate the U.S. proportion of the
world population, for instance. They also overestimated the percentages of
people employed as professionals, as athletes, and as entertainers in the
“real world,” just as television overemphasizes the importance of these
groups.
The
viewers’ incorrect notions about the real world do not come from misleading
newscasts or factual programs. The mistaken notions arise from repeated viewing
of fictional programs performed in a realistic style within a realistic
framework. These programs, it appears, begin to take on a confusing reality for
the viewer, just as a very powerful dream may sometimes create confusion about
whether a subsequent event was a dream or whether it actually happened.
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Winn, Marie. The Plus-In Drug. New York: Viking , 1977: 69-71.
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4.
Our
myths of happiness... are easily realized by skillful media people like those
who design and execute the Walton Show....
It
could be said that these myths torment us, describing role fulfillments that
aren’t there, promising marital peace that never arrives and forcing us to
stare at the pitiful discrepancy between what is and what we would want. If that
were the only function of this kind of myth, we would manage somehow to do away
with it. The TV ratings would fall and that would be the end of it all. However,
another function of the myth is to portray the ideal, the goal—it’s not good
enough to be always realistic about what the world offers. There must be some
kind of image to strive for, some kind of positive cultural thought that serves
to heal wounds and to point to the future.
The
Walton family drama takes place in our recent past, but all those experimenting
with new forms of marital-family relationships, all those parents planning the
birth of a first child, all those of us midway in family life are constantly
trying to achieve in our private ways the protective, humane, decent loving
family that seems to come so easily to the Waltons. Never mind that we all fail;
it’s a journey worth taking.
Yes,.
. . there has always been a dichotomy in our society between what we
believe--the image we would choose of ourselves—and the social realities. We
think we are human and good and then we discover a My Lai massacre. We preach
brotherhood as racial tensions mount. Nevertheless, with a more realistic view
of ourselves we would probably behave even worse. And despite the laughability
of the American romance, it’s not such a bad thing to keep on dreaming.
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Roiphe, Anne. “Ma and Pa and John Boy in Mythic America: The Waltons." In Horace Newcomb, ed.,