erin_bayou

I got accepted to their LLC program last season, Fall 2015, but I had to defer my admission as I was only offered for tuition waiver. So, this season, I'll be looking harder for fundings. I hope you got better luck than I do and who knows we might be classmates. All the best!

To understand the most important characteristics of a society, one must study its major cities. Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position. You are what you eat is a common phrase to define an individual, but it is unheard of to hear a phrase that says you are where you live. Therefore, the argument that says a society is defined by their major city has several limitations and invalid due to several reasons. There are two parts that can be argued in relation to this question, first, what are the most important characteristics of a society, and secondly whether or not a specific location such as a city would reflect such characteristics. In order to fully address this question, this essay will first discuss what can be considered as the most important characteristics of a society, and then followed by a discussion on whether or not cities play important role in reflecting such characteristics of a society. E.B Taylor, an Oxford scholar and founding father of the field of anthropology defines culture as a complex whole that encompasses moral, knowledge, skills, law, and other capabilities. The topic of culture commensurate to the characteristic of a society, for culture is a blueprint of our daily life. Based on the definition of culture, we can relate that some of the most important characteristics of a society is intelligence, values, traditions, and skills. To answer the question whether or not studying any major cities in order to get a pellucid view of its dwellers and their characteristics, we should consider cities that reflect the aforementioned characteristics. As cliché as it may sound, globalization seemed to be a major factor that attracts global businesses to operate in major cities. In fact, several key important stock trading markets in the world operate in major cities for example Dow Jones in London, New York Stock Exchange in New York, and Nikkei in Tokyo. The question remain however, can we all assume that people who live in London, Tokyo and New York are true representative of their cities? Let’s not forget the fact that in the cities, where the real rat race, dog eats dog world are taking place resulting its dwellers to be in constant hurry, individualistic, often easily frustrated if things were a little slower than expected. Nevertheless, when the question asks to study the city, does it mean that we also need to consider the level of cleanliness, the crime rates, the types of buildings and public facilities? For the sake of argument, is it fair to say that New Yorkers attitude are the best representative of American societies? While location plays an important role to determine the characteristics of a society, studying its cities alone is not enough to reflect the cultural make up of a society. To get a better out look of a society, we should also consider other areas that are densely populated by a society and triangulate the findings with definitive characteristics, then only draw our conclusion about a particular society and their characteristics. Another reasons why city is not the best representative of a specific culture would be a university town. West Virginia in United States is often dubbed as the most backward, obese, and poorest states in the United States. However, if you visit one of the cities in the state, say Morgantown, the host Town of West Virginia University, the aforementioned characteristics were very far from what was described. Due to the university demographics, the town offers amenities that can only be found in major cities like New York and Tokyo despite the fact that the actual location of the town is somewhat rural. Various multi-cultural events, groceries that offer exotic, international ingredients, different languages spoken, active sports activities, can be found here, but if we were to go outside of about 5 miles radius from the university town, we can see what was dubbed to the state somewhat evidential. Apart from that, university town demographic changes rapidly, as most students graduated from their study and leave the city. While many argue that major cities are the epicenter of cultural activities, it is still unfair to simply generalize that the whole society are like that. Studying the cities while may give us some pointers about its dwellers, nevertheless are not true representative its people and characteristics. We can also argue that most of the major cities, due to its business, often reflect similar characteristics, from films or travel experiences many agree that London, New York, and Tokyo has great rail system, that punctuality is highly valued in these cities, that we can easily found ethnic cuisines in these cities, but the conclusion remain the same, cities are not the best pool to study the characteristics of a society, other areas such as suburbs, countries, farms should also be looked at to get a better understanding of a society.

I am on the same boat like you.I have been following the youtube prep videos on the subject matter. One youtuber that I found somewhat walk you slowly but thoroughly is keshwani. He does a whole section of Quantitative prep where he discusses all the questions in the ETS prep book on day by day basis. Give it a try, it's free! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUduMqjqchs

Hi Vitor, Here's a comment on your Issue essay. Let's go paragraph by paragraph. Firstly, please bear in mind that for this kind of essay, you need to state a clear position, and should be written in your last sentence of this paragraph as a thesis statement. Ideally, your thesis statement - given that you disagree with the topic, should be something like this; (Technology is not the source of complication of our lives, but rather it is created to help ease up our lives in several ways.) This thesis statement, as simple as it sound, actually signals strong position and also directs your readers to your next point in a clear manner. Next, moving on to your next point, your topic sentence is not strong, and the sentence structure is somewhat lackluster. You should use the opportunity to strengthen your argument by restating your stance, for instance, by saying, First, technology definitely helps with our study and research. Then, only continue with your sentence. Moving on to your third body paragraph, while you mentioned about technology have revolutionized the way people work, what you failed to do is to highlight how this can help us to live comfortably, or discuss the advantage of technology. Alas, what you did was just merely describing the way technology works, and is not enough to support your argument on how useful the technology is. Perhaps, you could highlight on how technology can help us to save time. Using the same point, try to develop your argument by stating that, through computerized and paperless system, we can save time. For example, if we were still on paper folder system, it might take ages for us to locate a certain files. Take hospitals for example, patients have to go from one building to another to get their complete medical record, but now, with computerized medical health system, such information can easily obtain by clicking patient's unique personal identification. Same goes with fourth paragraph on the ease of communication. Instead of just simply describing the issue, you should highlight and defend your choice. What you failed to do is to highlight the advantage. Another technique you can use is to contrast how complicated it was to arrange for an interview if we are communicating with someone who is from different continent and different time zones. Nevertheless, with video conference, not only it saves cost, but also time and other resources. Similar errors were repeated in the following paragraph too. On top of that, wrong choice of words as demonstrated in this sentence: " people are rounded by technology and it's unlike to see a house without it. From what you wrote, it appeared as people are too dependent on technology and that is not good. Instead, you should write, technology can unite people as it allows household of different interest to be under the same roof and yet, pursue their personal interest. On top of that, it is unlikely today, to see a house without internet connection. Again, on your counter argument, wrong word choice, instead of alienated, correct word choice is highly dependent on technology. This is the paragraph where you should explain the complication that may result from high dependency of technology. Some of your ideas are ok, but you still have potential to develop them better. As for your conclusion, the best way is to restate your points, so you should say that, I strongly believe that technology helps to make our life better as it allows us to save time, cost, and also foster communication. While there are downside of it, bear in mind that technology is just a tool, it is the attitude of humans that makes the whole difference.