time: 2016 02 22 0:40 utc 1456103980 reporting this problem: the problem you have encountered is with a project web site hosted by sourceforge.net. This issue should be reported to the sourceforge.net hosted project not to sourceforge.net. if this is a severe or recurring/persistent problem, please do one of the following, and provide the error text numbered 1 through 7, above:

user name

if you are a maintainer of this web content, please refer to the site documentation regarding web services for further assistance. This option may be re enabled by the project by placing a file with the name .htaccess with this line: every year during the fall semester, i receive hundreds of e mails from eager students inquiring about graduate school at penn’s graduate school of education. As i am a firm believer in responding to every student who contacts me, i answer each one i remember what it was like to e mail faculty and not get a response. I usually give the same advice to all students some get more than others, depending on their questions.

Most of the questions are about the graduate student essay, including what to write and what not to write. They all have a different flavor and a bland, generic essay is very obvious to faculty. Show the ways that you connect to their work and what you hope to learn from them. Have an idea in mind in terms of what you are interested in conducting research on but don’t be too rigid. Don’t say you are interested in everything that every faculty member in the program does.

Don’t talk about how your test scores don’t represent the extent of your abilities. Instead, if your test scores aren’t as high as you wish they were, make the rest of your application as stellar as possible. Don’t apologize shine! do discuss your interests and your reasons for having those interests. be concrete and avoid countless abstract thoughts.

Don’t use jargon and big words, especially when you don’t know how to properly use them. Remember that a lot of people are applying to graduate school so look for positive ways to make you stand above the crowd. graduate school statement samples this section contains five sample graduate school personal statements: why graduate school? essay my freshman year at harvard, i was sitting in a postcolonial african literature class when professor ngugi wa thiong'o the influential kenyan author succeeded in attracting me to the study of african literature through nothing more than a single sentence.

He argued that, when a civilization adopts reading and writing as the chief form of social communication, it frees itself to forget its own values, because those values no longer have to be part of a lived reality in order to have significance. I was immediately fascinated by the idea that the written word can alter individual lives, affect one's identity, and perhaps even shape national identity. Professor ngugi's proposal forced me to think in a radically new way: i was finally confronted with the notion of literature not as an agent of vital change, but as a potential instrument of stasis and social stagnancy. I began to question the basic assumptions with which i had, until then, approached the field. How does literature function away from the written page, in the lives of individuals and societies? what is the significance of the written word in a society where the construction of history is not necessarily recorded or even linear? i soon discovered that the general scope of comparative literature fell short of my expectations because it didn't allow students to question the inherent integrity or subjectivity of their discourse. We were being told to approach asian, african, european, and american texts with the same analytical tools, ignoring the fact that, within each culture, literature may function in a different capacity, and with a completely different sense of urgency.

Essay Made By Filipino Writers

Seeking out ways in which literature tangibly impacted societies, i began to explore other fields, including history, philosophy, anthropology, language, and performance studies. The interdisciplinary nature of my work is best illustrated by my senior thesis time out of joint: issues of temporality in the songs of okot p'bitek . In addition to my literary interpretations, the thesis drew heavily on both the ugandan author's own cultural treatises and other anthropological, psychological, and philosophical texts. By using tools from other disciplines, i was able to interpret the literary works while developing insight into the ugandan society and popular psychology that gave birth to the horrific idi amin regime.

In addition, i was able to further understand how people interacted with the works and incorporated or failed to incorporate them into their individual, social, and political realities. On a more practical level, writing the thesis also confirmed my suspicion that i would like to pursue an academic career. When i finished my undergraduate career, i felt that a couple of years of professional work would give me a better perspective of graduate school. I decided to secure a position which would grant me experiences far removed from the academic world, yet which would also permit me to continue developing the research and writing skills i needed to tackle the challenges of graduate school.

I have fulfilled this goal by working as a content developer at a silicon alley web start up for two years. The experience has been both enjoyable and invaluable to the point where colleagues glance at me with a puzzled look when i tell them i am leaving the job to return to school. In fact, my willingness to leave such a dynamic, high paying job to pursue my passion for literature only reflects my keen determination to continue along the academic path.

How to Write a Good Application Essay 5 Paragraphs

Through a masters program, i plan to further explore the issues i confronted during my undergraduate years by integrating the study of social, cultural, and linguistic anthropology into the realm of literature. I believe that, by adopting tools used in such disciplines, methods of inquiry can be formulated that allow for the interpretation of works that are both technically sound and sociologically insightful. Thus far, my studies have concentrated largely on african and caribbean literatures, and i am particularly interested in studying these geographic areas in more specific historical and cultural contexts. I also seek to increase my knowledge of african languages, which will allow me to study the lingering cultural impact of colonialism in modern day african literature.