Athlete Suspended For Driving Friend

Description: Drunk Driving
Date: August 19, 2011
Found at: http://www.nighttap.com

Erin Cox, a High School senior volleyball player, was suspended for five games and lost her position as captain of the team after she drove to a party to pick up a friend that was too drunk to drive. Upon arrival at the party, police were already at the scene arresting several people for underage possession of alcohol and warned others that they’d be called to court for drinking. Cox was among those that were called to court regardless of Boxford police officer Brian Neeley’s confirmation of Erin’s sobriety.


If I was in Erin Cox’s situation I would've done the same thing. I wouldn't want to just leave my friend drunk at a party or have her take the risk of getting into a car accident due to drunk driving. The school’s decision to suspend her from five games and strip her from her captaincy would affect her in a very negative way. Considering she was an athlete, she probably wanted to continue to play volleyball in college or earn a sports scholarship. Her suspension would lead colleges to believe that she is not the best candidate for their school or sports team. The whole situation looked really bad for Erin Cox. The article mentioned that, “Cox's mother, Eleanor, told the Boston Herald her daughter was among those summoned despite Boxford police officer Brian Neeley vouching for Erin's sobriety.” I don’t understand how Erin Cox was still punished and the police officers vouching for her sobriety was totally disregarded. Personally, I think any school would've done the same thing considering the circumstances around the situation.

Article Link :http://espn.go.com

SAT Writting

Description: Writing
Date: February 27, 2012
Found at: www.sjpl.org

This article discusses the current SAT writing process. Reading this article is an eye-opener, it discusses what SAT essay-graders are really looking for and mentions a few tips that may help future students taking the SAT. After speaking with SAT essay-graders Anne Ruggles Gere, a professor at the University of Michigan, discovered that essay graders, "go through a very regimented scoring process, and the goal of that process is to produce so many units of work in a very short period of time,” Basically, the whole grading process in rushed. Essay-Graders must only spend a maximum of three minutes grading an essay. Personally, I think this time should be expanded. It takes longer than three minutes to read and essay, evaluate it, and score it. Most essay-graders will just skim over the essay, instead of actually reading it.

Description: Writing
Date: October 17, 2013
Found at: diomas.ucuenca.edu.ec

It was also mentioned that, "the SAT have indicated that in scoring it really doesn't matter if you say that the War of 1812 occurred in 1817." I think that is just ridiculous. This, to me, shows that the SAT is just a joke. It is possible for someone who just rambled on an essay about inaccurate information to get a higher score than someone who put valid and meaningful information on theirs. I couldn't agree more with Perelman when he said, "What they are actually testing is the ability to B.S. on demand".



This article also mentioned some great tips that would be helpful in the near future. Les Perelman suggest that, “To do well on the essay, he says, the best approach is to just make stuff up.” Most students spend most of the time given to write essays just thinking about what to write. To avoid wasting time, it's best to just make things up. Perelman tells his students, “to always use quotations, because the exam readers love quotations” This is something that I didn't know before about SAT writing. Another great tip that was mentioned is to use big words. Considering that those who grade the SAT essays take no longer than three minutes scoring and only skim a text, I think that this is really helpful.

Article Link: http://kellygallagher.org/resources/AoW%201314_8%20SAT%20Writing.pdf