College Research

The Death Penalty

American Dream- Arnold Schwarzenegger

My Texas Common Application essay.

      I remember it as if it was yesterday, surprisingly; I met lots of people

that speak different languages in my first day of school in the United States. The

administrator heard my situation that I didn’t speak any English, they decided to

let an English tutor me every day in the library, we call him Mr. Bradley. His

class just likes an ESL class.


      During my life, I have never seen such patience of will in a person. His

patience made me understand that every person is capable of achieving his or her

goal despite all the difficulties and obstacles that come with it. On our first

lesson I felt embarrassed that I didn’t know those important things, all those

things I learned in school, but that after such a long time without practicing I

forgot, as we forget the recipe of our favorite cake when we don't bake it often.

But Mr. Bradley has a plan for me, he wants me to succeed, and more importantly,

to believe on myself, and know that I could do it. That I could achieve my dream,

and one day I will be able to help others the same way he is helping me.


      It had been a few months then, since we first started. I know that my

English have improved, but I 'm still not quite there yet. I will be soon, ready

to take on life and to work hard, so that I can prove to myself, and others that I

can do anything when I put my mind into it. I want to show him that all the

efforts and time he has spent helping me has not been in vain.

      I am a person who likes to think she was ready, that she knew everything,

but in reality I didn't know much. I need it that additional push from that

special someone, who believed on me, and who knew I had the potential to achieve

what I really wanted in life. Mr. Bradley saw something on me that I had not yet

seen on myself. What was it? It was a girl who had given up hope, but who deep

inside wanted to make it out in the world, and become a professional one day. I'm

not quite there yet, but I feel closer and closer every day, just like when you

are getting closer to the ocean, and can actually smell the beach on the air from

far away.

Senior plan

1.      Retaking the SAT and get a better score. ( This one should be my top priority)

2.      Starting to apply for scholarships.

3.      Deciding which college I really want to go and what major I am going to study.

4.      Once I decided the college I want to go, I have to get all kinds information for that college.

5.      Working hard to get my last high school year done.

6.      Getting myself ready for the college.

7.      Getting better writing skills.

I think those seven things are my top priorities, especially the first one, I didn’t get a good SAT score this year, so I have to retake it next year. I know that they are not only look at our SAT scores, but it is a very important factor for them to decide whether want you to be there or not. In the end of the year, there is a big event will come, our graduations.

Reflection for the financial aid

Financial aid provided to students and families to help pay for postsecondary educational expenses or other some purpose。You can also apply it as you have any financial difficult to start your business. There is a popular format of financial aid used very widely in the college called FAFSA, Free Application for Federal Student Aid. It’s a standard form that collects demographic and financial information about the student and family. This form can be filed electronically or using paper form, but they only provide two languages, English and Spanish. Actually, there are four kinds of financial aids for people, scholarships, grants, loans, employment. The scholarships are most available for students, and their money does not have to be paid back, but their awarded on the basis of merit, skill, or a unique characteristic. The grants do not have to be paid back, but grants usually awarded on the basis of financial need. The loans provide money for students and parents to help pay educational expenses, but you have to pay them back once your education is finished. The employment allows student to earn money to help pay educational costs. I think I will apply for the scholarships and grants for my college.

What college am I attending?

I am going to attend the University of Houston, it is a public university. They provided more than 300 undergraduate and graduate academic programs, on campus and online. Their undergraduates choose from 120 majors and minors. At the graduate level, they offer 139 masters, 54 doctoral, and three professional degree programs. The cost of the University of Houston is 9,000 a year for in-state students and 18,300 a year for out-state students. Most of students got their scholarships and grants. They provided the financial aid forms as FAFSA format. They also have many different kinds of sports, such as badminton, diving, fencing, golf etc.

I choose this college because this college is kind near my house and I am a resident of Texas, so if I go to this college, it would only cost 9000 dollars. This college has some really nice area, such as library, they got many space for students to study there. They have billion of books in the library. They also have a gym in the campus, we had been there once. The gym have many different programs, they even have a very big swimming poor. I think library and gym are most two places that interested me the most. I was considering go out of state for the college, but the cost is very expensive, I don’t think I can offer it.

In order to be accepted in this college, I think I need a SAT Critical Reading score between: 470 – 580, and a SAT Math score between: 510 – 620. This college doesn’t require recommend letters from our teachers, well, that makes me interested, and we don’t have to do all of that to get in this college. The required SAT score not as high as I thought. I think it’s not very difficult to get in this college. The University of Houston is actually a very beautiful college, they have a big campus. Last time, when we went to there to visit, I was shocked, because that was the first that I had a chance to visit a college. I can’t image how big the campus of a college can be in the United States.

I think I am going to major in business management, I don’t know if I am going to change it next year, but right now, I think I am interest in business management, I also want to get some degree for this major. Maybe, I will get a master’s degree. I’ve heard that they have some good programs for business management, their library have many different professional librarian that can help us with our major. I think it will be hard when the first semester starts in the college, because we are not getting used to it. I heard that the professor will not give you any chance to change your grades, once you didn’t turn in any assignment, a zero will occur in your grade book and never change. I knew that I am kind lazy, if I get into college, I must change this.

Well, I believe if I study the business management, then I will be an accounting or an administrator for a company. I always want to have a big company that selling clothes. I will try to make our trade more internationally. We will have many different language translators also. In order to be an administrator, I think I have to study other subjects too, such as leadership, administer, etc. I think I will make my dream from base things slowly move to the top, where I want to go. Also, business management was provide lots of necessary jobs for people, such as accounting, I think this job make some money, but an administrator would be slightly difficult, because you have to work really hard.

Reflection about I learned from researching different colleges.

      I did some research on three college that I want to go, I got a lot helpful information from my reseach.  I learned that I have to get a high SAT scores in order to get into a good college. The costs of college are expensive, especially for those students who want to go out of the state. When we apply for college, they are not only look at your SAT scores, GPA, but also would consider those activities that you attended. I also learned about their campus, number of undergrads, setting. For instance, I want to go to University of Houston, it is a public college, and it's required fours study. It also offered bachelor's, Master's, and Dotoral degrees. They also have lots of sports, such as badminton, baseball, basketball, bowling, cricket, diving, fencing, football, etc. Their Financial Aid forms are FAFSA. While I was reseaching those information, I realized that I need to work hard right now, and saving money for my college.

How I improved as a writer this year.

     This year, I have Ms.LG as my AP English teacher, I still remember when the first day I  got in her class, she told us that we must work really hard in her class in order to get an A. Actually, I thought that I would never get an A in this class no matter how hard I tried. I remember the first rhetorical essay that she assigned us, we got to choose one topic from those three topics, I choose Arnold Schwarzenegger's speech as my topic. Then, I have to find  some logos, ethos and pathos from his speech, and choose three from those logos, ethos and pathos, and explain them. I was kind frustrated because I've never done this kind essay before, and I had no idea how to write this essay. Ms. LG explained her instructions in the class, but I didn't get it, so I came to her after school. Then, she tought me how to write that essay step by step. Finally, I had my essay done, and I also got an outline on this kind essay. After I wrote my first rhetorical essay, I felt like it was not that hard.
     When the second semester started, we had to wrote another essay. This time, our topic is the death penalty, the essential question is the death penalty should be abolished or not. Ms. LG helped us designed  outlines, and then we have to explain them more specificly. My essay was four pages long, actually, I am afraid it would be too long, so I only wrote four pages, otherwise, I can write more than that. This essay is an argumentative essay, I learned that we have to provide some facts in order to convince people. Those facts can be find either from a book, magazine, internet, etc.
      In the end of this year, I got outlines on how to wrote rhetorical and argumentative essay, now I not the one who only know how to write narrative essay, and I got better sentence structure and better grammer. Sometimes, in order to write argumentative essays, we not only statement our opinion but also provide some facts and evidences. I also learned that we are not allow to use I, we, us, you, those words in a rhetorical essay.

The Death Penalty (one essay from second semester)

            The death penalty is a complex issue that has sparked argument and anxiety in our society. Whenever someone refers to the word “death punishment”, people from both sides starts exclaiming at their argument. One side indicates that the death penalty should be abolished because there's a potential reason of executing an innocent man; the other side says the death punishment should be continued in order to eliminate the bad people of our society. In this essay, I am disagree with the death penalty should be abolished. Wherever we look, we can find crimes, it’s already became a part of our daily lives. I am sure that nobody wants to let those crimes be the darkness of our society. They can be threat to our lives, so eliminating those crimes is our responsibility, and we should never disregard it. First of all, I think that death penalty can be deterrence to those criminals, and also helps our society to reduce crimes. Secondly, I think it’s unnecessary to abolish death punishment because not all the criminals deserve the death penalty punishment, and the judicial system itself is very careful with death sentences.

            The death penalty can be deterrence to those criminals because it’s one kind of extreme punishments that would create dread in the mind of people. Ernest van den Haag, a Professor of Jurisprudence at Fordham University who has studied the question of deterrence closely, wrote: "Even though statistical demonstrations are not conclusive, and perhaps cannot be, capital punishment is likely to deter more than other punishments because people fear death more than anything else. They fear death deliberately inflicted most by law and scheduled by the courts. Whatever people fear most is likely to deter most.” Everyone afraid of death, I believe most of the criminals would change their actions if they had thought about the outcome of their actions. Suppose if there is no death penalty in a country, then what can stopping a murderer who was supposed to face a death penalty to commit another murder in our society? Some people suggest that life imprisonment without parole would be a fair punishment for them, but I think that just imprisonment is not enough for them to stop from committing a crime. Every year, crimes and criminals are consistently increasing. For example, in this year, there were 27 people killed in less than a day from Acapulco, Mexico. There are two police officers got wounded when those armed men attacked them. At least 30,196 people have died in Acapulco. Those criminals may think that they would never get caught, and just keep committing crimes. Those people should definitely get the death penalty, so that others, who even think about committing such crimes, learn a lesson that every criminal is eventually caught.

            We know that not all the criminals deserve the death penalty, for instance, a person, who stole clothes from Ross, definitely does not deserve the death penalty, and the chance of making a mistake in death penalty is extremely low. Death penalty is one of the extreme punishments and the judicial system takes a lot of care in making the decisions. There are several precautions guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty. For example, "Capital punishment may be imposed only when guilt is determined by clear and convincing evidence leaving no room for an alternative explanation of the facts", "Anyone sentenced to death shall receive the right to appeal to a court of higher jurisdiction", etc. There are several other grants provided to the convicted that assure that death penalty is given to the rightly accused person. According to Federal Justice Statistics, in 1998, there were approximately 5000 criminals sentenced to life imprisonment as opposed to 74 criminals sentenced to death. This shows that judicial system itself is very careful to make the death sentences.

            Some people might think that death penalty is brutal and cruel, but ask those people who lost their beloved or whose lives have been tied to a hospital bed because of some brutal person. I am sure they would be very depressed to see the person who screwed up their lives just getting imprisonment or mere rehabilitation. Suppose this person that was killed was your family. How would you feel knowing that this person who ruined your family is till alive and calmly enjoying the benefits of an asylum and an air-conditioned room? Those people who believe that death penalty is barbarous. I think the murderers also think it’s barbarous to them. In my opinion, death penalty is not revenge. In fact, giving a murderer to death is just a favor to the society. Despite the moral argument focusing on the brutal treatment of the criminals, we return to the "nature" of the crime committed. The weight is unequal between the tragically lost lives of murder victims and the absolving of criminals. In "The Death Penalty in America", Adam Bedau mentioned, "even in the tragedy of human death there are degrees, and that it is much more tragic for the innocent to lose his life than for the State to take the life of a criminal convicted of a capital offense". I believe that if one has no value or even harm the life of another human being, and then one's own life has no value.

            Death penalty is a good punishment and helps in reducing crime as well as bringing justice to our society. I am disagree with the death penalty should be abolished, as it can be deterrence to those criminals, and also helps our society to reduce crimes. It’s also unnecessary to abolish death punishment because not every criminal deserves the death penalty punishment, and the judicial system itself is very careful with death sentences. Death penalty is really important to keep the brightness of our society and public safety shining brightly on our world.

American Dream! 一 Arnold Schwarzenegger (one essay from first semester)

            The Governor of the State of California, Schwarzenegger, in his speech, “Address to the Republican National Convention, 2004,” persuades immigrant in the United States to believe America is a free, generous and justifiable country. Schwarzenegger’s purpose is to convince those immigrant in the United States continue to vote for republicans in the Convention. He uses anaphora, ethos and pathos in order to appeal to similar feelings and experiences in his audiences.

            Schwarzenegger begins his speech by addressing that he is proof of the American dream. He appeals to the immigrants in the United States by calling them “my fellow American.” This is an example of ethos, because he connects with audiences and that shows he is equal to the audience. He also talked about his origin, he is from “Austria” and he became “Governor of the United States of California.” In the same way, his background also connects with his audiences, because he is also an immigrant.

            Then, Schwarzenegger continues his speech by starting that American has certain freedoms and rights. He appeals to the immigrants in the United States by repeating the phase “it doesn’t make any difference.” This is an example of anaphora, because he emphasize that immigrants can achieve their dream more easily in the United States, this shows that America is a friendly country to immigrants.

            Next, Schwarzenegger continues his speech by proving that America is a “democratic” country. He appeals to the immigrants in the United States by telling them that the America fight “not for imperialism but for human right and democracy.” This is an example of pathos, because he is showing a proud feeling to those immigrants. He feels proud to be an American, and he wants them to feel the same as he feels. He states that America gladly helps everyone in the world, they are glad to “send out the missionaries and doctors to raise up the poor and the sick.”

            As mentioned earlier, Schwarzenegger is giving his speech to persuades those immigrants in the United States to vote for them. The theme of his speech is to convince those immigrant that everyone can achieve their dream in Amerca!