Sticky and Sweet EN_GB Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:28:54 +0000 How To Start a Graduate School Essay? http://stickyandsweet.socialgo.com/magazine/read/how-to-start-a-graduate-school-essay_15.html Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:11:00 +0000
Do you begin with a reflection on the focus of your forthcoming graduate studies?

Do you start at the beginning? And where exactly is that?

If you want your graduate essay to grab the attention of the graduate admission representative, then keep reading this article… The graduate admissions committee is looking for a snapshot of you –

?Where you've been,
?Where you want to go, and ?what you want to do with the degree

Here are three simple tips to start your graduate essays:

1.You should start with a concise academic history of about a paragraph in length.

 2.Then use up a paragraph talking about the research that you’ve done (or doing at the time).

3.Then talk about why you wished to go to that school and your career goals and how that particular graduate program would help you meet those. The statement/essay is also where you would tackle any probable problems, such as an undergrad GPA below 3.0 or a misdemeanor conviction, etc. If you don't have those problems, great.

If so, address them. That is about it really. Your graduate school essay should really just be a summary of your total application...except... you do want to stress how the graduate program fits into your career plans particularly. You will also want to draw attention to the types of research you want to do (or the type of project you want to do for your dissertation/thesis).

When I was helping one of my friends writing graduate admissions essay this year, I divided the graduate essay into 3 parts: Past, Present, and Future. In our graduate school, we ask that it be a personal statement, not a story.

Basically we ask them to address the following in their statement: ?Why a master's degree? ?Why graduate school now? ?What about your background has led you to this? You can still grab the attention of the reader by following these concepts.

Try to talk conversationally, the way you wrote your question above. A little humor is OK, and you can certainly add in your accomplishments (although I assume they asked for a resume, and that will highlight those...)
























]]> "Life with My Sister Madonna" review http://stickyandsweet.socialgo.com/magazine/read/life-with-my-sister-madonna-review_4.html Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:04:00 +0100


Over the past 25 years, Madonna has inspired many, infuriated more, and ingrained herself in the public consciousness with such force of will that she's become a favorite subject of academia. Every suggestive lyric, every bright new hairdo, every playful crotch grab is fodder for college courses, daylong seminars, even entire books by scholars looking to make a buck off arguably the most famous woman in the world.

Christopher Ciccone is not one of those scholars. He's a great tattletale, though. Life With My Sister Madonna arrives at an inauspicious time for the 49-year-old pop star, who's been batting away rumors of an extramarital affair with New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez. For E! News fanatics and sun worshippers in need of a good beach read, it's hard to beat.

Ciccone, who worked closely with his older sibling for years, serves some tasty morsels of madness. There are surreally humorous life-in-a-bubble moments throughout: Madonna is stranded in the Moroccan desert on her way to an early-career video shoot; Christopher spends a woozy evening sharing bumps of cocaine with Donatella Versace and Courtney Love after Gianni Versace's New York City memorial service; Madonna, buzzing on lemon-drop cocktails, is escorted from a post-Grammy party inexplicably covered in candle wax.

Unfortunately, all this dish is counterbalanced by Ciccone's attempts to psychoanalyze his sister, a ludicrous exercise given that she is already the most overexposed woman of her generation. He hurries through their Michigan childhood — still the least-chronicled portion of her life — in favor of too-obvious statements that will surprise nobody. Among the feeble insights: Madonna ''always has to be the best.'' She is ''the world's worst joke-teller.'' She is ''not touchy-feely.'' She wholeheartedly believes in her acting abilities. She's a tightwad who once charged her college-student brother 50 cents for a joint — and decades later made him pay his own way to her 2000 Scotland wedding to Guy Ritchie. And then there's this doozy: ''From her perspective, she is the only person in the universe.'' Well, duh.



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