is donald rumsfeld mentally retarded? seriously.

this is the persuasive essay i wrote for my cousin. i was going to do the anti-teen abstinance topic but the word count thing was messing me up, so i wrote an essay expressing displeasure for length restrictions on writing assignments in school. i hope it sounds like a high school paper. i really don't remember what that is.

also, sorry for submitting what is essentially a bullshit filler entry, but i'm lazy. anyway, colon:

The writing proces is one depdendent on a person's creativity. Whether writing for journalism, school, or a magazine (among many others), the creative process is highly complicated. Difficulties run rampant during any writing process, even when no restrictions exist concerning the length of a work. Therefore, no writing assignment should ever be constrained by size limits, especially in an educational environment.

Often it seems criteria are placed on the maximum lengths of writing assignments in hopes of encouraging conciseness. Should not the length of a paper depend solely on the subject matter though? Setting a maximum number of pages or words only hurts the effectiveness of a body of work and the writer's ability to completely get his or her point across. Such is especially true when the work is of a persuasive nature.

Requiring a minimum word count is just as counterproductive as requiring a maximum one. If the writer is able to clearly and effectively state their position in, for instance, two pages, then forcing out an extra page (for a three-page assignment, in this example) would only encourage rambling. An extra page of drivel does nothing but take away from a case trying to be made.

Some would say that essay length requirements are not entirely detrimantal. Teaching students to focus on being concise with maximums or comprehensive with minimums can be an effective teaching tool, however, emphasizing subjects and making convincing arguments should be the top priority in a writer's education. Limiting the size should be a distant second, but is too often over-emphasized.

The various subjects taught in schools have in each of them layer upon layer of varying elements, and learning the key ones is not easy. Concerning English, and more specifically writing, subjectivity is something that is especially difficult to capture and put on paper. The persuasive essay by nature is difficult enough without having size constraints, which seem to be always over-emphasized.

album du jour: the quails atmosphere