Essays For Grammar Checking

Essay #1 

Soccer and Basketball

There are many sports in this world, many of them are popular in the United States. My favorite sports are soccer and basketball. Soccer is mostly popular in European and South America, however basketball is more popular in the North America. Both of the two sports have famous matches that is world wide known. For example the National Basketball Association which is abbreviated as NBA and the Soccer World Cup. Even though soccer and basketball are both sports, there are many differences and similarities among the two.

Both of them have many similar ideas and role. First, they are all requiring teamwork sports. There are many players in each basketball game and soccer game. The players need to cooperate to win each game, whether basketball or soccer. Also, both of these sports last very long in timing. This requires player in in a good physical condition for long term game. Last, because they are long time games, they are both high strength games. These players need to keep running in the whole game, both to the audiences and the players are very intense.

Both of them have many differences in gaming. One example is the field for sports. For soccer, the field size is 90-120 meter in length and 40-90 meter in width. While the field size of basketball is 28 meters in length and 15 meters in width. In contrast, soccer field is bigger than basketball field. Another example is in the soccer field, there is a midfield line and two forbidden zone line in each side. In the field of basketball, there is a 3 point lane and a free-throw line of each sides. Last example is in soccer, the soccer field has a goal in the middle of each edge,but for the basketball field is the basket.

Both of the two sports have different rules. First, there are two teams in a soccer match, and 11 players in each team. For the basketball match, there are two teams as same as the soccer match, but each basketball team just has 5 players.When soccer players score, it is only 1 point whereas for basketball, the goals can be worth 3 points when player shots out of 3 point lane; or 2 points when player shots inside of 3 point lane. Moreover, basketball free throws could get 1 point. In soccer matches, the players can use anywhere to touch the ball except hands. In basketball matches, the players just can use their hands to play.

In conclusion, there are many differences and similarities between both of them. Both of them have similarities in ways of playing and roles. They both are a type of sports and need strenuous exercises. However, they have different places to play at and different requirement of a match. Furthermore, they have a lot of different details and cooperation of players. Even though they are more differences and similarities, I still like playing both of them.

Essay#2

Nowadays, there are so many brand of cars in the world. And there are different kinds of cars in every brand. Such as Lexus IS250 and Porsche Cayenne. Although Lexus and Porsche Cayenne have some similarities, the differences between them are more important.

The Lexus IS250 is powered by 2.5L V6. One time, when I drive this car to mountain, I feels like there is not enough power to climb up. The suspension of Lexus is very low. For example, yesterday I scratch the suspension when I leave my home. Transmissions feature of Lexus IS250 are Sport, Normal and Eco modes. When I go to I10 freeway, I can change the mode to eco, so it can save more gas for me.

The Porsche Cayenne is powered by 3.6L V6. One time, when I drive this car to mountain, I feels like the car effortlessly when climbing the mountain. The suspension of Porsche Cayenne is high. For example, everytime I go out from home I won’t scratch the car anyway. Transmission of Porsche Cayenne is 8-speed shiftable automatic .I can easily overtake cars on the freeway.

Lexus IS250 and Porsche Cayenne both are four door car .But they also have too many differences. Lexus IS250 is 185 ft-lb of torque, but Porsche Cayenne is 295 ft-lbs. Lexus IS250 is rear-wheel drive; however, Porsche Cayenne is all-wheel drive. All-wheel drive is a type of four wheel drive system that continuously modulates torque distributions, allowing all four wheels to be powered at all times. Rear wheel drive allows the rear wheels to move at all times. Rear wheel drive is just live two wheel drive and all-wheel drive is a type of four wheel drive system. Typically all wheel drives are better on snowy and rainy road conditions. Lexus IS250 is204 hp at 6400 rpm; nonetheless, Porsche Cayenne is 300 hp at 6300 rpm.

Both of Lexus IS250 and Porsche Cayenne are luxury cars, different cars have different benefits. There is many difference between Lexus IS250 and Porsche Cayenne. The performance of the two cars are fine. Porsche Cayenne is more practicability and comfortable but Lexus IS250 is more useful for families.

Steps For Successful AP Essays

1. Read the question and determine exactly what you are being asked to do.

2. Write a "thesis/topic/topic" (or "thesis/topic/topic/topic") response on scratch paper.

3. Quote frequently from the text of the poem or prose you are asked to analyze.

4. Employ literary terms if and where appropriate.

AP Exam Final Review

1. Review the PAL Elements of Poetry link HERE.
Remember that these terms apply to prose as well.

2. Memorize the four "Steps For Successful AP Essays" above.

3. Review authors and principal characters from your high school English books.

4. Look over a sample exam HERE.

Sample Poetry Analysis - 1

Following is a poem by T.S Eliot called "The Journey Of The Magi." After it is a sample body paragraph about the second stanza.


The Journey Of The Magi

'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
and running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you might say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.



Here is a paragraph analyzing Stanza 2:

SAMPLE ANALYTICAL BODY PARAGRAPH – POETRY ANALYSIS


Sample Thesis

In "The Journey of the Magi," T.S. Eliot explores the ambiguity of the religious conversion experience through his use of structure, imagery, symbolism, and tone.


Paragraph on the second stanza:

In the second stanza, Eliot creates a transition from the experience of the journey in stanza one to the bewilderingly ambivalent feeling about the experience of being "born again" in the third. Not surprisingly, biblical imagery predominates in this transitional stanza. The poet's "three trees on the low sky" (l. 24) clearly prefigures the scene on Calvary that emanates from the nativity that the speaker is in search of; the assonance of "three" and "trees" draws attention to this as the central symbol of the stanza. Further, the "hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver" (l. 27) combines allusions to both the Roman executioners gambling for Jesus' clothing and the betrayal by Judas for thirty pieces of silver. By juxtaposing these images of death with the contrasting symbols of life like dawn and vine leaves, Eliot is anticipating the confused reactions to Birth and Death that appear later. However, it is Eliot's use of the understated word "satisfactory" describing his narrator's reaction to the mystical nativity that most effectively underscores the ambivalence of the speaker: the long-sought encounter with the object of the spiritual journey is expressed in distinctively neutral tones.