Writing Feedback / "tip the waiter" essay - what have you learnt from a mistake? [9]

You can cut down on the word count somewhat by cutting irrelevant details:

"We talked about his ill mother, dead father, his schooling, where he lived; I loved the innocense with which he replied. There and then I decided I could help him"

"As we conversed, I decided I would teach him so that he could improve his social condition"

You might want to use the extra room such cutting gives you to talk more specifically about how you helped the kids that you did teach, so that that image comes to dominate the essay.

Undergraduate / Common App- Reasons for Transfer (is it TMI? it's not completed or edited yet) [11]

There is a certain amount of risk involved as far as perception of eating disorders go. Whether you should mention it therefore probably depends on what you need your essay to accomplish. It sort of sounds, from the way your essay is written at the moment, as if your illness caused you to miss classes and possibly obtain lower academic grades than you otherwise would have. If this is the case, then you are not just explaining the reasons for your transfer, you are attempting to explain away negative aspects of your application that might cause the transfer request to be rejected. If this is the case, a narrative explaining your specific condition and how you eventually overcame it would so much stronger than one that omitted the details that the risk is probably worth it.

On the other hand, you may have a very strong application overall to begin with. If this is the case, then Simone is right -- you can answer the prompt without going into detail about the nature of your illness, though you should still revise the other parts of your essay for specificity.

Either way, good luck with your revisions, and feel free to post your new draft here when it is done.

Graduate / "Where there's a will there's a way" - help me revise the Statement of Purpose [5]

This isn't a statement of purpose. That is, you haven't actually stated your academic purpose, except to say that you want to engage in "experiment physics," which the reader could probably guess from your application to a graduate program in physics. You should be a lot clearer on what you hope to study, specifically, about physics, and what you intend to do with the knowledge you gain from your studies.

Beyond that, your essay suffers from over-reliance on weak verbs. This is a common problem, one that isn't too difficult to fix. Read this article for a sense of how to fix the issue when you are revising:

Once you have revised your essay for content and style (via strengthening the verbs), post your new draft here for more feedback.

Letters / Cover Letter for internship with a Member of Parliament [5]

Not to mention that explaining your sympathies with Labour will show that you take an interest in British politics and that you have a firm grasp of the sorts of issues you might be expected to be familiar with as an intern for a gov't official.

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]


The most successful country in the world is the United States, by virtually any objective measure you care to name. That's why wave after wave of immigrants from all over the world keep going there. Is it not natural for the less successful to model themselves after the more successful? Why then should this attitude on the part of the U.S. come as a surprise?


Interesting. You believe then that personal gain and social well being are mutually exclusive? That is, you believe that one cannot choose both to pursue personal gain and to build a healthy community? Or that a person could not view investing in the creation of a healthy community as a method of securing increased personal well being for himself? Or that a person could not view pursuing personal gain as a method of building a healthy community? What gives rise to these beliefs, and how would you justify them? I would have said that the best community is one that allows all its members to pursue their own happiness freely, so long as they infringe on no one else's rights. I assume you have a different definition of "healthy community" than I do. Possibly you have a different definition of "personal gain," too. I would be curious to hear what those definitions are.


In what sense are inequality and violence to be defined as problems? Inequalities in ability and temperament must needs produce inequalities in wealth in any just society. You might object that inequalities in wealth are not always tied to inequalities of either ability or temperament in contemporary America, which is true, but it doesn't negate the fact that inequality, in and of itself, need not be inherently problematic. Likewise, violence is not in and of itself a problem. Certainly inappropriate violence can be, but force itself is the basis of all law and social discipline, both of which are presumably necessary for the existence of a healthy community. So, I agree that under some circumstances inequality and violence can be problems, but to merely label both of them "problems" without regard to circumstance seems like an inadequate way to discuss them.

Undergraduate / Common App- Reasons for Transfer (is it TMI? it's not completed or edited yet) [11]

Of course, your readers won't know, as Simone does not, whether you actually are protected by the disabilities act unless you tell them whether or not your illness falls into the category of a disability. More to the point, it is difficult to feel sympathy for someone who says only that they have suffered from an illness, when that illness is being used to justify oddities in a university application. Really, it's just a matter of what I always advise students writing these sorts of essays -- prefer the specific to the general, the detailed to the vague. I understand that you may have personal reasons for wish to avoid going into detail about your illness, in which case, by all means, leave that part of your draft as is, but be aware that the vagueness that results will in fact be a weakness in the essay.

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]


Are you quite sure? I seem to remember you arguing in one of these threads that people in developing countries, from cultures who subscribed to a form of mysticism (like the one you yourself believe in, by odd coincidence) were more enlightened and closer to a deeper truth than those who subscribed to Western materialism (in the philosophical sense of the term). That sounds to me like you were saying that the former culture is superior to the latter. In fact, that is what you were saying -- it's just that its politically correct to praise developing cultures and to trash first world ones, whereas praising British settlers and trashing indigenous cultures is most definitely not. The principle is exactly the same though.

It's okay, though. Most people believe that some people are superior to others, and very few really believe that the same isn't true of cultures, too. There is a reason we prefer smart, virtuous, educated, experienced leaders to dumb, corrupted, uneducated, inexperienced ones. In some sense, being smarter than someone else makes you superior to them. That is, the state of being smarter is in and of itself a superior state to being stupider. The same can be said of being more virtuous, being more educated, etc. It is of course possible for a person to be superior to a person in one area, yet inferior in another. So, a very smart man may be utterly unscrupulous, whereas a very stupid man may be quite virtuous, so that one is intellectually superior to the other, yet morally inferior.

However, it seems likely that various positive traits tend to reinforce one another. Intelligence, for instance, emerges from a complex mixture of genetic and environmental factors. No one is yet sure of the exact balance, but most researchers agree that early education plays a key role. So, a child who starts on an early path to being well-educated is likely to manifest more signs of intelligence than a child who does not. Likewise, an intelligent student is more likely to achieve higher levels of education than a duller one. So, intelligence and education tend to reinforce each other. It seems likely too, that a very intelligent person who has developed good critical thinking skills will be better able to resolve moral issues coherently than one who has not. This is not to say that intelligent, well-educated people cannot also be scoundrels, but I suspect that they are statistically less likely to become villains than poorly educated people.

I'm sure what you say of the contemporary aborigines is true -- I meant no disrespect to aboriginal culture today. My comment was only that aboriginal culture in Australia as it existed at the time the aborigines were discovered by European settlers was lacking development in many areas that might have made those settlers' evaluation of it reasonable. Certainly, if you had been there at that time, and had wandered off to sit around the campfire with those "peaceful" people, you would have most likely got a spear in your chest for your troubles. Pre-contact aborigine society in Australia was highly tribal, and characterized by a high level of on-going tribal warfare, as you would expect in any situation in which you have hundreds of thousands of humans living in small groups where each group believes that it is the best.

Essays / Can't think of an essay topic that is the most common topic ever [11]

Yes, I had assumed that one would choose from said lists those topics that one found most interesting. Choosing a topic at random, or even just a topic that one knows little about to begin with (which is not the same thing), can still be a good idea in some cases, though, if one has, or is trying to cultivate, an intellectual curiosity and a passion for writing in general. On no account, though, should you choose a topic you believe you will actively dislike writing about, or that you know you will not be able to sustain an interest in for at least as long as it takes you to write a decent paper on it.

Letters / Cover Letter for internship with a Member of Parliament [5]

You might focus more on what you hope to get out of the experience. "An interest in politics" leading to "a rewarding experience" isn't particularly specific, nor does it inspire the reader to want to hire you. What aspects of politics are you interested in? Why? How do these interests and your reasons for them tie into what you hope to learn from the internship? And what about your existing interest in and knowledge of politics would allow you to contribute something special to the ministry during the time you would spend working there? What would that something special be? In other words, the reader already knows why a poli. sci. student would want a coveted and competitive internship in a gov't department. What the reader doesn't know is why you should get the position instead of all of the other people who are applying. So, that's what you have to explain to them in this letter.

Undergraduate / Common App- Reasons for Transfer (is it TMI? it's not completed or edited yet) [11]

Your essay suffers from the sort of vagueness that plagues many students writing this sort of thing. What sort of illness are you talking about, specifically? If you don't want to say, you might consider not mentioning it at all. What sort of courses did you take through correspondence? How did you do? How does this connect to your educational goals? What, beyond going to college in general, are those goals? Ground your writing in the specific, and your next draft will surely be stronger.

Essays / Universities should strive for gender balance between male and female students in every subject [17]

Wow, I don't think you even managed to copy the prompt correctly. Presumably it should be "universities should strive for perfect gender balance between male and female students in every subject. To what extent do you agree or disagree." That is an excellent prompt to write an essay on. Good luck coming up with a draft. Once you have one, feel free to post it here for more feedback.

If you need help getting started, try thinking of the causes of gender imbalance in some subjects, as well as some of the problems that could arise if every class had to have a 50/50 split between the sexes.

Scholarship / I have studied intensively, especially maths and physics for the past twelve years - scholarship [38]

The personal pronoun "I" should always be capitalized. Many people, foreign or otherwise, don't bother when typing messages online, for the same reason they use terms like l8r and cya instead of spelling out the words and phrases correctly -- it is a time saving informality.

Your grammar needs work. Here are a couple of tips to get you started:

"Seeing them quickly opened the gifts and smiled brilliantly," "Seeing them" is currently the subject of the sentence, which means that the sentence makes no sense. Revise.

"My high school did holdheld many parties, including a mid-autumn festival, an international children's holiday, and in many other events for children, and each time I do volunteered , I discovered something new and exciting." Avoid using "did"s and "do"s that aren't necessary.

Undergraduate / 'study methods required to survive in college' - Statement regarding GPA [11]

I'd say you could make it a bit longer and still be okay. Certainly, following our advice would give you a stronger essay, but the final decision is of course up to you.

Essays / Where to learn bhangra dance - my topic [7]

Um, this isn't really a writing-related question. Or do you mean you want to know where you can learn about Bhangra dancing? In that case, I would recommend searching Google to track down some preliminary information.

Graduate / 'I joined a worldwide leading service oilfield company' - SOP for Master in Petroleum Engineering [4]

You need a stronger intro, too. "Since I was in High School I had a profound interest for Science which led to my decision of electing engineering as a profession." So, what you are saying is that you went into engineering because you liked science. That's pretty vague, and doesn't really catch the reader's attention or make you stand out at all from all of the other applicants. You might want to just cut your first paragraph altogether, and start right in with your oil company work as your opening.

You might also consider cutting your last two paragraphs, and simply tacking on an additional sentence to what will then be your last paragraph in order to get something that sounds like a conclusion.

Essays / Can't think of an essay topic that is the most common topic ever [11]

A Google search for the term "controversial topics" will get you sites that list 50+ subjects for argumentative essays. Better yet, some of the sites have lists of hyperlinks that will take you lists of sites that support and oppose policies related to the controversial issue you select, giving you a good place to start your research.

Undergraduate / 'study methods required to survive in college' - Statement regarding GPA [11]

Your most recent draft is better. Now, you should expand on the part where you developed better study habits. At the moment, you deal with each development in the same length of time, which means you emphasize the positive and the negative equally. However, you should be emphasizing the positive more than the negative, since you want to show your good qualities more clearly than your bad ones, in order to appeal as strongly as possibly to the people reviewing your essay.

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]

Ah, now you have touched on something interesting indeed. He goes away and reads about the object. You are absolutely right -- that is exactly what any contemporary human being would do. Writing is the one thing, the only thing, that humans do that other species do not. Ants wage war, lions commit infanticide, dolphins and bonobos have sex for fun, chimps use tools, and multiple species have primitive forms of vocal communication that can be considered languages. Only humans, though, have developed writing and it is arguably the key to our success as a species. Indeed, when European settlers encountered the aborigines in Australia, they viewed the aborigines as just one more form of fauna. And, despite the political incorrectness of the view, I am not convinced that they were wrong to do so, because the aboriginal culture at that time had not yet invented a written system of communication, the one thing that distinguishes human beings from the beasts. Have you ever thought about how central, how important, writing is for us as a species?

Writing Feedback / "People of MTV generation have no patience. They want instant satisfaction." [84]

Our dialogue would seem odd to anyone who hadn't read Hitchhiker's. I persist in believing, though, that 6*9 is the question, as that is what Authur Dent discovers in the novels, and it actually does make sense in tridecimal. Adams himself denied that this was intentional, but thanks to postmodernism, we can blithely ignore his protests.

Research Papers / '20th century hero' - Research Paper on Franklin D. Roosevelt [9]

I love the English language. I don't think we disagree here. That Roosevelt was overly socialist and inclined to be dictatorial I concede. That is a far cry, though, from being an actual dictator. My original advice was that the student look more at how effective Roosevelt's socialist policies were in ending the Great Depression, rather than in creating a straw man contrast between a a hero and a dictator (rather than a democratically elected leader with dictatorial tendencies) and I persist in believing that that was sound advice.

Essays / Essay about "Hope" - what to write? [8]

True enough. Since the topic given was "hope" though, I stand by my assertion that an essay that looks at facets of hope would be better than one merely looked at applications of hope given a certain definition of the term. I agree, though, that knowing the exact instructions for the essay would help in coming up with useful feedback on the approach the student should take.

Scholarship / I need some advice on ideas - "Why do I deserve the scholarship" [42]

That's fine. Starting fresh can often be beneficial. Certainly, we will wait however long you need us to to review your next draft.

Writing Feedback / Essay on the Types of Germs - bacteria [22]

I like the quotation you used. Perhaps you should cite it, according to whatever format you are supposed to be using?

Graduate / Law School Personal Statement ("I am a fighter.") [11]

You seem to want to do something involving human rights. That's nice. In fact, it is like the concept of "nice" -- vague, dull, and uninformative. What human rights problems do you wish to tackle? What fills you with a burning personal desire to tackle those issues? Answer these questions concisely, preferably relying heavily on narrative centered around strong verbs, and you will have a much better essay than you currently do.

Undergraduate / 'study methods required to survive in college' - Statement regarding GPA [11]

So, you start off as a major-league slacker, ("I did a lot of slacking and did not learn the study methods required to survive in college") then do a bit of studying while remaining a fairly hard core slacker ("I really need to change the way I study and improve in these classes which should be simple."), and blame your few remaining low grades on "tough graders." Well, I know I'd be knocking down your door trying to give you a scholarship.

Try revising your essay to put yourself in a better light. Explain that you got very good marks in high school without having to do much work. When you got to college, you found the expectations were much higher, which caused your marks to drop. You then rose to the challenge, studying hard, dedicating yourself to your academic career. This resulted in a restoration of your marks to mostly As, though not enough to pull your GPA back up over 3.25 when your lower first semester marks are included in the average, though you came very close, with a 3.18.

The above is the general sense of what you should say. However, you should say it by including specific examples of courses you took and study practices you implemented.

Undergraduate / When I first heard the news that I was moving to Brooklyn, I felt overwhelmed with anger - challenge [8]

Your second draft is even stronger than your first. The only thing that stands out for me is that this

"Moving from the suburb of Conyers, Georgia to New York City proved to be a difficult transition. As we entered Brooklyn, the crowded streets caught my attention. Never in my life had I seen so many people in one city. It was mind-boggling. My parents enrolled me in a private school. This school starkly contrasted with the magnet school I had attended."

is a bit choppy. The sentences are all roughly the same length and use roughly the same structure. Also, logically, it is not clear why the crowded streets made moving a difficult transition, or what it had to do with your parents decision to enroll you in a private school. If you were to revise the essay to make the connections between your ideas in this section stronger, your essay would become even better than it already is.

Research Papers / '20th century hero' - Research Paper on Franklin D. Roosevelt [9]

Different meanings of dictatorial. Hey, this becomes an example of the logical fallacy of equivocation -- I never was that happy with the example I posted on the logical fallacy thread, so this is convenient. A real dictator by definition does not stay in power by the repeated winning of fair and free elections, though he may come to power initially in such an election. Roosevelt however, was democratically elected all four times. He did not, to the best of my knowledge, suppress dissent at the point of a gun, or muzzle the press, or even attempt to disarm the populace. In short, he was a democratically elected leader who worked within the American system as we know it. It is true that he was socialist in his policies, and that the framers of the Constitution might have disagreed with him, but neither of these things are dictatorial qualities. That capitalism is generally associated with democracy does not mean that socialist leaders cannot also be democratically elected, or that they will necessarily subvert government into a dictatorship, though they tend to move in that direction, if only because their policies put more power in the hands of gov't, hence more temptation in the hearts of gov't leaders. Perhaps, if FDR had been in more robust health, he might in time have become a dictator, but he cannot be characterized as such based on his actual time in office. That then is one meaning of the term "dictator," which is the one that the author of the essay presumably means, or at any rate is clearly using, whether he means to or not. The other meaning of "dictatorial" is "inclined to command, overbearing," a term which can in fact apply to many democratically elected politicians, and which seems to be how you are using the word.

Undergraduate / When I first heard the news that I was moving to Brooklyn, I felt overwhelmed with anger - challenge [8]

This is quite well-written, both stylistically and grammatically. Your first sentence is a bit too long, though, and should be broken into two or more shorter ones. Also, you might want to discuss in a bit more detail how you went from "hesitant" to "confident" in your social interaction. The transformation is rather abrupt and inexplicable at the moment. Finally, writing with a strong style, as you do, can disguise the problem of over-reliance on weak verbs, but it remains a problem nevertheless:

"Moving from the suburb of Conyers, Georgia to New York City was a difficult transition. As we entered Brooklyn, the crowded streets got my attention. Never in my life had I seen so many people in one city. It was mind-boggling. My parents enrolled me in a private school. This school was completely different from the magnet school I had attended. The students were required to wear uniforms, the teachers were a lot stricter, and, unfortunately, there were no science fairs. On the first day of school, kids gathered in groups to discuss their summer breaks. I was hesitant to join in the conversations"

In this section you rely too much on forms of "to be," though "got" isn't great either. Throughout the rest of the essay, you have many other weak verbs, such as "to have," to make," etc. Try revising your essay with a view to either replacing those weak verbs with stronger ones, or rephrasing sentences to eliminate instances of weak verbs altogether.

Letters / Statement in support of application for a Research Technician [3]

Aye, the content of these sorts of essay tend to be fairly standard. You have to talk about certain things, simply to have a chance of getting in. What will make you stand out, apart from any marks of distinction you may have academically or personally that are truly unique (if you have any of these), is how well-written your essay is. So, write as concisely and as strongly as you can, then post the draft here for revision.

Writing Feedback / TOEFL - modern society has become more complex, so it is essential for the young people [10]

Hmmmm . . . it seems that you are writing to a formula, in which you use the same introduction for each essay, with only one sentence changed. This is not a great way to build your writing skills, or to develop a strong intro.

As for the essay itself, it is off topic. You give no reasons as to why businesses should prefer customer satisfaction, employee rights, or social stability over the alternatives except inasmuch as these things might make them more profitable. In fact, much of what you write seems to be arguing that businesses should pursue profits above all else, because in doing so they will be forced to value customer satisfaction and employee rights, which is a different argument from the one you say you are going to make / have made in your intro / conclusion. Either revise your essay to argue the merits of pursuing profits (which as I said would actually allow you to maintain most of the material in your body paragraphs), or else come up with some reasons other than concern with profitability that a business might value the things you list.

Writing Feedback / "People of MTV generation have no patience. They want instant satisfaction." [84]


Possibly you are right. However, the phrase "MTV generation" does have a specific meaning. It refers to those born around 1980. At the latest, it may include those born around 1985. This means it refers to a set of people who most definitely are no longer teenagers, as the youngest members of this generation would be in their mid 20s, whereas the oldest could be pushing thirty.


I believe it is the product of six multiplied by nine, if you are working in base thirteen.
I'm sure it wouldn't surprise you to learn that the Earth was a computer designed to work in tridecimal. After all, what other number could a planet like this be based on?

Scholarship / I need some advice on ideas - "Why do I deserve the scholarship" [42]

You could start with the anecdote you suggested -- whether it ends up being mediocre or not will depend on your writing skills. Here is an alternative approach:

1. Delete your first paragraph (often a good idea, and the first thing many people should do after finishing a draft)

2. Rewrite the first part of your second paragraph (which is now your introduction) to turn what you have written now into a narrative anecdote that shows you coming to your decision, rather than telling us about how your father apparently made the decision for you.

You might find that this works better for you, as you will be working with ideas already in your essay, instead of adding something a bit new to the beginning. This should in theory give you a stronger flow to your writing.

Scholarship / I have studied intensively, especially maths and physics for the past twelve years - scholarship [38]

Your essay at the moment is a list of of details about yourself that make you a good candidate for a scholarship. The problem is that lists aren't that interesting. Stories are. Simone's advice that you start with a personal anecdote is therefore very good. In fact, you might want to try revising the rest of your essay to see if you can make it more narrative. That is, use anecdotes liberally to show rather than to tell the reader your strong points. As you are doing this, remember to continue to use strong verbs and concise writing in your new sections, to ensure that your essay is as strong as possible.

Research Papers / '20th century hero' - Research Paper on Franklin D. Roosevelt [9]

As for the essay itself, you present a choice between two caricatures -- Franklin as hero and Franklin as dictator. He was in fact a very successful politician, who was elected democratically and who left office when the voters no longer wanted him there. No politician who successfully holds office for 12 years does so without doing a lot of morally questionable things, and no one who comes to power and leaves it democratically can be reasonably cast as a dictator. A better approach for this essay might be to look at whether his New Deal was a triumph or a failure of socialist policy. Did the New Deal end the Great Depression, or drag it out until America was rescued by WWII? You can find plenty of research material arguing both cases, and you would be crafting an essay that responded to a real historical debate, rather than to a horribly oversimplified one that you made up.

Essays / Essay on myself, how to write it? [35]

Don't forget to include the exact assignment instructions when you post your essay, so that we can tell if you are fulfilling the expectations of your audience.

Essays / Essay about "Hope" - what to write? [8]

Ideally you will also look at various aspects of hope and make important distinctions between them. For instance, false hope is, despite the name, still a genuine type of hope. It is the object of hope, not hope itself, that is false in such cases. However, one may pass up genuine opportunities to improve one's life while waiting for the hoped for event. So, you might argue that hope is beneficial when it is directed towards something that might actually happen, but dangerous when it is not.

To look at one of the examples from your outline, you say "some people may do nothing but hope," (I'm paraphrasing for grammatical reasons). You might elaborate on that by examining what aspects of hope might lead people to adopt this approach, and asking when such an approach might be reasonable, and when it might be foolish. In other words, don't just assert that "hope can be dangerous if it is all one does," and then give examples proving this (although these should definitely be part of your essay). Instead, try to think about various ways in which the statement is and is not true, with a view to exploring the meaning of "hope." This will give you a more interesting essay.

Essays / Essay about "Hope" - what to write? [8]

Whatever your purpose, start by defining what you mean by hope. Hope as a Christian virtue, for instance, is different from hope as a standard emotion. Even in a non-religious sense, the word has half-a-dozen closely related but still different meanings. If you don't decide what you understand by the word before you start writing, any essay you write is likely to run into trouble.

Grammar, Usage / Tasteful Thank You [11]

And really, what's so bad about that? Worst case scenario, he chooses to ignore the perceived implication. Best case scenario, you get grad money. :-)

Writing Feedback / "People of MTV generation have no patience. They want instant satisfaction." [84]


Too late! You have already contributed something meaningful. You have raised the interesting question of whether any of us even have an "authentic self." After all, doesn't the very idea of self imply continuity, the sense that who we are when we're daydreaming is the same as who we are when we are conversing or meditating. At least, we use the same term, "I," to describe the person who is doing each of those things. If in fact different selves are doing those things, then does that negate the very idea of self-ness?

And then, there is the question of perspective. In any social encounter we are many people at once -- the person we perceive ourselves to be, the person we are pretending to be, the person those we are dealing with perceive us to be, the person we believe that the people we are dealing with perceive us to be. We tend to assume that the person we perceive ourselves to be is the most authentic of these differing selves, but that could just be personal prejudice.

Writing Feedback / How can I play into the hands of my Maker - Sunday Morning [51]

This seems counter to our experience of gaining knowledge. Let's say, for instance, that I enter a room with a strange object on the table. I have no misunderstandings about the object, because I have no idea what it is, no preconceptions or beliefs about it to begin with. As I engage with it, though, I begin to gain information about it. From this information, I might deduce other things about it. Some of these deductions might be correct from the outset; others might be incorrect, and so become the misunderstandings you mention. Still, it seems clear that the knowledge I gain that is correct from the outset did not come to me through the relinquishing of misunderstanding.

Although I disagree with the concept, though, I do think it is sort of interesting, and I agree that in many cases understanding does in fact come through the relinquishing of misconceptions. I just don't believe that all knowledge is gained this way, or that it is foolish to talk of acquiring knowledge. So, our positions here are not as far apart as they have been on other issues.