Book Reports / How to write a great critique! [3]

Yes, you should definitely focus on meeting the criteria you have been given. If you write up a draft and then post it here, we can read your work and let you know if you have been successful in doing so.

Graduate / Performed art is a mirror for human society and the converse - MFA (Acting) Essay [6]

Great essay. A few minor things:

"The ideas that theatre can be an interactive tool to enlighten and bring about change appeals to me. " You can fix it in other ways too, but the original didn't quite make all the way into proper parallel structure.

"Theatre is an important social construct and therefore the artist has an ethical responsibility to [it sounds like a verb is missing here] what they produce and how they portray it."

"I am ready to put forth an unceasing effort because faith without works is dead." This seems a bit jarring, because there seems to be no reason for a Biblical quote in this context.

Writing Feedback / What are the differences between life in America and life in Third World nations [14]

I wasn't criticizing your use of language, only your choice of topic and your approach to it. But, if you had no choice, then you can't be blamed for taking the approach you did. Perhaps you could improve your essay by more clearly dividing your sub-topics. At the moment, they all end up being about wealth versus poverty, and the repetition is what gets tiring. But, your points don't have to be phrased that way. In fact, maybe you could make that your thesis:

"Life in the First World is made easy by wealth, whereas life in the Third World is made difficult by poverty."

Then, you could use each of your sub-points as a way of demonstrating the truth of that point.

"The First World can afford to provide its citizens with a social safety net, whereas the Third World cannot."

"The First World can afford to police its bureaucracy to prevent corruption, whereas the Third World cannot."

"The First World can afford to permit a greater range of individual liberties, whereas the Third World cannot."

If you were to structure your essay this way, you would still have the same overarching idea that you have now, but you could hone your sub-points so that they are distinct enough to still be interesting. Plus, you could keep a lot of what you have already written. You would just have to move some stuff around, and then add/alter some of your transitions.

Writing Feedback / Essay on advantages of computer games [16]

In that case, your point is well taken. Starcraft involves a fair amount of strategy, and is surely more worthwhile than Days of Our Lives. Of course, I think most things are more worthwhile than watching soaps, so I might be a bit biased.

Writing Feedback / Feedback for my essay on Philosophy Paper relating to parfits personal identity [3]

Your argument seems sound, and I agree with your conclusion. However, some things to consider:

1) All three Harrison's materialize in different locations (however slightly). Thus, the very act of materializing is a different experience for each, and by the time they realize what has happened, each is therefore already slightly different from each other.

2) Here is a thought experiment for you:

Let us say that the original Harrison owns a precious statue. This statue is not precious in a material sense, being made only out of cheap plaster. But, this particular statue was given to him by his mother the day before she died, and so has great sentimental value for him. By odd coincidence, the plaster from which this material is made prevents it from being replicated by transporter or replicator technology. Replicas could be hand-made, of course, but duplicating the exact color of the plaster is impossible, against due to the mysterious impurities in the original plaster, so it is impossible to create perfectly exact duplicates.

Now, let us say that, after being split into three Harrisons, the thee are so horrified at seeing themselves as others see them that they cannot bear each other's company, and so all choose to go to completely different sections of the universe.

Which Harrison gets to keep the statue?

Remember, there can only ever be one that has any meaning for the Harrisons. You could, I suppose, have the Harrisons choose by lottery who gets to keep it. But, if possession of the statue is an integral part of what makes Harrison Harrison, by Harrison's own understanding of who he is, does the very act of assigning the statue to one of the three make that one more truly Harrison than the others?

3) Same thought experiment as above, only substitute a girlfriend(or wife!) for the statue, and assume you cannot replicate the malfunction. Who continues in the relationship? Which one, in the case of a wife, is the woman married to? Is she now guilty of bigamy? And if the Harrisons decide to get as far away from each other as possible, who does she go with? Does she have to divorce the other two?

The point of the two thought experiments is that, while in theory the three Harrisons may be equally you, as you claim, in practice one is going to end up being more equal than the others. I think a strong conclusion might be one that would deal with how you would handle this.

Writing Feedback / Iranian Revolution Recounted in Persepolis [2]

This seems to start in media res. You need to work on situating the events you describe in context. For instance, you write


.

At that point, though, you haven't mentioned that your text blames modern imperialism, unless of course you view globalization and cultural exchange as synonymous with modern imperialism, in which case, that is still a personal view and one that needs explaining. Likewise, you write


The doors to what, exactly? Who did the locking? You imply the Shah's followers, but without more context, the quotation confuses rather than enlightens.

And so on. You need to revise your essay to make sure you have fully explained the context of the examples, and their connection to both the text and Persepolis.

Writing Feedback / What are the differences between life in America and life in Third World nations [14]

"The world has been divided not by God but by men: by the political influences, the economic resources, and military authority." Or even "The world has been divided not by God but by men: by politics, economics, and war."

Why do you mention the U.S. in your second paragraph? The U.S. is most definitely not a third world country.

Ugh. By the halfway point, I have no more interest in reading this paper. You are essentially arguing that the Third World is characterized by poverty and corruption, whereas America is not. I know this. Everyone knows this. No one would argue with you, which makes your essay deadly dull. It would be bad enough if you had written a one-page essay doing this, but to draw it out to six is a crime against your readership. You need a better thesis, one that is debatable, so that you can argue something that is interesting. You could argue that

"The Third World languishes in poverty because of the oppressive machinations of first world governments."

or that

"The Third World suffers from its own refusal to accept First World values."

Either would be controversial, hence interesting.

Don't be discouraged by the above criticism, though -- this is why people write essays, to learn and grow by creating multiple drafts of their work. Good luck.

Dissertations / Ethics and professionalism in computer science:issues of security [3]

This is a topic I'm not that familiar with. Perhaps if you provided the instructions for the assignment, and whatever random ideas you can come up with for meeting them, I could still make some useful suggestions, though.

Book Reports / "Scout, a Courage Crammed Volcano" - Essay on Courage in novel To Kill A Mockingbird [5]

Well, it is good that you are trying to use metaphors in your writing. You might want to provide a clear, literal definition of courage after your rhetorical questions, though. Atticus says "Courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what." How does that definition seem to you? What other definitions might you use? How do the overlap, if at all? Once you have clearly explained what courage is, then you will be in a much better position to explain how Scout shows it.

Undergraduate / A time-travel machine to go back in time in your own life and change something [22]

If you post your revised draft, we can give you a sense of how well your new descriptions work, if you'd like.

Research Papers / About Research essay Trifles [4]

And here is one you don't have to pay for: answers.com/topic/trifles-play-3

But Kevin's general point is excellent, and one you should take to heart.

Writing Feedback / Essay on advantages of computer games [16]

But then, of course, you need to look at what sort of television programming is being watched. Watching the sort of programs that come up on the Discovery Channel is arguably more educational than chasing renderings of aliens around a map trying to shoot them. Of course, trying to solve puzzles in a well designed RPG is arguably more educational than watching an episode of the Young and the Restless, or any other day time soap, for that matter. So, perhaps like most technology, video games can be good or bad depending upon how they are designed, and whether they are used in moderation or excess?

Writing Feedback / Machine Learning versus Learning by Humans [51]

Hmmmm . . . I seem to remember saying this:


Then, you said to be critical anyway. I see, however, that I was right in the first instance.

You have quite a flawed image of me, btw, because of course, like most people, you see others as adopting essentially the same attitude as yourself. You see, you care about the ideas you profess, they are to you a part of who are, and so your self worth is in fact bound up in them. You take an attack on one of the ideas (that meditation may merely be the physiological effects of starving your brain of oxygen) as an attack up yourself, because you happen to believe deeply in the power of meditation. On the other hand, it doesn't matter to me, either way. I just want to provoke discussion and debate, thoughtful reflection. That generally means presenting the opposite point of view to whatever is being posted. If you read through the other thread, you'll notice that I start out arguing in favor of some conception of God and an afterlife. Only when the resident atheist's posts became weak, and the other posters began arguing the same sort of things as me, did I switch and start arguing from an atheistic standpoint, one that denies the validity of mysticism and spiritual practices such as meditation.

You over-sensitivity, I should point out, is indicative of great arrogance. I do not generally talk about you or the other posters on this site when I am out with my friends. For that matter, I generally do not think about you or the other posters at all when I am not on the forums. This, btw, is true of most of the people you meet. They don't really think about you when you are not around. If you stop and think about it, you will realize that this is a good thing, that might inspire more relief than sadness.

Essays / How to write essay about teenagers / minors (who complain they are being treated like children) [5]

You need to give us more to work with. For one thing, are you supposed to give your view on whether teenagers often complain they are being treated like children, or on whether or not teenagers are actually being treated like children? And, if they are being treated like children, are you supposed to say whether or not you agree with this? I'd do some research on what it means to be a teenager. There has been a lot written, for instance, on how teenagers' brains develop. Essentially, the part of the brain responsible for feeling excitement tends to be dulled at this point, so teenagers need more extreme experiences to get an adrenaline rush than adults do. At the same time, the part of the brain responsible for weighing consequences isn't fully developed yet. Combine these two things, and it is easy to see why teenagers often do things that just seem foolish to adults, who may respond by treating teenagers with less respect than the teenagers would like. In any event, do your research, write up your findings, and post them with the exact instructions your teacher gave you. Then we can be more helpful.

Poetry / Monologue intro on a love poem - a girl leaving a guy because he treated her bad. [9]

You can still post your draft here if you'd like. It might be too late to make changes to improve your mark, but you still might learn something from the feedback you get that will help you on future assignments.

Essays / Their Eyes Were Watching God . . . Need Help Outlining an Essay [13]

Depends on the college, I should think. Mostly, taking honors means having to take more courses in your chosen field, which is not really a problem if you have a single focus that you are passionate about. It can be a bit more difficult, though, if you wanted to double major, or have a major with several minors, as then you can have a lot more trouble scheduling things, and may have to overload to meet all of your requirements. Apart from that, the only additional requirement I remember is an honors thesis (or possibly some other special project for non-humanities fields). Really, though, writing a single long paper over the course of an entire year is no harder than writing several smaller term papers for another course. And there are no classes either, so the thesis is easier than a course in that respect. You just have to make sure you don't leave the entire paper until a week before its due.

Essays / ILC Challenge & Change in Society HSB4M-A EXAM [16]

What sort of accent? I'm assuming the speaker had one, just because of the construction of the sentence, though the speaker could have just been very poetic.

Essays / Problem-Solution Essay on Romeo and Juliet [4]

If the outline in the link I sent to you is massively different from what you think your teacher wants, then you should definitely post a copy here so we can help you figure it out. I was sort of working on the grounds that the basic elements of a problem-solution essay tend to be fairly fixed. If you don't mention a problem and discuss possible solutions, it ceases to be a problem-solution essay. Give us as many details about your assignment as you can, though, as that way you will get the best possible advice.

Writing Feedback / "How must we change our lifestyles to meet the threat of global warming?" [6]

You should probably combine what I said with what Kevin said. First, do your research. Until you have read what the experts have to say about global warming, its causes, effects, and the costs of combating it, you don't really have grounds for coming up with a solid position you know you can defend. Once you have immersed yourself in information about the topic, then you can decide which arguments seem stronger to you, and what solutions seems most likely to work. Then, you can come up with a thesis, something arguable and interesting, that you can defend. And once you have done all that, then writing the essay will be much easier for you, because you will be writing to defend a position that you strongly believe in, using examples and arguments that are rooted in the existing discourse on the topic.

Writing Feedback / Machine Learning versus Learning by Humans [51]

No, actually, if you read the article in the link I posted, you would have seen that the science is quite valid, and provides a very good reason why meditation can be worthwhile. Babies have a wider sense of consciousness than adults. Adults filter the information their senses give them, learn to focus only on what is relevant. Babies and toddlers don't -- they absorb everything unfiltered. So, a three -year-old can pick up a new language way faster than an adult, even learning two or three at once, because he absorbs all the words he hears, not just the ones he has learned to pay attention to. But, the kid can't tie his own shoelaces, because that would involve focusing his attention on just the shoelaces. If we never learned to focus our attention, we would be as helpless as, well, a baby. Sometimes, though, we might actually want to return to a mental state similar to that of a baby's. For instance, we all do something like that when we are trying to be creative, or to improvise. Neurological scans show that we literally suppress the part of our brain that is responsible for narrowing our focus, return to a more open state of consciousness. And why should any of this give you offense? I thought that the whole point of meditation was to increase the scope of your awareness in order to better yourself. If science has provided evidence that meditation can actually do both of these things, I would have thought you would have embraced the idea.

As for the oxygen deprivation comment, that was a bit facetious, I admit, but really, it also makes a certain amount of sense. You were practicing holding your breath for longer and longer periods of time, and breathing as shallowly as you could when you did have to breathe. This would, presumably, result in less oxygen getting to your brain. "Symptoms of generalized hypoxia depend on its severity and acceleration of onset.. . .symptoms include headaches, fatigue, shortness of breath, a feeling of euphoria and nausea. In severe hypoxia, or hypoxia of very rapid onset, changes in levels of consciousness, seizures, coma, priapism, and death occur." Now, perhaps because you were inducing the state deliberately, in a controlled way, you didn't suffer the negative symptoms. But, euphoria and changes in levels of consciousness are the two main elements you describe in your meditative experience, and they are both listed as symptoms of oxygen deprivation. So, you said you were undertaking an activity likely to lead to oxygen deprivation, then you suffered the onset of symptoms associated with that condition. Just because a statement reeks of sarcasm doesn't mean there is no truth to it.

Research Papers / About Research essay Trifles [4]

Have you tried the obvious, i.e. Googling "gender roles in 19th and early 20th century?" And have you tried doing this both on the web and in both Google Scholar and Google Books? I find it difficult to believe that nothing has been written on the subject.

Undergraduate / A time-travel machine to go back in time in your own life and change something [22]

It especially counts for descriptions. Weak verbs in dialogue aren't so bad, because people often do use weak verbs when speaking, so at least if you use them then, your characters' speech will sound realistic. But description is all about conjuring up vivid images, which are precisely what weak verbs don't do. So, for your descriptions, use the strongest verbs you can find.

Essays / Problem-Solution Essay on Romeo and Juliet [4]

It should look something like what is described here: geocities.com/frankie_meehan/ProblemSolution.htm\

The obvious problem for you to try to solve would be Romeo and Juliet's desire to be together despite their families' feud. Then, just come up with ways they could solve their problem, and explain which solution you favor and why.

Dissertations / Thesis paper on translation in famous works, confused about a topic [16]

If you find a topic that interests you, and someone has already written on it, that does not mean you can't write about it. you can agree or disagree with the position others have taken, and look at people who take issue with your stance and explain why they are wrong. There is very little you can do that is wholly original in any field. Everything builds on everything else in some way.

Writing Feedback / Machine Learning versus Learning by Humans [51]

Well, at the moment, to someone who isn't into meditation, your description of your experience sounds suspiciously like the effects of oxygen deprivation. However, science has discovered that meditation may help return us to a baby-like state of thinking, which may be more useful for certain cognitive tasks than adult thinking. You might be interested in this article:

boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/04/26/ inside_the_baby_mind/

Writing Feedback / The New Great Depression [4]

Well, for an essay with this title, you would need to compare and contrast now with the Great Depression. So, what was the unemployment rate in the Great Depression? What is it now? What has it been in the past few recessions? What about inflation? GDP contraction? And so on. Once you have all of the information about the economic conditions at the time of the Great Depression, previous recent recessions, and this one, then you will be able to determine if this is a New Great Depression, or merely an ordinary recession hyped by certain political figures for political purposes.

Essays / ILC Challenge & Change in Society HSB4M-A EXAM [16]

Oh, I see. How about, "A crazy writer wielding pointy objects," which I think scans even if you include the "y" on "pointy."

Research Papers / Biology Reseach paper topic - Come up with a hypothesis [4]

How about "sleep deprivation reduces short term memory more than long term memory." Easy enough to test. Have one group of test subjects stay awake for a night, have them look at some set of symbols they are suppose to memorize, test them immediately for short term memory, then let them sleep, and when they wake up, test them again without showing them the symbols a second time. Do the same thing with people who don't get sleep deprived in the first place, and voila!, you have a control group.

Writing Feedback / Essay on advantages of computer games [16]

And would it really hurt to then name a Wii game or two that would be particularly useful in this regard? The more specific you get, the better.

Great example, btw, Ned.

Undergraduate / "Untitled" General Personal Statement [4]

I actually like the essay overall -- you have taken a fairly original approach to this topic. However, your thesis needs work: "A particular pair of mine is rancid, grungy, and down right appalling- they describe me perfectly" No, they don't. Nothing in your essay indicates that you are, physically or mentally, rancid, grungy, or appalling (this is a good thing, btw, considering who are writing for). It is one thing to set up a nice hook, but it has to make sense with the essay itself. Likewise, "They are the truest representation of who I am and who I will continue to be." This is wrong. They have captured the experiences you have had, and are therefore treasured, but they don't have qualities, physically speaking, that you would (or do) ascribe to yourself. If you can find a way to keep the general idea without being factually wrong, your essay would gel quite nicely.

Writing Feedback / "How must we change our lifestyles to meet the threat of global warming?" [6]

The first paragraph can mostly be cut. It makes a series of baseless assertion that you obviously aren't going to be backing up in this particular essay.

Hmmm . . . the rest of your essay, while not quite as bad, really isn't that much better, either. You tend to use a lot of words to say very little. Ideally, you want to use very few words to say a lot. For example:

"We can do a vast amount of changes to our style of living, start of by focusing on our transport methods. One of the greatest power polluting machinery work, yet one of our greatest inventions, "The car". The car known as a vehicle of transport on average releases approximately 166 GPK (Grams per Kilometer). The revolution of evolving the car usually is increasing how fast it can go. Therefore we have more fuel consumption and a greater release of CO˛."

Could be reduced to:

"Our focus on creating ever faster cars has led to their producing ever more pollution, and now only by rethinking our use of the internal combustion engine can we save ourselves from global warming."

But wait! That isn't right, either -- Co2 isn't a pollutant. It is a naturally occurring gas, one which is necessary to sustain the biosphere. Also, we have speed limits, which means that most cars have not in fact been made for extra speed, since you couldn't avail yourself of that feature in most cases anyway. Rather, the real problem is that cars have been getting bigger, which is a different issue. And where are your sources and citations? What research do you have to back this up?

If you had done some research, you would have realized that oil and gasoline can be carbon neutral renewable resources. In fact, scientists have created a bacteria which can convert farm waste into just this type of oil and gas. They haven't figured out how to scale it up to an industrial scale yet, but the critter exists. This would be a much easier solution to implement, btw, because you wouldn't have to create a whole new infrastructure, as, say, you would need to keep cars running on hydrogen powered fuel cells going.

And, when you got to talking about coal, you might talk about the potential of anacondas as replacements: dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1177844/Wave-future-The-giant-rubber-sea-snakes-generate-electricity-tens-thousands-UK-homes.html

Really, what you have at the moment is a very shallow summary of a very complex issue. I'd start over, especially if you have a week to do research and revision.

Essays / ILC Challenge & Change in Society HSB4M-A EXAM [16]

Matches up with what? Surely "of pointy objects" is iambic, but "a crazed wielder" not so much. Or am I scanning it wrong?

Research Papers / what's a good and easy research topic for and economics that's 5-7 pages [6]

"The effects of Congress on the stock market"
"The causes of the subprime mortgage crisis"
"The effectiveness of the invisible hand"

Or you could just do a search for "controversy economics" in Google. That should eventually lead you to something worthwhile.

Writing Feedback / My paper, for Newt Gingrich... [19]

I'm pretty sure that you are misusing the word "can't" there. I'm certain it is perfectly possible for you to be dismissed from college. In a world of cause and effect, all actions have consequences. On the bright side, this is a valuable life lesson, and as university is a place people go to learn valuable life lessons the system seems to be working as it should.

That said, I understand that, while you *can* be dismissed from college, it requires a great deal more effort than you have so far put into it. There should be deans and student organizations and all manner of bureaucracy in place to allow you to appeal your case. Then committees will gather and discuss and debate, and, if you blubber and weep and beg enough, and generally swear up and down in-between your tears that you really, really, really have learned your lesson, they'll probably give you another chance.

As for how I would put the 2nd paragraph in my own words, I wouldn't. That would be giving you something you could copy without fear of being caught, enabling you to commit more plagiarism. That would only teach you that cheating is okay if only you don't get caught, which isn't a valuable life lesson at all, but the first step towards developing a sociopathic personality. If you were to put into your own words yourself, though, I would be happy to edit it for you.

Essays / Their Eyes Were Watching God . . . Need Help Outlining an Essay [13]

Oh, now you're being too hard on yourself. You made your point quite successfully -- I just couldn't resist pointing out how funny that particular sentence was out of context. Your writing is actually very strong, and I am not quite sure why you find the idea of AP English intimidating. You would surely have no trouble with it.

The quotation outline, btw, works even better if you can track down an electronic copy of the text, as you then just have to copy and paste, which saves an awful lot of time. Unfortunately, I couldn't find one for this particular novel for you, but it is worth bearing in mind when you study older, non-copyrighted texts (Shakespeare springs to mind).

Book Reports / Jem's Maturity; To Kill a Mockingbird [7]

Discussion of events that occur within books should indeed be in the present tense. It can be difficult to stick to that, though, if you are referring to events that took place in the fictional past compared to the fictional present of the moment you are describing. Because Boo Radley gave them treats, Jem is disappointed when the oak is sealed up. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense if you use the present tense for the first part, here, because then it would sound as if Boo gives Jem treats at the exact same time that the oak is sealed up. You can work around this fairly easily, by dividing up sentences, for example -- Boo leaves treats for Jem and Scout in the tree. As a result, they are later disappointed to find the oak has been sealed off -- but this may not be immediately obvious to people who are not used to academic writing.

Writing Feedback / My paper, for Newt Gingrich... [19]

The problem is that you obviously did do research. You didn't just happen to know all of this about Newt Gingrich -- you looked it up somewhere. So, you should have cited the sources of the information, even if you were paraphrasing. In fact, if you had cited, you could have even used direct quotations, and it would have involved less work for you!

Hmmm . . . I was going to give you an example, but I just noticed something

"Newt Gingrich was born on June 17, 1943, an American politician who played a role as a speaker of the United States of Representatives. He was chosen by Time magazine as the person the year for his role conducting the Republican Revolution in the House."

Compare with this quotation from wikipedia

"Newton "Newt" Leroy Gingrich (born Newton Leroy McPherson on June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author, who served as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. In 1995, Time magazine selected him as the Person of the Year for his role in leading the Republican Revolution in the House"

This would in fact seem to be a clear case of plagiarism, in as much as you have copied the material almost directly from wikipedia. You were smart enough to change a few words, but the copying is still quite noticeable once both sources are compared side-by-side. You might have ameliorated this a bit by doing something like this:

"Born on June 17th, 1943, Newt Gingrich eventually grew up to lead the Republican Party to dominance in the U.S., House of Representatives, where he served four years as speaker (Wikipedia.com). In 1995, the year Newt first became Speaker of the House, Time Magazine named him Person of Year, saying 'because of Newt a balanced budget is no longer a question of if, but when' (Time Magazine 38)."

The last quotation is actually from a conservative website, but you could have tracked down a 1995 issue of Times and quoted from it if you had wanted to. The revised version would probably pass muster as a work that had avoided being an act of plagiarism, though even now it would be even better if the order in which the ideas were presented didn't follow the Wikipedia article quite so closely.

Research Papers / Thesis statement: "Why Are Company CEOs getting Higher Bonuses?" [13]

Yep, Kevin's absolutely right. The explanations are long-winded and generally dull. Lay out your argument first, then use your explanations to make your case so that there is a reason for the reader to be interested in them. I wouldn't cut them altogether, though, as what a CEO is and does is sort of key to deciding if he or she deserves a bonus.

Essays / Their Eyes Were Watching God . . . Need Help Outlining an Essay [13]


Writing an analysis of a work by using quotations to back up your points! I don't know, seems highly unorthodox to me. :-)

You might want to try creating a quotation outline. Type out all of the quotations that seem relevant to your topic. Then organize them in the order you think you'd incorporate them into the essay. Once you've done that, the essay itself you can get written in an hour or two, usually. Really, assuming you can type at least 60 words a minute, you can average 12 pages an hour. What takes the time is the thinking, and once you've decided on your evidence and its presentation, you've pretty much finished all of that.

Writing Feedback / My paper, for Newt Gingrich... [19]

Letting other people copy off of you is plagiarism, even if they change it around, and it is in fact traditional to punish both of the people involved, unless the person who had his work copied didn't know that it had been. Apart from that, I just looked up the version of your Newt paper that you posted here, and it doesn't seem to have any citations in it. Did you add a bibliography after you were finished, but before you handed it in? If not, you may have been guilty of unintentional plagiarism, which sort of sucks. Essentially, even if you paraphrased information from other sites, and didn't mean to plagiarize, if you didn't give credit to your sources, it is still considered plagiarism. So, the same essay, only with parenthetical citations and a bibliography, would be considered solid academic work, whereas the essay without those citations would be considered an act of academic dishonesty, even though the essays were identical otherwise.

If this was the case, then you can probably save yourself by pleading that you acted out of ignorance rather than our of a desire to deliberately cheat, and by asking for a chance to be allowed to redo the coursework in question, this time with full knowledge of the necessity for citation. I realize that this probably won't make you very happy, as it involves a lot of extra work you thought you had got behind you, but it is much, much better than an dismissal from university with a mark of plagiarism on your record.