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umich essays - "a challenging book you have read"


wongxy 14 / 53  
Jan 10, 2009   #1
Prompt #3:
Tell us about a book you have read that you found especially challenging, stimulating, or provocative. Explain why it made an impact on you.


Think, without thinking. Or as Malcolm Gladwell puts it, Blink.

It is not a power exclusive to the elite, but a power everyone - you and I - share. More often than not, we fall prey to our rapid cognition, which lies behind the locked doors of our subconscious mind. Although it is hard to believe that it is conscious reasoning that denies us access to this unchartered territory, this is undeniably true. I cannot help but wonder whether in the midst of progress, we are actually regressing.

Blink set me thinking about life - whether in the midst of progress, we are actually regressing; whether in the pursuit of information and speed, we have neglected the power of our intuition.

We live in a knowledge-based economy, where information is prime in making decisions. Agencies pay for market research, schools bombard students with content, and the Internet brims with data that can occupy us for more than a lifetime. Everyday of our lives, our mind is clouded by the overwhelming information we receive that we fail to function intuitively. Soon enough, we will lose this innate ability.

It is funny how humans pride ourselves for our intelligence, yet not shame ourselves for losing the primal instincts we nurtured to emerge as who we are today. Information is dead, but our mind is alive.

What lies beneath a laugh, a smile, or a frown? Who is blatantly lying, and who is telling the truth? Aren't these the life skills that we genuinely need to read our body language, interpret our minds, and make life more liveable? Perhaps schools should teach students how to make use of their rapid cognition rather than supply them with content that mostly will not be of any use in their future careers.

We have planted too many trees in our forest that we have forgotten what it was like when the land stood bare, except for that lone tree which always guided our path. Instinct should not be only thing we rely on, but we cannot leave it in obscurity too.

Essentially, life has moved on too rapidly for us to slow down and make sense of what we are doing. We are too caught up with wealth, or with knowledge, that we forget to make use of the most fundamental ability we have. Even when we do, we often try to reason out our actions, warping our instincts in the process.

When will we realize that we are actually dehumanizing ourselves in the race to be the best? We say we think, but do we really think?

More is less. There are no three words that can better describe the crisis that has plagued the human race. Save the creature comforts and technology we have, we are no better than a herd of lost sheep wandering aimlessly in the woods.

I Blinked, and I peered into life more critically than I would ever would have.

*end*
icedbananas 1 / 12  
Jan 10, 2009   #2
Hi wongxy,

Blink sounds like an interesting book. :) I think your essay is a good attempt at explaining more about the book, but I'm sorry to say that I had a rather difficult time understanding it. :/

I couldn't really see how the book impacted you and made you change your perspective. & It was rather difficult for me to find the whole point of your essay. Are you trying to say that humanity is losing its ability to follow its instincts because of the overload of information and the faster pace of life?

Maybe you could define what 'blinking' is at the beginning of your essay, like "Blinking - the power to form instaneous conclusions with little information - is not a power exclusive to the elite, but a power that everyone shares.'

Also, maybe you could try writing a thesis statement at the end of your first paragraph that says how Blink made you think about the importance of first impressions in our lives.

I'm not a professional or anything, but I hope all this helps. Good luck! :)
OP wongxy 14 / 53  
Jan 10, 2009   #3
Are you trying to say that humanity is losing its ability to follow its instincts because of the overload of information and the faster pace of life?

Yeah exactly that.

Alright thanks I'll wait for other comments to come in then. :)
OP wongxy 14 / 53  
Jan 10, 2009   #4
Alright... I changed the essay a bit already (the bold parts). So any further comments are greatly appreciated :)

Prompt #3:
Tell us about a book you have read that you found especially challenging, stimulating, or provocative. Explain why it made an impact on you.


Think, without thinking. Or as Malcolm Gladwell puts it, Blink.

Blinking - the power to form instantaneous decisions with little information - is not a power exclusive to the elite, but a power everyone shares. More often than not, we fall prey to our rapid cognition, which lies behind the locked doors of our subconscious mind. Although it is hard to believe that it is conscious reasoning that denies us access to this unchartered territory, this is undeniably true.
sunnywowo 3 / 7  
Jan 10, 2009   #5
I just read this book recently. This essay summarizes the gist of the book well but I don't think it really goes deeper into what the book presents. In other words, this essay is not very insightful. Of course the AO may not have read this book before, who knows?
OP wongxy 14 / 53  
Jan 10, 2009   #6
I'm not sure if we actually have to present the insights of the book or just pick the aspect that's the most thought-provoking to you. XD
icedbananas 1 / 12  
Jan 10, 2009   #7
Hi again, I'm back to try to help you out some more. :) Here're a few grammatical changes:

More often than not, we all fall prey to our rapid cognition, which lies behind the locked doors of our subconscious mind. Although it washard for me to believe that it is conscious reasoning thatoften denies us access to this unchartered territory, Blink made me realize that itis undeniably true. After reading the book, a few questions lingered in my mind: In the midst of our progress, can we actually be regressing? In the pursuit of information and speed, have we neglected the power of our intuition? Blink is a book that made me re-evaluate life and the way we percieve it.

We live in a knowledge-based economy, where information is prime in making decisions.
Every day of our lives, our minds are so clouded by the overwhelming amount of information that we receive, that we fail to function intuitively. Soon enough, we might lose this innate ability to think on our feet.

Ohh, I see why I was so confused earlier on! Maybe you could tweak your sentences to show what you learned from the book, instead of just describing its contents. Try adding in a few "it made me realize..", "from this, I learned that..", maybe it'll help clarify things a bit. I think that your essay needs to really show how the book changed your thinking.. like how it made you re-evaluate the nature of humanity and gave you a new perspective on life, instead of just posing questions to the reader.

Try it &see how it goes. I hope all this helps! :)
EF_Kevin 8 / 13,321 129  
Jan 10, 2009   #8
You just need to add a sentence or two to explain the book a little better. Your writing and gramar are great... the first sentence, though... change "everyone.. share." to "all people...share." This wil make the numbers agree better.

As for clarity... give a sentence to explain the book to the reader.
OP wongxy 14 / 53  
Jan 10, 2009   #9
alright thanks a lot everyone, especially vanessa for helping me edit so much :)
icedbananas 1 / 12  
Jan 11, 2009   #10
No problem! (: Good luck in your applications!
menamilad /  
Jan 11, 2009   #11
WOW , I think it addresses the prompt well...good luck


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