Golf, The Great Teacher

Teachers are human. This is why people will always have trouble learning from them. Don’t get me wrong, teachers do everything humanly possible to insert things into our brains. Teachers work tirelessly to create thinkers out of all of their students. Unfortunately people do not learn well from other people. This fact can frustrate many teachers, causing them to think apathetically about most students. This apathy causes them to put less effort into their lessons. They move on from lesson to lesson, not particularly interested in whether or not the students are grasping everything that they are teaching.

This is the reason that golf is such a great teacher. Golf hits you with the same lessons, over and over, until you have fully grasped the concept. When a person tries to play the game without learning the lessons, they keep getting hit by the same problems. For instance, a man who has a problem with humility will have a big problem when he plays golf. From the first hole on, he will be humbled by the difficulty of the game. After just a few rounds of golf, a prideful person will either become humble, or quit the game. It is this repetitive teaching style that makes golf such a great teacher.

Children benefit the most from this type of teaching. When a teacher moves on from a valuable lesson, it can mess up a child’s entire education. Golf can provide a place for children to learn these valuable lessons from a teacher who does not stop until the lesson has been learned.

The problem with hobbies

Hobbies are great, but the pursuit of them can often interfere with the family life. I am interested in racing, however the involvement need to race is too great for me to pursue the sport I love. As a father, my family needs me to be more involved with the interests of my children. The only way for me to pursue my passion is to support my kids if they choose to race. Hobbies have many benefits. These benefits can be a drawback if not nurtured in the correct manner.
The foremost benefit of racing is the time required to enable one to race the next weekend. If a child's enjoyment of racing is nurtured correctly it is more likely that the child will refrain from delinquent acts. A sociology study, called Socialization Via Interscholastic Athletics: Its Effects on Delinquency" found in Sociology of Education found, “rates of delinquency (from court records) were highest for students who engaged in no extracurricular activities.”. Racing is a time-demanding sport. One must work on a car throughout the week to ensure that it is in optimum condition for the next race. This time intensive work ensures that the child is busy and not out “running a muck.” The saying “idle hands are the devil's playground” says it best; if a child is bored they are more likely to cause trouble. The time involved with racing has a secondary benefit, it strengthens the bond between the child and the parents.
Travis Anderson, a late model driver, recounts the memory of spending all weekend in an R.V. with his parents,“the time we spent together (in the camper) helped me bond with my parents.” The more time spent together on a common goal the stronger the bond between a parent and a child. This is evident in the bond between my wife and our daughter. Carmon is the youngest, so while the older two boys were at school, my wife was able to spend an unequaled amount of time with our daughter. Now consequently our daughter is very attached to my wife, more so than the boys are. Hobbies, if pursued by the family as a family, can help the family ties become so strong that the family will become an insurmountable force. On the other hand, if pursued individually, the hobby has the ability to weaken a family's bond to a point that the family is easily splintered. Hobbies also have an ability to teach children how to become better, more responsible people.
Most people who race have a “day job.” The drivers that I have spoke with have emphasized that they have this job so that they can pay their bills and hopefully have enough to race. Gale Carter, a driver at Meridian raceway, admitted, “Racing is a drive for me to be responsible. Keep my bills paid, then try to come up with enough extra to support my racing.” The same is true for most hobbies, they all teach us to be better individuals. What better way to exemplify these values than to sacrifice what we may love, in order to support our children's love?

Writing a paper is like playing football. In order to have a good offense, you need to have a good defense. The football team cannot advance with just their offense, they need their defense to make them stronger and make their results stand out more prominently.

A similar concept exists when writing any paper that argues that an idea, argument or product etc is better than any other. A paper will go nowhere just by stating why one opinion is the best or the right point of view without any "back up". Sports teams launch their defenses immediately; protecting their offense from the get go.

The same strategy is useful when authoring an opinion or argumentative paper; it is imperative to "clear the air" from the start by discussing what the opposing view point or critics believe. By following this model it allows for a much clearer paper and the reader comes away more knowledgeable and better able to understand your argument and then decide if they agree with your findings.


One of the most important aspects of writing any paper is clarity. If the aim is to sway the intended audience into agreeing with your point of view then a well written and concise argument must be made and this game plan should be followed: be clear about your stance from the very start, explain what the other side says and why they say it, and then make a convincing and succinct argument that proves why your position is the best. Game over.

Using "They Say"

When a person is forming an argument it seems very odd to introduce an opposing argument. The majority of people try to avoid doing this; pretending like their's is the only argument. So why would we do this? Why would we bring up a viewpoint contrary to our own? One reason is that we can strengthen our own arguments by weakening others. When I use an opposing argument to bolster my own I like to imagine that my argument is a fire, and opposing arguments are wood. When I introduce the opposing arguments, my argument not only destroys them, but grows bigger and stronger because of it.

Another reason to introduce an opposing argument to your audience is to take the strong points of that claim and use them to capture the idea of your own argument. In this style you say, "I agree with him when he says____, but the way he wraps up his argument is incorrect."This method not only helps to bolster the legitimate strength of your claim, but also develops you as an intelligent and unbiased author in the eyes of your audience.

They Say

In order to form a well thought out argument you must have an opposing argument. Using the "they say" idea helps us to present a point in our arguments. The "they say" method can create a stance for us to take, and help present that stance to the reader. When using what others think we can agree, disagree, or both. If the ideas of others are used correctly in an argument, regardless of the stance we take, it will help us to improve the formation of our own ideas. If we disagree, other's ideas give us something to argue against. If we agree, it allows us a starting point to develop on. If we agree with part, but disagree with another part, it allows the opportunity to interject our own voice, and argue why part of it is wrong. The saying "it takes two to Tango" is correct. We need a voice to develop a good argument. If we do not use an other's point of view we might as well be arguing with ourselves. When we use other's ideas we actually improve our side of the argument.

In an argument it is important to use what others say, but you must interject your own feelings or analysis promptly. If we do not develop our thought immediately we leave the reader to develop their own ideas. In an argument this is not advantageous. In an argument we want to tell the reader how they should feel, before they have time to figure out how they feel. This method helps create a strong argument. After the reader is done with reading about our point of view, then we want them to form their own ideas, but not before we are done.

George Orwell Response

In his writing, George Orwell seems to be extremely irritated with the way the English language has been used recently.  Orwell expresses his concern with the English language, especially in politics, by giving examples of typical mistakes made.  One mistake I can easily relate to is one’s failure to translate or paraphrase ideas while still keeping the same meaning.  He demonstrates this by translating a passage from Ecclesiastes into “modern english” from “good english”.  This example of paraphrasing by Orwell shows that if a writer does not take the time to examine the original writing thoroughly, then “concrete illustrations [...] can dissolve into vague phrases”.  For most writers it may be difficult to fully illustrate an idea in their own words.  Writers have to face challenges when it comes to conveying an idea: do not use meaningless or empty words, do not use too few words (missing the whole idea all together) or do not shape the idea to fit your own meaning.  Orwell wants us to get pass using hollow words or complex phrasing that can lead us to become “human machines”.  In everyday conversations we can point out some the typical metaphors or phrases that Orwell lists.  How many of the individuals involved in these conversations know the true meaning of the these metaphors or understand the wordy phrases?  The purpose of Orwell’s essay is to offer suggestions to turn from the laziness of the English language; Orwell’s desire is for writers to flee from vague meaningless writing.

While reading Orwell’s response I found myself comparing much of what he used as negative examples to what I do as a writer.  As I’m sure many writers do, I fall into the ease of replacing words with something that does not quite fulfill an image.  As Orwell pointed out, “the writer either has a meaning and cannot express it, or he inadvertently says something else, or he is almost indifferent as to whether his words mean anything or not”.  I do this all the time in my writing.  I regularly use a thesaurus while writing, and though sometimes this can be very useful, it also tempts me to use words that may not have the meaning to what I am trying to state.  For my argument paper I hope to meditate on Orwell’s writing to avoiding falling into the cycle of lazy writing.

Orwell Response

The author seems irritated that people do not take the correct steps to create an argument paper that catches the attention of the reader. In the essay he states that the development of language needs to increase and it is curable. For the most part language is a major influence on the way we write papers. Writers' become vague in their papers and it ultimately gives the paper a lack of focus. Orwell wants writers to get to the point and make it thorough. He also states that creating imagery, expressing private opinions, and papers that contain precision are things that allow a paper to be enjoyed. Orwell also gives tips to writers when writing a paper that include never using a large word when a small one will do.

The entire point of this essay is to get writers' to be more prepared when they are writing future papers. I thought metaphors were good for a paper but it looks like the author thinks metaphors are unnecessary. Orwell does a good job in not trying to "fix" all the mistakes writers make, but he makes it so writers like myself can improve with each paper. Orwell gives interesting facts about past writings and clearly points out mistakes to make it easier on each person reading this essay.