Friday, November 20, 2015

CATW Practice: Your Smell or Your Cellphone (with Sample Passing Essay)






This is a sample passing essay by a student in response to the CATW prompt Easier to Live Without: Your Sense of Smell or Your Cellphone.  It is highly recommended that you first read that article and write your own essay in response before reading this sample student essay.  


Sample Student Essay (Passing)

According to Easier to Live Without: Your Sense of Smell or Your Cellphone, most youths would rather lose their sense of smell than lose their cellphones and laptops if the youths were forced to make a choice.  Technology and social networks are very important and have made revolutionary changes such as in the Middle East.  However, your sense of smell is also important because you also lose your sense of taste if you lose your sense of smell (and you won't be able to savor that juicy piece of fillet mignon anymore.)  Therefore, this choice is more difficult than it may seem.  If I were forced to make a choice, I would choose to keep my sense of smell.  

It really is a dilemma as smell and technology are both important.  "It's a harder choice than you might think," as the author mentioned.  Your smell is also a tool from nature to keep you alive.  Without smell, you won't be able to detect smoke to keep you away from fire.  You won't be able to smell the gas before the explosion.  You see, your sense of smell is a survival tool from nature and not just for pleasure. Therefore, losing your sense of smell is actually more than losing the pleasure to taste that juicy steak.
Smell may also play an important role in relationships.  Without smell, you won't be able to smell the other woman's perfume on your cheating husband.  Therefore, your sense of smell may save you money that you would otherwise spend on a private investigator.  It would save you the hassle of contacting the investigative team on Cheaters (the television show catching cheaters for suspecting spouses).  Therefore, your sense of smell has many applications in life and it is a very important function to keep.
Although sense of smell is so important, technology is also very important.  Technology such as smartphones and laptops has undoubtedly revolutionized our lives in the last ten years, from bringing down tyrants in the Middle East to changing education around the world.  In the coming years, the poor in third-world countries will have access to a similar level of education as the well-to-do citizens of developed countries, as that is now more and more possible with the current development of educational technology (including social media and new media).  Because of the importance of new media and technology in improving lives, it really is a dilemma if we have to choose between technology and sense of smell.
However, if you are ever in a situation where you have to make a choice, it is best to give up technology because losing access to technology would not likely be permanent.  For example, one scenario where you might need to choose between smell or technology would be if you are captured by some crazy tyrant like the leader of North Korea.  In such cases, it is most likely a temporary situation.  On the other hand, if you give up your smell and have your nose removed, you will never get the senses back.  Once your smell sensors are removed, it's most likely permanent.  Even if bioengineers invent artificial noses, they will most likely be not anywhere near the capabilities of a natural nose.  This has been true in the development of other body parts such as the artificial mechanical heart, which lasts only ten years.  Therefore, it is best to keep your natural body parts and natural senses like smell.
Fortunately, we will probably never have to make such a tough decision in reality.  However, if you must make a choice, always choose to keep your natural senses like smell.  If you lose technology, it is unlikely to be permanent, but if you remove your natural smell sensors in your nose, it would most likely be a permanent loss.  Technology or anything man-made can usually be replaced, not like body parts which are more complex and would not be the same even if replaced,


Thursday, November 19, 2015

New York Times Article in English and Chinese





Here's our New York Times article pick of the day, in English and Chinese.  (For Chinese students, read the English version twice before reading the Chinese version.)

http://cn.nytimes.com/opinion/20151115/c15kristof/dual/


For more interesting readings that will improve your career and your life, feel free to follow our SpirFit Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpirFit/141881909215772

For free academic lessons online in various subjects, go to SpirFit.org 

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Past, Present, and Future Progressive (Continuous) Tenses



Reminder:  The importance of grammar is in writing or expressing your thoughts clearly, correctly, and precisely.

Instructions:  Answer each question in a complete sentence.  (You will need to use your imagination for many of the questions.)

1.  What is John doing right now?  (Present Progressive)



2.  What was Mary doing in the pool this morning? (Past Progressive)



3.  What will you be buying your mother next year for her sixtieth birthday? (Future Progressive)



4.  What is Miriam doing in the bookstore right now?  (Present Progressive)



5.  What were Sergei and Larry doing in the lab at Stanford University? (Past Progressive)



6.  What will the kids be doing at the park later?  (Future Progressive)



7.  What are you doing at the library right now?   (Present Progressive)




8.  What will James be performing tonight on the talent show, America's Got Talent?  (Future Progressive)



More materials and lessons at  SpirFit.org

Feel free to follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/amadeoconstanzo





Monday, October 19, 2015

Are You Going With the Majority? (Video and Writing Exercise)




Watch the video or read the summary.  Then free write according to the instructions below.




Summary of the Talk

* By the time Francis Chan was sixteen, his mom is dead, his step mom is dead, and his dad is dead.  (His mom died while giving birth to Francis.  His step-mother died in a car accident.  His dad died of cancer when he was twelve.)    Then his remaining guardians Uncle George and Aunt Sandra also died (in a murder suicide.)  At a young age, Francis Chan had experienced more instability than most of us have.

* When things around us become unstable, we tend to play it safe, and we hug and straddle the balance beam [instead of performing on it] as Francis demonstrated in his analogy of Olympics’ gymnastics.

After experiencing some instability, we tend to think, "This is crazy.  I'm just going to have my nice little family.  We're going to keep to ourselves.  We're going to live in a gated community.  I'm going to home school my kids [and] make them wear helmets everywhere.  I'm not going to let them outside because the sun has bad rays... You just live your life in this - I don't want to do anything crazy for God.  I just want to go to church and give maybe 2%, and may be serve/help the nursery (because I feel guilty.)  You do this your whole life.  Your greatest prayer is, "God, I would love to die in my sleep and not even feel it, and I would love to go to heaven."

* Then you wake up in heaven and stand before the judge and you go - [Francis does a pose of victory that Olympic gymnasts normally do at the end of a routine.]

Imagine watching the Olympics and the girl just straddles and hugs the balance beam for several minutes throughout the whole routine, and then gets off the balance beam in a pose of victory.  What is the judge supposed to do?  "Wow, well done!"  Is the judge going to say that?  "Well done!"  You lived the safest life possible.  You didn't slip.  You didn't fall."  This is what the majority will do with their life.  Do you want to go where the majority goes?  Are you going the same way as the majority?

* I don't want to go where the majority goes.



Free-writing Exercise

Write two or more paragraphs addressing one or more of the following questions.  Do you think you will be happy and fulfilled just pursuing a safe comfortable life with money, a nice house, a nice car, a nice family with kids, and nice vacations periodically?   Is this typical pursuit really going to make you happy when you obtain all of it?  For those who already have attained all of these, are they truly fulfilled and happy?  Not that we shouldn’t have this comfort and security, but is there something else, something greater than yourself you should also pursue?  Is there something greater you should pursue alongside working for these necessities and amenities of life?  How can you pursue something greater that would ironically also provide all these necessities and security in the long run?  How can going where the majority does not go, provide greater fulfillment (while also providing the lesser necessities and amenities most people pursue)?  Are you currently going where the majority is going?  Are you okay with that?  If not, what do you need to do to change course?


More life lessons, academic lessons, and other lessons at SpirFit.org

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Thursday, October 15, 2015

CATW Practice - Minding the Millimeter





Assignment
Begin by reading the passage below.


Are You Minding the Millimeter?

In any undertaking in life, it is important to mind the millimeter.  What is minding the millimeter?  To put it simply, it is minding (or attending to) the seemingly miniscule components in any type of work.  However, the minor factors add up to (or multiply into) major problems. On the other hand, if you attend to the right small matters, they would multiply into major desirable accomplishments or outcomes.

The importance of minding the millimeter is apparent in the sport of bike racing.  Mark Cavendish (professional cyclist and winner of many stages of major bike races such as the Tour de France and the Tour de Britain) is known to mind every small adjustment on his bike and in his training, down to the millimeter literally.  According to 453 and a Half, "Cavendish is well known for being completely obsessed with every detail in his preparation, paying close attention to everything from his wattage output to adjusting his saddle position a fraction of a millimeter."

Similarly, Phil Jackson (the former basketball coach who had won ten NBA championships) taught his players this importance of not neglecting the details.  He told them that a war is lost on a single nail of a ship.  Apparently, this was programmed into the mind of Michael Jordan, the basketball legend coached by Jackson.

The principle of minding the millimeter also applies to computer programming and software development.  For programmers, leaving out just a minor part of the code may result in major problems, such as the whole application not working at all.  Therefore, they must be mindful of every millimeter.

Does attending to the millimeter lead you for certain to produce the desired outcome?  No, it is not a guarantee, but it significantly improves your chances if you mind the millimeter.  Nothing in life is a guarantee.  An athlete training for the Olympics is not guaranteed to win the gold medal, but it would be foolish of him to neglect the training and neglect the millimeter adjustments just because there is no guarantee.  Unfortunately, people have the foolish logic of not minding the millimeter in other areas of life just because there is no guarantee.   Another reason for this common fallacy is that one minor adjustment in itself does not solve the problem and therefore, why bother.  This logic is flawed.  When you adjust for one millimeter here, a gram there, and another millimeter here, they will synergistically contribute toward the outcome you want.

Adapted from article by Amadeo Constanzo, life.SpirFit.com , September 14, 2015
(You may freely post and distribute this article if and only if you include this statement with the link or URL to the original article or website.  More CATW Practices and lessons are available at SpirFit.org  Send questions and inquiries to healthsciencewriter@gmail.com )

Writing Directions
Read the passage above and write an essay responding to the ideas it presents.  In your essay, be sure to summarize the passage in your own words, stating the author’s most important ideas. Develop your essay by identifying one idea in the passage that you feel is especially significant, and explain its significance. Support your claims with evidence or examples drawn from what you have read, learned in school, and/or personally experienced.

Remember to review your essay and make any changes or corrections that will help your reader follow your thinking.  You will have 90 minutes to complete your essay.


If you click "like" or if you tweet this page, it would encourage me to post more like it and more frequently.  Because I teach these writing workshops in CUNY, I am among the first to get new information.

For free academic lessons online in various subjects, go to SpirFit.org 

For more interesting readings that will improve your career and your life, feel free to follow our SpirFit Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpirFit/141881909215772


Saturday, October 10, 2015

Academic Calendar: Keep an Eye on It




Looking at the academic calendar is one of the most important things to do at the beginning of every semester and throughout every semester. This applies to all students, tutors, faculty, and staff members.  Why this is so important is explained at the bottom of this blog.  Academic calendars can be found at:

Kingsborough Community College Academic Calendar
http://www.kingsborough.edu/sub-registration/office_of_registrar/Pages/academic_calendar.aspx


In Alphabetical Order

Baruch College Academic Calendar
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/registrar/due_dates.htm

BMCC Academic Calendar
http://www.bmcc.cuny.edu/calendar/academic_calendar.jsp

City College of New York Academic Calendar
http://www1.ccny.cuny.edu/current/registrar/calendar/

Guttman Community College Academic Calendar
http://guttman.cuny.edu/academics/academiccalendar.html

Hunter College Academic Calendar
http://registrar.hunter.cuny.edu/subpages/academic_calendar.shtml

John Jay College Academic Calendar
http://johnjay.jjay.cuny.edu/acalendar/EventList.aspx?fromdate=8/26/2011&todate=12/31/2011&display=Month&view=DateTime

Kingsborough Community College Academic Calendar
http://www.kingsborough.edu/sub-registration/office_of_registrar/Pages/academic_calendar.aspx

Laguardia Community College Academic Calendar
http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/Academics/Academic-Calendar/

Queens College
http://www.qc.cuny.edu/registrar/calendars/Pages/default.aspx  (Click the correct semester under "Important Dates" section.)


Why the Academic Calendar is So important
I know of a tutor who, when he was still new to the college, did not bother looking at the academic calendar. On one Tuesday that was a Monday schedule (as indicated on the academic calendar), he did not show up for the labs and workshops he was supposed to be teaching that day, because he did not pay attention to the academic calendar and therefore did not know about the schedule change for that specific date.

Keep an eye on the academic calendar throughout the semester. Enter the holidays and the days of schedule-changes (conversion days) into your personal calendars, Google Calendars, or smartphones. Such a simple action will prevent problems.


For free academic lessons online in various subjects, go to SpirFit.org 

Feel free to follow our SpirFit Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpirFit/141881909215772


Feel free also to choose the “Subscribe” options on the right side of this page.




Sunday, September 27, 2015

Free Workshops for CATW and ACT Reading







FREE CATW and ACT Reading Workshops are available at L219.  Grammar Workshops are also available.  It is not too late to sign up for SOME workshops.  (For example, Tuesday workshops will begin this week.  Sign up before it's too late.)

For now, I can only endorse Shu's workshops, since he is the only one in L219 who incorporates the SpirFit educational approach.  On this website, I cannot endorse other workshop instructors unless they are trained in the SpirFit educational approach.

This approach effectively addresses your individual needs, whatever your English level.  Although students in the same workshop may be at very different levels, the SpirFit educational approach is able to effectively address each student's needs by incorporating innovative educational methods of recent years brought about by game changers from Silicon Valley, MIT, and Harvard.  In addition, the SpirFit educational approach includes pedagogy or teaching methodology encouraged by the KCC English department, CAWS, CUNY Start, and others.  The SpirFit teaching approach also includes unconventional methods from other professions and methods backed up by science.

KCC students, recent KCC graduates, KCC Continuing Education students, and CUNY Start students are all eligible for these FREE workshops at L219.  Since you have already paid for these workshops with your tuition, why not make use of them!


Shu's Workshops (for the CATW, ACT Reading, and/or Grammar)
Sign-up Location:  L219 at Kingsborough Community College



For CATW and ACT Reading practices, feel free to go to:

http://spirfit.org/Academy/catw 
 and
 
http://spirfit.org/Academy/actreading


Wednesday, August 12, 2015

SpirFit.org is Back





  is up and running again. If you have any problems with it, please let us know. It's our pleasure serving you. Thank you.

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

SpirFit.org is Down Temporarily

Our website at SpirFit.org is down right now.  Please pardon the inconvenience.  We are working to bring it back up shortly  Thank you for your patience.

Friday, July 24, 2015

CATW: Delaying Divorce





Here's an interesting CATW prompt that a few of my students are working on:

https://sites.google.com/site/basicwritinglgcc/home/cat-w-prompts/delaying-divorce-to-save-marriages



For more practices on the CATW and CUNY ACT Reading, go to:

http://spirfit.org/Academy/catw

 and

http://spirfit.org/Academy/actreading

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Free Software for CUNY Students and Employees




If you are an employee or a student at any of the 23 CUNY campuses, you are eligible to legitimately download software (such as Microsoft, McAffee, and Maplesoft products) for free from CUNY eMall.  Some are free for employees and students.  Others are free for employees, while students have to pay but a discounted price.  To get these softwares for free, try the following CUNY links.  You may have to first log into your CUNY Portal.

https://cuny.onthehub.com/WebStore/ProductsByMajorVersionList.aspx

 
Note:  As an employee of Kingsborough, my CUNY Portal is different from my CUNY First login, and it is different from my other Kingsborough logins.  It may or may not be the same for students.


For free academic lessons, fitness and health lessons, and life lessons, feel free to go to SpirFit.org





Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Free Grammar Workshops





Do you have problems with grammar on your essays and papers?  Do you think your grammatical problems are lowering your scores on certain writing exams?  Are your problems with grammar showing in your job applications, cover letters, and job interviews?  If so, you should sign up for FREE grammar workshops taught by Shu this current semester at L219.  Why not use this current summer session to improve your grammar.  Sign up as soon as possible at L219 before they fill up.

For now, I can only endorse Shu's grammar workshops, since he is the only one in L219 who incorporates the SpirFit educational approach.  I cannot here endorse other workshop instructors unless they are trained in the SpirFit educational approach. 

This approach effectively addresses each of your individual needs, whatever your English level.  Although students in the same workshop may be at very different levels, the SpirFit educational approach is able to effectively address each student's needs by incorporating innovative educational methods of recent years brought about by game changers from Silicon Valley, MIT, and Harvard.  In addition, the SpirFit educational approach includes pedagogy or teaching methods encouraged by the KCC English department, CAWS, CUNY Start, and other departments.  The SpirFit teaching approach also includes unconventional methods from other professions and methods backed up by science.

KCC students, recent KCC graduates, KCC Continuing Education students, and CUNY Start students are all eligible for these FREE grammar workshops.  Since you have already paid for these workshops with your tuition, why not make use of them!


Shu's Grammar Workshops
Sign-up Location:  L219 at Kingsborough Community College

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Single Stop with Free Help with Food, Financial Aid, Lawyers, and More





If you are a Kingsborough student, a continuing ed student, CUNY Start, CLIP, a student from Goldstein high school on campus, or if you have another type of affiliation with Kingsborough Community College, most likely you can benefit from the free services of Single Stop.  (For students of other CUNYs, see links at the bottom.)

Single Stop provides:
  • Food vouchers and food (even if you don't qualify for food stamps)
  • Help with food stamps, health insurance, housing, cash,, and other public benefits
  • Help with financial aid (especially if you are taking out loans at a community college or cannot afford to pay for your tuition  
  • Free legal services.  (They have a lawyer specializing in housing and rental issues and a lawyer specializing in immigration and naturalization issues, but they can also refer you to other legal assistance
  • Free tax services (from January to June)
  • Free financial advising and credit rebuilding
  • Other services


For more information, contact:

Mrs. Hattie Elmore, Single Stop Coordinator
hattie.elmore@kbcc.cuny.edu
Room V231
718-368-5411
http://www.kbcc.cuny.edu/singlestop/Pages/default.aspx



For Single Stop at other community colleges of CUNY:

BMCC:  http://www.bmcc.cuny.edu/singlestop/

Hostos:  http://www.hostos.cuny.edu/singlestop/

LaGuardia:  http://laguardia.edu/singlestop/

Queensborough Community College:  http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/singlestop/



All CUNYs: http://www.cuny.edu/about/administration/offices/sa/specialprograms/SingleStopCCI.html






If you are having trouble passing the CATW and CUNY ACT Reading, go to:

http://spirfit.org/Academy/catw

 and

http://spirfit.org/Academy/actreading




Thursday, April 23, 2015

Kingsborough Graduation Cap and Gown




TO ALL STUDENTS WHO HAVE ALREADY APPLIED FOR GRADUATION (The deadline was April 16),

The deadline for ordering your caps and gowns is MAY 2, 2015. Go to: www.Jostens.com Select Kingsborough Community College and place your order. There is NO CHARGE for the cap and gown. However, if you miss the deadline, we will be ordering enough caps and gowns to accommodate ALL students. Please go to the KCC Bookstore after June 4th. to pick-up caps and gowns.

If you have any questions, please call Paul Winnick at (718) 368-5040.

Note: This was a message from Paul Winnick copied and pasted on this site.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Free CATW Essay Evaluation






Feel free to send me your CATW practice essay and I will evaluate your writing for FREE.  From my assessment of your essay, I will provide pointers that you need in your individual case to improve your writing for the CATW.  If interested, all you have to do is the following:

  1. Email me your essay and the CATW reading passage.  On your email, put as email subject "CATW Assessment Request."  My email address is healthsciencewriter@gmail.com
  2. Go to my SpirFit Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpirFit/141881909215772 and click “like”. 


Please allow 72 hour turnaround time.  

I have been teaching the CATW since its inception several years ago (and I have taught writing for other exams that preceded the CATW.)  Also, I have been coaching or teaching students in their writing for almost ten years.

For CATW and ACT Reading practices, feel free to go to:

http://spirfit.org/Academy/catw
 and

http://spirfit.org/Academy/actreading