Aside from laundry piles and baby poop disasters, the formal essay is the most frequently reoccuring challenge in my life. I obviously like to write. I obviously have things to say. Why do I have so much trouble starting an essay? I have a 6-page paper due on Monday for my Adolescent Lit class. Blegggh. I've procrastinated for an entire week, and I'm now forcing myself to acknowledge the impending deadline.
I've decided to procrastinate further by blogging about my angst. I'm hoping that this will get the creative juices a-flowing.
What is this terrible essay assignment anyway? Well, dear reader, it's not a terrible essay assignment. I am just a terrible essay-starter. I make a really big deal out of getting started on my papers. I work myself up, I talk to people in a whiny, impatient tone (especially if someone actually needs something from me), my skin gets itchy, I pace, I have uncontrollable gas, I go on killing sprees... you get the idea. (I'm kidding about the gas!) Anyhmm, my professor is asking us to discuss the themes of alienation and identity in any four novels we've read this semester.
Tit, right?
So why am I making this so hard?
:-(
I need an opener. Like a quote. Or a WOW thing. I can't get started without one.
I'm really open to any suggestions you've got. Actually, you probably shouldn't even talk to me unless you've got something good. I'm on edge, and I really don't have time for your shit.
See what I mean?
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Measures of Central Tendency
For the first time in my life, I’m taking a math class that I really like. It’s Math 139: Contemporary Topics in Mathematics. Contrary to my inital assumption, we do not sit in a circle discussing new mathematical breakthroughs. It’s actually just like any other math class, except it includes relevant applications to its lessons.
Today’s lesson was in Statistics, and it dealt with a term that intrigued me: Measures of Central Tendency. I’m no mathie, but I thought the term was enticing. It actually refers to finding the mean, median, and mode of a set of data. I remember mean, median, and mode from early math classes, maybe in elementary or middle school. To recap: mean is just the average of the numbers, median is the number in the middle of the set, and mode is the number that occurs most frequently. I remember thinking as a kid, Who cares about median and mode?!? The mean is the only important number, anyway. And, in most cases, it really is.
Today I learned a different perspective. Say, for example, a class scored a bunch of different grades on an exam, mostly in the 70’s and 80’s. What if one student scored a 22? If the class was small in size, that stupid 22 would throw off the class’ average score, therefore largely misrepresenting the data. A better way to represent the class’ performance would be to find the median, which would likely be in the mid-70’s.
That phenomenon got me thinking about what interested me in the term Measures of Central Tendency, and how it applies to life.
In math, the median is useful because it is resistant to extremities in data: for example, that stupid 22 doesn’t really matter if you look at the median grade. Therefore, calculating the mean is sometimes a waste of time, when you could just find the median. Finding the median is always easy because you just look at the data’s center, and pick the number in the middle. And life should always be that easy.
If we applied mathematical reasoning to our lives, we might find that sometimes analyzing and calulating is unnecessary because the middle is oftentimes more telling. All too often, we think about our lives in terms of extremities: the breakups, the deaths, the mistakes, the births, the big wins, etc. If we focus on what happens in the middle of these events, the small daily stuff, we’ll find where life is lived. That is the data which should be measured because it tells us about our central tendencies. Look to the middle to find the answers. Make sure the small days in your lives are well-lived and well-remembered.
Today’s lesson was in Statistics, and it dealt with a term that intrigued me: Measures of Central Tendency. I’m no mathie, but I thought the term was enticing. It actually refers to finding the mean, median, and mode of a set of data. I remember mean, median, and mode from early math classes, maybe in elementary or middle school. To recap: mean is just the average of the numbers, median is the number in the middle of the set, and mode is the number that occurs most frequently. I remember thinking as a kid, Who cares about median and mode?!? The mean is the only important number, anyway. And, in most cases, it really is.
Today I learned a different perspective. Say, for example, a class scored a bunch of different grades on an exam, mostly in the 70’s and 80’s. What if one student scored a 22? If the class was small in size, that stupid 22 would throw off the class’ average score, therefore largely misrepresenting the data. A better way to represent the class’ performance would be to find the median, which would likely be in the mid-70’s.
That phenomenon got me thinking about what interested me in the term Measures of Central Tendency, and how it applies to life.
In math, the median is useful because it is resistant to extremities in data: for example, that stupid 22 doesn’t really matter if you look at the median grade. Therefore, calculating the mean is sometimes a waste of time, when you could just find the median. Finding the median is always easy because you just look at the data’s center, and pick the number in the middle. And life should always be that easy.
If we applied mathematical reasoning to our lives, we might find that sometimes analyzing and calulating is unnecessary because the middle is oftentimes more telling. All too often, we think about our lives in terms of extremities: the breakups, the deaths, the mistakes, the births, the big wins, etc. If we focus on what happens in the middle of these events, the small daily stuff, we’ll find where life is lived. That is the data which should be measured because it tells us about our central tendencies. Look to the middle to find the answers. Make sure the small days in your lives are well-lived and well-remembered.
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