ENGLISH WRITING (1) - Diagnostic Essay

"In order to give me a basic idea of your writing skills at this point in time, please write a diagnostic essay where you explain your favorite book and why it is important to you. About 300 words should be sufficient to give me an idea of your writing skills. I would appreciate it if you could complete the assignment by Friday, March 10."

 

 

 

My favorite book is Herman Melville’s great novel Moby Dick, because the main character of the novel whose name is captain Ahab has a distinctive perspective of life and it is quite similar to my view of life. I completely agree to his perspective of life. He doesn’t step back no matter what blocks his way and sticks to his plan and keeps persuing his way toward. He even put his own life in danger to achieve his almost impossible goal. I like his way of life and that's why Moby Dick is my favorite book. Some people see him as rash and irreasonable person but I consider him as a brave and resolute man. I even admired to him and I think we all can learn something from his character. In retrospect, my view of life and his are quite similar.

 

I used to be a community college student who was major in aircraft maintenance but I wanted to go to a better school and wanted to get much higher and advanced eduation. So I did my best to get accepted to this school and I succeeded in transferring to this school this year. Everybody around me, even my own parents, disapproved of my plan to transfer from community college to 4-year university which locates in Seoul when I first told people around me my plan at the start of last year. Because it was almost impossible and the plan I made was unpresedented. My parents even tried to kick me out of their house when I planned to quit the previous school. Despite all the opposings and adversities, I resolutely stick to my original plan and kept going one step at a time and finally surprised all the people around me by getting accepted to yonsei university.

 

Every time I feel exhausted and wanted to give up, I reminded myself of Captain Ahab and got some courage and energy from him. He was my role model and teacher of life. He taught me how to deal with harsh and severe life. The way, the manner of sailing this tough life that he taught me still resides in the deepest part of my heart.