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Foolish means lacking in sense, judgement and/or discretion; What is an act of folly?


Kitsumi 4 / 97 16  
Jan 4, 2013   #1
What do you consider to be an act of folly? Explain why. 1500 character limit with punctuations and spaces.

Folly is a word unfamiliar to me. I do not use it often so I have no opinions on what is an act of folly. However, the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as a foolish act or idea, and foolish is something I understand better.

Foolish, as defined by the same dictionary, is lacking in (good) sense, judgement and/or discretion. For me though, foolish goes a bit beyond that. Everybody has committed actions lacking in common sense, simple mistakes like buying the wrong formula for the baby. Mistakes, even foolish ones, happen, and that is a part of human life. To be truly foolish though, is to commit the same action twice. Then it becomes a deliberate misstep, even if it's accidental. The purpose of making mistakes is so that one can avoid it the next time; knowing that it exists and doing nothing about it is foolish.

So for me, an act of folly is when an action that is lacking in good sense, judgement and/or discretion is done not once, but twice.

(959 characters).

Please tell me if there is anything I can add or anything I missed.
lexilex1995 6 / 17  
Jan 4, 2013   #2
your prompt is good but it would be better if you tried to relate it to everyday life
fsolano94 16 / 30  
Jan 4, 2013   #3
Excellent conclusion. However, Everybody has committed actions lacking in common sense, simple mistakes like buying the wrong formula for the baby. deviates away from the main point of the essay. Its a good parsimony but maybe using a more pertinent and personal analogy will make your essay standout a little more.

TWO Suggestions for grammar:

(1) Folly is an unfamiliar word to me.

(2) So I have no opinion on what an act of folly is.

Can you help me with my essay.

MINE = University of Boulder @ Colorado 500 word essay
OP Kitsumi 4 / 97 16  
Jan 4, 2013   #4
Believe it or not, that example was from my dad. He bought the wrong formula for me when I was a newborn... *le sigh*.

Also, check your vocabulary again. Are you saying parsimony because you know what it means or because you think you know what it means?
kabal 9 / 61  
Jan 4, 2013   #5
From your writing, i think everyone would use a dictionary, which would sound similar to yours.
I don't thin you answered the why part of the question.
To get another another angle.My mom lives in Ireland and i think folly means silly from the way she talks.
A word might mean one think , but used differently.
I thought repeating the same action means been crazy????
I think the why part can be explained by giving alternative response to the word and giving your own definition as an evidence why folly means what it means

WHAT A WEIRD PROMPT .which school is this ?
OP Kitsumi 4 / 97 16  
Jan 4, 2013   #6
Everybody have different definitions. I feel that silly is a more affectionate term than folly. Crazy is usually used to describe somebody's mental state, so it doesn't really apply. Again, everybody have different definitions. And I have answered the why. I explained it with the dictionary.

It's for McMaster's bachelor of health science. And this isn't even a weird prompt. A couple of years ago, the prompt was "which four letter word do you think should be deleted from the dictionary, and why?" Somebody wrote a very elaborate essay on why fart should be eliminated, and they got in.
hughj 2 / 21 8  
Jan 5, 2013   #7
Then it becomes a deliberate misstep, even if it's accidental.
This sentence doesn't seem logical.

I think Kabal is right. What you did here is fine, but you could make yourself standout better if you took a different approach.

You could better analyze what it can mean to be a fool. I think it can mean two things. For example, you could bring up fool's gold. And then you could say that being a fool is part of being a dreamer, it is good to not be tied down by what is realistic. ( the father from Big Fish is an example of this idealistic fool also rocky, jack sparrow, or Shrek ) And then you could bring up fools that subordinate others for their own pursuits. I might make up a quote by Dumbledoor about Voldemort that " He who cannot understand love is a fool and should be pitied. ". Then I would say that folly would apply to the latter, and then I would say that it is good to be somewhat foolish in life in the sense of not being realistic.

Wishing you luck!
chocolateshoppe 5 / 19 4  
Jan 5, 2013   #8
This is pretty well-written. I like it! it's short, concise, and pretty darned clever. Haha almost makes me want to completely rewrite mine....:$

Anyway, the comment about the baby formula seems kinda random, so you might want to either expand more on it or cut it out.

As for a conclusion, you should personify the response a bit because to me right now, it seems very generalized (albeit it is clever). Try asking yourself, what has caused me to consider such an act to be an act of folly?

Mac is looking to see YOU, after all :)
OP Kitsumi 4 / 97 16  
Jan 5, 2013   #9
After reading yours, I'm more tempted to write about the numerous stupid things Harry Potter has done, than edit this essay. Honestly, there are so many plot holes there that I can exploit... I might even scrap this one and write about the follies Harry has gone through :P I can't believe he actually survived all those times with Voldemort. Plus, the epilogue doesn't even improve anything; the prejudices are still there, Ron is a lying piece of ____, and Binns is probably still teaching.

I guess Baby formulas are a bit random, but I have issues thinking up of mistakes. I make them all the time but thinking of a specific example? I think the part about the band is even more random.
OP Kitsumi 4 / 97 16  
Jan 6, 2013   #10
Thank you all :)

I decided to write a completely different draft, please take a look at it too if you have the time! I wasn't sure if I'm supposed to make another thread or post in this one, so I'm making another thread on it.


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