SAT考试Essay作文满分范文

Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.

Planning lets people impose order on the chaotic processes of making or doing something new. Too much planning, however, can lead people to follow the same predetermined course of action, to do things the same way they were done before. Creative thinking is about breaking free from the way that things have always been. That is why it is vital for people to know the difference between good planning and too much planning.

Adapted from Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit

Assignment:

Does planning interfere with creativity? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.

Sample Student Essay of Score of 6 -

Albert Einstein, one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century, once said, "If I had an hour to save the world, I would spend 50 minutes planning my rescue and 10 minutes implementing my plan." Einstein recognized the importance and power of planning. Planning is a powerful tool and allows one to effectively channel his or her creativity. Planning is a crucial step of the creative process, and without it, creativity is limited. In the realms of music and writing, artists have repeatedly demonstrated that planning maximizes creativity.

Since the inception of modern music in the sixteenth century, composers have shown that planning in music – carefully investigating each pitch, effect of every possible combination of them that builds harmony and melody, and the ultimate architecture of the total design - is a vital part of the creative process. From European baroque composers to American jazz artists, musicians have demonstrated the importance of planning. Johann Sebastian Bach, the greatest of the baroque composers spent practically his whole life composing his inventions along the design and perfection of one musical mansion - the fugue. He meticulously orchestrated every little note and nuance, to the extent that he actually reinvented the whole musical scale system. As a result, he rose to be one of the most influential musical figures of all time. So are the late American jazz pianists Bill Evans, the arguably greatest musical ear Duke Ellington, the king of etude Chopin, and etc. Even in the realm of jazz, an improvised style of music, musicians have every need to take careful measures to plan their music, not during performance but actually days and even months before the musical delivery.

Similarly, throughout history great writers have never ceased to aknowledge the importance of planning – not just literally on paper, but actually in their mind througout their entire lives, life-long mental preparation that blossoms into great literary creations linked by tiny bits of words and punctuations. Mark Twain, who some regard as the great American author, meticulously planned every aspect of his magnum-opus, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain spend many years of his life studying and memorizing everything he could about the Mississppi River. The author knew he wanted to write a novel about the American West, so he spent a great deal of time analyzing the United States frontier. Twain's studies of the west were part of his larger plan to write Huck Finn. If Twain had failed to execute the early parts of his plan, he would have never written the great American novel.

Creativity can only exist with planning. Creativity starts with planning.