Anticipation is often greater than realization.

Regardless of whom this principle applies to or who consciously apply it on their lives, most would agree to the premise: Anticipation is often greater, and better, than realization. Anticipation literally means to foresee, predict and expect. It looks to the future. In the context of the essay it prompts action – the action of planning and preparation. Realization, on the other hand, means to figure, comprehend and understand and is usually a post-event experience or to think of an event in the past. ‘Realization’ will be treated the same as ‘experience’ in the context of this essay. To quote Randy Pausch: ‘experience is what you get when you don’t get what you wanted’. This essay will argue in favour of the premise that anticipation is greater than realization. It will employ a case-method technique to build its argument. Each case will pertain to certain, general real-life roles that every person goes through in life such as a student, an employee, an investor and other similar common roles. In making this case, it will highlight what each kind of a person gains and loses in their mentioned respective roles and how the results could have been readily different had their approaches been different.

Considering first the case of students; they can be classified under two broad categories: (i) serious and (ii) non-serious students. A non-serious student is one who does not prepare for class assignments, does not complete home assignments and does not prepare for exams. In short, he demonstrates a careless and indifferent attitude towards his academics which, as a student, he is obliged to take very seriously. His end-of-year result is an obvious guess: failure. Opposed to him is a student who takes his academics very seriously. He prepares class assignments, completes his home assignments, meets deadlines and employs all his industry in preparing for his final exam. Similar to the previous case, his result is also an obvious guess: success.

What does one learn from the above? The non-serious student does not ‘anticipate’ his failure. His indifference towards his obligations bears testimony to that fact. If he did he would not have fallen prey to post-result stress, anxiety and depression. Add to this the disappointment of his teachers and the social embarrassment for his parents in addition to his professional career chances being compromised. On the other hand, the serious student enjoys great success as a result of correct ‘anticipation’. He is happy at all the attention he gets. He is even more motivated and determined to do better. His labour and hard work has paid off. He is a source of pride for his parents, a pleasure for his teachers to have had him as their student with innumerable career opportunities waiting ahead for him. The only difference is that the former is a victim of his ‘realization’ while the latter correctly took a calculated approach, fulfilled his obligations and averted the consequences similar to those of his peer. In the end, ‘success’ was his.
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conclusion

I've mentioned only one point on the essay. This is only to give you an idea of my effort. Need to know if im on track? Suggestions would be welcome.

Anyone? Mods?

Brother wait when someone gets free he will read it. Do not be in a hurry.

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The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion !

You can write well. You have a good (above-average, almost nearing excellent) expression. You have a healthy repertory of words. You can do really well.

But in this particular essay, I don't think you have been able to do justice to the argument. You have failed to grasp the point and understand the meaning of the statement.

In my personal opinion, the statement "anticipation is often greater than realization" means that the thrill and excitement we have while anticipating something is much greater than the pleasure of actually having it achieved/brought into our possession. There are many examples. People struggling to leave their country to settle in Europe or USA, their days and nights filled with dreams of how their circumstances will change and happiness will chase them once they reach their destination; they often realize that the utopia they had imagined was merely an exaggeration of whatever they had heard and happiness is not waiting for them at the airport. I am a doctor, take my own example. During my FSc. , I used to fantasize being a doctor all the time. My sole motivation was the prestige I would gain if I successfully clinched admission on open merit in one of the top medical colleges of Punjab. After actually achieving that dream, I realized that there was nothing in it as I had imagined--at least not to an extent I used to fantasize. I had too over-rated a conception about the profession. And now, I am trying to run away from it (a bit ironic, haha) and join civil service. And you can have a thousand examples like this where anticipation was often greater than realization. As Behzaad Lakhnavi has beautifully said understanding this strange phenomenon,
"ae rahbar-e-kaamil chalne ko tayyaar to huu par yaad rahay...
us waqt mujhay bhatkaa dena jab saamnay manzil aa jaaye..."

Once you understand the meaning properly, write again. I will be happy to see your write-up. But remember, don't make me say that anticipation was greater than realization after reading your next effort.

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"Everything the light touches, is our kingdom."

Thank you Dr Sahb.

Your feedback and criticism have proved immensely valuable and i shall work to explore further the various facets in regards the dimension my essay could take. However, i do mean to ask if the approach I have adopted makes 'appropriate' sense in relation to its title? I do acknowledge that what you have proposed appeals a lot more to me than my own but what i would also like to know is whether I have 'managed' to keep relevant; whether the structure of my essay satisfies you and whether the simplicity of the words i've chosen is/isn't too simple? Whether my introduction needs improvement? or any other suggestion you could offer?

Haha don't worry. I'll be mindful of that!

You have successfully managed to stay relevant. The point you wanted to make has been clearly made. But you have to improve your introduction. Make it more comprehensive. Ideally, an introduction should:-
—begin with clear enunciation of the position you are going to take in the essay
—contain a brief mention of all the important points you intend to make in the essay (usually, aspirants like to write one ot two sentences for each pointer/heading in their essay outline)
—end with a reiteration of the central argument you will be proving in the essay

The most important thing in the essay is introduction; the most importamt thing in introduction is the thesis statement. A thesis statement must represent your position in a brief, creative and sophisticated manner. You can find detailed guidelines regarding effective introduction and conclusion writing in the respective categories on this forum. You can ask me as well, if you have a confusion. I will gladly provide you whatever help I can.

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"Everything the light touches, is our kingdom."

Regardless of whom this principle applies to or who consciously apply it on their lives, most would agree to the premise: Anticipation is often greater, and better, than realization. Anticipation literally means to foresee, predict and expect. It looks to the future. In the context of the essay it prompts action – the action of planning and preparation. Realization, on the other hand, means to figure, comprehend and understand and is usually a post-event experience or to think of an event in the past. ‘Realization’ will be treated the same as ‘experience’ in the context of this essay. To quote Randy Pausch: ‘experience is what you get when you don’t get what you wanted’. This essay will argue in favour of the premise that anticipation is greater than realization. It will employ a case-method technique to build its argument. Each case will pertain to certain, general real-life roles that every person goes through in life such as a student, an employee, an investor and other similar common roles. In making this case, it will highlight what each kind of a person gains and loses in their mentioned respective roles and how the results could have been readily different had their approaches been different


So I have an opening statement, definition of key words, linking them to the context of my essay and a thesis, taking a position that i have emboldened for your convenience. Where and what section of the introduction would you have me elaborate? typically, the principles of essay that we've been taught were to keep the introduction as brief and succinct as possible but should be able to convey the message of your essay and your thesis. Any suggestions? since i have proposed to make a Case-Method structure for my essay, i don't quiet think elaborating on that would be appropriate in the intro?

The structure of your introductory paragraph is correct. It just needs some reinforcement.

•The thesis statement is too generic—almost appearing cliched. It is no doubt acceptable. You can clear even if you stick with this style. But I think you're capable of more than this. Infuse some originality into it. Make it more title-specific. Just to give you an idea, this thesis statement can be used with almost any title (eg. Honesty is the best policy)

•Introduction should be succinct and brief, nobody is disputing that. But an introduction should also be comprehensive in the sense that it should reflect all the core arguments you are going to make along the way. For example, you have declared your intention to follow case-method technique. I think that in this essay, if you just follow this approach, you won't be able to use all the different forms of discourses that are demanded by the examiners: namely exposition, argumentation, narration, and description. Limiting your outline and hence restraining your introduction in such a way can make your essay appear deficient. So, I advise against putting a limit on your essay like this. Broaden it a little bit. And reflect that broadening in your introduction as well.

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"Everything the light touches, is our kingdom."

Just to have an idea...

using the example of the student....i start off by 'explaining and describing' the case of two students. then i 'describe and narrate' their circumstances. I argue in accordance and in favour of the premise (and my thesis) in concluding the para viz. anticipation being greater than realization.

...Or is there a generalized sequence to follow in using these different forms of discourse?

There is no specific sequence to follow, you just have to show the examiner that you used all these discourses throughout your essay

If you can successfully make use of all of them in a single example, very well. But the thing I tried to convey was that this intention of going to use all of these should also be apparent from your introductory paragraph. Examiner should read your introduction and anticipate all these forms of discourses. But, if you write that you are going to use just a one-way strategy to prove your point, you are putting examiner off. Even if you don't actually use all these forms of discourses, introduction should be making the examiner's anticipation greater than the realization—because most examiners wouldn't jump to the realization stage as they rarely read everything you write. They focus on outline, introduction, skim through the body of essay and then read conclusion.

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"Everything the light touches, is our kingdom."