Sample Essay
Franks vs. Hamburgers

David B. Sher

In response to your question of "What should we sell in our new chain of fast food places: Devours?" I suggest frankfurters. Franks are a superior fast food to hamburgers because:

• Franks are spiced while hamburgers are just meat.
• Franks are cheaper than hamburgers.
• You can put chili on franks but chili on hamburgers tastes terrible.
• You can put sauerkraut on franks but not on hamburgers.
• Anything you put on hamburgers also goes on franks.
• You can make franks out of any kind of meat but hamburgers are made from beef, hence franks are cheaper.

Each bullet () of the above essay is worth about 20 points. The total for this type of essay would be 120 points consisting of 100 points and 20 points extra credit. Remember when you write an essay that each bullet should be an answer to the essay question. Irrelevancies will not earn any credit. Each bullet must argue for the point you are trying to prove. Arguments against what you are proving will earn little if any points.

Sample Essay 2

Why use comments to build Turbo C++

David Sher

Comments are an important tool for programming. They are especially important when constructing large projects. Below we discuss why comments are particularly useful for building a program like Turbo C++.

• Turbo C++ is a valuable program. Comments allow you to copyright the source code of this program and thus prevent others from using your work to make money from Turbo C++.
• Many revisions of Turbo C++ have come out. Each time it is revised code that may have been written years ago needs to be changed. Comments help programmers understand old code and speed changing it.
• Comments can notify programmers that two pieces of code depend on each other and when one is changed the other must be too. Such comments avoid inconsistencies and bugs in revisions. Since Turbo C++ is frequently revised this is an important use for comments when building Turbo C++.
• Turbo C++ is a large programming project. Many programmers work together to build it. Comments help each programmer understand what the other programmers are doing.
• Turbo C++ contains many function calls in its code to perform the many operations you can get at through the menus. Comments can clarify what each function actually does and what their parameters are for.
• Because Turbo C++ was built by multiple programmers you may not know which programmer to ask about a feature or bug in the program. Comments can indicate which programmer built or revised which part of the program and then you know who to look up.

Copyright David B. Sher 1996