Jim Roth’s Website

The Power of Specific Examples—The two most powerful words in writing are “for example.”

Original

Failing at something can be a failure with a lesson learned. When a person learns from a failure it is a way for one to gain personal growth. Without failure in our life people wouldn’t keep on trying to do better. When we keep on trying to do better, we have the opportunity to expand our way of thinking. This is also a way for us to expand our knowledge of different experiences.

Failing at something can be a failure with a lesson learned. When a person learns from a failure it is a way for one to gain personal growth. Without failure in our life people wouldn’t keep on trying to do better. When we keep on trying to do better, we have the opportunity to expand our way of thinking. This is also a way for us to expand our knowledge of different experiences.

Failing at something can be a failure with a lesson learned.  << I made this my thesis sentence—I’ll need to add some introductory sentences later.

¶ 2 When a person learns from a failure it is a way for one to gain personal growth. I remember my mother telling me the story of her experience as a six year old. She wanted so badly to be a cheerleader but at the time could not afford the money to purchase a uniform. After weeks of weeping and sadness, she began to realize that she wouldn’t always get what she wanted.  This lesson served her well later in life as she encountered similar situations.  The cheerleading incident had led her to grow into maturity with a firmer sense of the difference between want and need . . . .

¶ 3 Without failure in life people wouldn’t keep on trying to do better. For example, from a very early age, my brother Nate loved basketball.  Many times while in grade school he would long for the years to go by so he could play high school basketball.  His went to basketball tryouts his freshman year only to be cut because his skills were inferior to those of others. Rather than becoming dejected, Nate signed up for basketball camp after basketball camp to improve his skills.  When he tried out his sophomore year, . . . .

¶ 4 When we keep on trying to do better, we have the opportunity to expand our way of thinking. Albert Schweitzer, the famous doctor who spent his life’s work in Africa, did not begin as a humanitarian with medical skills.  When Schweitzer first entered medical school, he was determined to become a plastic surgeon because he had learned that doctors in that field made to most money.  Schweitzer’s sense of the world expanded during his third year of medical school when he went on a two-week tour of Africa.  The poverty and lack of medical care he encountered astounded him.  Until then, he had assumed that the entire world enjoyed the benefits that his society had provided him. This two-week trip became the defining moment of his life . . . .

I need to add a short conclusion and then do more revision