Skip to main content

How would I write an essay on the Ecole Polytechnique Massacre?

An essay needs to be researched and present a thesis which is defended throughout the body of the work.  The internet provides a wealth of information concerning the tragedy which occurred in 1989.  Many of the news articles from the time period are available online.  Libraries often have older publications on microfilm or microfiche as well.  The research portion of the work (tracking down reputable sources) often takes the longest.  Sources such as Wikipedia or blogs should not be used as direct references, but can point towards additional leads of interest.


The Ecole Polytechnique Massacre, also known as the Montreal Massacre, occurred in December 1989.  Marc Lepine entered the engineering school and began killing women.  Lepine killed fourteen young women at the school because they dared to attend the school.  He ended the spree by killing himself.


The essay should introduce the incident and present the thesis of the work.  There are several arguments surrounding the event which mirror similar events that occur today.  You could argue Lepine created the blueprint for school mass shootings or address the similarities between that attack and those that still occur.  Why haven't more safety measures been put into place?


The body of the essay needs to provide additional details of the event.  A brief biography of Lepine can be included to help the reader understand his motives.  The body is where you support your thesis with facts.  A well-rounded essay will also present information contrary to the thesis in a paragraph with a counterargument.  Finally, the essay should be concluded with a paragraph summarizing the argument with a decisive statement.  The statement should be a confirmation of the thesis.


Some questions you may want to address in the essay include:


  • Who was Marc Lepine?

  • What were his motives?

  • Compare/contrast the massacre with others (Columbine, Virginia Tech)

  • How could it have been prevented?  Did law enforcement learn anything about school safety?

  • What do survivors think about it?

  • What failures led to the massacre?  Could it have been prevented?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes."  He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear.  Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...
Post a Comment
Read more